The Greatest Story Ever Told (The Lawrence Arms album)
| The Greatest Story Ever Told | ||||
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| Studio album by The Lawrence Arms | ||||
| Released | September 23, 2003 | |||
| Genre | Punk rock | |||
| Length | 33:11 | |||
| Label | Fat Wreck Chords | |||
| Producer | Matt Allison and The Lawrence Arms | |||
| The Lawrence Arms chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |
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The Greatest Story Ever Told is the studio album by the American punk rock band The Lawrence Arms, released in 2003 by Fat Wreck Chords. A concept album of sorts, it follows a linear storyline and has several songs which call back to or refer to others. The album includes exhaustive liner notes with footnotes to the lyrics that detail the many literary and pop culture references of the lyrics. Its title is a direct reference to the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told, a 1965 film about the life of Jesus.
All songs written by The Lawrence Arms
In the liner notes and artwork the band members identify themselves under false names and as playing instruments not found on the album, specifically Gordon Shumway on vibraslap, Ivan Nikolayevich on harp and lyre, and Ferdinand Magellan on bassoon. The names are references to history, literature and pop culture:
They also fictitiously list several other famous figures as "additional musicians", including musician John Oates, actors Bronson Pinchot and Ian Ziering, poet Ezra Pound and former President Chester A. Arthur.
Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita is referred to several times: the album has a song called "Chapter 13: The Hero Appears", named after the same chapter in the book; its liner notes name one of the band members (corresponding to guitarist Chris McCaughan) as Ivan Nikolayevich; the song "A Wishful Puppeteer" includes the lyric "text to burn" in reference to Bulkagov's combustion of an early draft of the book and other works; and the liner notes' back page features the same quote from Faust that prefaces the novel.
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