Good books about music

just saw a book called TUNES a comic book history of rocknroll. only skimmed it briefly, kind of weird selection of artists and a bit too wordy for a "comic book", but the iggy section was cool......

While finally reading Byrne's How Music Works, I just now checked robertchristgau.com for back-in-the-day descriptions of T. Heads and Byrne's albums and shows, also came across this vintage stash of succinct, substantial rock bio reviews (his recent reviews of Lennon's letters and a new Cohen bio are appealing too)http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bkrev/rockbios-83.php

As posted on the thread devoted to (mostly complaints about) Neil's Waging Heavy Peace--A Hippie Dream, I dug it (in a not entirely different way than Byrne's book, come to think about it)

Those two, plus Chronicles, are the most refreshing books by rockers I've come across (although also like what I've read of Keith Richard/Richards and Ian Hunter's Diary of A Rock Star)

just saw a book called TUNES a comic book history of rocknroll. only skimmed it briefly, kind of weird selection of artists and a bit too wordy for a "comic book", but the iggy section was cool......

The Sebastian Lumineau "Ramones" story in there is the best.

Also Veloso's Tropical Truths--here's hoping for books by Tom Ze and Rita Lee as well.

anything good about the cure? the only thing I've found that's available on nook is "Never Enough" by Jeff Apter, which looks like it's probably awful.

Just recently read The Beach Boys' bio Heroes and Villains which I've seen recommended on a couple different threads around here. Yes, it's a tabloid-style trashy tell-all, but if you have a soft spot for that kind of stuff, it's essential reading. Also if you are not aware of how fucked up these guys were, it's pretty eye-opening.

Ten Imaginary Years by Steve Sutherland seems to get a few good reviews on Amazon.

xp

Just finished Hugh Barker and Yuval Taylor's Faking It, which I'd recommend. The premise is hardly startling--that the Grateful Dead/R.E.M./Wilco should not be accorded points for a perceived authenticity lacking in the Archies/Milli Vanilli/Carly Rae Jepsen--and lots of people have made the same argument before them (myself included, I'd like to think). But they approach it in a really evenhanded way; it's not some pleased-with-itself polemic that tries to sell you on the (equally false) idea that the Archies are inherently better than the Grateful Dead. The tone of the book gets it exactly right, I think.

I just read "Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group" by dear old Ian Svenonius. It's a set of reflections on the dynamics of rock 'n' roll groups as handed down by rock 'n' roll greats (alive & dead) in a series of seances, yes it is. Sitting somewhere in a triangle of vulgar Gramsci, vulgar Adorno and vulgar Chuck Eddy, I reckon. Siultaneously right and wrong the whole way through. I laughed and laughed.

re Never Enough, the first few pages compares a 1985 cure concert crowd to a britney spears crowd, which tells you a lot about where this author is coming from. nonetheless, i'm plodding through it since it apparently quotes extensively from Ten Imaginary Years, which is not itself available on ebook.

Just ordered Luke Haines' Post Everything after storming through Bad Vibes in about a day. Can't wait.

Been dipping into Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock ’n’ Roll Pioneers by John Broven and it is awesome. Full of great detail. Covers all the usual suspects snappily- Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler, Syd Nathan, Berry Gordy etc- and lots of fresh first-hand stories of everybody else betwixt and between.

Time for new screenname in honor of Syd Nathan and the Bihari brothers.

This could be good

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2013/03/toure_prince_i_would_die_4_u.php

Comes out this week.

I'd like to read a really good Prince book. Ronin Ro's was strictly business and Matt Thorne's was like a printout of a tediously obsessive blog.

I have assumed that SAF publishing went under some time ago since books from the imprint turn up on Amazon etc for increasingly rising prices.
I just looked at their webbsite and they have a Copyright footer for 2007 which presumably means it hasn't been updated since then, still says there are Xmas special offers happening too.

Anyway, there were some fantastic book titles through the imprint. A lot of stuff on head type music especially from the early 70s,though some late 60s Gong, Arthur Brown, Soft Machine, Incredible String band all had titles out under the imprint as did Shilrley Collins.

I've just been thinking recently that with those great titles currently in limbo it would be great to get some other label to pick them up. Or to put that another way, one might think that there would be a market for the books so some other imprint would want to pick them up.
Just wondering what the likelihood of that happeningmight be. Anybody on here have any idea what the story actually is on these? Or does having missed them by a few years now mean they have permanently been missed unless one gets lucky with charity shop finds or possibly gets rich enough to afford the online prices?

Another book on Stax is out. Memphis writer Robert Gordon's book
Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion

Been dipping into it today since it came from Memphis last night.

Ha!

Read a critic/FB friend raving positively about the Gordon Stax book, but saw someone on Yahoo southern soul email list criticizing it and saying stick with the Bowman Stax book

Just wondering what the likelihood of that happeningmight be. Anybody on here have any idea what the story actually is on these? Or does having missed them by a few years now mean they have permanently been missed unless one gets lucky with charity shop finds or possibly gets rich enough to afford the online prices?

David Keenan's C93/NWW/Coil book England's Hidden Reverse is very rare now and commands high collector prices. Strange Attractor have picked it up though and are publishing a revised version next May. The other really good SAF book is Charles Neal's Tape Delay which is a collection of interviews with various industrial and post-industrial types. That one remains out of print but can be found relatively cheaply second-hand.

currently reading love saves the day. content really interesting but dude is such an awful writer. he was a grad student when he wrote it, right? some of the moments where he piles on the puns, jeez

David Keenan's C93/NWW/Coil book England's Hidden Reverse is very rare now and commands high collector prices. Strange Attractor have picked it up though and are publishing a revised version next May.

That's great news, gonna buy the shit outta that.

Cornily enough i am now reading Victor Bockris' lou reed book Transformer and digging it a lot so far.

Haven't got too far into the Gordon but never imagined it would replace the Bowman. Just figured it would be a slightly different angle on the same materials perhaps with some more hit-or-miss forays into local color that wouldn't have made it into Bowman's book.

Just finished Michael Walker's Laurel Canyon book. The usual array of end-of-the-'60s signposts you've read about before, but very good on the transition to mid-'70s big-money in pop music (and the centrality of cocaine to that). I think it would have been amazing to live there in the early '70s. I don't know if I would have been disciplined enough to make it out of that moment.

http://musictomes.com/

Website that lists music book releases and sometimes includes reviews or links to them

2 Soul Train books, one by Danois, and one by Questlove....Maybe will get to 1 or both someday

http://musictomes.com/review-soul-train-the-music-dance-and-style-of-a-generation/

http://musictomes.com/ericka-blount-danois-board-the-soul-train/

I predict I will be bought the Morrissey and Bob Stanley books for Xmas.

Wait what Bob Stanley book?

OK, I see. That's not out here anytime soon either.

Where's "here"?

US.

If you bought the deluxe version (£150) from the Saint Etienne website, I suppose the £16 postage wouldn't seem so bad?

James, I was at the new rough trade Brooklyn store for the television gig last night and they're selling the bob Stanley book there for 30 bucks.

Thanks!

How was Television?

They were great. So insane to see them in such a small space. I got to see them last night by the grace of ilxor thus sang freud; getting in tonight by the wiles of my buddy Alex.

I've heard Questlove talk about Soul Train in interviews and he comes off as legitimately obsessed with the show, like not in that NPR-ish, nerd-in-quotes sort of way, but like obsessed to an unhealthy and bizarre degree.

Had great fun exploring all of these in the late 90s/early 00s: http://www.johnschott.com/record-shrine/book-shrine/

just finished the new stanley crouch bio of charlie parker (first volume). really great, almost more for the historical side stuff than the actual info about parker's life.

& jon, i need a full Television report ASAP

Yeah, Bird bio is absolutely essential, and otm re: historical context. There's context, and there's context: Crouch paints an incredibly engrossing picture of how, where, and why Bird developed the way he did. Other Bird bios/accounts I've read were basically "He started in Kansas City, where there were a bunch of swing bands, and then moved to NYC where the REAL shit happened." This vividly illustrates how Parker and his innovations could have only come from the Kansas City of the 30s/40s.

(and Crouch still manages to shoehorn in a clumsy-ass swipe at hip-hop in the process; fortunately, it's easily ignored/forgotten)

Just finished a kind of depressing but nonetheless fascinating book "The Prettiest Star" which is a bio of Brett Smiley, a failed Bowie wannabe who barely had a recording career, and passed by an awful lot of famous people while rocketing (almost) to the bottom. By Nina Antonia who's probably better known for writing about NY Dolls.

Thanks--just ordered a copy through Abe for my glam-loving friend. Also went looking for the Brett Smiley CD put out in 2004; used copies go for $150-200, and new copies...sure, why not?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0000AJ5SX/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

So I located a copy through other means.

Bob Stanley book's pretty decent, feels very bloggy in parts...v ILX friendly.

I'd rather hear Pete Wiggs' point of view.

This looks rad.

http://www.amazon.com/Aleister-Crowley-Magick-Wickedest-World/dp/0399161902/

Kinda surprising how many books Gary Lachman (aka Gary Valentine of Blondie) has written. I liked Turn Off Your Mind quite a bit, though, so might check this one out.