Good books about music

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.

any good books about folk or country music? very broad i know but for a gift and i can't think of anything i've ever heard recommended

i'm reading this right now, it is good!
http://www.nashvillescene.com/imager/b/story/3438188/d401/books1-1.jpg

country - nick tosches (his other books too of course, but this is my favorite)

This a book of his that I have not read. He likes to be provocative

yeah tosches is a good time, but should be taken with ye olde grain of salt. that book has some great stuff in it...

thx both look perfect

folk
http://thewire.co.uk/images/the_wire/main/originals/thewiresalonaug.jpg

otm

Loved 'Electric Eden' - found so much fantastic music I had no clue about or just hadn't investigated beforehand.
Shirley & Dolly, the soundtrack to Kes, Mr.Fox and Peter Warlock have been in regular rotation ever since. Hot stuff!

fuuck okay that looks really tight

yeah that book is seriously one of the best books about music (or anything!) i've read.

damn, not in stock. would have to order online

ooh country recommendation:

http://www.cowboysindians.com/images/cache/54855e5eb4a25360aaf8dd20c1389304.jpeg?aspectratio=0.67873303167421

cannot recommend it highly enough, it's so great

"don't forget this song," frank m. young and david lasky's graphic novel about the carter family, which came out not too long ago, is fantastic.

tosches is a good time, but should be taken with ye olde grain of salt. that book has some great stuff in it...

yeah tosches can really try your patience in any number of ways, but "country" is a particularly great one of his. formative for me.

also on the country tip, peter guralnick's "lost highway" is a fantastic collection of interviews/essays about roots musicians, with a strong country leaning as the title would suggest. his "feel like going home" is more blues-focused, but that book's chapter on charlie rich is as good as music writing gets and is entirely responsible for my lifelong love of charlie.

Ditto--both Charlie pieces are mandatory. (If I remember right, the first one catches him while his career's floundering, the follow-up when he had that unlikely brush with fame and wasn't handling it well.)

Another recommendation for Electric Eden - got me into Fairport Convention and Pentangle, neither of whom I'd ever listened to before that.

Yeah man, these people got the right idea"---Charlie Rich, while observing couples and hopefuls, between sets played at Max's Kansas City. "Behind Closed Doors" indeed---wonder of any of the ex-Velvets were there that night? Also: apparently mostly on the strength of Guralnick's otm say-so (also to further cash in on his belated comeback-and-then-some), Rich's most Fully Realizedsides, from the Smash label, were reissued as a twofer: some of these are nice, some are darn good, some are great, some are fucking awesome. Only wish Margaret Ann's composition "Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs" was here, speaking of fucking awesome. Hear ye! (thanks discogs)
A1 Mohair Sam

Written-By – Frazier*

2:07
A2 I Can't Go On

Written-By – C. A. Rich*

3:03
A3 Dance Of Love

Written-By – C. A. Rich*

2:14
A4 A Field Of Yellow Daisies

Written-By – M. A. Rich*

3:01
A5 I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water

Written-By – J. Babcock*

2:40
A6 Every Thing I Do Is Wrong

Written-By – C. A. Rich*

2:26
B1 She's A Yum Yum

Written-By – D. Frazier*

2:11
B2 It Ain't Gonna Be That Way

Written-By – C. A. Rich*

2:14
B3 Just A Little Bit Of You

Written-By – D. Frazier*

2:31
B4 Moonshine Minnie

Written-By – D. Frazier*

2:19
B5 Down And Out

Written-By – M. A. Rich*

2:15
B6 Lonely Weekends

Written-By – C. Rich*

3:01
C1 No Home

Written-By – C. Rich*

2:33
C2 So Long

Arranged By – Ray Stevens Written-By – C. Rich*

2:43
C3 The Best Years

Written-By – M. A. Rich*

2:35
C4 Party Girl

Arranged By – Ray Stevens Written-By – M. A. Rich*

2:02
C5 You Can Have Her

Arranged By – Ray Stevens Written By – C. Cook

2:30
C6 Have I Stayed Away Too Long

Written By – F. Loesser

2:26
D1 Hawg Jaw

Written-By – D. Frazier*

2:23
D2 Something Just Came Over Me

Written-By – M. A. Rich*

2:00
D3 Double Dog Dare Me

Written By – B. Logan, C. S. Snooddy

1:54
D4 Just A Little Bit Of Time

Written-By – C. Rich*

2:02
D5 Blowin' Town

Written-By – C. Rich*

2:12
D6 Tears A Go-Go

Written By – D. Fritts

2:24
Credits

Producer – Jerry Kennedy

Notes
Fully Realised is a 1974 compilation of highlights from Charlie Rich's two Smash albums, The Many New Sides of Charlie Rich 1965, and Fast Talkin', Slow Walkin', Good Lookin' Charlie Rich 1966.
(p) 1965 Catt#.9299 114
(p) 1966 Catt#.9299 115
(Think there's more on The Complete Smash Sessions)

my debut book just came out. It's about music:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ba5VauwCcAApNBF.jpg

Buy it here:
http://bronze-age.net/RNB-EDITS.html

Should I read "Sex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll: My Life in Rock" by Steven Pearcy or "Dirty Rocker Boys" by Bobbie Brown?

I just read "dirty rocker boys" and it was entirely competent and pretty meh. Plenty of pointless sex gossip that I won't ruin spoil unless asked.

The Pearcy book is pretty good.

I saw a recommendation for this book but I haven't read it yet:

Ickes, Scott. 2013. Afro-Brazilian Culture and
Regional Identity in Bahia, Brazil. Gainesville: University Press of
Florida.

Just finished James Fearnley's book about the Pogues. It falls away in the second half, but the stuff set round Kings Cross and Camden in the early 80s is fantastic.
― Viva Brother Beyond (ithappens), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 11:10 (1 year ago)

I've been wanting to buy this for a while now. Must order now!

I'm enjoying David Byrne's How Music Works which is part musical autobiograsphy part history of recorded sound. Makes me want to listen to the Talking Heads who I've never got majorly into as well as his other projects.

Also reading a book Called This Ain't The Summer Of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk by Steve WAksman which is currently looking at Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper and theatricality after having spent some time looking at Nuggets and before that Grand Funk Railroad. KInd of interesting though it does keep tying everything into metal but then that is at least partially what the book is about. I picked it up partially for the title though I don't think he's going to look at the Imperial Dogs who actually came up with the phrase and partially cos it's got the Iggy crowdwalking photo on the cover * it was £4.99 which is some factor. It is pretty interesting, though main reason I went back to the shop it was in was taht I'd seen a cheap copy of the Byrds day by day book which I think is called So You Want TO Be a rock'n'roll star. Should have grabbed it when I first saw it cos it was gone when I went back but that shop which seems to be a gay erotica shop from the outside but has had some great rock finds over the years. Always seems to have some interesting stuff on a pretty large discount along with other non-gay esoterica.

Also picked up Morrissey's autobiography though I've only looked at the first chapter so far.

& got to mention that Touch & Go Complete Anthology thing my brother got me for my birthday which is very interesting.

Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity, by the late Richard A. "Pete" Peterson is my new favorite book on music: masterfully organized and argued, very informative and insightful about the subject at hand and equally useful for understanding the history of the music industry in general.

This looks interesting:

Sounds of the Metropolis: The 19th Century Popular Music Revolution in London, New York, Paris and Vienna by Derek B. Scott

Has anybody read Ben Fong-Torres' book about Top 40 radio in the US?

I got put off the David Byrne book pretty early on, when he refers to Bath as a small town "a few hours East of London". Petty, I know, but factual errors which are easily check able always make me wonder how much of the rest of it is just made up. Once I'd got in that state, the rest of it just started to smack of "look at me, I'm cooler than you". ( Which he is, but whatevs)

At other times in the past few weeks I've read No Sleep till Saltburn (failed music journo shows just why, publishing his fevered teenage fanzine notes from the height of NWOBHM), Choosing Death (a fairly superficial skim of how the Death and Grind scenes started, but still with a couple of new pieces of info) and the KLF book (entertaining, but inconsequential).

Started Lords of Chaos the other night and have Louder Than Hell in a pile with Varg's book on Scandinavian religion(s) amongst others awaiting reading.

Has anybody read Ben Fong-Torres' book about Top 40 radio in the US?

― MaresNest, Friday, January 31, 2014 9:17 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

No, but i read his book about Little Feat and it was decent. Really a Lowell George bio, to tell you the truth.

Looking forward to getting the new david Stubbs book Future Days on Krautrock. Hopefully going to get taht through the door over the next couple of days. Nice to see that the local chain newsagent got copies in but it was €10 more than I paid for it.

NO sign of HMV starting selling books yet, have been hoping that Bob Stanley would come in cheap.

Oh & read Bathing In Lightning Colin Harper's book on John Mclaughlin up to the mid 70s which was great. Read it since the previous posting on here anyway

I think Byrne's How Music Works lives up to its title, in terms of his experience, from the 60s on, live and in studios, also different business models employed for creating, promoting, distributing albums, times the luck of, for instance, crashing in a schoolmate's pad almost directly across the street from CBGB's, and why that was such a good place for bands and audiences (yet pointing out that other seemingly equally likely venues somehow failed to grow or sustain a scene).
He alternates the personal experiences with historical overviews of recording technology and related biz matters, how they impacted the aesthetics, and the psychology (quotes somebody who walked into a room and encountered a friend listening to lovely recorded music *all by himself*: it was like catching somebody jerking off). Ends with a great history of the whole Music of The Spheres thing, from Ancient Greeks to Modern Geeks: he's got aome zings, but he's into it too.
He doesn't talk that much about inspiration/what a song of his is About or "Don't know where this cosmic stuff comes from, man, I just write it down,", nor does he (past the somewhat stiff first chapter) get too lecture-y or formulaic.
The ebook's got music files, but haven't heard 'em.

(quotes somebody who walked into a room and encountered a friend listening to lovely recorded music *all by himself*: it was like catching somebody jerking off) In the early days of record (maybe cylinder?)-collecting.

Anyone read these?

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18377990-yeah-yeah-yeah

St.-Etienne guy's epic history of pop since 1950(?)

Or Greil Marcus' new History of Rock and Roll in Ten Songs

Tempted by both but don't know if I want to pull the trigger

Read a few chapters in Bob Stanley and each one was an ace. Know next to nothing about GM book.

I read Yeah Yeah Yeah, I find the first half of the book pretty fun and informative but the closer it got to our times, the more I found it naive and dull. As a whole it's good, especially if you were hit by Napster at age 12 like me and never got to fully live the singles era, and of course it's pretty anti-rockist. Also, the unfair thing is that I haven't read the last R&B chapter, which renders my criticism null.

third of the way through future days and it's excellent so far

Need to get and read the Stanley book.

Nitpicks and compliments in W. Post freelancer's review I just read:

His personal taste as a dance musician is refreshingly far from the “rockist,” Led Zeppelin-worshiping tendencies of so many pop historians. Perhaps as a result, when the music gets louder, his facts occasionally get blurry, as when he dates the rise of thrash metal a bit too late, wrongly refers to Black Flag as a D.C. band (though the group’s onetime singer Henry Rollins is from the area), and uses the term “heavy metal” much as it was first used in the ’70s, with no regard for the difference between the pop-chart success of hard rockers like AC/DC and the long-term influence of metal royalty Black Sabbath. But much of this is forgivable because of the way Stanley writes, as if he were engaging the reader in conversation rather than delivering a treatise. His affable writing style is punctuated by moments of wit and insight, even when some of his stories sound apocryphal.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/yeah-yeah-yeah-the-story-of-pop-music-from-bill-haley-to-beyonce-by-bob-stanley/2014/08/13/10aedd7c-2158-11e4-86ca-6f03cbd15c1a_story.html

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2014/09/your_favorite_books_about_new.html

Fave books about New Orleans musicians with more books and stories added in the comments