Good books about music

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

Here were some of them:

Under a Hoodoo Moon," Dr. John (with Jack Rummel)
"Up from the Cradle of Jazz," Jason Berry
"I Hear You Knockin'," Jeff Hannusch
"The Brothers Neville," the Neville Brothers (with David Ritz)
"Rhythm & Blues in New Orleans," John Broven
"Triksta," Nik Cohn
"Song for my Fathers: A New Orleans Story in Black and White," Tom Sancton
"Unfinished Blues," Harold Battiste with Karen Celestan
"From Stapleguns to Thumbtacks: Flyer Art from the 1982-1995 New Orleans Punk and Hardcore Scene," Pat Roig
"Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans," Matt Sakakeeny (artwork by Willie Birch)
"Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock n'Roll," Rick Coleman
"Huey 'Piano' Smith and the Rocking Pneumonia Blues," John Wirt
"Ernie K-Doe: The R&B Emperor of New Orleans," Ben Sandmel
"Groove Interrupted: Loss, Renewal & the Music of New Orleans," Keith Spera
"New Atlantis: Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans," John Swenson
"The Definition of Bounce: Between Ups and Downs in New Orleans," 10th Ward Buck and Lucky Johnson with Alison Fensterstock
"Bounce: Rap Music and Local Identity in New Orleans," Matt Miller
"Creole Trombone: Kid Ory and the Early Years of Jazz," John McCusker
"Not Just Another Thursday Night: Kermit Ruffins and Vaughan's Lounge," Jay Mazza

I have that Creole Trombone book but haven't started it yet. Still busying reading Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism!

I really enjoyed Sidney Bechet's yarn-spinning autobio, Treat It Gentle. Funny title, considering that he could be quite the badass, as documented by others. Anybody who want to stage a one-person show might well consider basing it on this book.

Would like to read that Sidney Bechet book.

Came to thread to say I read the first few chapters of Please Be With Me, A Song For My Father, Duane Allman, by Galadrielle Allman, and this thing is amazing well-written so far.

Recent book about Brian Jones by guy who wrote Iggy and Bowie books looks interesting.

Matos' forthcoming opus looks pretty awesome: http://www.harpercollins.com/9780062271808/the-underground-is-massive.

Sounds of Two Eyes Opening, Sinecure Books fourth book, and the follow up to Houston Rap, is a narrative of Southern California chiaroscuro by master photographer Spot, the legendary hardcore producer and engineer for the Misfits, Black Flag, Hüsker Dü and Minutemen.

Edited by Sinecure's Johan Kugelberg and punk expert Ryan Richardson, Sounds of Two Eyes Opening displays shots of punks and bands and clubs in dark swatches of blacks and grays with brief illuminations of white skin. These images sit in contrast to promise of the unbroken horizon of Spots’ beach photographs: youthful beauty, toned bodies, gleaming teeth, big hair, the eternal trilogy of sun/sand/sea.

Spanning the late 1960s through the early 1980s, Sounds of Two Eyes Opening offers an amazing portrait of Southern California coastal life: surfing, bikinis, roller skating and skate boarding’s fledgling days are set in contrast to iconic shots of all the key denizens of hardcore punk rock as it is being invented; candid shots of Black Flag, The Germs, Minutemen abut everyday punk, fans, cops, clubs and now shuttered rehearsal spaces.

Sounds of Two Eyes Opening is presented as a hardbound, 272 page book,

has anyone looked at eric weisbard's top 40 democracy? http://www.amazon.com/dp/0226896188/

looks pretty interesting to me. this short-ish essay that he wrote caught my attn: http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/keep-debates-pop-songs

Barry Blesser's 'Spaces Speak', about the history of acoustic architecture, conscious design of spaces meant for the performance of music, and how it impacted the composition of music itself. From caves to Stonehenge to Mayan temples to Churches to Radio City Music Hall etc.

http://www.blesser.net/spacesSpeak.html

I just finished reading Sheila E's autobio. Part of it is about music (obvs) and the other part is personal history stuff. Her writing isn't like ~spectacular~ or w/e but her voice is very strong and the things she chooses to write about are distinctive and interesting. The way she writes about her love of music really resonated with me, and the chapter(s) where she meets and becomes friends with Prince are some of the most tender words I've read about friendship in a long time. I guess I'd recommend it if you like drumming, Prince, Sheila E, or all of the above.

I've been thumbing through Talkin' to Myself: Blues Lyrics 1921-1942: http://www.amazon.com/Talkin-Myself-Blues-Lyrics-1921-1942/dp/0415973783

which is just an enormous collection of old blues lyrics. It is wonderful.

Xpost I adore Sheila E and u know how I feel about prince. Onto the reading list it goes!

otm

I saw her give a talk and reading at B&N. She said some people bugged her that there wasn't enough Prince in the book, to which her reply was "it's about my life, not Prince's." She seemed nice but I was going to give this book a pass based on that, but now I am intrigued.

Is there a decent book about the Cure? I kind of expect not...

Ten Imaginary Years is great. I don't think there's a good one that covers the subsequent 26.

there's more than enough prince in the book! it's about her life, not his. and the way she talks about his impact on her life is really beautiful imo, even if things didn't exactly work out in the long run.

the last part is heavy on the devotion to the lord, but one of the most interesting things about her book: not a word about wanting or having children. either they are off limits entirely or she doesn't feel compelled to talk about it. either way, kudos, lady!

Recently finished Herbie Hancock's autobio, Possibilities. Written in a no-frills style, I think he does a good job of relating what it's like to play his music, without assuming musical training on the part of the reader. Many funny little anecdotes about Miles Davis and his working methods. One never-been-told-before sordid revelation. His sister sounds really interesting also - the passages about her untimely death and its aftermath are particularly affecting. You have to be able to stomach a lot of references to his Buddhism; this aspect I felt stopped just short of being annoying. Overall I do feel I know the man better now.

Just cracked a new Peggy Lee bio called Is That All There Is? by an guy who's previously written about Chet Baker and Lena Horne. This already feels like it's going to be overwhelmingly entertaining and fascinating.

I thought herbie was a sc13nt0log1s7?

you're thinking of Chick Corea

No I know chick is, but I thought it was the both of them.

i heard him talking about it in a radio interview a few weeks ago
it was pretty shocking and not related to scient0logie

http://www.richieunterberger.com/wordpress/top-twenty-rock-history-books-of-2014/

Barry Mazor provided a very appealing description of Eric Weisbard's Top 40 Democracy in last Saturday's Wall Street Journal. The online review isn't available now to non-subscribers, apparently (WSJ's inconsistent w that), and I don't know how Salon manages such things, but just in case this link
http://www.salon.com/2014/12/07/your_music_snobbery_is_all_wrong_how_top_40_radio_made_the_mainstream_as_interesting_as_the_margins/?utm_content=bufferff0a2&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer stops working, here's an excerpt of their excerpt:

Formats let music occupy a niche in capitalism and—as with Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, with its monologue and interviews structure and MOR appeal—connect music to other show-business realms as well. Genres are different. Ordinary people don’t proudly identify with formats, but some do identify with genres. One can have a hit song that goes “I was born country”; probably not “I was born adult contemporary.” Music formats like MOR, AC, and Top 40 were crossover spaces, with no single dominant genre. A trickier category is music, like country, with both format and genre identity, making for something more porous in definition than honky-tonk, soul, or that Bruce Springsteen fans might prefer. Black-oriented pop divided between rhythm and blues (R&B), a format, and soul or hip-hop genres. Rock, in its 1970s form, was the Uncola of formats: a lucrative format posing as a rebel genre. Music genres, more inherently ideological, chafe at formats, with their centrist, commercial disposition.

Yet the very commercial tendencies that made radio formats, and the music they implanted in our consciousness, suspect aesthetically also made them trailblazers for the sounds, artists, and listeners left out by all that genre certainty. Formats, radio, and pop music deserve a much bigger place in the history of American culture than accounts rooted in genre and isolated records have afforded them. Their homogenizing tendencies popularized and routinized each eruption from the countercultural 1960s and 1970s and MTV 1980s to the grunge, gangsta, and new country 1990s. But equally important was this center’s ability to redirect music as a social force: from “serious” fans who were often straight, white, male, and affluent to listeners less vocal and coherent but no less invested in what they heard. That tension structures this book. The safe radio pop that so many commentators have reviled for so many valid reasons opened as many doors as it closed.
I probably won't agree with all of this, but wanna read it. (Mazor said it also traces the careers of the Isley Brothers and others, adapting to their audiences' changes.)

Don't know that country ever was a format---"countrypolitan," sure, and now the national Nash FM chain incl. Nashville Idols, basically a Gen X Hat oldies format, maybe complicated by the return of Garth, though probably not---but why does he say that country is both format and genre, but rock and R&B are not? Oh well, like I said, I'm more interested in the historical road maps, but hoping to learn something conceptual as well.

this year has been great for music books.

That big Beatles book
Bob Stanley's 'Yeah Yeah Yeah'
Viv Albertine's book
Simon Napier Bell's one about music publishing machinations
Was that Jesus and Mary chain book this year? If so, that even if they didn't cite (or use) my old article
I almost bought the Scott walker book, and may yet. It looks good but I can't nom it until I do.

Anyone read Stephen Hanley's book yet?

Need to read Viv's and Hanley's tbh

Read/am reading:

No Wave, Marc Masters
People Funny Boy, David Katz
Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon, Michael E. Veal

xpost thanx brio2 for posting:

http://www.mojo4music.com/18055/viv-albertine-book-of-the-year/">Mojo interview: http://www.mojo4music.com/18055/viv-albertine-book-of-the-year/

NPR's Ken Tucker put it on his '14 Best Music Top Ten: 9 albums, this book

Want to read the Albertine book. Skimmed it in a bookstore. She chose to write it all in the present tense.

Curious about this Richie Unterberger faves:

Ain’t It Time We Said Goodbye: The Rolling Stones on the Road to Exile, by Robert Greenfield (Da Capo Press). This has the feel of a toss-off, as it’s the third book Greenfield’s written on the Stones in the early 1970s, and at least some of the stories and quotes appear in his Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones. I kind of like it anyway

George Clinton w/Ben Greenman Brothers Be Like Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard on You

even casual fans of of the pfunk should find this illuminating. George is so smart, sharp and perceptive about music, musicians and the music business. coming up he studied how his peers and influences played and presented themselves and also how the record companies marketed them. he's insightful into the working of his own empire (and failings), offering fascinating insights on leadership, collaboration and cooperation within an unwieldy musical commune. generous and perceptive assessments of the wildly diverse personalities he's worked with over the years. despite his business acumen he does get bogged down in shady publishing rip-offs and the last third of the book drags through tortuous legal wrangles. his self-admitted 25 years + crack habit doesn't help the 80s, 90s and 2000s but he's refreshingly uncliched and frank about drug use. Ben Greenman's hand is evident in the clear readable prose though George's earthy interjections "keep it real" as they say. "The church ladies pitched a bitch because we were singing about pussy." At the end of a rapturous review of Vanilla Fudge concert: "Of course I was tripping my ass off." And after explaining his message of tolerance handed down to children, grandchildren and musicans regarding sexual preferences: "I've seen motherfuckers fuck radiators."

i am so excited to read top 40 democracy :X

(xxpost) I mentioned this on another thread a while back: Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones is surprisingly awful. (I seem to recall that someone else chimed in in agreement.) It's got this unrelenting you-won't-believe-the-depths-of-depravity-we're-going-to-explore tone, and the depths turn out to be that the band used drugs frequently. Glaring factual errors are mixed in.

i gave my brother the george clinton book for xmas. half wanted to keep it for myself

regarding all the new beatles books, what could possibly be revealed in a new one? honest question

I read that Road to Exile book (I put out a book through Da Capo years ago and they continue to send me ARCs of all their music stuff). It was boring.

xpost

not so much new but really wonderfully integrated with cultural/music/social history and with a level of care & enthusiasm rarely seen. dude wanted to give the best possible history of the beatles & truly succeeds

I mentioned this on the Canterbury Scene thread, but I was disappointed in the new Robert Wyatt bio.

I enjoyed the McCartney In The 70's book very much.

the Weisbard book is excellent -- I finished it a few days ago.

haven't read the lewisohn book yet but while there are a lot of beatles bios there hasn't really been one that i'd feel totally comfortable recommending, that feels definitive and objective and well-written in the way that the guralnick/elvis or jon savage/sex pistols books are. so even if there's nothing groundbreaking it feels like there's still space for someone to come along and do the job right, quietly correcting all the misconceptions and adding balance and context.

i think lewisohn definitely fills that gap

Seconded. And I'd argue that Lewisohn's writing style is less dry/clinical than Guralnick's, while providing an incredibly vivid sense of detail that is as intriguing as it is necessary (speaking as someone who thought, before I read it, "Pfft, I already know about these so-called 'Beatles'!").

Viv Albertine book is great, as direct and immediate in its way as the Charlie Louvin book.