Good books about music

Please kill me.

Oh well. Read it anyway. It's amazing. And Our Band Could Be Your Life. If you're interested in criticism, check out Psychotic Reactions and Carbeurator Dung or anything by Lester Bangs or one or two Greil Marcus books (The Basement Tapes). I'd stay away from Camden Joy, contrary to popular opinion.

I need something that doesn't take too long to get into

But you're going to college, man! Just buy Adorno's Essays on Music and accept that the next 4+ years of your life are going to be like that mwahahaha...

I also enjoyed Last Night a DJ Saved My Life and there's the ever-classic Generation Ecstasy.

I had never heard of Tate until I saw him speak not long ago. He is a BAD. ASS. Does he still write for The Voice? I feel like I never see him in there. Does he have a blog?

I'm mostly interested in reading a book of his since his prose is fairly magnificent.

If you want a cracking funny read on hip-hop, though, pick up The Rough Guide to Hip-Hop by Peter Shapiro, which has just been updated and enlarged (it was a pocket-size the first time, now it's 8 x 10). Best line goes to the Bad Boy Records writeup, when he notes that Puff Daddy, having been responsible for 40% of all 1997's number ones, moved to the Hamptons "so he could live by the sea, just like his magic dragon namesake."

Same here! (Of course there's also the Led Zep bio.)

Next week on "The O.C.": Seth and Ryan get into a fatal disagreement over "James Taylor: Marked For Death," while Summer meets a new hottie who shares her disgust of Nick Hornby.

Dino by Nick Tosches (about Dean Martin; as deep as Catch a Fire by Timothy White, as entertaining as that Motley Crue book)

Backbeat: Earl Palmer's Story, by Tony Scherman (oral history/autobiography of the New Orleans drummer; had me at "Louis Armstrong was a pimp"...)

We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk by Marc Spitz and Brendan Mullen (better than Please Kill Me, kind of like L.A. punk itself)

I was torturing this guy in the garage of my mom's house in this nice suburban neighborhood with my whole family inside eating Easter dinner... and I'd got this guy tied up in the rafter with a rope around his legs and I'm beating him with a two-by-four. I said, "Hang on a minute," and put the two-by-four down and walked into the house and kissed my aunt and said like, "Oh hi, how you doing?" I grabbed a deviled egg, told them I'd be back in a minute, and I went back out, grabbed the two-by-four, and kept workin' on the guy. I finally had to get out of Vicious Circle 'cause of the violence. There were constant stabbings and beatings and people cruising by my house at night, shooting up the neighborhood....

I did something pretty bad to somebody and they retaliated with guns. It was a big deal, I had to split to Alaska for a while, they cut the lines on my car, blew up my car... fuck...I don't wanna say who they were, but they weren't punks... boy, they were pissed off.

i went on holiday with the Deborah Curtis book and the Nick Drake biography once. happy times, let me tell you.

if you ever find dave rimmer's "once upon a time in the east", abt berlin east and west b4 the fall of the wall, i utterly UTTERLY recommend it: tho it's only somewhat abt music - unlike his earlier (and also good) "like punk never happened"

Joe Carducci's Rock and the Pop Narcotic is being reissued sometime this year.

Electronic and Experimental Music by Thom Holmes
also; Wireless Imagination (d kahn / g whitehead)
Paul Griffiths - A Concise History of Avant-Garde Music
Paul Griffiths - Modern Music And Beyond
Curtis Roads
William Duckworth : Talking Music
Cage: Silence / A Year From Monday
Cage / Feldman: Conversations
James Tenney : Meta / Hodos
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Stockhausen on Music (Compiled by R Maconie)
Sound By Artists (ed. Dan Lander)
Chris Cutler - File Under Popular
Attali - Noise
Russolo - The Art of Noises (get a hold of a copy any way you can)
Trevor Wishart - On Sonic Art
Douglas Kahn - Noise Water Meat

i think the attali book is lousy at book length—it's a good short polemic idea bulked out to a contradictory nonsense schema—and wireless imagination is patchy (which is a pity, cz it's a great idea for an essay collection)

The Elvis Guralnick books - again, you don't have to care about the subject matter to enjoy them (personally, I was so-so on Elvis before readin' 'em, am now an unabashed fan), and the second one is one hell of a car wreck: the descent starts like twenty pages into it, and by the end of the book you can't even feel sorry for the guy anymore, you just wonder why he hasn't kicked the bucket already.

"Where Did Our Love Go?" by Nelson George has some nice anecdotes, and is probably the best book on Motown around, tho to be frank I didn't learn all that much from it.

"The Heart Of Rock & Soul" seconded, and throw in the "New Book Of Rock Lists" too, if only for the sheer joy of reading the sentence "Tragedy The Intelligent Hoodlum Lists..." over and over again (not that book of rock jokes, tho, that was awful.) And also "Fortunate Son: The Best Of Dave Marsh", great stuff on Elvis, Muddy Waters, latino rock, etc.

I remember reading Maryiln Manson's "The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell" in my early teens and being surprised by how good it was (I'd always loathed the guy's music.) Dunno if it holds up.

"Sweet Soul Music", hell yeah.

I've read the entirety of Christgau's consumer guide online, and there's some great, great stuff there. So the books are recommended, too.

yay I've been wanting to read that one for a while!

adding to my prev post here leroi jones 'blues people' which I just finished this morning: most gd bks on music accept that they aren't just abt notes and chords.

You mean it's not long enough? I loved the book. Should re-read it...

I also loved the Lexicon Devil (bio on Darby Crash) though it's certainly not essential...

the ONLY thing wrong with JMC's line is that he somewhat slightly seems to accept the assumption that the social dimension—the "dance"—isn’t also always part of all music in the West (though he does this in the context of getting ppl to see/hear/look for the fuller sense of the meaning of music): taking his insights abt Africa (Ghana, to be more accurate) and applying them everywhere else is revelatory

Most of it is a charming telling of him learning African drumming in Ghana

And I hope someone someday undertakes a lengthy Sabbath bio.

Or Irv Greenbaum’s In One Ear, and in the Other.

Anyone read this Lesley Chow book? Don't know her at all, but the book looks pretty interesting.

https://d1rgjmn2wmqeif.cloudfront.net/r/b/249444-1.jpg

I looked up who's included and she her definition of "strange" is tailored to include mainly people who will ostensibly sell copies, like Rihanna and Taylor Swift.

Yeah, if your definition of "strange" only stretches as far as Kate Bush you're not really writing a book for me, but whatever.

She definitely needs a less sensationalistic subtitle--Azealia Banks is the only one who credibly fits. And going back to the famous-for-15-seconds Shakespears Sister makes for a pretty blurry timeline. The book interests me anyway.

is there a book about the Jazz avant-garde that focuses on the musicians lives ? Along with the ones recently mentioned, also try A.B. Spellman's Four Lives In The BeBop Business: Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman, from the scuffling years to critical acceptance or at least coverage, but way before the "Genius Grants" and so on; Herbie Nichols, who remained a Musician's Musician, and a reclusive-ish image (but is awesome; his Mosaic Records box is the only one of those I ever shelled out the big bucks for, totally worth it), and Jackie McLean's adventures as a journeyman.
Music biz-wise, Star-Making Machinery: Inside the Business of Rock and Roll, by Geoffrey Stokes---sometimes listed with another subtitle, The Odyssey of an Album, also appropriate in that reading this saga about trying to make an album that would make stars of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen sometimes reminds me of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo--as Wiki sez: It portrays would-be rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an Irishman known in Peru as Fitzcarraldo, who is determined to transport a steamship over a steep hill to access a rich rubber territory in the Amazon Basin. The film is derived from the historic events of Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald and his real-life feat of transporting a disassembled steamboat over the Isthmus of Fitzcarrald.

The film had a troubled production, and the documentary Burden of Dreams chronicled the film's hardships. Yeah, it reminds me even more of the doc. as Herzog becomes Fitzcaraldo...Not so much in terms of physical damage, but still the wages of early 70s grandiosity and backstabbing, incl a label guy who explains that it's nature's way for you to fuck with the weak (even or especially if they're clients), but if they get a big scary lawyer you better fuck with them more, launching pre-emptive scorched earth strikes (even if it's the same earth you're standing on, in fiduciary terms).
Also! Alll the money spent on grooming the press, incl. big fat junkets: "And If you'd like to stay out there a little while longer, I know your sister lives in the area, that would be cool too." Sweet! A great book about a lost world, and sometimes excruciatingly funny.

Is there a book that altered the way you listen to, hear, or appreciate music? Looking for something that will challenge my approach to music. Could be biographical or academic, but hopefully neither. Picked up Ben Ratliff's Every Song Ever thinking it might do the trick but I don't find it all that readable.

Have you tried John Corbett's A Listener's Guide to Free Improvisation?

No but the reviews are promising. Thank you!

I also found Brian Eno's review of Alan Lomax's Folk Song Style and Culture via the Guardian link upthread and may give that a go.

Huh, was about to suggest Every Song Ever since that was the one that got me to really explore black metal as well as the modern jazz quartet, but apparently YMMV.

seconding the free improvisation book

The "History of Rock and Roll Volume 1" by Ed Ward got me to listen to a lot of '40s and '50s rock, country, doo-wop, and R&B sides that I hadn't heard before. Definitely gave me a new appreciation for that era of popular music.

Robert Palmer’s writing is probably the best at doing that. His box set liner notes (Bo Diddley’s Chess recordings, Ornette Coleman’s Atlantic recordings, etc.) are some of the best ever, but with regards to books, “Deep Blues” is the first to come to mind.

I really enjoyed Debbie Harry's autobiography, Face It.

Xgau on new Lenny Kaye book, some vids in here too (this isn't paywalled)
https://robertchristgau.substack.com/p/hippy-punk-guitarist-historian?r=6pvn1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

FWIW, Lenny Kaye posted this on Instagram late last month and the offer is still good:

"In response to many queries, if you would like a personally inscribed Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments In Rock And Roll, I have arranged with my favorite independent bookshop to be the go-to destination. Order your copy from Carroll and Carroll, 740 Main St., Stroudsburg, PA 18360, phone (570) 420-1516, email d2qv5k AT verizon DOT net. I will then go there to sign to you or your loved one and they will mail the book wherever you like. Easy!! Thank you George and Lisa."

I'm two pages from the end of You're History, the Lesley Chow book mentioned above.
Here's her explanation of how she chose the book's subjects:

...they are all anomalies: pioneers in the making, whose output has been too strange for the culture to fully digest... In particular, I want to advocate for urgency , so my focus is on performers whose effect on the body is hot, explosive and immediate, rather than those who adhere to typical standards of refinement and class, such as Grimes and Joanna Newsom...

The tone is sort of a hybrid of poptimism and MFA thesis (sans footnotes). Her insights are epigrammatic and detailed, but not especially fascinating to me, though I can imagine some readers here really liking this.
ILM historians should note that she nods to "the fine critic Marcello Carlin" as "one of the few writers willing to get to the bottom of an 'ooh, aah'", but doesn't consider Nitsuh Abebe's evaluation of Rihanna otm.

Grimes “adheres to typical standards of refinement and class”?

By comparison, I guess

With… Sade and Shakespears Sister? (Maybe it’s a good book, but that’s a head scratcher)

https://www.amazon.com/DC-Go-Go-Backstage-American-Heritage/dp/1467150533

Chip Py took some great photos of DC go-go shows in the 2000s. His writing is just ok (I like his first person story of being on a tour bus with Chuck Brown better than some of his objective wiki like bios of go-go musicians and history of the genre). Photos unfortunately don't have dates listed in captions so you have to guess the year

This book is incredible. The amount of info and connections @ericdharvey makes in it is just mind-blowing. If you have any interest in 90s political rap, it’s a 100% must-read. pic.twitter.com/C649KhZuZ7

— Marc Masters 🌵 (@Marcissist) March 7, 2022

Anybody read this?

Yeah, it’s great. Highest possible recommendation.

Perhaps of limited interest outside the UK, but the AZ Record Shop Bags is a lovely thing. Surely big scope for an international edition as a followup.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CciplU6Mwfa/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

(I am still amused, BTW, that the original poster on this thread is one and the same as this well known figure when it comes to reporting on Q. I checked a few months back and asked, and it's him!)

https://twitter.com/willsommer

Felt sure the revive was going to be about the Bob Stanley book and the accompanying CD if bought from the St Etienne website.

Withput doxing myself, I also write about Q and right wing extremism by day. The Ilxor pipeline is real.

Astounding!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42KQCWYDIbU

Oh yeah, that’s an interesting book!

The Light Pours Out of Me: The Authorised Biography of John McGeoch
Rory Sullivan-Burke

John McGeoch was the unsung hero of the post-punk era. Blazing a trail with some of Britain’s biggest bands and most revered artists – Magazine, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Armoury Show and Public Image Ltd. – John left an undeniable and indelible mark on music.

The Light Pours Out of Me examines John’s life and legacy, drawing on original interviews with the likes of Siouxsie Sioux, Howard Devoto, Johnny Marr, Billy Idol, John Frusciante, Keith Levene, Jonny Greenwood, Nick Launay, Ed O’Brien, Peter ‘Hooky’ Hook and many others.

I think this is available in the UK now, but not in the US till June 23. McGeoch died in his late 40s

How was that guy's name pronounced? It's probably "McGee" but I keep thinking "McGuck" because that idea makes me laugh.

Only ever heard it pronounced Mah-Gee-Ock.

I just asked stirmonster, maybe he'll know.

Mah-Gee-Ock is ok but Muh-Gee-Och is closer, with the Och bit being the same as if you are saying Loch, as in Loch Ness. in Scotland the "och" bit would be said with such emphasis and ferocity that it would possibly result in many Englishmen running for the border.

so, actually Muh-Gee-OcCCCHHHH.

I heard Mcgeoch pronounced by I think Budgie last week and need to relisten. Cos it wasn't what I had it as. I think it had 3 syllables when I had just thought it was Magock or something similar.
I've been listening to Curious Creatures the Budgie/Lol Tolhurst podcast. Think I may have come across it while looking for appearances by Will Sergeant tied in to his memoir,.
That's a book that is worth reading too. I hadn't realised that all of the Bunnymen, with teh exception of Pete De Freitas had pretty much learnt from scratch in the band or in the pre-band rehearsal formative bit. Les Patterson had never played before it was said that Sergeant and Macul needed a bassist for an upcoming debut gig supporting Teardrop Explodes. & Macul turned up to Will Sergeant's place with an acoustic he'd almost never played before. They seem to have spent some months rehearsing together but that was basically from scratch.
Otherwise mainly covers Sergeant growing up in the area outside of Liverpool. Quite good asa childhood/coming of age memoir and then into Punk.

I need to get into the Sue Steward book on Salsa that I got out after reading David toop's book Flutter Echo which was also pretty good.
& this Miles, Ornette, Cecil : how Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and Cecil Taylor revolutionized the world of jazz
by Howard Mandel looks good but I've only read the introduction so far.

Also just finished transcribing the bibliography and discography of Mande Music by Eric Charry which cover the music from Nort West Africa in great depth but is by an ethnomusicologist so isn't exactly light. Very interesting though.

Anyone read this new Elephant 6 book? I got a wave of 90s nostalgia listening to the author talk about it on a recent Sound Opinions; strange because I was never all that much into most of that stuff beyond In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

started the bruce dickinson autobiog a few days ago.
i have no iron maiden in the archive, and it's not my thing, but damn, he can tell a tale.

got my eye on the recent SST Records book, anyone care to dissuade me?

Have mainly heard good about it. Don't think Ginn comes out looking great by the end. It's definitely one I want to read

I am a casual SST knower, but I have never heard a single version where Ginn comes out looking good in the end

JUst heard Budgie pronounce McGeoch again and yeah it's MakGee-ok.

I've been getting further into that book on Salsa and it is really good. Also been transcribing the discography to RYM for future reference.
& looking up artists on Spotify so getting to hear bits of that stuff. But there is a lot listed so it will be a longterm project to familiarise myself with this and the Mande stuff but definitely enjoying what I've heard so far.
Finding it odd that things cited in the 2 books have had low scores on RYM with some frequency. So wondering what the disparity is if there was less choice fro the same artists when the books were written around the turn of the millenium and now there is more available so comparison makes those recordings look bad. I am seeing higher gradings for other sets by the same band/artist on the website. & I'm just coming across the artist so have no grounding for comparison.

Budgie is wrong. :)

so, actually Muh-Gee-OcCCCHHHH.

^^^^ this

You can hear the correct pronuciation in this video (don't worry you don't have to listen to all 54 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlyBBc8-KP8

... worth watching for that goal at the start though!

Picked this up today

https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/0GfkvAbHCHfdYYlHaXsNXdgtvRTO6_8Qjc8pbfTe1mKap-HnBju7qlCZfwm68GKf5IYddg8tBbNsTL3m0emkc7c65ooXvoEaq55vJ6QJzmASbIETQhu2_dvkYHBA4XOUdIZwS4GM2l7ldN082mT-h4NIGMnlZLtBgnvV8sTaq8MojoYj9A47WHdR_pOTP3my17H4xM5JEMHGKu5IXRg4XzFgIlctkmBbMLcYsUquVOL0UAY_x7aLRHSQXlibfGn0spI5-wrtRKH0X7Alo5butyzB1y1WiUm1hZW1zMZOqq9ZxQ2C6E1N58xiQa0TAg8ytIvJ2l2Q720_2aZWVANI9hjR=s0-d-e1-ft#https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_2420,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27f34777-f090-4092-bb10-f31d458f4232_1210x938.png

That looks like a worthy read!

that url has at least 3 domain names in it.

Marissa Moss, Her Country