Good books about music

I'm Reading Elijah Wald's Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues which is pretty interesting. I think I've come across a lotof his argument before but nice to have this in detail.
The whole idea of what got recorded, what the limitations on recording were and what the other contributing factors as to what was represented were. So a bluesman was probably a more diverse musician but only certain things were of interest to those recording. & the idea of somebody being a 'songster' being a different category being utterly artificial since it was just another way of saying one who sings songs.
Those recording didn't think there was a market for more primitive or whatever versions of show tunes when there were much more professional ones available so that whole area wasn't represented when ity might have made up a large part of any local musicians repertoire.
Interesting book so far. & we haven't even met Robert johnson yet.

Still find his take on Robert Johnson somewhat infuriating.

Lizzy Goodman was on Seth Myers tonight. I am thinking of picking up her book as even the critical stuff about it still makes it sound interesting to me.

And I like oral histories.

I always wished for a "This Band Could Be Your Life" version for the Aughts. I know that's not what this is, but it may scratch that same itch a bit.

Excited for this one:

http://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062463692/good-booty

The Richard Morton Jack Psychedelia arrived yesterday after I was let down on a different order of it last month.
It's subtitled 101 Iconic Underground Rock Albums 1966 - 1970 and does work as a bit of a 101 intro to the music.
Only 1 lp per artist but covers a lot of ground and if you get all of these it might trigger further investigation.
I actually don't have a few after buying in the area for decades.
Also first time I've seen a large size repro of SRC's s/t lp sleeve.
Nice.

Excited for this one:

http://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062463692/good-booty

― some sad trombone Twilight Zone shit (cryptosicko), Friday, June 16, 2017 7:14 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh, nice. Wish listed that one. I haven't read a book by Powers yet, just articles now and then.

Don't know about 'good' but Peter hook's Joy Division book is 99p on Amazon.co.uk at the moment

(kindle version)

Noel Monk's Runnin' with the Devil is really good. He was Van Halen's manager from 1978-1985, and he gives up everything: how shitty their initial contract was (and how he got them out of it), how fucked up they were and how much they grew to hate each other, how badly the brothers and Roth fucked over Michael Anthony...it's totally fascinating if you're at all interested in the music business.

Ooh that sounds good

This review of NPR music critic Ann Powers new book,GOOD BOOTY
Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music, is kinda mixed --

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ann-powers/good-booty/

excerpt:
The author then settles into her occasionally diffuse narrative that connects Congo Square to Beyoncé and bemoans the devolution of Ma Rainey’s bawdy to the pornified, auto-tuned hip-hop of today. Where Powers successfully connects the dots, light bulbs flash: it is fascinating to watch her join the gay subculture of disco to the success of the sisters Labelle, nee the Blue Bells, remade in “a previously unexplored space where glam met funk met soul via strictly female interplay.” (Well, perhaps not strictly female, since, as Powers notes, the designer of Labelle’s outrageously flamboyant costumes went on to invent the costumes of the swaggering cartoon band KISS.) Even where she does not successfully make those connections, as with her notes on the apache (“pronounced A-POSH, not like the Native American tribal name”) dance and its not-so-subtle masochism, which never quite caught on in the larger culture, she ventures interesting theses. Mostly, the author strings together bright tidbits of cultural trivia to reconstruct and deconstruct the kinship of dirty blues and gospel, the shared underage girlfriends of now-iconic British rock stars, and other points of prurient interest.

A mixed bag, sometimes entertaining, sometimes arid, but full of useful insights; readers won’t look at Lady Gaga or Nicki Minaj the same way

Finished "How the Beatles Destroyed Rock and Roll" today.

A well researched and convincing history of popular music in America circa 1890-1970, often taking a materialistic approach stressing the importance of sheet music, dancing, publishing, radio etc and focusing on continuity between genres often described as oppositional.

Perhaps relies a bit much on familiarity with the 'standard narrative' it challenges. Slightly academic but full of good quotes and fresh perspective.

Best and chunkiest parts describe early jazz, Beatles take up a minimum of space despite the provocative title. If you're wondering how the Beatles destroyed rock and roll, they did it by inventing a hegemonic genre uninterested in singles and dancing, segregating white rock (music for listening) from black soul (music for dancing) in a hitherto unseen degree.

Great fun to read a book like this with Spotify handy, wish I'd made a playlist along the way.

Looks like most of the Elijah Wald books are at least interesting. I need to finish the blues one, got an eye on the Dylan and electricity one since its around locally.
& that Beatles/R'n'r one sounds like it should be worth checking out.

that book sounds fascinating. just ordered myself a copy.

look forward to hearing your thoughts on it

How the Beatles... made me want to read (hell, write) a full-on biography of Mitch Miller.

Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan is not a book about music per se but has great essays on Christian Rock, Michael Jackson, Axl Rose, John Fahey, pre-war blues and Bunny Wailer

I wish he would come out with something new, I read Pulphead quite a few years ago I think and it was outstanding.

Has he written anything after that Sunday NY Times blockbuster?

Christian Rock piece is all time

He was supposed to be working on a book about this guy

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Gottlieb_Priber

But haven't heard anything about it in a while

His journalistic methods in that Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie story on 78s, kinda turned me off a bit

That's the NY Times one

I'm trying to work outif i need the latest vernon Joynson A Melange Of Musical Pipedreams And Pandemonium which has apparently added a section on African rock alongside Australia, New Zealand, Africa (expanded to include 'Afro-rock' music from Sub-Saharan Africa) and, for the first time, Turkey and the Middle East, between 1963 and 1976.
There was a previous book by him on the Antipodean stuff called Dreams, Fantasies and Nightmares from Far Away Lands which also covered South Africa and latin America. & I think I have both editions of.

But looking for a good source on African rock & psychedelia.

So has anybody read it? & can comment?

Nope, but does look intriguing

850 copies worldwide. Several places have it at discount.

Is apparently being followed by a volume dedicated to Canada and Latin America

This could be good: https://slate.com/arts/2017/10/the-jann-wenner-biography-and-the-hbo-doc-reviewed.html

Referring to the book, not the doc...

Reading it right now. SUPER juicy, really great so far. Jann is a complete sociopath.

I read that Wenner doesn't like it, which is probably a sign that it's good.

There's a Lou Reed bio that just released as well...

has anyone read the new 33 1/3 on the raincoats' s/t?

Yeah, what's great about that is Jann is one of the primary sources & cooperated with the author throughout the writing process. I mean you really have to read it to believe it, the guy is just nuts.

has anyone read the new 33 1/3 on the raincoats' s/t?

I have - it's very good. It's not one of those that attempts any formal or structural experiments but it's smart and sound and well-written and gave me plenty of bits to think about.

My only small gripe (and I totally know this is my problem as much as it's the writer's) is that it leans a bit heavily on noting the impact the record had on American alt-rock/indie icons of the 90s - the fact that Kurt liked the Raincoats is a matter of pure indifference to me. I understand that Bikini Kill, Calvin, Kurt will be cultural touchstones for most of the people who buy the book, I get that the cultural reception of the record in the US is interesting, it's just that it pops up repeatedly in the book.

Got the Wenner biography for half-price today--been looking forward to it. Everything I've seen has been really positive, with the exception of Marcus calling it vile in his column yesterday. That did not dissuade me.

It's fantastic. It's so juicy, and the best part is Jann was completely cooperative with Hagan, gave him access to his archives, his rolodex, gave hundreds, maybe thousands of hours worth of interviews over the past 4 years, says INSANE things like "I would take my private jet up and circle LaGuardia just to have lunch," and then only when he gets the manuscript 6 months ago, denounces the book as "tawdry." Motherfucker, you dug your own grave! The rare biography that is authorized and denounced by its subject. Really, really fucking good book, and great job on Hagan's part.

haha, now I want to read it!

Shakey is another one of those

I think Shakey is my favourite rock bio.

Deep insight gleaned from Sticky Fingers: Jane Wenner sure is beautiful.

http://media.vanityfair.com/photos/59cd31eaa64e473347b79974/master/h_590,c_limit/rolling-stone-1117-ss02.jpg

(Can't seem to find an online photo without Jann at her side.)

yeah, whereas Jann in the mid-80s... oof

Their son sure is nice lookin'!

https://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/gus-wenner-headshot.jpg?w=199

Looks like a guy you can't trust.

Looking for recommendations on books on electronic music, preferably from a 'historical sonic evolution' type of angle or just anything that will give me a fundamental understanding of the genres and subcultures with the right amount of mythological titillation, too.

How about Energy Flash by Simon Reynolds?

Wazzabout the book by Matos, The Underground Is Massive?

that's more about how the rave scene specifically developed in the united states but yes it's very good

both look pretty cool, thanks. I'll give Energy Flash a read first.

Sticky Fingers got much better after the intro--the more the author removes himself and just tells the story, the better it is. (He uses the phrase "sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll" in the intro, the biggest and reddest of red flags.) It's a sobering book. Not that I had any illusions about Rolling Stone, and whatever I've taken from the magazine (which amounts to a bunch of 40+-year-old record reviews and Rob Sheffield today) remains, but not an inspiring saga.

Funniest part by far is the 10th-year-anniversary TV show they put together. I don't remember watching this, for which I'm sincerely sorry.

Binder booked Ted Neeley, the star of Jesus Christ Superstar, to perform an elaborate Beatles dance medley called "A Decade in the Life," which included performers in foam strawberry suits and black leggings doing a psychedelic maypole dance as Neeley, dressed as Father Time, sang "Strawberry Fields Forever." The sequence also featured two men in rubber Nixon and Kissinger masks singing "I'm a Loser," inspired, no doubt, by a famous SNL skit of Aykroyd and Belushi praying in the Oval Office on the eve of impeachment. Binder said the Beatles sequence cost over $100,000 to shoot.

In other words, Steve Binder was unable to recapture that Elvis Comeback Special magic