Good books about music

I started a thread about that Stubbs book Fear of Music in 2012 but it didn't get a single response. FWIW I think the landscape has changed since 2009 and his theory no longer holds water. Contemporary classical music is now rather hip and popular - Glass and Reich sell out the big London halls on a regular basis and even a relatively peripheral figure like Gavin Bryars gets the cachet of a residency at Cafe Oto.

I see that Michael Davis has a memoir out I BROUGHT DOWN THE MC5
https://mc5music.bandcamp.com/merch/book-i-brought-down-the-mc5-by-michael-davis

Is that newly published? Davis passed away in 2012.

Anyone read All Gates Open yet and if so is it worth buying?

With the Michael Davis book, possibly this has finally found a publisher after the Wayne Kramer memoir was announced this year.
I haven't seen much about it beyond it turning up in ads I've seen in other publications.
Would liker to know more.

With All Gates Open. I'm on the final chapters of teh Rob Young history part and it has been very interesting and given me a load of info that I didn't have before.
Shame that he didn't get to personally interview all of the ex-members befo0re they died. & that Damo wasn't interested inm contributing. But very good, very readable & very recommended.

The Quietus gives its take here:

http://thequietus.com/articles/24830-top-40-best-books-about-music

Good to see Hear Me Talkin’ To Ya on the list — I don’t see it mentioned a whole lot lately, and it’s one of the two or three most important books on 20th century western music.

And Ned is otm about Chet Flippo’s Who/Cincinnati piece.

I recently finished Soulsby's SWANS book. I realize they're not for everyone, these days, but if you are or were ever a fan of the band, it's a really compelling read.

just finished how to wreck a nice beach, it is prob the best book about music i've ever read

ha I was going to mention how odd it was that you bumped the Cybotron thread like the day I read that chapter. I haven't quite finished it yet, but it's also a fantastic media/tech studies book! As idiosyncratic as it is, it's kind of the best example of "media archaeology" that I've encountered

Halfway through "Born to Run." Reminds me of Knausgaard.

just finished how to wreck a nice beach, it is prob the best book about music i've ever read

New Viv Albertine book may be even better than the first one, if that’s possible. Not really about music though.

i'm enjoying it too! she is so frank. i love it.

Yeah, unbelievably so.

Super looking forward to this, his Krautrock book was excellent:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ViCHPJn8L._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Ooh looks good

Oh nice! Thanks for the heads up, just bought it.

I'm thoroughly enjoying Seymour Stein (of Sire Records)'s memoir, Siren Song. I'm halfway through, and it's already offered great character studies of people like Syd Nathan of King Records and Mo Ostin of Warner Bros. Records. It's particularly informative on the inter-relations between independent labels and major labels in the '60s and '70s. It's got the typical artless "dictated to" tone, but it's quite good nevertheless.

Halfway through Walsh’s Astral Weeks 68 and while it is pretty fascinating, I’m disappointed. It’s a lot of anecdotes strung together via Boston, rather than a narrative thread. Lotta cul de sacs :/
But overall am enjoying it

Have my eye on both of these last two books, thanks for heads up.

Wayne Kramer's memoir is about to drop in a couple of weeks time. Looking forward to that one.

I also blew through Trouble Boys last week. Depressing as fuck, but excellent writing & research, a really unputdownable read. Had no idea the depths of Bob’s mental issues.
It’s also stunning how for all their talent the band sorta boils down to a runaway train fueled by fear.

David Toop's Ocean of Sound is back in print via Serpent's Tail.

ive read many good music books, mostly autobiographies, recently:

Full Moon: The Amazing Rock and Roll Life of the Late Keith Moon by his personal assistant Dougal Butler
The Most Incredible Elvis Presley Story Ever Told by G.B. Giorgio
Elvis and Me by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley with Sandra Harmon
Long Time Gone: The Autobiography of David Crosby by Croz
Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James and the Shondells by TJ and Martin Fitzpatrick

MTMATM was the last book I read and it was fantastic. next i plan to read through His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra by Kitty Kelley. Sinatra and Tommy James almost met but Tommy James blew it (Ed McMahon was involved, ofc):

After we performed at the Hollywood Bowl with the Rascals, I went back to the Century Plaza, where we were staying, and because I was still flying from my pills, I called Capitol Records and booked time at one of their recording studios... When I got back late to my hotel, the front desk clerk was all atwitter. Ed McMahon had dropped by my hotel with Frank Sinatra, and I'd missed him because I was so high I forgot about our date. I never could get with him again to make my apologies. I can just hear Sinatra mumbling, "Fucking kids," while he cooled his heeled in the lobby waiting for Tommy James, who had stiffed him.

- Tommy James, p. 142

I’m reading Music: What Happened?, by Scott Miller, on vacation (the Kindle version is only a few bucks). His comments/observations are interesting, and I’ve been highlighting a lot of passages to remind me to check out specific tracks later.

Less happy is how heavily the Beatles weigh down his p.o.v., at least in the sections on the early ‘60s — he reviews entire tracks (by other artists) by talking almost entirely about the Fab Four! Maybe somewhat unavoidable for a guy born in 1960?

i'm kinda surprised that this has never been mentioned in this thread:

Michael Nyman, Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (1974)

not that i know it well - i'm only a third of the way through. but i guess it's one of the most prominent texts on the subject? there's an interesting bit early on where he's trying to explain the difference between avant garde and experimental, which is an interesting question, and one i hadn't even thought about before

This is a from a book only tangentially about music, but I loved the quote (the protagonist is hearing Glen Gould's recording of the Goldberg Variations for the first time):

"How can haphazard nubbiness of grooves pressed into synthetic polymer, read and converted into equivalent electric current, passed through an electromagnet and that isomorphically excites speaker paper, sucking it back and forth in a pulsing wave that sets up a sympathetic vibration in thin, skin membrane tickling nerve-bursts simulate not only all the instruments of the orchestra but this most cerebrally self-invested device, the hammer-struck, vibrating string?"
Richard Powers, The Gold Bug Variations

I'm 5 chapters in to Stubbs' Mars By 1980, and it is indeed fantastic. Really interesting. And he's also just a great writer; there's one bit where he's writing about the impact of a particular music teacher who introduced him to Frank Zappa and how he was:

Trying to impress on us that there were worlds of intrigue in contemporary sound that had extended well beyond what we then considered to be the apex of modern excitement: facing each other on the dancefloor at the school disco, thumbs in belt loops and leaning into each other rhythmically like glam-rock stags to the stomping beat of Mud's 'Tiger Feet'.

which is an image that has been in my head all week. Shout out to Tiger Feet though.

Finishing up the "Beastie Boys Book" which is excellent and hilarious. I gather the audiobook features a cast of thousands.

bumped the Blonde on Blonde thread for this but Daryl Sanders' That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound is really good if you're into books that exhaustively detail every hour of the recording of an album.

Currently reading a biography of Dexter Gordon written by his widow. It contains material from an autobiography he never completed, and also a bunch of stuff he planned on leaving out (about drugs, etc.). It's nontraditional but very interesting, especially if you're a fan like me.

that Sanders book sounds interesting!

was thinking the other day about how Dylan was 24 years old when he wrote Like a Rolling Stone, wtf

How does it feel?

Bad!

he was still 24 when he recorded Blonde on Blonde, too - that was mentioned in the book and I went a bit o_O

almost done with the book, another tidbit: six of the songs on the album were recorded in one night. can you guess which ones?

Wild stab: Pledging My Time, Pill-Box Hat, Temporary Like Achilles, Sweet Marie, Fourth Time Around, 5 Believers.

You got half: Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat, Temporary Like Achilles, Obviously 5 Believers.

Pledging My Time and Absolutely Sweet Marie were recorded the previous night. Fourth Time Around was the first song they recorded in Nashville.

Most Likely You'll Go Your Way, Rainy Day Women, and I Want You were the other three.

How many takes did they record of "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"?

only four!

Finishing up the "Beastie Boys Book" which is excellent and hilarious

otm, really enjoyable. Ad-Rock funnier than Mike D (unsurprisingly)

this book also cleared up drummer Kenneth Buttrey's famous comment about building to a climax two minutes in because he didn't know how long the song was - I never heard that aborted buildup. Apparently, he was referring to the first take they did. By the time they cut the master, everyone knew how long the song was.

Currently reading a biography of Dexter Gordon written by his widow. It contains material from an autobiography he never completed, and also a bunch of stuff he planned on leaving out (about drugs, etc.). It's nontraditional but very interesting, especially if you're a fan like me.

xp there were some good articles online about the recording of Blonde on Blonde too, I guess it's true that Rainy Day Women was the most difficult song to record and they did +20 takes?

No, Rainy Day Women was quick - master take was cut so fast that Robbie Robertson went down to the lobby to get cigarettes and by the time he came back they were done. The one they spent the most time on was Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat, at least 20 takes and attempted at three separate sessions.

thanks for clarifying that! still a relatively straightforward blues, interesting that would be the difficult one

there are a bunch of weird leopard skin takes in nashville where they try to do a goofy traffic noise breakdown and add phone sounds ... bizarre to imagine it being released — it could've been a left-field novelty hit that made everyone hate Bob Dylan.

yeah haha they spent so much time on the novelty version... it was first attempted at the New York sessions, then in the middle of the Nashville sessions (honk version), and then eventually redone on the last day. Nashville players to Robbie Robertson after they cut the master: "The whole world'll love you for that one, Robbie."

i haven't read the sanders book but i understand he says that robertson *didn't* play lead on the blonde on blonde version of "visions of johanna"? I've always thought it was him — and held that performance up as one of Robbie's greatest moments! haha oh well.