Good books about music

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.

yeah! Robertson is not on Visions of Johanna - it was a Nashville player that came in and only played on that one song. I don't have the book on me and everywhere I look online incorrectly states that Robertson plays lead. I'll take a look when I get home... but listening to the lead on VOJ vs. Robertson's playing on Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat and Pledging My Time, they're not the same at all. Robertson is much dirtier.

"Led Zeppelin All The Songs The Story Behind Every Track". Just WOW. Amidst the usual band history stuff and occasional dopey sidebars there is a feast of nerdy studio facts ( instruments and effects, mixing boards, studio engineer and Page anecdotes on mic placements et al) and great photos. I love this shit. Probably my favorite Zep book after "Trampled Underfoot".

What about When Giants Walked the Earth by Mick Wall? Haven't read it myself, but it's supposed to be the definitive Zep bio.

Haven't read that one, either.

Has anyone read David Weigel's The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock? Wondering about asking for it for Christmas.

Yeah, it’s good.

if crimson's your favorite prog band you should totally ask for it. fripp comes off as the central figure in the whole scene

TBF, he also comes off as a gaping asshole, though.

"Led Zeppelin All The Songs The Story Behind Every Track". Just WOW. Amidst the usual band history stuff and occasional dopey sidebars there is a feast of nerdy studio facts ( instruments and effects, mixing boards, studio engineer and Page anecdotes on mic placements et al) and great photos. I love this shit. Probably my favorite Zep book after "Trampled Underfoot".

― An Uphill Battle For Legumes (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, November 21, 2018 4:14 PM (six days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I flipped through this at a bookstore the other day and it looked awesome, but didn't have a good chance to really look at though as my daughter has no interest in reading up on Zep with me ("yeah hold on sweetie Dada is reading about how many takes of "Stairway" they did"), but if it is in league with the Hoskyns book that is high praise indeed.

There's a few books like that about. The Grateful Dead one isn't bad. That is song by song, album by album.

I enjoyed Jeff Tweedy's memoir though it's more about him than music.

xp — that must be one long Dead book!!

Speaking of Robertson, I still haven't read his autobio, but a couple of friends tell me that it's well-described by this appealing WSJ review:

By WESLEY STACE
Updated Nov. 11, 2016 6:08 p.m. ET
Robbie Robertson, the lead guitarist and main songwriter of the Band, is in the unenviable position of never having been much of a singer. (He posits asthma as a factor.) Luckily, the Band was blessed with three of the greatest vocalists of the rock era (Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Levon Helm), who were able to give his beautiful melodies and lyrics their fullest possible emotional expression. In “Testimony,” however, the “voice” is not in question. Robust, wry, gritty and wise to the vicissitudes of a career in rock ’n’ roll, it is just what the reader wants, marred only occasionally by stiff dialogue.
TESTIMONY
By Robbie Robertson
Opening with a train ride, Mr. Robertson captures the rhythm of rock’s mystery train, even its final lurch into the terminal. In this memoir named for a song from his solo debut, Mr. Robertson bears witness to his life in music, from his precocious success in Ronnie Hawkins’s “raging rockabilly” Hawks to that band’s historic involvement in Bob Dylan’s mid-1960s “explosive electric sacrilege”; the subsequent retreat to Woodstock, N.Y., for the “loose as a goose” sessions with Mr. Dylan that became known as “The Basement Tapes” to the group’s rebranding as the Band, whose career climaxed, as this book wisely does, with “The Last Waltz,” a 1976 concert in San Francisco that was filmed by Martin Waltz,” a 1976 concert in San Francisco that was filmed by Martin Scorsese.
“Testimony” comes 23 years after drummer Levon Helm’s memoir “This Wheel’s on Fire,” notable partly for its extremely negative portrayal of Mr. Robertson. Of that book, Mr. Dylan enthused: “You’ve got to read this!” The blurbs here are by Mr. Scorsese and David Geffen, neatly delineating the great divide in the Band. But after the deaths of Manuel (suicide, 1986), Danko (heart failure, 1999) and Helm (throat cancer, 2012)—which triumvirate he often pits himself against in his memoir—Robertson is one of the two men left standing (along with keyboardist Garth Hudson). His may be the last word.
Helm took to the grave. Resentments had long simmered: The film “The Last Waltz” seemed contrived to put Mr. Robertson center-stage, as the genius Mr. Scorsese clearly believed him to be, yet he was the only member of the Band who actually wanted that Waltz to be the Last. His Band-mates were happy to play on, and this was by no means the final Band concert, though it was the last to feature Mr. Robertson. If you saw a later incarnation of the group, you heard precisely what you would have wanted to hear: the singers singing their beloved songbook accompanied by a great rhythm section. If anything, one later felt the lack of Manuel more than of Mr. Robertson.
Half-Jewish, half-Mohawk, Jaime Royal Robertson was brought up on the streets of Toronto and on the Six Nations Indian Reserve, where he was “introduced to serious storytelling. . . . The oral history, the legends, the fables, and the great holy mystery of life.” The reader might suppress a groan, but add to the mix a steel-trap memory and a muddled childhood—featuring two fathers, numerous gangsters, alcoholism and some diamond smuggling—and you have the makings of a Dickensian bildungsroman.
“Testimony” next becomes a bible of road lore, a lurid coming-of-age story that veers wildly between the sweet and the brutal and a how-not-to guide to running a band. The Hawks, formed at the whim of Arkansawyer Ronnie Hawkins, who enjoyed regular residencies in Toronto, take off on the road, and the craziness of these early days is presented in brilliant Technicolor, with Helm cast as blood brother and Hawkins as amoral Virgil. A 16-year-old Mr. Robertson, too young to frequent any of the joints he’s playing, descends into an underworld of torched nightclubs (the arsonists thoughtfully remove Leon Russell’s band’s equipment before they light the match), bitten-off nipples (word to the wise: Don’t “taste her milkshake” while traversing bumpy terrain in the back seat of a car) and a vast choice of artificial stimulation.
As for Mr. Dylan, a key attraction, the book offers a refreshing account all the better for starting no earlier than the recording of “Like a Rolling Stone,” to which Mr. Robertson was escorted by producer John Hammond Jr. in 1965. Here is by far the fullest first-person account of the early electric tours of Mr. Dylan, not to mention an astonishing tale of a “passed out sitting up” Mr. Dylan, “deliriously exhausted” after the final date of the emotionally and physically exhausting 1966 tour, whom Robbie and Mr. Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman, try to revive him in a bathtub (returning once to find him submerged) while four Beatles await an audience in the adjacent hotel room. The account of Mr. Dylan’s 1966 motorcycle accident is refreshingly lucid, as is that of the subsequent making of “The Basement Tapes,” as the Band improvises around Bob’s “vibing vocables.”
The Nobel Prize winner himself will probably not opine on Mr. Robertson’s livelier claims, among which is that he clothed Mr. Dylan (the classic ’66 houndstooth tweed: “Bob didn’t seem like much of a suit guy, but Lou [the designer] was on top of his game”); suggested the iconoclastic cover design of “Blonde on Blonde”; gave Mr. Dylan’s song “Obviously Five Believers” its title, adding that witty adverb—both positively (4th Street) and absolutely (Sweet Marie) something Mr. Dylan might have come up with himself; finished the editing of Mr. Dylan’s film “Eat the Document”; taught the neophyte rocker how to stretch guitar strings to keep them in tune; and saved Mr. Dylan from his musical self (by refusing to clutter the sparse perfection of “John Wesley Harding” with the requested overdubs). And of course he is responsible for creating the circumstances, and ambience, that brought the “The Basement
Tapes” into existence. I am not suggesting that these claims aren’t true, merely that the abundance of them becomes slightly comical.
Occasionally one has the impression that Mr. Robertson is tiptoeing around awkward issues, always to the detriment of the book: Helm’s 1993 account of the various delegations sent in to get Mr. Dylan onstage at “The Last Waltz” is agonizing (the singer didn’t like it assumed that he had given his consent to being filmed, fearing a conflict with a forthcoming movie of his own, “Renaldo and Clara,” shot the previous year). But Mr. Robertson barely scratches the surface, preferring to deal with the technical problems involved in creating the movie.
Mr. Robertson’s writing about music, either from inside looking out or simply from the point of view of an audience member at a Bo Diddley or Velvet Underground concert, can be beautiful, as when, in the closing pages, he pays full tribute to each Band member and their role within the overall sound, repeating, as if in litany, “God only made one of those.” Here “Testimony” becomes a testimonial, and the effect is redemptive. Generosity suits him, and whatever the truth, “Testimony” is a graceful epitaph.​

the rest is noise is fuckin' phenomenal btw

Amen to that!
xpost Sorry for the typos, which are from my hasty paste, although the reviewer and/or his copy editor are responsible for conflation of John Hammond Sr., who signed nerdy little against-the-grain Bobby D. (AKA "Hammond's Folly") to prestigious Columbia, with blues-singin' Jr.(some of the Hawks, inc. Robertson, played on some of his tracks).

Wondering about this---anybody read it?

Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, Vol. 1: 1957 - 73
Clinton Heylin

A leading expert on the life and work of Nobel laureate Bob Dylan—most notably the author of the often-updated Dylan biography Behind the Shades—British music writer Clinton Heylin here begins his two-volume analysis of Dylan's songs. We learn that the middle verse of "Blowin' in the Wind" was written much later than the first and third verses, "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" was based on a complete distortion of the facts of the case, and "Fourth Time Around" was a direct response to John Lennon's "Norwegian Wood."

"Prolific Dylanologist Heylin makes his arguably greatest contribution with a painstakingly researched consideration of every song Dylan is known to have written. Drawing from manuscripts, studio logs, concert recordings, and other sources, Heylin traces Dylan's career by listing the songs in order of writing rather than public presentation. This first of two volumes collects everything from juvenilia predating his 1961 arrival in New York to his 1974 comeback album, Planet Waves. Even songs that were never recorded or performed are noted, but the major ones receive multipage write-ups that are, in essence, insightful, revelatory mini-essays. Documenting the mercurial performer's transitions from Guthrie-influenced folkie to raging rocker to laid-back country singer, Heylin, who appears to have heard virtually all of the concerts Dylan has performed during the past 20 years of what has come to be known as the 'Neverending Tour,' reveals how vintage songs take on new meanings as they're recast by their author on stage decades later."—Booklist

Alex Ross's The Rest Is Noise? That one IS very good. Haven't read Listen to This yet. For a somewhat more academic look at modern compositional music, Joseph Auner's Music in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries is excellent imo. I used it as a textbook.

yes! i've been moving through it very slowly bc i often want to stop and familiarize myself with some of the more major pieces he talks about, but the quality and depth of the writing never flags and it's a million pages long, what an achievement