I just finished reading Greil Marcus's "like a rolling stone" which is a rambling and sometimes painful analyis of Bob Dylan's impact through the lyrics of that song on the greater outside world. He intermingles a lot of '60's politics and cultural bits and the book ends up being too rag-tag and misdirected, but it still had its moments. I am looking to pick a book relating to the history of electronic music and was wondering if anyone had a particular favorite.

I've just barely scratched the surface of this behemoth, but Simon Reynolds' 500+ page monster on post-punk rock (mainly in the UK) called Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 is already becoming one of my favorite rock books. It covers one of my favorite eras of music, and hits the stuff you'd expect (PiL, Wire, Gang of Four) and the stuff that you might not (Echo and the Bunnymen, The Waterboys, ABC) with equal aplomb. Reynolds strikes me as a very astute commentator and has a great knowledge of the vocabulary of music.

If you aren't willing to pay for the import version of the book (which cost me around $25), there will be a US release in early 2006. I highly recommend this book...and I've not even gotten to the later chapters yet!!!

I've sung the praises of Richard Meltzer elsewhere, but my favorite music writer of all time is Nick Tosches. His early books, COUNTRY: THE TWISTED ROOTS OF ROCK AND ROLL, and UNSUNG HEROES OF ROCK AND ROLL are great, very informative and funny, and his later biographies on Jerry Lee Lewis, Dean Martin, and minstrel singer Emmett Miller are as good as anything I've read. He can be a bit dense on the research side of things, and resorts to fictional passages on occasion, but the pay-offs in his books are huge.
On the jazz tip Geoff Dyer's BUT BEAUTIFUL is one of the only books dealing with jazz I would recommend to anybody.

quote:

Originally posted by J_Deighton:
On the jazz tip Geoff Dyer's BUT BEAUTIFUL is one of the only books dealing with jazz I would recommend to anybody.

Even among my jazz friends, I find not enough people are familiar with that lovely book. Good call.

Now Playing: "Breaking Us in Two" Joe Jackson streaming on the always excellent Global Pop Conspiracy Radio.

I just finished "Spinning Blues Into Gold," a history of Chess Records written by Nadine Cohodas. I can't say I was bored and I learned a lot about a record label I didn't know much about, but it is not a very well written book. I think there is gold mine of material, but Cohodas kind of skims over the seamier side of the label's owners. She doesn't really have the reportorial skills to get at the bottom of a lot of the questions over whether the owners cheated the musicians out of profits (and royalities) from their work. She lists the allegations, gives each side of the story, and moves on without giving any kind of insight over who was telling the truth.

I read several books in the music non-fiction genre; but two were especially interesting to me. The first was the old "groupie classic" "I'm With the Band" by Pamela (sorry, forgot the name; I'm at work). It was disappointing since I was looking for insight into the personalities of those rock stars that really altered our culture to some degree. I found it to be nothing more than "these are the people with whom I slept." I expected some of that, or a lot of that; still, I did expect more insight into the character or lack thereof of people like Keith Moon, Jimmy Page, etc. I shelved it under my rock memorbilia and will probably never give it another read.

The second book was Cynthia Lennon's book on John. She was attacked as soon as the book was released for her selfish motives. I found the major attacks unfair. The book was not "anti-John." Lennon comes across as sensitive,artistic, volatile, caring and uncaring. In other words, human. Yoko is dissed, but everyone who has written a biography of Lennon has noted her strong emotional control over his life. Her latest revisionist efforts to make Lennon into an idol reveal that Cynthia's claims have merit. The late Lennon does not need Yoko's self-serving promotion. His work stands on its own. I do give her credit for being a smart, astute businesswoman. Returning to the criticisms of Cynthia Lennon, publishing this book at this time does not have nearly as much power to hurt or diminish Lennon's stature in the rock world as it would years ago. Granted, Cynthia comes off looking like the innocent, mistreated wife of John who to this day doesn't understand why he left her. Anyone who works with marriages knows there is always more to the story than that. However, as a Lennon fan I found the book a legitimate look at John through her eyes. It is not a great book! There is not enough new information here to make a Lennon admirer want to purchase it. But, if you are a collector like me, and read everything there is about the Beatles, it is worth buying just for the little tid bits only she knew or could know. She has had her say; the only one left is Julian (unless he has done some writing of which I am unaware).

I'm currently reading the Guided By Voices book, by Jim Greer. It's an interesting read so far, although very haphazard (jumping back and forth in time indiscriminately) and not clearly focused. It has a lot of funny anecdotes and a cool section where Bob Pollard just talks about specific songs. It also has almost 100 pages of appendixes, including discographies of GBV and its members solo projects, a family tree of the band, etc.

I certainly recommend it to GBV fans. If you're a diehard fan, you might not learn much from it, but as a casual fan, I've gleaned a lot from it.

I've moved from the GBV book (good, not great) to the autobiography/music business expose So You Wanna Be A Rock and Roll Star? by Semisonic drummer Jake Schlicter which is, in turns, hilarious and depressing. Recommended to anyone who enjoys reading a nice skewering of major record label politics.

I'm now reading Rob Jovanavich's Big Star, a 2005 biog of the seminal Memphis power pop combo.

Perhaps one of you can help me out. I'm looking for a good place to keep informed of music non-fiction book release dates. Any suggestions? The more ahead of time I can be, the better. Thanks..

Alan Light's biog on the Beastie Boys is something to behold. Also, there's this line of metal encyclopedias by this British author, whose name escapes me, that is just superb.

I really love all of Chuck Klosterman's books.

quote:

Originally posted by and the results are in.....were undecide:
I just finished reading Greil Marcus's "like a rolling stone" which is a rambling and sometimes painful analyis of Bob Dylan's impact through the lyrics of that song on the greater outside world. He intermingles a lot of '60's politics and cultural bits and the book ends up being too rag-tag and misdirected, but it still had its moments. I am looking to pick a book relating to the history of electronic music and was wondering if anyone had a particular favorite.

Mark Predergast's "The Ambient Century" is a good reference book on all things electronica. Some of the artists aren't "electronica" per se, but may have used its influence in their song constructions.

I've recently read Richard Neer's "FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio". For some reason I found this book to be a real page turner. Maybe the reason I loved this book so much was because my dream job is to get paid massive amounts of money to pick out and listen to music all day.

It looks at the evolution of the DJ, from the free-form days, where DJs would have free reign in making song selections, turning it into an art form itself, to where we're currently at, robots behind the mic playing corporatized rock. It's all through the eyes of one man, Richard (Dick) Neer, who was a DJ/Program Director for New York's famous radio station, WNEW/102.7.

I am about a third of the way through Stanley Crouch's "Educating Genius," a collection of previous printed essays and articles on jazz. It is proving to be a terrific read. Crouch may be the finest writer on jazz ever and he writes with a depth and confidence you don't often find among writers who specialize in jazz.

quote:

Originally posted by musicfanatic:
I've recently read Richard Neer's "FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio". For some reason I found this book to be a real page turner. Maybe the reason I loved this book so much was because my dream job is to get paid massive amounts of money to pick out and listen to music all day.

It looks at the evolution of the DJ, from the free-form days, where DJs would have free reign in making song selections, turning it into an art form itself, to where we're currently at, robots behind the mic playing corporatized rock. It's all through the eyes of one man, Richard (Dick) Neer, who was a DJ/Program Director for New York's famous radio station, WNEW/102.7.

Nice to see someone enjoying this book. I'm a huge Richard Neer fan, but I know him from his "other" life as a sports talk show host on New York a.m. radio. He has a regular weekend gig on WFAN in New York City and often fills in during the week when other sports hosts are on vacation or when there isn't a sports event to broadcast. He is the most level-headed and erudite of the sports talk hosts on New York radio and it is refreshing to listen to him.

One day I'll get around to reading this book.

I have seen Greil Marcus' name come up a couple of times and I own a book of his on music called MYSTERY TRAIN that is supposedly a classic. I have never gotten around to reading it, though.

Mystery Train is pretty good. I can only take so much at one time of Greil Marcus. Plus, he is overly harsh on Randy Newman's post-good old boys output. Of the books of his I've read, it is probably the second best, with Lipstick Trackes being considerably better.

...and speaking of Mystery Train, for a good book on Elvis, you can't beat Last Train To Memphis by Peter Guralnick.

How 'bout that? A link worthy of the great Dewey Phillips himself...

quote:

Originally posted by Frank Valeron Esq.:
...and speaking of Mystery Train, for a good book on Elvis, you can't beat Last Train To Memphis by Peter Guralnick.

How 'bout that? A link worthy of the great Dewey Phillips himself...

Actually, you should have said "books" because there is part I & part II. I am not even all that big of an Elvis fan, but the Guralnick bio is indeed terrific.

Yeah, Careless Love is the 2nd one. I've just ordered that from the library actually, having read Last Train... about two years ago. Here's hoping it's as good...

I am about to crack open Ben Ratliff's JAZZ: A CRITIC'S GUIDE TO THE 100 MOST IMPORTANT RECORDINGS, part of "The New York Times" Essential Libaray series. The book came out in '02 and I'm finally getting around to reading it. Ratliff, at the time of the book's publication, was the Times' chief jazz critic. Now, he appears to share that duty with Nate Chinen.