Music Books
- Thread starter Fox
- Start date
RBrinsdon
pfm Member
The lockdown is giving me a chance to finally read some of the "must get around to's" that have accumulated in recent years. Without a doubt 4 of the best have been:-
"Jack Bruce - Composing Himself" by Harry Shapiro. A magnificent tale of underrated skills, success found and lost and personal tragedy / triumph. It is also going to cost me a lot in back catalogue purchases from Music Magpie!
"Totally Wired - Post Punk Interviews" by Simon Reynolds. Some of the most intelligent Q & A sessions I have ever read. You can sense that the interviewees were enjoying the sessions as being a change from the normal sex/drugs/RnR questions. Will try his other volumes one day.
"Kind of Blue" by Ashley Kahn. A much praised tome and it is easy to understand why. Probably the most well written and researched music volume I have ever read. Obviously it helps to really know the LP.
"Renegade" Mark E Smith. As a long term fan of The Fall, I was not sure about reading this as I thought it would be too biased towards MES's viewpoints and it is BUT he does give some valid reasoning behind his sometimes strange calls.
A couple I was not blown away by:-
"Listening to Van Morrison" by Greil Marcus. I expected to learn a lot more about the songs from such a prestigious writer.
"Born to Run" - Bruce. He makes the point many times in the book that he never finished school or went to Uni and some of the prose is just too flowery - as if someone has given him a Thesaurus and said to use 5 syllable words instead of two's. Good background to the albums though.
As a music collector and hoarder for over 50 years, I still have a lot of back cataloguing to catch up on.
Stay safe.
"Jack Bruce - Composing Himself" by Harry Shapiro. A magnificent tale of underrated skills, success found and lost and personal tragedy / triumph. It is also going to cost me a lot in back catalogue purchases from Music Magpie!
"Totally Wired - Post Punk Interviews" by Simon Reynolds. Some of the most intelligent Q & A sessions I have ever read. You can sense that the interviewees were enjoying the sessions as being a change from the normal sex/drugs/RnR questions. Will try his other volumes one day.
"Kind of Blue" by Ashley Kahn. A much praised tome and it is easy to understand why. Probably the most well written and researched music volume I have ever read. Obviously it helps to really know the LP.
"Renegade" Mark E Smith. As a long term fan of The Fall, I was not sure about reading this as I thought it would be too biased towards MES's viewpoints and it is BUT he does give some valid reasoning behind his sometimes strange calls.
A couple I was not blown away by:-
"Listening to Van Morrison" by Greil Marcus. I expected to learn a lot more about the songs from such a prestigious writer.
"Born to Run" - Bruce. He makes the point many times in the book that he never finished school or went to Uni and some of the prose is just too flowery - as if someone has given him a Thesaurus and said to use 5 syllable words instead of two's. Good background to the albums though.
As a music collector and hoarder for over 50 years, I still have a lot of back cataloguing to catch up on.
Stay safe.
stephen bennett
Mr Enigma
If you're a lover of the album, the book is a must.
Stephen
Stephen
guey
pfm Member
I thoroughly enjoyed that; and learnt a few things
Weekender
pfm Member
Yes...it was very well researched I thought...the writer's personal experience of the time adding to the feel as well.
ciderglider
pfm Member
Ooh, didn't know about this, will have to investigate...
ciderglider
pfm Member
I have just finished Elton John's autobiography. I was worried my interest would flag after Blue Moves, but he manages to keep the interest up all the way to the present. I would have liked a bit more coverage of the music. He doesn't take himself too seriously, and his descriptions of his addictions are insightful and funny.
claire.foxx
-⃝⃤
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guey
pfm Member
Got this
Ratio of pictures to words is about right for me.
Oooh, that's got me writ large all over it - ta
RBrinsdon
pfm Member
Who is writing this one fama?
claire.foxx
-⃝⃤
Just got me a new punk history book. It’s a shame it’s been printed on fairly shitty paper, but I guess it lends a sort of authenticity to the xeroxed source material. It’s however 500 pages of useful.
Big pix: not sorry
Big pix: not sorry
vince rocker
pfm Member
Those RAR / ANL Carnival posters by David King were great. I remember this one, I was on one of several coaches from Leeds for the day. There were so many people marching I didn't get to Victoria Park until The Clash were well into their set, but it didn't matter. Good to see some of that spirit back again now!
andrew d
pfm Member
I got there on a coach from Liverpool. Still have the ANL poster as shown above! Pity the Clash aren't on it.
RBrinsdon
pfm Member
Hello Woodface, I watched the highly informative PBS series and then bought the 5 cd boxset which has the usual sort of printed narrative but I cannot recall seeing an accompanying book. An Amazon search did not show any KB Jazz books so am wondering what it is you are referring to - I imagine it would be as you suggest an excellent tome.