advertisement


Recommended Reading

jimb0

jimb0

Jelly Roll Soul
Which music related books have you read recently? What are your all time favourites?

Recent:

Shakey A biog of Neil Young rather than Shakin' Stevens (similar but not the same). Primarily for the obsessive fan but contains many peerless vignettes of 70s superstar mentalism e.g. Scorcese having to rotoscope out, at great expense, the massive lump of cocaine apparent on close-ups of NY in "The Last Waltz".

Dylan Chronicles. Part 1. The "OMG he's gonna spill the beans" Dylan autobiog. Rendered in exactly the opaque style you would expect from the gnome of the north country. I was expecting this to be bizarre or awful or both - I actually rather enjoyed it, particularly the sections about early days in New York.

Recommended:

Psychotic Reactions and Carburettor dung - Lester Bangs' greatest hits. Gonzo rock journalism at its peak (and arguably, trough ;-). Reading it at 18 was slightly mind blowing. Notable at the very least for the improbably titled essay "My night of ecstacy with the J Giels Band". There is a biography of Bangs called "Let it Blurt" which is worth the effort for fans.

"The nearest faraway place" - Somewhat cerebral Beach Boys/California culture critique. Obsessive review of the BB/California milieu. To be read in partnership with "Wouldn't it be nice" the Brian Wilson "autobiography" written with the doctor who got him back on the road to being within a light year of being normal.

"It Came From Memphis" - Romp through the musical heritage of, err, Memphis. Not just the obvious stuff either. Dear to my heart for whole chapters about Big Star.

There's loads more I'd like to mention but I will hold fire for PFMs finest to astound with their scholarly ramblings.

Jim

PS Will edit with more hyperlinks to stuff if/when I can motivate my bad self.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Too good an idea for a thread to let this slip. Here are three that have made me go out and buy records or listen to my collection as if it was new.

The Penguin guide to (classical) compact discs was a big influence when I first started listening to classical music, and I discovered some wonderful performances and composers though it’s suggestions. Now I know more about the contributor’s preferences and prejudices (not strong on contemporary music, at times over-enthusiastic Anglophilia) it doesn’t quite have the biblical authority it used to but it’s still the best single guide to classical music on record and a consistent source of good recommendations. An interesting take on it’s strengths and biases can be found here

Lloyd Bradley - Bass Culture You want to know the story of Jamaican music and what to listen to? (Which you should!) This is the book for you. The historical and cultural background, the personalities, the double-dealing and the tall tales are all here. Best of all, you will want to go out and buy a pile of records after reading it and you could build a brilliant collection just from the songs he mentions. He doesn’t have much time or space for post-1985 dancehall which I think is a shame but perhaps that’s a job for another, younger, writer in a few years time. In that way it shares a similarity with my other choice:

Ian MacDonald – A revolution in the head. I better snag this one before anyone else does. Subtitled ‘The Beatles records and the sixties’ and as that suggests it’s a book of two parts, a detailed analysis of the songs and an essay on the decline of life, the universe and especially popular music since 1966 (his precise date). The description of the songs is the meat of the book and has been rightly garlanded with praise. It takes these over-familiar works and enables you to listen and wonder at them afresh. It is not a hagiography, he is still critical where criticism is due: Maxwell's Silver Hammer gets a well-deserved beating. The prefacing essay strikes me as bitter and rather sad and that’s not just with the benefit of hindsight (MacDonald killed himself in 2003) but don’t let that put you off a marvellous book.
 
Ah - I thought the thread title was about the town of Reading, in Berkshire.
There's an Audio-T and a couple of record shops there, but otherwise no much of interest here...
 
Did you experience any cognitive dissonance while trying to comprehend the idea that someone might recommend Reading (the town)?

Jim.
 
Originally posted by prowla
Ah - I thought the thread title was about the town of Reading, in Berkshire.
There's an Audio-T and a couple of record shops there, but otherwise no much of interest here...
Click to expand...

and a couple of decent pubs and an excellent pie shoppe...
 
Most music-related books are written by illiterates, here's a few that aren't:

Ben Watson's Derek Bailey and The Story of Free Improvisation is a recent favourite, possibly the best book yet written about free improv. His earlier Art, Class, and Cleavage is great fun, although not solely about music. Ben's style annoys some people, but I can confirm that the way he writes is exactly the way he is in real life. He's also a founder member of the Mad Pride movement, which explains a lot.

Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces, an extremely readable account of UK punk, very good on the historical context of situationism/dadaism/surrealism too, slightly mannered and prone to academic waffle, but since that describes me too, it appeals.

Jim's already snagged Lester Bangs, but if he hadn't, I would have. "A Reasonable History of Horrible Noise" is a particularly fine essay.

Charles Mingus, Beneath The Underdog. Hugely entertaining, almost completely made-up, autobiography.

Ian MacDonald, The People's Music. Collected journalism by one of the UK's finest rock writers (I second the recommendation for Revolution in the Head, an exemplary example of how to write a really thought-provoking book about the Beatles). Full of great insights, such as "Pink Floyd are the heart music of middle-class middle-aged England".

Jonathon Green, Days In The Life, Voices From The English Underground 1961-1971, fascinating collection of interviews with some leading figures of the 60s boho scene, covering politics, music, art, poetry, sex, and all the other good stuff.

Gary Giddins, Visions of Jazz, The First Century. Fine collection of essays, arranged chronologically from the birth of the music to the present.

Val Wilmer, As Serious as Your Life. One of the first books to cover free music in any depth, from late-period Trane, to Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Ornette, Sun Ra, the AACM, Bill Dixon, and others. Wilmer is also one of the great jazz photographers.

Nick Tosches, Where Dead Voices Gather. Beautifully written account of an almost forgotten musical genre, the black-face minstrelsy of the turn of the 20th century. Fascinating and informative about an almost complete alien musical culture.

John Fahey, How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life. Wonderful short stories by the greatest ever acoustic guitarist.

Harry Smith, American Magus. Not solely or even mainly about music, although Smith did compile the enormously influential Anthology of American Folk Music, which everybody should listen to. One of the key figures of the US avant-garde, a hero of mine, this book collects artworks, and interviews with Smith and those who knew him.

Harry Smith, Think of the Self Speaking, a collection of interviews with the great man himself.

Robert Guralnick, Searching For Robert Johnson. Short but wonderfully poetic account of the life and music of the king of the delta blues.

-- Ian
 
Savannah Syncopators by Paul Oliver - This short book is now deeply unfashionable, but mostly with people who know sod all about the subject or have an axe to grind/funding to win.
The Music of Africa - J H K Nketia - Learned and very dense (in the best possible sense), this is a great and hugely informative book, but tough to work through.
A few that I haven't read, but would like to are:
A.J. Racy's Making Music in the Arab World: The Culture and Artistry of Tarab - apparently the definitive book on this immense subject in English
Rev A.M Jones - Studies in African Music
The Mingus autobiog.
 
Just to add to the good stuff already mentioned:

Touching from a Distance - Ian Curtis and Joy Division - its not literature but its in understandable English and gives a good insight into this highly creative but troubled man.

Reading Chronicles at the moment. Highly recommended, well written and peels away a lot of the mystique surrounding BD.

Andy
 
Some interesting contributions.

I also neglected to mention "Ginger Geezer" the biog of Viv Stanshall.

Jim.
 
Worth mentioning apropos Dylan: this article by Luc Sante, the author of the excellent Low Life .

Jim
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top