Books on Music

E

egg

Dumpy's Rusty Nut
The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes are Hungry for the Prize - David Cavanagh - Virgin. Enjoyed this - also good long read (750 pages ish)
 
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arcaNa

Snakes + Ladders
francesco said:
I remember reading that a paperback version of England Hidden Reverse (without the cd) was annunced for the future and sure will be less expensive.
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...does anyone know if this is released yet? -amazon says "yes",but then mailed me and said it was unavailable...?! :(

i don't have much to add, all the good ones have already been mentioned (naturally!)- toop, eshun, reynolds, etc. etc...(i actually got my marks adjusted down from A to B on one oral exam where i had just read Toop's "Ocean Of Sound",and was so impressed with the range of connections this has sparked in my mind that i started answering the questions in similarly "impressionistic",pointillist fashion- and started tieing together totally unrelated happenings to a,um,pretty "obscure"/far-out conclusion!- they just told me: "well, this is all brilliant, my dear...but i'm afraid you're just too advanced for us...we don't understand what the fark you're on about!"... :eek: :D -brilliant book,anyway...it made me reconsider the way i thought about music and music descibed as sound....an eye-opening read!
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
Agree entirely about toop - the two cds that go with that book - ocean of sound and crooning on venus- have kept me busy for years, chasing up various artists and having a profound influence on what/ how i listen.
i even did the eno thing where i made a tape of the street noise and then listened to it as if it were music, waiting for the changes etc. fascinating.
also went to hear toop read from exotica in that trendy cinema in hoxton, now closed, name escapes me. again brilliantly associative,; great fan of conrad too.
finally i notice he is writing in this month's tate magazine about sound sculpture - following on from nauman in the tate. i thought the exhibition toop curated in the hayward on sound stuff was one of the most stimulating things i have seen/ heard in a london gallery for years.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
I just read Gimme Something Better,
http://gimmesomethingbetter.com/
History of bay area punk.
Best book on punk I've ever read. I was crying with laughter. The dead dog story is genius.
Nicest thing about it - true to form - is its inclusion of loads of people from the scene, not just the bands. Makes it so much better. Cant recommend it enough.
 
blacktulip

blacktulip

Pregnant with mandrakes
From the above:

Young’s superstar buddies were especially spooked. “Crosby and Nash, they couldn’t handle it,” said Hinds. “It was too grungy for them.” David Crosby, usually the high priest of any scene, left Rusty Kershaw particularly unimpressed. “Kershaw just fuckin’ laughed at him,” said Hinds. “He’d get on the floor and start howlin’.” At some point, Stills also had a run-in with Kershaw. “Me and Neil were playin’, and it was such heavy magic, I think Stills thought if he picked up the guitar, he’d have it. Man, you don’t take a guitar from somebody’s hand, and it just pissed me off.” Kershaw pulled a knife on him in response. “I said, ‘Stephen Stills, who in the fuck is that? You better git back, you motherfucker.’ Neil was sayin’, ‘Go ahead—do it! Do it!’” Young doesn’t recall the incident.
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rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
i dont want to read a book about music as such, but one about fans, doesnt have to be about music though i imagine music fans are/were the most fanatical of all. can anyone recommend any books like this?
 
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CrowleyHead

Well-known member
rubberdingyrapids said:
i dont want to read a book about music as such, but one about fans, doesnt have to be about music though i imagine music fans are/were the most fanatical of all. can anyone recommend any books like this?
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Ever read John Darnielle's 33 1/3 of Black Sabbath's "Master Of Reality"? It's from the fantasy perspective of a kid who gets locked up in a mental ward by his parents, writing in a journal about his life, and how much he loves that album. Etc. etc.

There are other books in that range, but never specifically about THE FANS, but there are subsections about fans.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
rubberdingyrapids said:
i dont want to read a book about music as such, but one about fans, doesnt have to be about music though i imagine music fans are/were the most fanatical of all. can anyone recommend any books like this?
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You have to read Bye Bye Baby, about being a Bay City Rollers fan, it's really brilliant.


I'm not saying that ironically.
 
D

droid

Guest
Anyone who hasn't read Miles Davis' autobiography should drop everything and get it right now.

Bowie in Berlin is pretty good. Read a good Iggy Pop bio a few years back: and read 'the act you've known for all these years' just before xmas - full of minutiae, but otherwise a pretty dull exploration of the context and legacy of Sgt. Peppers.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
rubberdingyrapids said:
i dont want to read a book about music as such, but one about fans, doesnt have to be about music though i imagine music fans are/were the most fanatical of all. can anyone recommend any books like this?
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Fred Vermorel is your man - Fandemonium and Starlust.

Starlust is a compilation of intense fan letters/diaries. Very sexual in places. Quite demented in others. I don't have Fandemonium, but saw a great TV documentary based on it.
 
empty mirror

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
droid said:
Anyone who hasn't read Miles Davis' autobiography should drop everything and get it right now.

Bowie in Berlin is pretty good. Read a good Iggy Pop bio a few years back: and read 'the act you've known for all these years' just before xmas - full of minutiae, but otherwise a pretty dull exploration of the context and legacy of Sgt. Peppers.
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I didn't realize Miles wrote an autobiography. I will read that as soon as I can.

I've got that Iggy Pop "Open Up and Bleed" book but haven't got around to it. I know the author from a forum I moderate - he's a red hot poker of knowledge about certain topics. He was in a really good Factory band, Nyam Nyam.

I just picked up The Beautiful Music All Around Us but haven't cracked it open yet. There was an NPR bit that brought it to my attention.

I have been leafing through Crumb's illustrations of bluesmen, jazz cats, and early country shit-kickers. Really enjoying that. Comes with a CD, which is cool.


Also, on a personal note, the first time I spoke to my wife was when she rang me up for a book on The Smiths that I was purchasing (All Men Have Secrets). She asked me what my favorite Smiths album was and I totally fucked up, saying "Louder Than Bombs". Ugh, it's Strangeways...
 
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CrowleyHead

Well-known member
blacktulip said:
Shakey is a cool book.
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This. I saw the new Neil book in the store recently, and I tried flipping through it, but I don't know if I can engage...

Currently I'm wading through the book on Factory Records, "Shadowplayers". It's pretty good, also going through Peter Shapiro's "Turn The Beat Around" which is mostly comprised of stuff I already knew from other books, SO FAR. Also have the Black Flag bio "Spray Paint The Walls", again, more of stuff I already learned from other books, but still really useful. Oh, and "Satan Is Real" is just depressing as all hell, but I'm only as far as the childhood, so hey.
 
slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
empty mirror said:
I didn't realize Miles wrote an autobiography. I will read that as soon as I can.
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Ghosted via interviews, as I recall, but worthwhile for the full-on dark prince persona.

Straight Life on Art Pepper is good although I wouldn't expect many here to be into that kind of Art.

Richard Meltzer's A Whore Just Like The Rest is a favourite of mine.

David Byrne's How Music Works is on my TBR list. I'm sure some of you have read it.

Audio Culture edited by Christoph Cox & Daniel Warner is an essential collection.
 
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