Good books about music

Please kill me.

Oh well. Read it anyway. It's amazing. And Our Band Could Be Your Life. If you're interested in criticism, check out Psychotic Reactions and Carbeurator Dung or anything by Lester Bangs or one or two Greil Marcus books (The Basement Tapes). I'd stay away from Camden Joy, contrary to popular opinion.

I need something that doesn't take too long to get into

But you're going to college, man! Just buy Adorno's Essays on Music and accept that the next 4+ years of your life are going to be like that mwahahaha...

I also enjoyed Last Night a DJ Saved My Life and there's the ever-classic Generation Ecstasy.

I had never heard of Tate until I saw him speak not long ago. He is a BAD. ASS. Does he still write for The Voice? I feel like I never see him in there. Does he have a blog?

I'm mostly interested in reading a book of his since his prose is fairly magnificent.

If you want a cracking funny read on hip-hop, though, pick up The Rough Guide to Hip-Hop by Peter Shapiro, which has just been updated and enlarged (it was a pocket-size the first time, now it's 8 x 10). Best line goes to the Bad Boy Records writeup, when he notes that Puff Daddy, having been responsible for 40% of all 1997's number ones, moved to the Hamptons "so he could live by the sea, just like his magic dragon namesake."

Same here! (Of course there's also the Led Zep bio.)

Next week on "The O.C.": Seth and Ryan get into a fatal disagreement over "James Taylor: Marked For Death," while Summer meets a new hottie who shares her disgust of Nick Hornby.

Dino by Nick Tosches (about Dean Martin; as deep as Catch a Fire by Timothy White, as entertaining as that Motley Crue book)

Backbeat: Earl Palmer's Story, by Tony Scherman (oral history/autobiography of the New Orleans drummer; had me at "Louis Armstrong was a pimp"...)

We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk by Marc Spitz and Brendan Mullen (better than Please Kill Me, kind of like L.A. punk itself)

I was torturing this guy in the garage of my mom's house in this nice suburban neighborhood with my whole family inside eating Easter dinner... and I'd got this guy tied up in the rafter with a rope around his legs and I'm beating him with a two-by-four. I said, "Hang on a minute," and put the two-by-four down and walked into the house and kissed my aunt and said like, "Oh hi, how you doing?" I grabbed a deviled egg, told them I'd be back in a minute, and I went back out, grabbed the two-by-four, and kept workin' on the guy. I finally had to get out of Vicious Circle 'cause of the violence. There were constant stabbings and beatings and people cruising by my house at night, shooting up the neighborhood....

I did something pretty bad to somebody and they retaliated with guns. It was a big deal, I had to split to Alaska for a while, they cut the lines on my car, blew up my car... fuck...I don't wanna say who they were, but they weren't punks... boy, they were pissed off.

i went on holiday with the Deborah Curtis book and the Nick Drake biography once. happy times, let me tell you.

if you ever find dave rimmer's "once upon a time in the east", abt berlin east and west b4 the fall of the wall, i utterly UTTERLY recommend it: tho it's only somewhat abt music - unlike his earlier (and also good) "like punk never happened"

Joe Carducci's Rock and the Pop Narcotic is being reissued sometime this year.

Electronic and Experimental Music by Thom Holmes
also; Wireless Imagination (d kahn / g whitehead)
Paul Griffiths - A Concise History of Avant-Garde Music
Paul Griffiths - Modern Music And Beyond
Curtis Roads
William Duckworth : Talking Music
Cage: Silence / A Year From Monday
Cage / Feldman: Conversations
James Tenney : Meta / Hodos
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Stockhausen on Music (Compiled by R Maconie)
Sound By Artists (ed. Dan Lander)
Chris Cutler - File Under Popular
Attali - Noise
Russolo - The Art of Noises (get a hold of a copy any way you can)
Trevor Wishart - On Sonic Art
Douglas Kahn - Noise Water Meat

i think the attali book is lousy at book length—it's a good short polemic idea bulked out to a contradictory nonsense schema—and wireless imagination is patchy (which is a pity, cz it's a great idea for an essay collection)

The Elvis Guralnick books - again, you don't have to care about the subject matter to enjoy them (personally, I was so-so on Elvis before readin' 'em, am now an unabashed fan), and the second one is one hell of a car wreck: the descent starts like twenty pages into it, and by the end of the book you can't even feel sorry for the guy anymore, you just wonder why he hasn't kicked the bucket already.

"Where Did Our Love Go?" by Nelson George has some nice anecdotes, and is probably the best book on Motown around, tho to be frank I didn't learn all that much from it.

"The Heart Of Rock & Soul" seconded, and throw in the "New Book Of Rock Lists" too, if only for the sheer joy of reading the sentence "Tragedy The Intelligent Hoodlum Lists..." over and over again (not that book of rock jokes, tho, that was awful.) And also "Fortunate Son: The Best Of Dave Marsh", great stuff on Elvis, Muddy Waters, latino rock, etc.

I remember reading Maryiln Manson's "The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell" in my early teens and being surprised by how good it was (I'd always loathed the guy's music.) Dunno if it holds up.

"Sweet Soul Music", hell yeah.

I've read the entirety of Christgau's consumer guide online, and there's some great, great stuff there. So the books are recommended, too.

yay I've been wanting to read that one for a while!

adding to my prev post here leroi jones 'blues people' which I just finished this morning: most gd bks on music accept that they aren't just abt notes and chords.

You mean it's not long enough? I loved the book. Should re-read it...

I also loved the Lexicon Devil (bio on Darby Crash) though it's certainly not essential...

the ONLY thing wrong with JMC's line is that he somewhat slightly seems to accept the assumption that the social dimension—the "dance"—isn’t also always part of all music in the West (though he does this in the context of getting ppl to see/hear/look for the fuller sense of the meaning of music): taking his insights abt Africa (Ghana, to be more accurate) and applying them everywhere else is revelatory

Most of it is a charming telling of him learning African drumming in Ghana

And I hope someone someday undertakes a lengthy Sabbath bio.

I picked up the Ritz book on Marvin Gaye and that Cantwell one on Merle Haggard

Good stuff!

Congrats unperson! I look forward to reading it!

Seems like the best thread for this: I did a two-part Zoomcast with Nate Patrin on his movie-music book, The Needle and the Lens, talking about similarities and differences between his book and mine. (First time I've ever spoken to Nate--I know he used to post here.)

First part: www.youtube.com/watch?v=g94IQMWBZrI&t

Second part: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJgZtf8brXo&t

Def want to read the Cecil Taylor book, anyone in the US that’s going to carry it?

Don't know yet; gotta ask my publisher what the distro situation is gonna be.

Started on the Chris Stein book. It's enjoyable so far (late '60s) and often very funny.

I think it's pretty good...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSPv8NKagAQ0Nj4.jpg

Great cover!

It's printed on really nice paper too; it weighs almost two pounds (just under 350 pages).

Congrats! Lovely cover image

https://open.substack.com/pub/thegig/p/the-14-best-music-books-of-the-21st?r=2ck8a&utm_medium=ios

Jazz and more critic Nate Chinen’s fave 21st century books involving music . Includes Patti Smith Just Kids; a Sonny Rollins bio; Ann Powers Joni Mitchell book and many others

Anyone read the new Reynolds book, Futuromania? Just wondering if it's worth getting.

Just got a really interesting looking book in the mail: Mike Smith's In With the In Crowd: Popular Jazz in 1960s Black America.

Most studies of 1960s jazz underscore the sounds of famous avant-garde musicians like John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Albert Ayler. Conspicuously absent from these narratives are the more popular jazz artists of the decade that electrified dance clubs, permeated radio waves, and released top-selling records. Names like Eddie Harris, Nancy Wilson, Ramsey Lewis, and Jimmy Smith are largely neglected in most serious work today. Mike Smith rectifies this oversight and explores why critical writings have generally cast off best-selling 1960s jazz as unworthy of in-depth analysis and reverent documentation.

The 1960s were a time of monumental political and social shifts. Avant-garde jazz, made by musicians indifferent to public perception aligns well with widely held images of the era. In with the In Crowd: Popular Jazz in 1960s Black America argues that this dominant, and unfortunately distorted, view negates and ignores a vibrant jazz community. These musicians and their listeners created a music defined by socialization, celebration, and Black pride.

Smith tells the joyful story of the musicians, the radio DJs, the record labels, and the live venues where jazz not only survived but thrived in the 1960s. This was the music of everyday people, who viewed jazz as an important part of their cultural identity as Black Americans. In an era marked by turmoil and struggle, popular jazz offered a powerful outlet for joy, resilience, pride, and triumph.

I agree with his thesis 100%, btw. All the artists named above, plus Cannonball Adderley, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley and many others, were (and are) just as important as Coltrane, Ornette, Braxton, the Art Ensemble, even Cecil Taylor (who loved Horace Silver!), but the avant-gardists have won the battle for history.

Sounds good, thanks!

Okay, just glanced at that, think I gotta read it. Reminded me that I probably should also read this book I have called BEFORE MOTOWN.

I'd love to read a book or several about music industry economics -- what artists got paid through the generations from the late 1800s to the early 2000s*, both for live performance and for recording; what big-name artists paid sidemen; how artists fought to keep from getting ripped off, including notable success stories and notable failures; ditto all that but for club owners; what is the $$$ ecosystem for chamber groups commissioning works from composers?; ALL that stuff relating to how people make/made a living making music, recording music, performing music, presenting those permformances, all of it.

*could go even further back into stuff about the royal patronage system for composers.

What got me thinking about this was reading on Wikipedia about Miles' Live-Evil and the Cellar Door shows: "One of the key musicians on the album, John McLaughlin, was not a regular member of Miles Davis's band during the time of recording. Davis called McLaughlin at the last minute to join the band for the last of four nights they recorded live at the Cellar Door, as Davis was "looking for an element he hadn't quite nailed down"[5] on the previous nights." And all of a sudden all these questions came up. What did being a Miles band member pay in 1970? Did McLaughlin say "maybe, what are you paying? And don't say exposure." And then, what did Kronos pay Zorn for "Cat o'Nine Tails"? What did an LSO bassoonist make in 1936? What are the differences of the playing field btw Fred McDowell trying to make a living in 1964 and Cedric Burnside today? etc etc

The more anecdotal and dishier the better. What do you recommend?

Upthread I see Hit Men (Dannen), The Big Payback (Charnas), Star-Making Machinery (Stokes).

There’s some financial stuff in Steve Waksman’s Live Music In America, I believe.

would read!

I thought this would be a revive about the book that the guitarist from the Hold Steady has coming out ("Band People") I think, which I believe is a practical and economic look at sidepeople/non-bandleaders (mostly in rock but with a lot of history?). Heard him on a podcast, I'm interested.

Pete Townshend pens foreword for new book on “Something In the Air” band Thunderclap Newman
Townshend writes in the foreword, “For me Thunderclap Newman was a great adventure and one I try to relive often … [the book] is carefully and devotedly researched with lots of input from all kinds of other friends of mine who shared their journey, and that itself builds a unique picture of the kind of Boiler Room world that musicians thrived in during the mid to late ‘60s."

Extract from Toby Manning's Mixing Pop & Politics. Finished the book at the weekend and it's a tremendous achievement, mapping the evolution of modern pop onto the Fordist welfare state and neo-liberalism. Engages with Marcuse, Raymond Williams and Mark Fisher among others, with plenty of sharp feminist and queer insights too. It's an entertaining read, with Manning's love of the music coming through. What makes it particularly powerful is the hauntological undercurrent: he pulls off the tricky balance of mourning lost futures while arguing for popular music as a site of possibility, of liberation.

https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/book-extracts/read-an-extract-from-mixing-pop-and-politics-by-toby-manning?fbclid=IwY2xjawFCyIBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHXchrMlLfoofYNYBpMvOmxo9c_XricEJRg8fWI6M1HlGPaLOjfK1GKS43g_aem_i_3TAkxcyVnyEpjMy1dPAA

xp to wmc i don't know that it'd be especially juicy reading, but the three-volume american popular music and its business series by longtime bmi exec russell sanjek is wide-ranging in terms of era, highly detailed and full of specific names, and tho i haven't read it i imagine contains a good number of anecdotes too. it's highly regarded among academics/scholars, tho as huge tomes they're not exactly casual reading, so if it seems interesting i guess you could try zeroing in on the specific periods of time most interesting to you. volume 1 is 'the beginning' (which means 1600s?) to 1790, volume 2 is 1970 to 1909, and volume 3 is 1900 to 1984. apparently a 1985 to 2020 'sequel' was just released about a month ago by his son rick sanjek, also an industry lifer.

amazingly even the old ones seem to still be in print? but new copies are very expensive. if interested i might try tracking them down used or in libraries

Thank you, sounds promising! I'll start with my library.

Juicier extract from Manning's book exploring 1968 and its impact on pop over at New Socialist. https://newsocialist.org.uk/hand-out-the-arms-and-ammo/

Michael Veal's Living Space mostly consists of two really long essays — one about late (1965-67) John Coltrane, one about Miles Davis's 1969 live band (Shorter, Corea, Holland, DeJohnette — the one that never went into the studio). Those are both really good but for some reason he's trying to frame the music metaphorically through architecture, and the whole introductory section really doesn't work at all in my opinion. Still, he's a really good writer most of the time (his book on Fela and his book on dub are both brilliant). Recommended.

I also just read Christoph Dallach's Neu Klang: The Definitive History of Krautrock, which is really good about the social conditions in Germany in the late 60s and early 70s, and about the way musical scenes bled into each other (in addition to interviews with loads of krautrock-affiliated musicians, he talked to Peter Brötzmann and Alexander von Schlippenbach). It's an oral history, and would have benefited from more third-party musical analysis, but if you already have some familiarity with the music, this will be of interest. I read it alongside Tony Judt's Postwar, which was very interesting, especially when some of the Amon Duul folks talked about the Baader-Meinhof Gang crashing at their house while they were on tour...

Is there a worthwhile biography of Anthony Braxton?

Got excited for a second upthread about the prospect of a Terry Manning book. Oh well.

>> Is there a worthwhile biography of Anthony Braxton?

Graham Lock’s Forces In Motion isn’t a biography but it’s absolutely the place to start. Wolke Verlag, who put out my Cecil Taylor book, have a Braxton bio out but it’s in German.

https://www.wolke-verlag.de/musikbuecher/timo-hoyer-anthony-braxton-creative-music/

A couple of my high school friends studied with Braxton at Wesleyan in the 90s, they really loved working with him. One of them, Taylor Ho Bynum, contributed to the Anthony Braxton issue of Sound American:

http://archive.soundamerican.org/sa_archive/sa16/

Thank you both. I see Forces in Motion online with two different subtitles, but I assume they're the same book.

there's a more updated version, though I don't know the subtitle

Forces in Motion is one of my favourite music books. Fascinating musical analysis based on interviews with Braxton intercut with on-tour reportage that shows how those ideas are put into action. Really inspiring and a hoot too - the bit about them trying to get to a show in Venice is like an avant-garde Spinal Tap.
Graham Lock also wrote Blutopia, linking Ellington, Sun Ra and Braxton. I've still to read it, but it sounds great.

I gave Veal's Trane/Miles book a rave in The Wire but I get what you mean about the introduction - it's theory heavy and not the easiest way in. But I think architecture is a really fascinating approach for thinking about how jazz rhythm works - all that stuff about modern architects using digital techniques to make their forms less rigid is a neat metaphor for the elastic structures of jazz. Veal's concept of the Africanist Grid is really useful and has certain parallels with Dan Charnas's Dilla Time. I can appreciate not everyone will be convinced, but hats off to him for making the conceptual leap. It's really inspiring to see a writer draw on other art forms/media to talk about music. I loved the parallels he draws between experimental photography and studio psychedelia as subversions of documentary approaches to the mediums - that seems clearly informed by his work on the electro-acoustic innovations of dub.

I just thought he was stretching things a bit, but my wife, who actually knows quite a bit about architecture and is a photographer and visual artist herself, practically threw the book across the room. Her argument is that you can’t talk about a building without talking about why it was built, and to use it as a kind of detached signifier is disingenuous at best; also, she didn’t see why he chose the architects and photographers he did, since in her mind there are other people doing even more genuinely experimental work that might have fit better into the theoretical framing he was trying to set up. But the Coltrane section in particular is fantastic and makes the book worth reading on its own.

-_-

oops, i posted that on the wrong thread, apologies

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/06/best-music-books-2024-music-jon-savage-ian-wade-will-hodgkinson-vivienne-goldman-questlove

The Guardian's 5 best music books of 2024

The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Pop Culture 1955-1979
Jon Savage, Faber

1984: The Year Pop Went Queer
Ian Wade, Nine Eight Books

Street-Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence
Will Hodgkinson, Nine Eight Books about singer of Uk band Felt

Rebel Musix, Scribe on a Vibe: Frontline Adventures Linking Punk, Reggae, Afrobeat and Jazz
Vivien Goldman, White Rabbit (I think this is a UK only release for now)

Hip-Hop Is History
Questlove, White Rabbit

I enjoyed the Ian Wade.

https://blog.roughtrade.com/gb/uk-books-of-the-year-2024/

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/best-music-books-of-2024/

Today's the official publication date for the book I've edited, which traces the evolution of UK club culture through the disco era (1975-1982) via James Hamilton's weekly columns for Record Mirror.

https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/book-promo-image-1-small.jpg

https://superweirdsubstance.com/product/james-hamiltons-disco-pages/

That looks great. Vince Aletti did something similar for American disco, I can’t wait to delve into the UK counterpart.

Yeah, it was kind of our aim to do a UK equivalent of the Vince Aletti (who is pleased to see this come out BTW), but one thing we felt was missing from his book was an index section, so we've really put the work in on that - it needs to work as a reference book, as well as something to read from beginning to end.

Oh cool, I do use the Aletti book as a reference for playlists and stuff, but it is hard to parse when you're looking for something specific.

That looks excellent, mike t-diva! Congrats!

Got my copy and already emailed Greg Wilson about it!

Have been dipping into it. Fascinating the "mor" revivals Hamilton hypes up alongside disco - the twist, the jitterbug. Also his love of dub.