Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever by Will Hermes

http://www.fastnbulbous.com/hermes-love.jpg

I wasn't even quite done with this when I put it at the top of my list of best books of 2011.

I've read so much about music in NY in the 70s, but this is fresh because it shows how everything happened simultaneously and how jazz, pre-punk, disco, salsa, funk, etc. were intertwined, while giving even deeper histories of the neighborhoods and even landmark buildings.

For example, The Mercer Arts on 240 Mercer Street, known for the New York Dolls' reside...ncy, also made its mark with a production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The building hosted opera singer Jenny Lind--"the Swedish Nightingale"-- for her fifteen-show run in 1850, arranged by manager P.T. Barnum. In the 1860s, as the Winter Garden theater, it hosted a hundred-performance run of Hamlet with renowned thespian Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth. At the turn of the century, one of its restaurants, Trotsky's Kosher Restaurant, inspired visiting Russian Lev Bronstein to change his name.

A loft building on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg housed jazz greats such as Rashied Ali, Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, Roswell Rudd, Karl Berger and Marion Brown. "I could feel the boom of the bass coming up through my Super Pro Keds." Those words were spoken by Joseph Saddler, a.k.a. Grandmaster Flash, on his first exposure to a DJ Kool Herc rec center party and its massive cabinets powered by a McIntosh amp, before he even entered the building. Babe Ruth's "The Mexican" was playing at sidewalk shaking levels.

My knowledge of Latin music, salsa and nu-yorican soul is scant, and thanks to the book I'm now enjoying albums like Willie Colón's Cosa Nuestra (Codigo, 1969), Larry Harlow's Orchestra Harlow Hommy A Latin Opera (Fania, 1973), and Eddie Palmieri's The Sun Of Latin Music (Varese, 1973). I'll be buying Harry Whitaker's Black Renaissance (Luv N' Haight, 1976) from Dusty Groove this week.

Other albums from the book I'm absorbing:
Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa (1973, popular with some NY DJs)
Rashied Ali w/ Royal Blue - N.Y. Ain't So Bad (1976)
Anthony Braxton - Creative Orchestra Music (1976)
Eddie Palmieri & Lalo Rodriguez - Unfinished Masterpiece (1976)
Frederic Rzewski - The People United Will Never Be Defeated (1976)

Black Renaissance is really cool. I've been meaning to pick up Cosa Nuestra based on the cover alone for a while now. I miss Dusty Groove...

There's also some stuff about the avant garde minimalists like Steve Reich, Phillip Glass and his avant-minimalist opera Einstein On The Beach, lots on the early days of Grandmaster Flash and other DJs, and how Arthur Russell seemed to be involved with everyone from Talking Heads (almost joined the band) to Don Cherry. I like how it talked about the musicians who would get together in their dingy lower east side lofts for "Deep listening parties." That's when they'd do nothing but play records. Reminds me of college when albums by the likes of Butthole Surfers, Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips, Bad Brains, Fugazi, Slayer, etc. came out, various friends would get together, turn the lights down or out and just listen. Most of the time we were too broke from buying albums or music gear to even have any alcohol on hand. Just us nerds and the notes.

One thing about reading it on Kindle, I'm wondering if there are pictures that I'm missing. Like when graffiti artist Lee Quinones and his Fabulous Five crew completed the first full-train worm that made it out of the yard.

The centerpiece wasa a car by Lee: the crew's name "FABULOUS FIVE" in pale block letters with beige shadowing with an impressively accurate Mickey Mouse head between the two words, gloved hands reaching up in victory, thumbs pointed upward just above the car windows. The final two cars were a holiday card: a scene of winter in the city, white shpritzed snowflakes falling against a deep-blue sky, with Santa and his reindeer, and a snowman sentry on either end. Each man wrote his tag in fat blue 3-D letters, and at the end were two scrawled messages: MERRY CHRISTMAS TO NEW YORK and WE HAVE FINALLY SUSCEEDED...

Lee took pictures. I'm wondering if any are in the book or anywhere? I'd also like to see the full-page ad that Sire put in the Voice promoting the release of albums by the Talking Heads, Ramones, Richard Hell & the Voidoids and the Dead Boys.

yeah, this is on my to-read list!

Fnb -

If you're interested in learning a lot about salsa relatively quickly, Fania Records has a whole series of 2CD, single-artist compilations that are just killer. I recommend the ones dedicated to Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe, Ruben Blades, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto, and Ismael Rivera. They did one for the Fania All-Stars, but it doesn't include anything from their best album, Latin-Soul-Rock (which features guest appearances from Manu Dibango, Billy Cobham and Jan Hammer), so skip it in favor of the 4CD box Ponte Duro: The Fania All-Stars Story.

Eddie Palmieri & Lalo Rodriguez - Unfinished Masterpiece (1976)
Frederic Rzewski - The People United Will Never Be Defeated (1976)

Two personal favorites. Well, not sure exactly which recordings I've heard of the Rzewski, but I've probably heard that one. Unfinished Masterpiece is mostly great, but the audio quality is frustratingly poor. Although it's fun to snipe, I have to admit those Fania compilations are generally really excellent. But if you are picking the best material from these figures, it's not hard to come up with various great compilations.

I'm interested in this book, though I read so few books these days I'm not sure I'll get to it any time soon, especially with vastly more pressing issues to deal with.

It must have been an especially amazing time in NYC.

xp
according to the publisher, there are 8 pages of b&w illustrations. Have you seen Style Wars? I can't remember how far back into the 70s it goes (possibly not at all), but the DVD has tons of images on it and the movie is great.

I hinted to folks that I wanted this for Hannukah and did not get it, so I will have to buy it myself.

there was some discussion of this on this other thread:

NEW YORK ROCK: CRITICAL HISTORY

Wow, missed hearing of this book. Want. I always enjoyed Hermes' writing when he was at City Pages in the Twin Cities.

I'd also like to see the full-page ad that Sire put in the Voice promoting the release of albums by the Talking Heads, Ramones, Richard Hell & the Voidoids and the Dead Boys

Haven't seen that, but maybe something along the lines of Sire's original New Wave sampler (which changed my life.)

http://www.soundstation.dk/images/products/large/29/113129-b.jpg

As the proud owner of both the Kindle and hardback editions, I can tell you that the Kindle version has the photos, but they are at the very end, just go to the Table of Contents and click on the penultimate entry, "Photo Inserts." Don't remember any pictures of graffitied trains. The only think you are missing is the incredible Mark Alan Stamaty cover art in all of its glory.

This book was also mentioned a few times in this thread: Big-ILX Copy of Sandbox Pauline Kael Thread (for Clemenza)

Okay, this sounds fabulous. Will get. Thanks for the tip (and also for giving the thread a proper enticing title or I wouldn't've clicked on it likely).

I'm sure that's not right about Trotsky though - he took his name from his jailer I believe.

Hermes did not make that connection explicit like I made it seem. I thought that would be bizarre and amazing if he had gotten his name that way, but have no idea.

The book went by so fast, I wish it were longer! It is a perfect antidote to Please Kill Me. I enjoyed it, but got bored with the focus on sex, drugs 'n' gossip to the exclusion of the music. Love Goes... gave the feeling at certain points, of time traveling back and being a fly on the wall.

OTM, it reminded me of this thread: Poll: Which concert would you attend from the listings in the 8-29-77 Village Voice I found at my mom's house?

Just started reading this, and so far so good. One criticism, though: he talks about the impetus for the 1970s loft scene being Ornette's Artists House (itself, Hermes surmises, influenced by a 1960 Yoko Ono loft concert). That was likely one of the influences on Studio RivBea, Ali's Alley et al. But the 1960s loft scene is not mentioned by Hermes at all. Bill Dixon and the Jazz Composers Guild in the mid-60s set the stage for what Ornette (and Rivers and Ali) would later do. The Contemporary Center - a loft above the Village Vanguard - was the Guild's weekly rehearsal/performance space, and whoever was at the Vanguard would often spend their set breaks listening to (and sometimes playing with) the Guild orchestra. Dixon has long resisted the romantic notion, as it was put forth in the 70s, of the loft as performance space. As he put it, "We went into the lofts because it was a place you could play. ... We weren't allowed in the nightclub."

I'm really enjoying this book. One thing that keeps striking me is that, much as I've read about a lot of the rock people in this, I'm not often coming across the usual stories that you get time and again.

It did get me all fired up about Einstein on the Beach, and then when I listened to that (I've heard a lot of other Glass, but not that one) I was kind of underwhelmed, but whatever. I'm sure there's a big difference between seeing it and listening on an iPhone on a subway...

Don't know too much about the loft scene but that part somehow seemed the least convincing to me

I was debating about whether or not to get this book but I'm swayed now after reading some of the posts above. I was originally hesitant because I've read so much about the NY scene that I'm kinda burnt out from it but there seems to be much more ground covered than the usual CBGB/ Max's crowd.

The guy really has a knack for finding and telling good stories and not boring you when he tells a story you already know or burning up good will by injecting too much attitude

Is there really not a Wayne/Jayne County thread on ILM? I'm working my way through stuff I'd never heard from this book.

Anyway, if someone had told me that John Cunningham was the producer [and sandwiched in between Flying Lizards and This Heat at that] I'd have checked out "Things Your Mother Never Told You" a *looong* time ago. This album probably sounds *less* like what I was expecting than anything I've heard since I was little and checked "Fleetwood Mac in Chicago" out of the library. Jesus. Thanks book!

I mean, even the things that sound sort of like I was expecting (Wonder Woman, etc.) don't really sound like I was expecting...

Crap, David Cunningham.

Was wondering

John Cunningham is good too, but different story...

finally getting around to this -- great stuff! really a fun read. kind of felt like a big info dump for the first thirty or so pages, but once you get deeper into it, the whole thing starts to come together in a fascinating way. most interesting stuff to me currently is the salsa stuff, because that's the topic i've read the least about.

oh man i need to get this

this spotify playlist is pretty handy too http://open.spotify.com/user/jhiggy58/playlist/4mn3LkB8ftPJELyOnPj7do

Listening to it right now. It's taking me back

weirdly, whoever compiled that playlist left out most (all?) the minimalism/classical stuff. otherwise, it's great.

Heard some people listening to Arthur Russell today and I couldn't keep myself from recommending this book.

Really is a cool book. I got it from the library, but I might just buy it.
Hermes' website has some good supplemental stuff (incl. a plug for my own blog!): http://lovegoestobuildingsonfire.com

Cool, thx. Raced through it on first reading then went back and read the first few chapters, need to reread the rest.

& this is a good supplemental thang too: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/7802793797/other-music-for-uplifting-gormandizers-lets-take

i was looking over a copy of the book with great interest at EMP, and then got to meet Hermes later that day. hell of a nice guy! definitely on my shopping list.

Why you so cheap, some dude?

you wanna see my tax return?

hell of a nice guy!

That he is. He even kindly posted a comment from me on Twitter during a panel I was covering with him on it.

Loving this book, will be very sad when I'm done with it and I could easily have him carry on into the Eighties, writing about Gray or Konk or whatnot.

Don't overlook tylerw's link to his post of that evening w Talking Heads and Television yall. Also, leave us not forget this

http://www.bibliovault.org/thumbs/978-0-8223-3198-8-frontcover.jpg

ooh that looks good.
anyone have any reccs for a good salsa comp that covers some of the stuff talked about in this book?

Just get some of those Willie Colon Hector Lavoe albums to start, say La Gran Fuga and Cosa Nuestra

Thanks for continuing to bump this thread and reminding me I've been sitting on this too long, y'all. Finally started reading it this morning. Nice companion piece to Please Kill Me thus far.

For salsa-ish comps, I'm in love with the Soul Jazz comps Hermes lists in the discography. I'm looking forward to digging deeper once I get to those sections of the book.

listening to the spotify playlist right now!

http://open.spotify.com/user/jhiggy58/playlist/4mn3LkB8ftPJELyOnPj7do

I really like the way the information in the book is rendered. The timeline idea might grow kinda tiresome if he didn't paint as vivid a picture (or arguably have such great and wide ranging source material) It's like a really good, slightly gossipy Vanity Fair article spun out over an entire book.

Knew this was gonna be great when they had the Modern Lovers hurtling down from New England in a broken down van for a New Year's gig

http://www.furious.com/perfect/newyorkdolls.html

nice story

Haven't actually read it yet. Just put it here for further reference.

I got this for christmas and am psyched to read it but I just havent found the time. From what I've heard about it seems like an exciting new approach to music writing: examining the relationships among very different artists/scenes in a given time period, rather than focusing on one artist or one movement at a time, which can often lead, i think, to an overemphasis on biography in explaining why an artist sounds the way they do.

Not sure it's a new approach, but he covers the scenes in a lively, entertaining way. In some cases there are relationships among the scenes, at other times they are all just happening at the same time

yeah exactly

Not every grouping of music scenes in a particular era in a particular city may be exciting as these ones were, but this book continually also reminds me that they are lots of interesting things going on simultaneously in my nearby city

that there are ....