Current Music Books

[imp]

Let's face it, the Mondays were foremost a day of the week, not a band. Most of their music's fucking awful.

[steveeeeeeeee]

Got about 50 or so pages to go on Gillespie's book and from page 150 onwards, I've really enjoyed it. You also get wise to the signals that he's about to start another 2 or 3 paragraphs of "History according to Bobby" and you can skip all that shite quite easily. Fair play, he's obviously taken the stance that he doesn't want an editor, it can get a bit tough when he repeats himself (he describes the hiring of Henry Olsen to Primal Scream, at length and in the exact same detail twice within the space of 4 chapters and the history of Acid House is explained in almost exact detail 2 times), but other that, it's his voice and his artefact that you're reading.

[The Bean Counter]

I got The Double Life of Bob Dylan by Clinton Heylin for my birthday! Result!

Heylin's a prick and a half (he spends the entire introduction badmouthing every other poor sod who's ever deigned to write anything about Dylan in the past.) But I have to say he certainly delivers the goods.

I just finished one of his, It's One for the Money. A history of music publishing.

He's certainly fond of badmouthing people, but I found his acidic asides and putdowns quite amusing. He's not afraid to go after a few sacred cows as well - Led Zep never wrote an original song in their life, and Mike Love got screwed over by the Beach Boys, among others.

[Satchmo Distel]

Tracey Thorn's book on Lindy Morrison. Great stuff. Beautiful writing with appropriate anger towards sexism within a band and musical sector that we'd have hoped would treat women better, especially given the sensitivity of this band's songs. The moral is don't expect men who write good songs to have the same gentleness and sensitivity when they feel their masculine privilege is threatened by a strong, talented woman of equal talent.

Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair's hefty tome on Paul McCartney, 1969-1973. It's objective and well-researched but after 1970 only deeply committed fans are going to be interested. They're not gifted writers and they try to avoid expressing any opinion that would be interpreted as siding with Paul or John against the other. Every time Paul makes a dubious claim they provide quotes from others that counter it, which is good work, but because they write from the perspective of only letting the reader know what was known at the time (so no foreshadowing of Wings, John's death, etc) we lose the wider perspective of being able to frame an event in a longer trend, such as when Paul's insensitivity towards underlings reappears every few pages and, you think, maybe we ought to be told that this would be a theme of his entire career.

[Sporting]

Paul's insensitivity towards underlings reappears every few pages and, you think, maybe we ought to be told that this would be a theme of his entire career.

I think that in some interviews Macca himself has admitted to this tendency.

[Satchmo Distel]

The Age Of Bowie by Paul Morley is great. His monograph on Michael Jackson is also very good, as is Margo Jefferson's book on the same subject (those two books in tandem give you the definitive word on the Jackson family's abusive history and their effects on the artist).

I haven't bought Morley's book on Tony Wilson. Waiting for a US Kindle edition. Might get the hardback from my university library rather than shelling out.

[Satchmo Distel]

I am up to the point where Factory Records is just about being founded. The bits about Wilson at university and Morley's relentless rabbiting on about situationists, Guy Debord and Raymond Williams does drag on. The bits about the history of Granada are a good read.

I have only got as far as his grammar school years so far and haven't minded the diversions too much. I like the Anthony Burgess parallels and the material on the German influence on Manchester. You also get random gems like the puppeteer Terry Hall going to Tony Wilson's school and playing a role in The Beatles' TV career. Or The Beatles and Sex Pistols both making their TV debuts on Granada. Or Bill Grundy rising to TV fame on Granada.

Fortunately I'm a fan of Morley's writing so will read a chapter by him on just about any aspect of culture. He isn't always right so I wouldn't quote his research (e.g. Clapperboard was not a quiz show) but his judgments seem sound.

Could it be shorter? Of course. But that's how Morley writes and you can easily skip chapters because the headings tell you what to expect; and there's an index so you can dip.

[imp]

Recently finished Martin Aston's very thorough history of 4AD Records, Facing The Other Way. Got me listening to old Muses/Pixies/Belly/Donnelly/Hersh/Cocteaus records and watching videos I missed at the time, plus looking into bands I'd never heard or forgotten existed, like The Wolfgang Press. All the stuff I didn't hear back then (or which didn't grab my attention) was interesting enough, but very much of its time - that is, nothing that had me downloading whole discographies. I even deleted the This Mortal Coil first album after a few listens, and I still can't understand the huge fuss about the dreary Song to the Siren. All in all, though, an excellent read.

[Satchmo Distel]

For me, the value of Song to the Siren is the vocal, which sounded like nothing else I'd ever heard in 1983. I never believed the lyrics were more than just schoolboy poetry stuff. There's also the gender switch between male original, female cover artist.

But apart from the Cocteaus, it does seem that the label's strengths were later, in the proto-garage-grunge era starting around 1986.

[delicatemoth]

Thanks for reminding me! I recently finished Rat Girl by Kristin Hersh, a sort-of memoir taking in the early years of the group, up to her giving birth to her first child and the recording of Throwing Muses' debut. It is absolutely brilliant, possibly the best book I've ever read by a musician. Anecdotes from her childhood and youth, her mania and pregnancy, rub up with accounts of living and playing with her remarkable band and the astonishing songs that seized hold of her and wouldn't let go. It's sometimes harrowing but also laugh-out-loud funny, especially the parts dealing with Ivo Watts-Russell, who calls four days in a row to tell her that he loves the music but doesn't sign American bands and is there anything he can do for them ("This guy talks like the goddam queen") and producer Gil Norton ("Really? 'Vicky's Box' is a song about Vicky's box? A box owned by someone named Vicky?" "Mostly," I say, embarrassed. "That's why it's called that.")

For me, 'Throwing Muses' is the greatest record to come out of white America in the 1980s, a lightning bolt of urgency, difference, colour and abysses, and Rat Girl is a fitting companion. You might find it hard to get a copy though, I had to pay £10 for a very well-thumbed ex-San Anselmo Library copy.

Every time I think I'm done, I pick another song out of the chaos in the air. The songs're keeping me alive so they can be alive.
Once you pick music out of the ether, once you discern its frequencies, you can't un-hear it. Maybe it alters your cellular structure, a cancer, I don't know.
I do know that the musical lightning rod sticking out of my skull is on fire.

[imp]

I was sure I must have mentioned that book before, and indeed it was on my 2010 'Non-fiction books of the year' thread, to which you replied: "Oh, I want to read That Kristin Hersh book. Thanks a lot for flagging that up, imp." So, I'm glad you got round to it. I'd never have guessed it was 13 years since I read it because I remember so much about it and I would have said it came out five or six years ago. A brilliant book, thoroughly original in its approach from start to finish, just like her way of making music.

[HeavyDracula]

Finished Acid Detroit by Joe Molloy from Repeater Books last night. It’s an easy read but one that’s thought-provoking and inspiring, and gives Detroit’s music and politics a good airing. As always, it makes me wish I knew Mark Fisher, though. True legacy.

[danielmak]

I just finished Stephen Anderson's, I Want You Around: Ramones and the Making of Rock 'N' Roll High School. I really enjoyed it. The book focuses on Allan Arkush, who directed the film Rock N Roll High School, starting with his early discovery of books, music, and cinema and then quickly moves to his time working for Roger Corman. From there, we're into the making Rock 'N' Roll High School. I found the story to be very interesting. If you are into b-movies, The Ramones, or cult music films, I think you'll dig it. Anderson doesn't write about the relative fame The Ramones would experience decades after the film was released but tells an interesting story about the band hitting a ceiling in terms of types of fans and mainstream media coverage in the late 1970s. The film helped generate some new ideas and led to them writing the song of the same name, which helped the band experience a bit more mainstream fame.

[Satchmo Distel]

Weren't they killing themselves with drugs soon afterward anyway?

[danielmak]

Weren't they killing themselves with drugs soon afterward anyway?

Dee Dee was really the only druggie. Joey had health problems from the time he was a child. Johnny was a task master. Tommy (first drummer) left to focus on producing. Marky--I can't say. I haven't ready his autobiography (biographies aren't my go-to) but my sense is that he showed up and did the job until he burnt out, but didn't have any drug problems. Dee Dee made up for everyone else.

[HeavyDracula]

Blasted through Corporate Rock Sucks, the story of SST Records. Jim Ruland pretty much tells the story of the rise of American hardcore and alternative music which inevitably collapsed under its own weight.

[danielmak]

Blasted through Corporate Rock Sucks, the story of SST Records. Jim Ruland pretty much tells the story of the rise of American hardcore and alternative music which inevitably collapsed under its own weight.

I need to pick this one up but have delayed because SST was a label I liked in theory more than the music itself. Most of what they put out after the first wave of punk and hardcore records didn't float my boat. In fact, almost every early US punk label except Touch and Go tended to follow the same path: Alternative Tentacles and Dischord have mostly put out junk since the very early 90s. My mostly uniformed sense is that Greg Ginn signed favorable deals for him with the bands that were good then signed a lot of garbage. Many of the bands were able to get out of their deals so that left SST with Black Flag records, Husker Du records, Stains, Descendants/All, and then garbage.

[HeavyDracula]

I need to pick this one up but have delayed because SST was a label I liked in theory more than the music itself. Most of what they put out after the first wave of punk and hardcore records didn't float my boat. In fact, almost every early US punk label except Touch and Go tended to follow the same path: Alternative Tentacles and Dischord have mostly put out junk since the very early 90s. My mostly uniformed sense is that Greg Ginn signed favorable deals for him with the bands that were good then signed a lot of garbage. Many of the bands were able to get out of their deals so that left SST with Black Flag records, Husker Du records, Stains, Descendants/All, and then garbage.

It’s a little more nuanced than that but that’s the basic strokes, yeah. It involves major label interference and Ginn being a huge weirdo, too. There’s some good stuff on the people involved, due to some good primary sources, and the death of D Boon is, as always, heartbreaking for all involved.

[Satchmo Distel]

Not current but I finally got around to Barney Hoskyns' book on The Band, written in the late 80s. No real surprises except that Hoskyns (and Elvis Costello) didn't like Robbie Robertson's solo album, which they felt sounds like a Peter Gabriel project. Hoskyns doesn't take sides on the dispute between Robertson and Helm over writer credits except to throw in a quote that the flatness of the Robertson LP suggests his writing did need the other members. But that's misleading because Robertson never died that his songs needed the magic dust that the others sprinkled on it with their vocal and instrumental contributions. By 60s standards those inputs were not regarded as part of the writing, otherwise every jazz album of original material would have a group writing credit.

[caja-dglh]

[Mr Beast]

I got The Double Life of Bob Dylan by Clinton Heylin for my birthday! Result!

Heylin's a prick and a half (he spends the entire introduction badmouthing every other poor sod who's ever deigned to write anything about Dylan in the past.) But I have to say he certainly delivers the goods.

So Amor, will you be going back in for volume 2 which I think is being released this week?

[Amor de Cosmos]

Hmm. Not sure.

Maybe...

Possibly...

Perhaps...

[Toby Gymshorts]

I will be attempting to purchase two general sale tickets for the Barbican gig tomorrow.

[Etienne]

I wonder if he reads like a normal guy?

[HeavyDracula]

I wonder if he reads like a normal guy?

I know him and he does.