Books about music

ranbalam said:
Beneath the Underdog - Charles Mingus - This is just bizarre. The stories he tells, I was floored. And honestly, I could have handled more writing about his music.
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this is so underselling it. Mingus was....yeah.

From Wikipedia:

The original proposed title was Memoirs of a Half Yellow Schitt Covered OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE. It was finally published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1971.[5] The published form, edited by Nel King, reduced the original manuscript by more than two thirds.[5][6] Before editing, the typescript contained mostly dialog; a lot of the prose was formed during King's second edit.[4] She chose to retain the pimp stories, thereby giving them greater prominence than in the original manuscript; this decision may have been related to the commercial success of Iceberg Slim's book, Pimp, in the late 1960s.[4]
Reception

The reviewer for the journal Notes commented that "the reader is forced to plow through page after page of erotica (some might label it pornography) in order to ferret out the most basic kind of information about the man and his music."[7] The Washington Post's reviewer stated that the book is "sexual fantasy and tortured personality conflict", and complained that there was little information about Mingus' music or those he played with.[8] The Observer's reviewer believed that "Mingus has made a contribution to recent American literature that even his well-wishers could not have anticipated", and stressed that the bassist had described "what it feels like to be an artist – actually be it, in a world that is not only trying to stop you being an artist but has tried to stop you being human in the first place."[9]

Writer Toby Litt stated that "His autobiography is that of a profoundly troubled, often bitter man who never feels loved enough but constantly undermines those loves offered to him."[10]

Mingus' last wife, Sue Mingus, indicated that the book was an account of "the superficial Mingus, the flashy one, not the real one."[1]
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I've been double fisting Ben Watson's book about Derek Bailey and Derek Bailey's book about improvisation after watching Derek Bailey's TV doco series called One The Edge: Improvisation in Music. They are all very good.

Watson can get a bit tiresome sometimes but mostly he has a good pace and covers important topics. His approach, informed mostly by Marx and Adorno, affords some valuable perspectives. This has been especially useful in understanding Bailey's alienation from jazz.

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I have the 1992 edition of Bailey's own book, Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music. It is marvelous. So concise, to the point. Theoretical where theory helps and practical/anecdotal when that works better. Bailey and Watson are both very opinionated but while Watson is polemic, Bailey is wide open to the ideas of others.

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The TV docos are all on ootoob. Superb old-school Brit documentary style. Really long musical interludes (so uncommon in docos), very little narration from Bailey, and a fascinating selection of material from around the world.


Bailey has been my number 1 guitar hero since 1986 when I bought his solo album Notes.

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Well this looks phenomenal. Release date May 23, 2023


Check out this quote:
"Like most hardcore Steely Dan aficionados, I usually think anybody else's opinion on Steely Dan is misinformed, poorly considered, or just wrong. So it is with profound surprise, and a mild resentment born of great pleasure, that I must report having found Quantum Criminals fascinating, illuminating, edifying, generally meticulous, and only very occasionally dead wrong. An indispensable volume for anybody who's ever stayed up late obsessing about this most delightful of bands. Don't tell the others I said this." ~John Darnielle

And this:
"Steely Dan has always sounded like the future, a phenomenon that makes me want to dissect their past to see how they got there. They’re a band with a thousand wormholes, and Alex Pappademas explores every one of them. With luminous illustrations by Joan LeMay, Quantum Criminals is a strange and fascinating love story worthy of the Dan." ~Aimee Mann

But...
"It makes me want to gouge my eyes out" ~ @Mather
 
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Russ I said:
Couldn't find a Tori Amos thread so figured this might be the best place to ask whether anyone has purchased the Little Earthquakes graphic novel. Looks like there are a couple of versions of it (8 x 8 or 12 x 12 with extras) and I'm curious about content and quality. Thanks in advance.

Some info: Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes
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no, I used to have this though:
Amazon product ASIN 1582409641
It was really cool.
 
About 50 pages into this - first chapter is on Black Flag, and already finding it to be a great read - makes me wish that I had paid more attention to the friend of mine in high school who kept giving me punk mix tapes around the time the book is set in. Also picked up Dylan's Philosophy of Modern Song as well, but I think that's gonna be more of a - listen to the song, read a chapter type book that takes awhile to get through.

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imtheocean said:
About 50 pages into this - first chapter is on Black Flag, and already finding it to be a great read - makes me wish that I had paid more attention to the friend of mine in high school who kept giving me punk mix tapes around the time the book is set in. Also picked up Dylan's Philosophy of Modern Song as well, but I think that's gonna be more of a - listen to the song, read a chapter type book that takes awhile to get through.

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I love this book. My only complaint is that it needs a sequel with other bands -- REM, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedy's, Meat Puppets, Pixies, The Melvins, Circle Jerks, X, Germs, Descendents, SWANS, Flaming Lips or Misfits. Minor threat AND fugazi seems like overkill, also I sorta skimmed the beat happening chapter as I never got into them and had a real hard time when i went back to 'em. Mudhoney's chapter is basically "and now let's talk about SST for a while". Also also, so many bands have dealings with SST and all over them finish with "....so their accounting was suspect and they left a bad taste in our mouth". the notable abscence is nirvana, but azzerad did a separate book ("come as you are") on them, so it's understandable.
 
imtheocean said:
About 50 pages into this - first chapter is on Black Flag, and already finding it to be a great read - makes me wish that I had paid more attention to the friend of mine in high school who kept giving me punk mix tapes around the time the book is set in. Also picked up Dylan's Philosophy of Modern Song as well, but I think that's gonna be more of a - listen to the song, read a chapter type book that takes awhile to get through.

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IMHO, one of the best 5 music books ever written.
 
Russ I said:
Couldn't find a Tori Amos thread so figured this might be the best place to ask whether anyone has purchased the Little Earthquakes graphic novel. Looks like there are a couple of versions of it (8 x 8 or 12 x 12 with extras) and I'm curious about content and quality. Thanks in advance.

Some info: Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes
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Well I'm glad to have pursued this and landed a copy of the 12 x 12 book. It's really cool. It covers all the songs on the original album plus B-sides. Lots of different writers and artists, all of it quite striking and some of it quite dark. A few pics:

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Not even 18 months old yet and Baby's hip hop library runs deep!

Welcome to the Cypher I just picked up today - it was written by a poet friend of mine in Saskatoon and is absolutely wonderful.

The Story of Rap is part of a series that includes Rock and Pop as well. I bought it on a lark when the baby was just a couple months old and it's been one of their favourites pretty much since. We have the Rock one as well but they were sold out of the Pop when when I went back.

The Roots of Rap I ordered because of how much they enjoyed the first one but it took a few months until they came around to it - we wonder if maybe they weren't as drawn to the art at first. But they like it now. This one covers breakin' and graffiti as well.

All three are pretty solid, I especially like the newest one as it's more of an inspirational book for the youngins when they're a bit older and exploring language themselves. The two board books do a great job of starting them off with historical foundations though.
 
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