All who ever liked Cody and the Airmen, as well as anyone else who's interested in the history of the record business, should seek out a copy by any means and at any cost of Geoffrey Stokes book "Starmaking Machinery-Inside The Business Of Rock And Roll", (Bobbs-Mellil 1976 in hardback, Vintage Books 1977 in paperback which chronicles the life of the original band and the process of trying to market a 45 "single", in this case, their cover of "Don't Let Go" and trying to get it, as well as the self-titled, John Boylan produced Warner Bros. album (BS 2847)"Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen" to be a big selling chart hit, an effort that regretfully failed.

It takes you through the lives of the band members, the recording process from start to finish, the process of marketing a single across the country, touring behind it and the workings of Warner Bros. Records in their enlightened glory years when they had a history or nurturing artists of merit over time just because the music was good. This was a time when the LP was still king, and radio was a bit more free-form and free-flowing than it is now.

It is set up as a cultural study, and was called at the time called "Simply the best book there is about the business of pop music." by Robert Christgau and "The best analysis of the music business I ever read." by Dave Marsh. The business might have changed with the advent of CDs, new developments in music and various corporate reshuffling in all areas of media, but it still holds up as a wonderful read and a valuable piece of history for fans or participants of music of that, or any era.

I highly recommend it as a classic in music writing.