Recommend a music book?

Subject: Recommend a music book?
From: Continuity Jones
Date: 06 Mar 11 - 05:12 PM

Oh good people of the Mudcat.

I have several long flights coming up. On such things, I like to read. Any recommendations of some interesting books on music & musicians? I'm thinking autobiographies / tour diaries / biographies / scenes etc.

I thank thee.

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 06 Mar 11 - 05:33 PM

Some of the Edith Fowke collections of songs in Canada..mg

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 06 Mar 11 - 05:58 PM

I enjoyed Bob Dylan's Chronicles, Volume 1.
But that might be a boomer thing.

Joe Klein's "Woody Guthrie: A Life".
Maybe another boomer thing.

David Whisnant's "All That Is Native and Fine: The Politics of Culture in an American Region" if you're interested in "traditional" music in the states.

Russ (Permanent GUEST)

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: Tootler
Date: 06 Mar 11 - 06:10 PM

Mike Hurst "Every Song Tells a Story" A brief history of popular music. For a change, a music history that does not concentrate on art music, very readable.

Roy Palmer(Ed) "The Rambling Soldier" Military life through soldiers' songs and writings. (This is an old book and may no longer be in print. If you ever see a copy in a 2nd hand shop, grab it, it's a fascinating insight into life in the British Army over 150 years).

Graeme Miles "Forgotten Songs Remembered". A collection of songs by the Teesside songwriter with illustrations and excerpts from his diaries. A wonderful and varied collection of songs about Teesside and its people.

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: Folkiedave
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 05:49 AM

Graeme Miles again.

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: SteveMansfield
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 06:11 AM

Ciaran Carson, 'Last Night's Fun' - a poetic, impressionistic, wonderful evocation of what it is to play traditional music and bing part of the musical and social sides of sessions. My Desert Island book.

Richard Lewis, 'The Magic Spring' - a previously non-folky spends a year connecting with the folk scene and writes a generally generous and intelligent account of his excursions.

I would also suggest Rob Young's 'Electric Eden', a slightly unfocused but fascinating account of England's 'Visionary Music', folk and beyond - if it wasn't such a big book physically, considering you want it for carrying onto a plane ...

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 06:28 AM

Continuity Jones,

It would be helpful if you mentioned what sort of music you like.

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 07:11 AM

Dear Fellow Jones,

I haven't updated this fo a while:

Books about Folk

1.        'In search of the craic' by Colin Irwin
2.        Song for every Season - Bob Copper
3.        Early to Rise
Songs and Southern Breezes ....both by Bob Copper
4.        Folk - A portrait of English Traditional Music, Musicians and Customs by Bob Pegg
5.        The Ladybird Book of Folk Song,
6.        Deke Leonard's Rhinos Winos and Lunatics - The Legend of Man, a Rock n' Roll Band; the prequel Maybe I Should've Stayed in Bed - The Flipside of the Rock n' Roll Dream
7.        Come All Ye Bold Miners: Lloyd.
8.        English Folk Song Some Conclusions: Sharp.
9.        Last Night's Fun: Carson.
10.        The Fellowship of Song: Dunn.
11.        Song And Democratic Culture In Britain: Watson.
12.        Popular Music In England: Russell.
13.        The Ballad And The Folk: Buchan.
14.        The Stone Fiddle: Tunney.
15.        The Idiom Of The People: Reeves.
16.        Richard Lewis: The Magic Spring
17.        The Betsy Whyte - the lives and ways of the Scots 'Travellers'
18.        Bound for Glory - Woody Guthrie
19.        And a Voice to Sing With - Joan Baez
20.        Singing Family of the Cumberlands, by Jean Ritchie.
21.        Set Into Song, the story of the making of the Radio Ballads, by Peter Cox.
22.        English Folk Song Bibliography: An Introductory Bibliography Based on the Holdings of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library
23.        The English Folk Song Bibliography is on-line at http://www.efdss.org/resind.htm
24.        See the previous Basic Folk Library thread
25.        Ewan McColl - Doomsday in the Afternoon - seminal book on travellers' music in general and Belle Stewart in particular
26.        'History and the Morris Dance' by John Cutting
27.        Joe Klein's "Woody Guthrie
28.        "Singing Cowboys and Musical Mountaineers" and "Sound of the Dove"
29.        "All That Is Native and Fine: The Politics of Culture in an American Region" by David E. Whisnant
30.        Strange Affair - by Patrick Humphries, bio of Richard Thompson.
31.        E.V.Thompson - 'The Music Makers'?
32.        Alan Lomax: The land where the blues began
33.        The Rose and the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad by Wilentz and Marcous
34.        The Invention of Folk Music and Art Music - Matthew Gelbart
35.        Cerddoriaeth Draddodiadol yng Nghymru: Llyfryddiaeth - Traditional Music in Wales: Bibliography"
36.        David Atkinson: 'The English Traditional Ballad'
37.        MacColl & Seeger's 'Travellers' Songs from England and Scotland
38.        Frank & Anne Warner's 'Traditional American Folk Songs'.
39.        Joe Boyd's 'White Bicycles

Best wishes

L in C#

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: Max Johnson
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 11:57 AM

Lloyd's 'Folksong in England'?

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: Michael S
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 12:00 PM

The Mayor of MacDougal Street by Dave Van Ronk. If you're at all interested in the folk scene of the sixties and the NYC cultural scene, read this funny, insightful memoir. (Co-authored by Elijah Wald)

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: dwditty
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 12:05 PM

Michael S. You took the words right out of my keyboard.

Also - The World Don't Owe Me Nothing - David Honeyboy Edwards - First hand account of Delta blues.

dw

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 08:15 PM

Ralph McTell: As far as I can tell.

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Mar 11 - 08:35 PM

How to play the piano despite years of lessons.

Ward Cannel & Fred Marx

© 1976 Edward Cannel

ISBN Paperback - 0-385-14263-3
ISBN Hardback - 0-385-14263-5

Crown & Bridge, Publishers
P.o. Box N.Y. 10159

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: PHJim
Date: 08 Mar 11 - 11:15 AM

Ian Tyson and Keith Richards both have interesting autobiographies.

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: Brian Peters
Date: 08 Mar 11 - 11:27 AM

I'd second in spades (if that isn't a mixed metaphor) the previously mentioned and brilliant 'Last Night's Fun', also Bob Copper's books and Atkinson's 'English Traditional Ballad' (if you're looking for something a bit more academic). And if you like ballads, Clinton Heylin's 'Dylan's Demon Lover' (which is about Child 243 rather than El Zimmo's sex life) is a fascinating, quirky and accessible piece of research. 'White Bicycles' is good, and I'd suggest Rob Young's 'Electric Eden' except that it's possibly too bulky and heavy for airborne entertainment.

I have to admit to reading Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt's joint autobiography 'XS All Areas' on a holiday poolside last summer. It didn't make me like them.

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 08 Mar 11 - 12:27 PM

'I Never Played To Many Posh Dances'
Reg Hall's book on the Sussex concertina player Scan Tester, 1887 - 1972. Published by Musical Traditions, ISSN 0265-5063. Probably out of print but available on Amazon.

'Between The Jigs & The Reels'
Caomihn MacAoidh on the Donegal fiddle tradition. Fscinating tales of players and the stories behind many tunes. Published by Drumlin Publications, ISBN 1 873437 08 0.

'The Church Gallery Minstrels of Old Sussex' by the Rev. K. H. McDermott, a full and often amusing account of their activities and personalities, with a CD of their carols recorded by Hope In The Valley. Pulbished by Country Books/Ashridge Press, ISBN 978 1 901214 73 4.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Mar 11 - 12:41 PM

bob marley by cedilla booker.

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: open mike
Date: 08 Mar 11 - 12:50 PM

http://www.followthemusic.com/ BY JAC HOLZMAN AND GAVAN DAWS (w/ c.d.)
by the founder of Elektra Records-

http://www.christinelavin.com/ COLD PIZZA FOR BREAKFAST: A MEM-WHA??

http://www.cowboypoetry.com/thorp.htm by Mark Gardner and Rex Rideout
Jack Thorp's Songs of the Cowboys (Museum of New Mex.Press,2005),w/CD

http://www.westernjubilee.com/SaddleSongs-acowboysongbag.htm with c.d.
by Don Edwards

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 08 Mar 11 - 01:02 PM

I don't think it's above but "The Imagined Village" Geogina Boyes, is the most interesting book I have read about folk song collection.

L in C#

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: GUEST,Paul Slade
Date: 08 Mar 11 - 01:56 PM

No Off Switch

It's not out till July, but I'm really looking forward to Andy Kershaw's biography. More details at the Amazon link above.

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: Continuity Jones
Date: 09 Mar 11 - 04:12 AM

Hello all,

Thanks for all those suggestions. I shall certainly be following a good few of them up, especially these:

Roy Palmer(Ed) "The Rambling Soldier"

Andy Kershaw Auto-biog

'I Never Played To Many Posh Dances'
Reg Hall's book on the Sussex concertina player Scan Tester, 1887 - 1972.

'Between The Jigs & The Reels'
Caomihn MacAoidh on the Donegal fiddle tradition.

'The Church Gallery Minstrels of Old Sussex' by the Rev. K. H. McDermott

Les in Chorlton's list looks good - I've read a few of them, the more obvious ones, but a lot seem interesting - The Jean Ritchie one for example.


All in all a great list from you all so many thanks. As with Les' list, I've read a fair few mentioned, but that just means you were bowling on an appropriate wicket!

CJ

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: Brian Peters
Date: 09 Mar 11 - 04:27 AM

How could I forget? CJ's mention of 'Rambling Soldier' has reminded me that Roy Palmer's new book, 'Working Songs', should be near the top of anyone's list. Not only is it full of good songs, mostly from the Industrial Revolution and thereafter, but it's a brilliant work of social history. My review is in the current issue of English Dance & Song.

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: harmonic miner
Date: 09 Mar 11 - 05:23 AM

"Going to the Well for Water. The Seamus Ennis Field Diary 1942-1946"
Written as a diary, ("12th June: rose at 10, repaired a punctured tyre and went to visit...") so not a cover-to-cover read but absolutely fascinating to dip into.

"Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World"
Very readable biography and links to the above when Ennis sort of acts as his guide on a visit to Ireland

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 09 Mar 11 - 07:08 AM

The Miles Davis Autobiography is a hoot, as is the second volume of Daevid Allen's Gong Dreaming which deals with the classic era of the Gongband. I'm currently re-reading Graham Bennett's book on the Soft Machine after which I might go for Sid Smith's examplary work on King Crimson, or either of Deke Leonard's autobiographical accounts of life before, during & after the Manband. Peter Hook's account (and accounts) of The Hacienda is worth a look, and Raymond Greenoaken gives a glowing review of the Kieth Richard's Autobiography which is tempting. I've got two biogs of my hero Scott Walker (Deep Shade of Blue and another one) neither of which I enjoyed too much, unlike Ginger Geezer, which accounts for the Life and Times of Vivian Stanshall and manages to be hilarious and harrowing my turns. Folk Books tend towards the academic, the over worthy & the theorectical, which is a shame really, though I love Bob Copper's writing & Bob Roberts too; I think I'm just about recovered from Georgina Boyes's The Imagined Village to begin on that copy of Harker's Fakesong Ross leant me a while ago along with a book on Joe Holmes. I love Johnny Haslett's hefty volume on Lancastrian Morris & Alison MacMorland's Herd Laddie o' the Glen (Willie Scott); Bob Pegg's Folk and Rites and Riots are both belters, and I've enjoyed as much of Hutton's Stations of the Sun as my eyes can take. Richard Hayman's new Shire book on The Green Man is essential reading (everything a book on The Green Man should be but seldom is - see my review at Amazon) and I can still recommend Marcia MacDermott's Explore Green Men (Heart of Albion) though the companion volumes in the Explore Series are routinely panned - Explore Folklore, for example, falls flat when it tries to extend its enlightened thesis to include Folk Music, which is a shame really. Back to real folk-life, you could do worse than the Harpo Marx Autobiography and the more scurilous side of Groucho that comes shining through The Marx Brother's Scrap Book. Robert King's book on Henry Purcell is a nice read as well & my overriding impression of Rolf Harris's autobiography that it was too modest by far, unlike Mark E. Smith's autobiography which is immodest & hilarious. High on my wish list right now is Mark E. Smith and The Fall: Art, Music and Politics part of the Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series. Turned out nice again!

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: GUEST,Pseudonymous
Date: 19 Dec 19 - 10:25 PM

Thought I'd refresh this. I'm wondering what more recent folk/blues - or any if you like - books might be good Xmas gifts?

And isn't it a shame that David Atkinson books are so expensive and also seem impossible for my local library to get via inter-library loan?
I know (via a helpful Mudcat thread, started by Jack Campin) that one has been put online, but I prefer a proper book!

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: Chris C
Date: 20 Dec 19 - 12:11 AM

There's a new bio of Michael Bloomfield: Guitar King: Michael Bloomfield’s Life in the Blues, written by David Dann, published Oct. 2019 by the University of Texas Press.
I guess it's only fair to also mention that Ed Ward's fine Bloomfield bio, The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar hero, originally published in 1983, was thoroughly updated - basically rewritten - in 2016, also since this thread went quiet in 2011.

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: GUEST,Pseudonymous
Date: 20 Dec 19 - 04:31 AM

I enjoyed 'Early Blues: The First Stars of Blues Guitar' by Jas Obrecht. If you have never heard of Sylvester Weaver, this is the book for you. Readable mixture of biographical comment and comment on style. Sections also on Willie MacTell, Blind Blake,Lonnie Johnson and others. Not just the best but more less the only stuff on some of these players.

'Long Lost Blues' by Peter Muir. I enjoyed this but if you don't read music and have an interest in musical form then this may not be for you. He looks at the development of blues via sheet music. It's about what he calls 'popular blues'. Peter Muir edited the Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues and is a musicologist. If you don't want to buy it, borrow it from a library as it is full of interesting 'tit bits' of information as well of history of music. Interesting section on WC Handy.

'Segregating Sound. Inventing Folk and Pop Music in the Age of Jim Crow' by Karl Hagstrom Miller. I'll quote some blurb on this book: "In a cultural history filled with musicians, listeners, scholars, and business people, Miller describes how folklore studies and the music industry helped to create a "musical color line," a cultural parallel to the physical color line that came to define the Jim Crow South. Segregated sound emerged slowly through the interactions of southern and northern musicians, record companies that sought to penetrate new markets across the South and the globe, and academic folklorists who attempted to tap southern music for evidence about the history of human civilization. Contending that people's musical worlds were defined less by who they were than by the music that they heard, Miller challenges assumptions about the relation of race, music, and the market." So you may know now that this book isn't for you.

But what it says about how embedded racism was in early 'folklore studies' struck deep with me, and made me think again about Child, who was in at the start of this line of what was thought of as academic or even scientific enquiry but what was in fact deeply shot through with Darwinist-type ideology relating to 'race'. Should be compulsory reading for all Child fans. Gives another view and sets him in historical context.

"A Class Act: The Cultural and Political Life of Ewan MacColl" by Ben Harker. I thoroughly enjoyed this. If you want lots of stuff on MacColl's songs and discographies, this isn't for you. Tells a lot about MacColl's life before he chose to go down the folk singer route. Well researched and detailed.

'The Anglo-Scottish Ballad and Its Imaginary Contexts' by David Atkinson. (If you can afford it! I've been reading it online) If you firmly believe that ballads are from and represent a purely oral heritage coming down centuries (if not longer) and representing the view of the working man this book may not be for you, as it goes to some lengths to question some of the assumptions underpinning this ideology, pointing out how little we know about the origins of the ballads. But it does suggest a time when this form began to emerge. It has a lot of relevant stuff to say about literacy in the past and how it functioned in relation to non-literacy. It also questions what the 'meaning' of ballads is, basically saying that this is a matter of interpretation rather than something fixed and definite. Not necessarily a quick read, but an interesting one if you like a book to get your teeth into. Not for you if you regard the pronouncements of Child as lore that must not be questioned!

Sorry for any typos, it kept freezing as I was typing and I lost patience!

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 22 Dec 19 - 02:44 PM

The Unstoppable Irish by Dan Milner.

https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268105730/the-unstoppable-irish/

Subject: RE: Recommend a music book?
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Dec 19 - 02:54 PM

No Minor Chords by Andre Previn,
limited to his Hollywood career.
When it's funny, it's laugh-til-you-sob funny.
And people like Schoenberg and Shostakovich are in it as well.

Open the Door, I've forgotten the name of its author.
He's a music professor and academic, and when he started the book,
it was intended as an authorized biography
of jazz singer Betty Carter;
then she was diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer and died swiftly,
and the book had to be completed after she died.
There's a LOT in there -- she had a very full life, did Ms. Carter.