Archive for the ‘Book’ Category:
Slash (Hardcover)
The story of Guns N’ Roses is one of the most controversial in rock n’ roll history. GNR has had a famously terse relationship with journalists and authors, and in recent years, former band members have publicly disagreed about the “real story” in the press. The band even threatened bodily harm to journalists in the lyrics of the Use Your Illusion albums! For the first time ever, someone on the inside has gone on record with to describe the genesis of the band, how they wrote and performed one of the most definitive rock albums of all time, the changes in the band’s lineup, and finally, the implosion of all things GNR related. Who knew it would be the notoriously private lead guitarist, a soft-spoken man hidden behind a famous mop of hair, who would step up and tell the story?
Slash’s memoir is the diary of a dope fiend (released a month after the autobiography of his friend and former heroin-buddy Nikki Sixx). Well, the diary of a dope-, and women- and coke- and crack- and alcohol-fiend. Have anything else debaucherous? The late 1980’s and 1990’s Slash would have tried it for sure. During one cocaine-induced hallucination of an attack by blue-gray Predator-like creatures with machine guns, Slash punched out his glass shower door and ran naked into the streets in terror. The incident got Slash into rehab, but no sooner than his limo driver picked up the “cured” ax man, he was downing half a liter of vodka in the backseat.
What doesn’t Slash want to talk about? Well, don’t bother asking if GNR is getting back together (I’m not even going to acknowledge the current faux-lineup). Slash says it won’t happen, ever. The ten-years-delayed release of Axl’s Chinese Democracy album? Slash gets asked that question in every interview, and he leaves it out of his memoir. In an interview about the book, Slash stated “Axl works in a different time zone than I do. So what may seem like a long time to other people is a tick of the clock to him. It’ll come out, though. It will.” Even Axl’s famous tour cancellations and delays are treated matter-of-factly–Slash doesn’t attempt to analyze or explain the behavior of his bandmate, nor does he seethe with anger or resentment.
Others have tried to write the history of the band, but most are hacks or fanboys who strung together quotes from numerous previously published sources. Before Slash spoke up, the only other worthwhile title was rock journalist Mick Wall’s The Most Dangerous Band in the World (1992), and the VH1 Behind the Music production (2004). Thank you, Slash, for letting all rock fans into the inner world of GNR, featuring your toxic twin Steven, current bandmate and forever friend Duff, the laid-back and gifted Izzy, and the enigmatic Axl. You’ve treated the story with humor, candor, honesty, self-reflection, and respect, even for those from whom you are currently estranged.
Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon
“Girls Like Us is about three women whose courageous, defiant talent defined a generation. Whether you read it to rediscover that wonderfully stormy time — the ’60s and early feminist movement — or to discover it for the first time, take it to heart. Sacrifice, hard work, and daring to dream is still the tale of girls like us.” — Carole Radziwill, author of the New York Times bestseller What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love
“More than the story of three pop stars, Girls Like Us chronicles a generation of young women who had a moving determination to recast their lives and loves as high adventure. Weller beautifully captures the mammoth enterprise of making a new womanhood.” — Christine Stansell, author of American Moderns: Bohemian New York and the Creation of a New Century
“Juicy and politically astute, this book is a page-turner, and it fills a gaping hole in the history of the counterculture.” — Peter Biskind, bestselling author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ‘n’ Roll Generation Changed Hollywood
“Reading Girls Like Us is like sneaking into a reunion of the hippest class from the ’60s…where all the secrets come spilling out after the third glass of wine.” — Suzanne Finstad, bestselling author of Natasha: A Biography of Natalie Wood
“A wild ride through an important part of rock history that too often has been overlooked. This book will stay on my shelf next to albums like Blue and Tapestry, places I turn to to capture a more innocent and romantic era in music and in my life.” — Charles R. Cross, bestselling author of Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix
“There were five books by my bedside when Girls Like Us arrived, but this was the book I had to keep reading. It’s filled with nuggets I hadn’t known about, and this generation of women is my subject! If you love the singers and the songs, you’ll tear through Girls Like Us.” — Sara Davidson, bestselling author of Loose Change: Three Women of the Sixties and Leap!: What Will We Do with the Rest of Our Lives?
The Rest Is Noise
Alex Ross has the ability and the resources to write about the music of the 20th Century and to establish himself as the creator of the definitive volume with the publication of THE REST IS NOISE: LISTENING TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. His depth of knowledge is matched only by his ability to communicate with a writing style that places him in the echelon of our finest biographers. This book is indeed a comprehensive study of the music created in the 20th Century, but it is also a survey of all of the arts and social changes, effects of wars, industrialization, and quirks and idiosyncrasies that surfaced in that recently ended period of history: Ross may call this ‘listening’ to the 20th century, but is also visualizing and feeling the changes of that fascinating period.
Ross opens his survey with a detailed description of the premiere of Richard Strauss’ opera SALOME and in doing so he references all of those in attendance (from Mahler to Schoenberg, the last of the great Romantics to the leader of the Modernist innovators) and focuses not only on the chances Strauss took using a libidinous libretto by the infamous Oscar Wilde to the astringent dissonances that surface in this tale of evil and necrophilia. The ballast of that evening is then followed throughout the book, a means of communicating music theory and execution in a manner that is wildly entertaining while simultaneously informative.
Ross studies the influence of nationalism in music (the German School, the French School, the British and the American Schools) and then interweaves the particular innovations by showing how each school and each composer was influenced by the simultaneous destruction and reconstruction of the world borders resulting form the wars of that century. He dwells on the pacifists (Benjamin Britten et al) and those trapped by authoritarian regimes (Shostakovich et al), following the great moments as well as the dissonant chances that found audience at times far from the nidus of origin. Ross crosses the ‘pond’ showing how American music nurtured in the European schools ultimately found grounding in a sound peculiar to this country (Ives, Copland, etc) and allows enough insight as to the influence of jazz to finally satisfy the most critical of readers.
Ross, then, accompanies us on the journey from melody to atonality and back, all the while giving us insights into the composers that help us understand the changes in music landscape they induced. The book is long and demanding, but at the same time it is one of the finest ‘novels on a music theme’ ever written. Highly recommended not only to musicologists, ardent music lovers, and students of the arts, but to the reading public who simply loves history enhanced by brilliant prose. Grady Harp, December 07
This Is Your Brain on Music
There are questions that are too big for science; are there gods, for instance, or what is love? And maybe we will never fully find out scientifically why music does what it does and why we care about it so. But for many reasons, music ought to be a profitable subject for scientific enquiry. It is, as Pythagoras knew, an activity strongly rooted in mathematics, and the physics of music is fairly well understood. It is as universal as language; all human cultures have some sort of music, indicating it does something indispensable. And we are increasingly able to figure out, with our sophisticated brain imaging gadgets, what brains do when they hear or think about music. The neuroscience of music is the area of expertise of Daniel J. Levitin, and he writes of it in _This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession_ (Dutton), a fascinating account of current music psychology. Levitin has produced a book wonderfully accessible to lay readers, since although he is an academic (he runs the Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition, and Expertise at McGill University), before he became a scientist, he had been a performing musician, sound engineer, and record producer, working with names like Steely Dan and Blue Oyster Cult. He does pull examples from Bach and Beethoven, but he is obviously more comfortable citing universally-known tunes like “Happy Birthday to You”, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, or “Stairway to Heaven”. (Readers whose tastes range in previous epochs will possibly be surprised at the sophistication modern popular musicians have displayed.) Levitin has a good sense of humor and is a genial explainer.
He starts out with a forty page first chapter “What is Music?”, which is as good a short explanation of key concepts as tone, scale, fifths, and timbre as anyone could want, and is a fine foundation for all that comes after, a collection of scientific lore and tidbits from all over. For instance, even if you are not a musician, you have a huge store of tunes in your memory. You may not have perfect pitch, the ability to know that an A flat is an A flat as soon as you hear it, but Levitin’s own research has provided surprising evidence that your sense of pitch, even if you are not a musician, is really quite good. Subjects who were asked to sing a song from memory got the absolute pitch just right, or very close; they did the same with the song’s tempo. There are differences in the brains of musicians and nonmusicians. The corpus callosum, the mass of fibers that connects the right brain hemisphere to the left, is larger in musicians, and is especially larger in those that started music training early. The overall lesson here, though, is that we are all musical, even if we are not musicians, and so non-expert musical brains are really very similar to expert ones. There are descriptions here of surprising research that makes clear how truly ready our brains are to incorporate musical experience. Fetuses in the last three months of gestation, for instance, can hear music within the womb, along with other outside and inside noises. Experiments have shown that if you repeatedly play a song into the womb, and then make sure the child does not hear it again after birth until it is one year old, and then play the music again, the infant will prefer hearing the womb-music rather than completely novel music. This was true whether the experimental music was Vivaldi or the Backstreet Boys.
Levitin certainly has connections; he tells of discussions with Francis Crick about themes in this book, as well as with Joni Mitchell. The final chapter, “The Music Instinct”, is a response to cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, who spoke at a 1997 convention of researchers in music perception and cognition. Pinker took the dismissive stance that music was “auditory cheesecake”, tickling the parts of the brain that were really for the important functions of language and (unlike language) useless as a force in human evolution. It is not surprising that Levitin and his fellow researchers disagree. Darwin himself felt that musical tones were used in conveying emotion and that those who were able to expend energy in singing or playing were demonstrating biological and sexual fitness. Musical success does make for high numbers of opportunities for spreading one’s genes (just ask Mick Jagger). Interest in music peaks in adolescence, indicating a role in sexual selection. Music has been around longer than agriculture, and there is no evidence that language actually preceded music in our species. It may have promoted the cognitive development that was harnessed for speech. Only in the past few hundred years did music become a spectator activity, but in the eons when it could have shaped our social evolution, it was a group activity that may have promoted group togetherness and synchrony. It is an engaging final argument that serves to emphasize the importance of all that the book has presented before, a demonstration that looking at an important human activity in a scientific way only increases our wonder and delight in the activity itself.
Blue Like Jazz
It says something about a book that makes you want to read it till’ you can’t stay awake any more at night and when it’s the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning (to read more of it). “Blue Like Jazz,” is such a book. I can’t really compare it to any other book b/c I’ve never read anything quite like it. It’s just a compilation of stories and thoughts told through the eyes of a truly honest and heartfelt man.The thing that really hit me while reading the book was that of encouragement. Thank God there is at least several more people out there (Donald and many of his friends which I feel like I know and would love to hang out with) who are like me in their pursuit to be in love with Jesus. These past few months have been a shaping time for me and granted, I have my own stories to tell and maybe someday I can, but for now, I’ve never felt God speaking to me so often as I did while reading this book (besides when I read the Bible I suppose). But this time, the voice was so much more personal, more intimate, more real.
The hardest thing for me to think after reading this book was that not everybody gets it and not all Christians are there yet. Not to say that I am, but still, it’s going to be tough to convey this message of Jesus’ love to a world so enthralled in “economic love” (as Miller points out through a speaker he heard). My heart is stirring and I feel like I am just beginning to get this a little better now (Jesus’ love).
Only one word can describe my experience in reading this book: Intoxicating. (and I’ve never even been drunk before:) Thank you, Don and please thank all your friends personally from me. My name’s Neville. Like you said too, hope we can meet someday.
Hal Leonard Guitar Method, Complete Edition
I’m a guitar teacher who has been teaching beginning guitar since 1983 to a multitude of young start-ups learning the instrument. This has always been the main book I use for beginners. This book’s target audience is 12 to 19 year olds. Students 8 to 11 have used the book with me but struggled, as the note reading and strumming is a little difficult for them. Students under 12 need a book more dedicated to 3 and 4 string EZ chords played on the high strings (like Alfred’s Kid’s Guitar Course) as opposed to full 6 string chords. This book progresses into lengthly 7 and 8 line melodies pretty early on and children under 12 can’t maintain a high level of concentration for that long without soon becoming frustrated and impatient. (Maybe Hal Leonard will release a “Guitar Primer” as a preliminary to this book someday).
But it’s perfect, like I said, for the 12 to 80+ year olds. This age group has the maturity, finger strength, and the self-discipline to diligently practice the material slowly without giving up too soon. Dedicated practice time is the secret to success using this book or any other method book. The lessons are progressive, meaning each chord sequence you learn uses chords from the previous lessons and the notes you play for melodies contain sharps and flatted notes from previous lessons.
The song selection is nice because there are all styles, time periods, and ethnicities represented. There’s rock songs, folk songs, Christmas songs, traditional African American spirituals, fiddle tunes, classical pieces, and what I really enjoy as a teacher - 2 part duets! Book one covers the rudimentary chords and 1st position note playing. Book 2 gets you into finger picking, Carter Style, and alternating bass notes with open string cowboy chords. Book 3 gets into rock playing and improvisation using pentatonic scales. There are also “jam sessions” in book 3 that give you, the student, the chance to sit in with the band and apply what you’ve learned.
The book is authored by Will Schmid, past president of MENC, a national music organization that sets the national K-12 standards for music education. The book’s overall strength comes from Schmid’s insight into professional guitar education. This is a method book with a curriculum and a design.
This book is a revision. The revisionist being rock star celebrity Greg Koch. Greg Koch, although a little wacky (but in an entertaining way) can cover any genre of music to stylistic perfection. His performances have been professionally recorded with a full band of studio musicians. The tracks have a slow version to practice along with and a up-to-tempo version to hear what it should sound like up-to-speed. The CDs will be very helpful for those without the benefit of a guitar teacher. The audio tracks will help facilitate your learning because you can pop the CD into your boombox and listen to the lesson material as if Greg Koch himself were giving you a private lesson.
The Heroin Diaries
Nikki Sixx has treated his fans and the memoir-consuming public to a real, live diary of a dope fiend. The Heroin Diaries recounts a dark year in the life of the Motley Crue bandleader/bassist. During 1987, the Crue was on top of the world with the Girls, Girls, Girls album release and world tour, but Nikki was hopelessly addicted to heroin (and coke, and pills, and casual sex), and living a caricature of the rock star lifestyle. (In perhaps the lowest moment of the book, he steals the girlfriend of a member of his management team. Well, he doesn’t “steal” her. He meets her, wows her with his rock star style, bends her over some equipment backstage, and moves on. Without any regard for the relationship he just destroyed.)
I had some hesitations about an art-style book written in diary form, with a smattering of lyrics and ink-blot-style illustrations. I’m a huge fan of The Dirt, and at a quick glance, this appeared to be more of a vanity project. Well, don’t judge a book by its cover! The Heroin Diaries does contain Nikki’s insane drug-addled ramblings, but it is augmented by quotes from band members, ex-girlfriends, photographers, band management, family, and friends. These are interspersed with the rather terse diary entries to provide perspective and context for Nikki’s writings. All the players are brutally honest about Nikki’s (and their own) failings during the hedonistic days of Motley Crue. (I now forgive the delay of the release of this book–I’m glad the authors and editors spent the time getting these quotes on the record.) The reader is treated to an inside look at what it is like to have all the money in the world and not observe any of the limits of traditional society.
Nikki and his band shared a love/hate relationship with the drug. Nikki knew it inspired paranoia and ill health, but he craved the escape. His bandmates disliked Nikki’s strung-out flakiness, but they also needed the break from Nikki’s intensity, and recording sessions were more pleasant when heroin took some of the edge off. Nikki’s drug dealer made a lot of money off the rock star, so he was always willing to make special deliveries or go out of his way to get back his customer when Nikki did a stint in rehab.
The Heroin Diaries is a priceless piece of rock history (Nikki loved the as-yet-undiscovered Guns N’ Roses and loathed the goody-two-shoes Whitesnake with their reliably decent performances). During this time, Nikki bought out all his band’s master tapes from his former record company, which was a musicians-rights coup that has hardly been rivaled in the ensuring two decades. With a gag order on the specifics, he is only able to skirt around the issue, but this is just one of many accomplishments Nikki achieved while addicted to dope. Who knows what he could have done off the stuff? The book’s architecture allows Nikki to step fully into the role of dope fiend, without preachy commentary and wisdom of hindsight, while his friends, family, and band provide the context and real-world perspective on his downward spiral. Only at one point does Nikki interrupt his own writings with a note that he was obviously lying to himself and his diary about his relationship with heroin as he was about to embark on tour.
This is drug-addition, rock star style, and recovery-memoir, rock star style. It’s a match made in rock n’ roll heaven. I’m glad Nikki is still here with us to share his story and keep making music.
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
Caveat: Since I just lent my copy to someone else today, this is a little off the top of my head:
Sacks is a neurologist, and that is more evident in later chapters, but the first few shed a whole lot of light,
I think, on the field of psychology and psychiatry: Basically it explores the quesition, “When do hallucinations indicate clinical madness(pre-pc term), or not(Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination)?”
The middle, more strictly neurological chapters make me anxious, I admit. Especially the one about the guy
who lost all short-term memory except how to play music he already knew! He kept saying to his wife, “Well,
here you are!” when she’d been there for hours. If it was all I had, would my own musical canon be enough?
The middle chapters also tell you some little-known stuff I felt I already knew; probably because it rehashed material from his earlier books. Well, fine. OK. The last chapter is not bad on the effectiveness of musical therapy, which has been a “new field” since at least the 80’s, a new field where it is tough to find employment. Nice way to wind up. But on the whole, I recommend the first few chapters. I believe it is the finest writing in the book.
An opthamologist I know, who laid the groundwork for Sacks’ book on the island of the colorblind, would say he’s more of a story-teller than a researcher; but that’s no small thing. Freud(The Interpretation of Dreams) was a great storyteller, too.