I’m thrilled that my novel, “True Love Scars,” made four best-of lists for 2014.
Perfect Sound Forever publisher Jason Gross included “True Love Scars” in his best books of 2014 list. (His list of best books is down past the music lists.)
Triple R Radio host/ Addicted To Noise Australia publisher Brian Wise included True Love Scars in his ten best books of 2014 list. (Brian’s list is down the page a bit.)
Former Billboard magazine columnist/ current “Trakin Care Of Business” columnist Roy Trakin included “True Love Scars” in his best books of 2014 list.
And while I’m at it, there’s a cool review of “True Love Scars” in the latest issue of Ragazine. Writer M. Sedlof manages to both write about my novel (he digs it) and provide some insight into my subtle approach to marketing “True Love Scars.” You can read his review here.
Here’s an excerpt:
“Goldberg’s virginal sex scenes unwind at the same racing-heart-awkward-self-conscious-anxious pace one can almost remember from those good old, bad old days when the forbidden fruit was all one ever wanted then-and-forever-after, only how to get it without letting it slip through your hands like sand, when all you ever did was what it took to make like you cared, when all you knew about caring was what you heard at home, an attitude you didn’t know you didn’t have that may have cost you big time. …
“This was life in California during the denoument days-months-years of Summer of Love, Altamont, the winding up-down of Vietnam, of Roman Polanski and Charlie Manson, Sharon Tate … of Haight and Half Moon Bay, of kids who didn’t surf, who confused and burned-out ended up discovering what the core of life is really like, deep inside, where if you’re lucky enough to find yourself before you die you might even claw your way out. It’s one kid’s story, and then some.”
“… a gonzo look back at misspent youth in the 1960s called True Love Scars — the first in a projected Days of Crazy Wild trilogy. It’s a crackling good read, fillled with humor, pathos, drug use and Dylan references (seriously, I think there’s one on every page). Some of the book is quite harrowing — The Wonder Years, this ain’t. But Goldberg’s freewheelin’ style captures a certain late 60s/early 70s vibe (think the autobiographical writings of Lester Bangs) that makes True Love Scars a pleasure through and through. Check it out.
Jason Gross’s blog:
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[I published True Love Scars in August of 2014.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
Improbable as it might seem at first, Dylan has recorded Shadows In The Night, an album of songs associated with Frank Sinatra – and it’s damn good.
By Michael Goldberg.
I hated Frank Sinatra. As a teenager, Sinatra, who was my mother’s favorite singer, represented my parents’ middle class world, a world I was desperate to escape. I wrote Sinatra off as one of those puppets, a Hollywood-invented pop star who sang Tin Pan Alley love songs, the kind that rhymed moon and June.
Silly love songs. That was what Frank Sinatra was all about. Trivial.
And worse still, I read that he hated rock ‘n’ roll.
In 1957, in the Paris magazine Western World, Sinatra called rock ‘n’ roll “the most brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious form of expression it has been my displeasure to hear … It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people. It smells phony and false. It is sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons and by means of its almost imbecilic reiterations and sly, lewd—in plain fact dirty—lyrics, and as I said before, it manages to be the martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the earth. This rancid smelling aphrodisiac I deplore.”
So yeah, for me Sinatra was Public Enemy #1.
Sinatra was, in my opinion, the polar opposite of my idol, Bob Dylan, the brainy rock ‘n’ roll star who had in rapid succession released three of the greatest albums ever: Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde.
Dylan wrote his own songs, sang with a voice like no other, was a poet, brought the art of songwriting to a level it had never previously reached and was the hippest of the hip.
In 1965, while Sinatra was singing retro pop like “The September Of My Years” and “Last Night When We Were Young,” Dylan was spitting out such modern cubist masterpieces as “Ballad Of A Thin Man,” “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “Like A Rolling Stone.”
Sinatra was ancient history, the pop singer my mother’s heart beat fast for during her teenage years as a bobby soxer.
I had no interest and no time for Frank Sinatra.
But 23 years later, in 1988, thanks to Beach Boy Brian Wilson, my attitude towards Sinatra changed. I was on assignment for Rolling Stone, writing a feature story about Wilson, who had a debut solo album about to be released. I was hanging out with Wilson at his townhouse in Malibu, and I was checking out some of his favorite CDs, which included recordings by Randy Newman and Phil Spector. There was one by Frank Sinatra, possibly In the Wee Hours or it might have been September Of My Years. Whichever it was, I listened to it there at Wilson’s place, and I opened up to Sinatra. I heard him for the first time.
I came to appreciate Sinatra, and the songs he sang, and I came to dig the often sentimental arrangements provided by Nelson Riddle and others.
Still, when I learned that Bob Dylan, BOB DYLAN, had recorded Shadows In The Night, a full album of songs previously recorded by Sinatra, my initial reaction was that of my 15-year-old self: horror.
Dylan singing those songs? Those corny Tin Pan Alley songs? How could he?
[Last August I published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of the book. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
Pushed It Over The End (AKA Citizen Kane Jr. Blues)
Long May You Run
Greensleeves
Ambulance Blues
Helpless
Revolution Blues
On The Beach
Roll Another Number
Motion Pictures
Pardon My Heart
Dance Dance Dance
Some months back the extraordinary experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser dropped an advance of his upcoming collaboration with free jazz guitarist Ray Russell, The Celestial Squid.
The album is a free jazz mindblower.
Today a 12 minute promo video for the album was released:
I’ve been digging Kaiser’s music since the late ’70s when I wrote a short article about him for New West magazine. We subsequently became friends. Recently, in December, we collaborated when Henry improvised as i read from my novel, True Love Scars, at Down Home Music in El Cerrito, CA.
Here’s info on the album direct from Cuneiform Records, which will release it on February 3, 2015.
Guitar summits don’t ascend higher than when legendary British free-jazz pioneer and longtime session ace Ray Russell meets the brilliant California avant-improv overachiever and Antarctic diver Henry Kaiser in the realm of The Celestial Squid. With more than countless session and soundtrack performances to his credit, including the early James Bond film scores, Russell is returning to his bone-rattling, noise-rocking roots for the first time since the very early 70s. You’ll be shaken and stirred as Kaiser, Russell and eight super friends deliver a no-holds-barred, free-range sonic cage match.
Russell created some of the early ’70s’ most outrageously outside music, releasing hallmark works of guitar shock-and-awe. Russell’s “stabbing, singing notes and psychotic runs up the fretboard have nothing to do with scalular architecture,” wrote All Music’s Thom Jurek, “but rather with viscera and tonal exploration.” Russell anticipated the wildest and most intrepid vibrations of Terje Rypdal, Dave Fuzinski, Sonic Youth, Keiji Haino, Tisziji Muñoz and their boundary-dissolving ilk. Russell is hardly a niche performer, though. Untold millions of music and film fans have actually, if unknowingly, already enjoyed Russell’s riffs – at least if they saw any of the James Bond films that John Barry scored, beginning with Dr. No in 1962.
For over 40 years, Russell would not make such exploratory music until West Coast guitar experimentalist Henry Kaiser called him out of the blue and asked if he would be interested in co-leading an ensemble in the style of his ’71 masterpiece, Live at the ICA: June 11th 1971. Russell was surprised and delighted by the offer, and readily accepted. Why had he waited so long to once again explore the free-jazz spaceways you might well wonder? Simple – no one had asked him to do so!
So on April 12, 2014, Henry Kaiser and Ray Russell – along with drummers Weasel Walter and William Winant, bassists Michael Manring (electric) and Damon Smith (acoustic), and saxophonists Steve Adams, Joshua Allen, Phillip Greenlief, and Aram Shelton – entered Berkeley, California’s Fantasy Studios for a day-long session that resulted in The Celestial Squid, a nearly eighty-minute embryonic journey through the deepest waters and most cosmic heights of improvised music. Except for melodic heads and compositional structures, everything on The Celestial Squid is improvised, down to some astonishing extemporaneous horn arrangements. While The Celestial Squid echoes the raw energy and youthful bravado of Russell’s earliest achievements, this music synergizes the combined power and imagination of all ten of these musical masters into a force to be reckoned with.
guitars: Henry Kaiser, Ray Russell
saxophones: Steve Adams, Joshua Allen, Phillip Greenlief, Aram Shelton
electric bass: Michael Manring
acoustic bass: Damon Smith
drums: Weasel Walter, William Winant
recorded live by Adam Munoz at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA on April 12, 2014
mixed by Henry Kaiser, Adam Munoz, Weasel Walter at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA
mastered by Paul Stubblebine
artwork and art direction by Brandy Gale
production by Henry Kaiser
A benefit concert for Bay Area bluesman Johnny Harper and Paul Geremia will be help on January 28, 2015 at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, California.
Among the artists playing the benefit are fold-blues legend Maria Muldaur, former Asleep At The Wheel singer Chris O’Connell, and singer Barbara Dane,
Johnny Harper is a superb guitarist, bandleader, singer and songwriter. Paul Geremia is a highly respected acoustic blues performer, finger-style guitarist, and songwriter, with ten solo albums to his credit. Both men have recently suffered serious health issues.
Here’s Johnny Harper on the concert:
Why a benefit? Many of you do not know that I’ve been dealing with a very tough health situation this past fall. I was hospitalized from early September to mid-November. The reason was a blood-clotting problem called a pulmonary embolism. This is very, very serious; the doctors were very doubtful that I would survive it. But survive it I did. Then there was a long period of recovery from the trauma; a lot of physical therapy was needed to help me get my strength back. I’m home now, and feel pretty good in most respects. I am getting around well, am doing physical therapy exercises daily and taking care of myself. I am playing guitar well again, and am starting to teach some of my guitar students. But there are other respects in which I’m still in the recovery phase. Also, of course, I lost months of work, months of income, and have unpaid medical bills which are not entirely covered by my health insurance.
So some friends in the musical community – spearheaded by the tireless organizer and great fiddler/ singer Suzy Thompson – have put together this wonderful Acoustic Blues Festival night at Freight and Salvage, as a benefit for me and also for Paul Geremia, a distinguished acoustic blues artist of many years’ standing, who has also suffered difficult and costly health setbacks recently.
The Freight is of course the West Coast’s premier folk music venue, and now holds 400 in its very comfortable downtown Berkeley location.
I’ll say more about the stellar lineup of performers in a moment. But the main message is, this will be a wonderful night of music with lots of terrific artists playing. And also – well, both Paul and I have played many benefit shows over the years, for friends in need and for causes we believe in. This time around, we will sure be grateful for whatever support you can give us.
AMONG THE PERFORMERS YOU’LL BE HEARING:
Maria Muldaur, a true star of Americana music, has been knocking listeners out since her early days with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band back in the 1960s. She has recorded 30 albums under her own name, starting off with her self-titled first record which made her famous for the hit “Midnight at the Oasis.” Her albums and performances cover a vast range of American roots music styles – uptown urban blues, down home country blues, jazz and swing, gospel, New Orleans R&B, and more. She remains a sultry, vivacious singer and a powerful performer. In 2004 I played a brief tour as her lead guitarist, filling in for her regular guy. See much more on her albums and upcoming performances at www.mariamuldaur.com.
Barbara Dane is an American music legend, still a very powerful, moving, and creative singer at age 87! She’s a great performer of blues, folk music, and traditional jazz, and sings in various international idioms as well. She’s recorded in all these styles since the 1950s. She has worked with jazz giants Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, and Jack Teagarden; blues masters Muddy Waters, Lightning Hopkins, and Memphis Slim; folk music legends Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger; and countless other important artists. Her lifelong commitment to peace and social justice still informs her song choices and the causes for which she performs. I have been lucky enough to work many shows with her, as accompanist and occasional band director, for the last 15 years. Details on her many recordings at www.barbaradane.net.
Chris O’Connell, famous for her 15-year stint as the original lead singer in Asleep at the Wheel, recently relocated to the Bay Area and released a fine new album. Steve James, veteran blues singer and fine finger-picking guitarist, has worked with John Sebastian, Cindy Cashdollar, Alvin Youngblood Hart, James McMurtry, Bo Diddley, Maria Muldaur, and many more. Catfish Keith specializes in the traditional “bottleneck”slide style played on the metal-bodied resonator guitar.
Several long-time Bay Area musical friends of mine are also featured. I’ve played informally with all these artists for many years. Eric and Suzy Thompson are well-known for playing old-time music, bluegrass, Cajun music, Greek music, and lots of traditional blues. Suzy’s powerful vocals and fine fiddling, and Eric’s fleet-fingered guitar and mandolin work, add life to every style they turn their hands to. Suzy has also written some fine songs. I produced an early CD of theirs, Adam and Eve Had the Blues on Arhoolie. Marc Silber’s long life story in music includes a stint in the early ’60s Greenwich Village folk scene. He is well known as a guitar dealer, but should be better known as the superb musician he is. His finger-style guitar playing and his deep, authentic feel for traditional blues are wonderful; his singing is captivating and soulful. Will Scarlett is a true virtuoso of the harmonica, seemingly able to jump in any song, in any style, in any key, at the drop of a chord change! He’s performed and recorded with many fine artists – Brownie McGhee, Jerry Garcia, Hot Tuna, Old and In the Way, David Bromberg, and Clifton Chenier, to name a few.
Paul Geremia, not expected to perform on this occasion, is the other beneficiary of this special concert; he’s been struggling with difficult health problems for the last year.
Those of us who really love the blues know that it’s music to celebrate life joyfully by – and also, music that can really help us, can be there for us to lean on, when we’re having hard times.
Come celebrate with us, come hear the blues in many styles and variations, on January 28th! Tell your friends! I hope to see you there.
Angel Olsen is one of my favorite contemporary artists. Thanks to Doom & Gloom at the Tomb and NYC Taper we get to hear her recent set at the Bowery Ballroom in New York.
You can steam the set below or head to NYCTaper and download as MP3s or Flacs.
1. Chloé Griffin – EDGEWISE : A Picture Of COOKIE MUELLER (b_books)
This book is an astounding labor of love. The author, fascinated by who Cookie Mueller may have been after witnessing her in all the weirdo John Waters films, including Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, decided to travel the USA interviewing anyone still left alive who spent time with this person. All the insane characters of early 70s Baltimore, P-Town and NYC raise their sloshing glasses to this incredible lightning girl Cookie and all their stories are told in a way which creates a historical travelogue of counter culture avant insanity which is responsible for helping to light the fuse that becomes punk rock and beyond.
2. John Lydon at Rough Trade East 17th October 2014
The Rotten one was bopping around the UK promoting his new book Anger Is An Energy (Simon & Schuster) and we caught his last stop at RT and it was as good as any Sex Pistols or PiL show. He came out with his manager / right hand man and Arsenal accomplice Rambo and a shopping basket full of lager and proceeded to have a high energy back and forth with the audience. His mates from nearby Finsbury Park were there shouting back and forth and Lydon actually did a weird physical transformation into Tony Blair (he hates ‘im). Savage, infuriating – everything his book is – but with a kindness that is always burbling through. I got to meet him fleetingly, the one person I wanted to meet most in this nutso rock n roll world, and he was nice enuff (“Sonic Youth, what are you bloody doing here?”) – but I think he more interested in drowning beers with his pals, which is what he should be doing but damn I think making a record with him in trio with Irmin Schmidt with Can is what Matador should be investing in big time for 2015.
Here’s a list from Ex Hex via Punk News:
In no particular order
* Pentagram show in Minneapolis at Mill City Nights
* King Tuff Black Moon Spell LP
* The Clean Anthology LP Reissue/ Merge
* Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds show in Cincinnati at Mid Point Music Fest
Here’s Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds on KXEP:
* Brooks Headley’s veggie burgers
* Slant 6 Soda Pop Rip off LP reissue/ Dischord
* Ed Schraders Music Beat Party Jail LP
* Man Made LP reissue Teenage Fan club/ Merge
* Black Bananas Electric Brick Wall LP
* Hammered Satin/The Tip/Dirt City show at Smash in DC
[This year I published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
Great story by Paul Elie in the December 22, 2014 New Yorker on guitarist Jim Campilongo, who is known for playing a 1959 Telecaster.
Over the years some of Campilongo’s fans includes Lou Reed, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones and Bonnie Raitt.
The story begins:
A 1959 Fender Telecaster, blond finish, white pickguard, maple fretboard, will set you back about thirty thousand dollars.
Jim Campilongo is known for playing a 1959 Telecaster, blond, white guard, maple board, and a few years ago Fender’s custom shop produced a Jim Campilongo Signature Model, based on the one he plays. It was priced at $4,499—not thirty thousand dollars, but four times the price of a regular Telecaster. The Custom Shop has fashioned signature models based on guitars made iconic by Jeff Beck; David Gilmour, of Pink Floyd; and Andy Summers, of the Police. The Campilongo signature model put him up there with them—anointed him a sultan of twang.
At the Living Room, in Williamsburg, the other Tuesday, Campilongo played the ’59 Tele, not the signature model. I could see the guitar clearly—the body nicked and cut like a hockey rink, the fretboard worn to the color of chewed gum—because I was in the front of the audience.
Fantastic hour-plus set. Jim Campilongo & Honeyfingers at 55 Bar, NYC – September 8 2013:
Jim playing with Norah Jones in the Little Willies:
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[This year I published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” Rolling Stone has a great review of my book in a recent issue. Read it here. There’s info about True Love Scars here.]
The major musical event of 2014 was the release of Bob Dylan and The Band’s ‘Basement Tapes’ recordings – 140 of them (if you include the two songs included in the hidden track at the end of disc six). But beyond the six-plus hours of mostly better quality versions of these songs than we’ve heard before (along with a batch of songs that haven’t made the bootlegs – at least the ones I got my hands on), a lot of other noteworthy albums were released during the year.
The list that follows is based on what I heard and what I liked. No one can listen to everything, and I don’t pretend to try. But these albums are good ones, and if you haven’t heard some of them, I hope you’ll check them out.
1 Bob Dylan, The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 (Columbia): As I wrote when the set was released: Dylan’s best songs are not the straightforward protest songs from the early ‘60s – “Masters Of War” or “The Times They Are A-Changing.” Rather, it’s songs like “Visions Of Johanna,” songs that are opaque. Songs that defy literal understanding. Those are the great ones. I’ve listened to “Visions Of Johanna” 100s of times and still its mysteries remain intact. And a song such as “I’m Not There” – do you know what it’s about? … The lyrics to many of Dylan’s Basement songs are opaque too; as if they’re written in an invisible ink, or in a language that defies translation. And it’s that mystery that keeps bringing me back. One line stands out, gives up something one day, then pulls it back on another.
“Ain’t No More Cane (Take 2)”:
2 Jolie Holland, Wine Dark Sea (Anti): Jolie Holland moved into a whole other zone with the avant-garde guitar sounds that help define “Wine Dark Sea.” She takes her idiosyncratic version of Americana, integrates some wild noise (think Sonic Youth) rock guitar and the result is thrilling. Holland is an incredible singer and songwriter. Perhaps my favorite here is “The Love You Save,” which finds Holland trumping the late Janis Joplin with her take on the Stax/Volt soul of the mid-‘60s.
Jolie Holland – Full Performance (Live on KEXP):
Songs:
First Sign Of Spring
On and On
Out On The Wine Dark Sea
Who Are you
3 Angel Olson, Burn Your Fire For No Witness (Jagjaguwar): At times on Angel Olson’s moving second album, as on “White Fire,” she sounds like a female Leonard Cohen. At other times it’s the Velvets I hear a faint echo of, but on the final track, “Windows,” what I hear is Angel Olson, what I hear is an exquisitely beautiful sound, even as she sings about a man who is oblivious to those around him. Her voice has a fragile quality, but there’s strength too.
“Windows”:
4 Wadada Leo Smith, The Great Lake Suites (Tum): A musician friend of mine compares this album favorably to Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, and I agree. Over two discs composer/band leader Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet), Henry Threadgill (alto saxophone, flute and bass flute), Jack DeJohnette (drums) and John Lindberg (double bass) deliver music as intense and spiritual as Coltrane and his combo. And an hour and a half after you start listening, when the music’s over, you’ll want to start it up all over again. This is one for the ages.
5 Karen O, Crush Songs (Kobalt): This low-fi bedroom recording of Yeah Yeah Yeah front woman O’s “crush” songs is intimate and addictive. There’s a hint of the Velvets’ third album here, and that’s a good thing. Proof that anyone with the songs and the voice can make their own “Basement Tapes.”
“Body”:
6 Spoon, They Want My Soul (Loma Vista/Republic): The album title nails what’s going on these days, when corporate America won’t settle for anything less than turning us into unthinking all-consuming zombies. I’ve been a Spoon fan since the mid-‘90s and this album of smart poppy rock is up there with their best. “Rainy Taxi” is intoxicating, and “knock Knock Knock” as well, but the whole album is a keeper. These Austin rockers are fighting the good fight, and winning.
7 Sharon Van Etten, Are We There (Jagjaguwar): The trials of a woman trying to deal with a (sometimes not-so-good) relationship is the theme running through Are We There. Whether these songs are about Van Etten’s real life, when one listens to this album they might as well be – these songs feel so confessional. With haunting voice and music that perfectly suits her theme, Sharon Van Etten has turned pain into songs that are deep, self-reflective and at times confrontational. Check these lyrics from “Your Love Is Killing Me”:
“Break my legs so I won’t walk to you.
Cut my tongue so I can’t talk to you.
Burn my skin so I can’t feel you.
Stab my eyes so I can’t see
You like it when I let you walk over me.
You tell me that you like it.
Your love is killing me.”
Wow!
“Your Love Is Killing Me”:
8 Tweedy, Sukierae (ANTI):Tweedy and his son Spencer recorded this 20 song album with help from a few musician friends. It’s beautiful and moving and wonderful. Tweedy says it’s a two record set and suggests the vinyl version is the best way to listen. Very Beatlesque at times – check out “Summer Noon.”
“Summer Noon”:
9 Ex-Hex, Rips (Merge): Mary Timony’s new band delivers a garage-rock explosion of a debut album. There are echoes of The Ramones and Patti Smith and Timony’s friends, Sleater-Kinney in the 12 songs. Great guitar riffs from Timony. There’s a priceless energy in these tracks. This trio is on fire.
10 tUnE-yArDs, Nikki Nack (4AD): Merrill Garbus has voice, a big soulful voice and she can really sing. And when you can really sing, and you have the knock for writing catchy songs with loads of hooks, you can go wild with the music and make it work. Sometimes it sounds like Garbus has utilized every object in the junkyard to make her unorthodox tracks, and at other times only her voice.
Also great:
11 Lykke Li, I Never Learn (Atlantic):
12 Lucinda Williams, Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone (Highway 20)
13 The Hold Steady, Teeth Dreams (Razor & Tie)
14 The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground – 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition (Ume):
15 The War On Drugs, Lost In The Dream (Secretly Canadian)
The Velvet Underground, “I’m Waiting For The Man”:
Books:
(In no particular order – these are all great!)
The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll In Ten Songs, Greil Marcus (Yale University Press): Greil Marcus’ latest book is all about what Marcus hears when he listens to ten songs, and what he hears is unexpected and sometimes revelatory. It’s not any kind of history of rock that you or I have ever read before, because Marcus sees no point in revisiting the same old story that we’ve read numerous versions of since the ‘60s. Not a history so much as a theory about rock ‘n’ roll, and then ten examples that, in different ways, back up that theory. Amazing.
I loved You More, Tom Spanbauer (Hawthorne): Tom’s Spanbauer’s book is 466 pages of heartbreak. Think about the love affair that went so wrong for you, the one that tore you down, left you devastated and in pieces. Yeah, that’s this book. Beautifully written. Every sentence is a gem.
A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, Holly George-Warren (Viking): A superbly written biography of Alex Chilton, who is best known as one of the leaders of Big Star. If you start to read it, you soon will find yourself deep into both the Big Star recordings and Chilton’s solo work before you know it.
Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay, Elena Ferrante, (Europa Editions): The third in what looks to be a four book series that follows two girls in Italy from childhood to old age. With this book, Ferrante adds politics to the volatile mix of love, sex, family, money and friendship that fuels the first two.
Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues, Joel Selvin (Counterpoint): More than just a biography of Bert Burns, who wrote such classics as “Here Comes the Night,” “Piece of My Heart,” and “Twist and Shout,” discovered Van Morrison, produced records including “Under The Boardwalk” for The Drifters and so much more, Selvin also manages to detail the history of the New York-based rhythm and blues business.
My Struggle (books 1, 2 & 3), Karl Ove Knausgaard (Macmillan): This year I read the first three books of this six volume epic semi-fictional autobiography. Knausgaard goes deep into his first person narrator’s psychology, as he lays out his life for us in minute detail. Somehow it’s fascinating, even when it seems like he’s telling us way more than we need to know. Mesmerizing.
On Highway 61, Dennis McNally (Counterpoint): Actually, I’m only a third of the way through this incredible book, but it’s so good I have to include it. McNally has written the history of how blacks and whites influenced each other musically, as they created what he calls cultural freedom. Along the way he tells the stories of Mark Twain, Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Lead Belly, John Hammond, Sr., Thelonious Monk and many, many others. More on this book in 2015.
