An entertaining record of the soundtrack of the baby boomer era.
A cultural history of the elusive hit single, focused on artists’ recollections and studio alchemy.
In 2011, Myers (Why Jazz Happened, 2012) began the Wall Street Journal’s “Anatomy of a Song,” which focused on “dramatic stories” of creativity. “I realized the column would be better served as an oral history,” he writes, “with the stories told through songwriters’ and artists’ own words.” The resulting book is “a five-decade oral history of rhythm & blues, rock and pop.” Choosing 45 representational songs that topped the charts or were otherwise prominent, the author chronicles American pop from about 1952 to 1991, the era when radio could effectively “break” a song. Developing this overall narrative, Myers provides several paragraphs of context for the moment in which a song arrived, then switches to recollections of artists and producers. It’s a clever concept that becomes repetitive. Still, his interview subjects are well-chosen, and the excerpts provide insight on the constantly changing technology and industry behind the hits. Initially, pop music was segregated and viewed as marginally profitable, allowing regional scenes to become suddenly prominent, as with the Marvelettes’ “Please Mr. Postman.” As vocalist Kat Schaffner recalls, “Motown wanted a No. 1 pop hit, but [nobody] expected that five girls from Inkster [Michigan] were going to give it to them.” While musicians like Keith Richards took advantage of new recording technologies (“Street Fighting Man”), the record industry was gradually losing control, as a reliance on “tightly controlled singles, with albums functioning merely as collections of these short records,” gave way to the creative demands of groups like Led Zeppelin. Myers ably discusses such fluctuations within the cultural landscape during the 1960s and ’70s, though he still tends toward generalizations—e.g., “Punk rock in New York had run its course by the 1970s.” The book’s strength lies in thoughtful, wry reflections from artists including Elvis Costello, Jimmy Cliff, Stevie Wonder, Booker T. Jones, Dr. John, and Debbie Harry.
An entertaining record of the soundtrack of the baby boomer era.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8021-2559-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: Aug. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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