STONE FREE

Stone Free by Andrew Loog Oldham (Escargot Books)
This is the third volume of Loog Oldham’s memoirs and it focuses on the impressive line-up of hustlers or “pimpressarios” with whom it has been (mostly) his good fortune to have had dealings with. As an infamous hustler himself he is well qualified to expound on the lives of these rogues (nearly all of them artist managers) and almost manages to elevate their frequently suspect behaviour into an art form. If you’ve read and enjoyed Stoned and 2Stoned you’ll recognize here the barbed wit and hilarious turn of phrase that made those books so noteworthy. Loog Oldham is a born raconteur and he writes like a dream. His fondness and respect for these characters (we’re talking Larry Parnes, Albert Grossman, Brian Epstein, Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, Malcolm McLaren, Don Arden) is matched only by his disdain for the modern music business – “what the industry really needs is a Schindler’s List before everyone is marched to a kind of death”. Of course charlatans of all species still proliferate the music industry but as Loog Oldham so divertingly demonstrates they are all hustling on the shoulders of giants, so to speak.

Some interesting forthcoming titles....

Even while I am still getting to grips with some of the outstanding music titles that appeared last year we have several forthcoming titles that whet the appetite. Here are just four :

Mary Wells : The Tumultuous Life of Motown's First Superstar by Peter Benjaminson (Zephyr Press Feb 2013)

I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp by Richard Hell (Ecco Press Mar 2013)

Midnight At The Barrelhouse : The Johnny Otis Story by George Lipsitz (University of Minnesota Press reprint Apr 2013)

Nilsson : The Life of a Singer-Songwriter by Alyn Shipton (OUP USA Aug 2013)

And looking much further into the future I can report that Marcus Odair's much-anticipated authorised biography of Robert Wyatt, titled Different Every Time is scheduled for publication by Serpent's Tail in April 2014.

WILD GEESE THAT FLY WITH THE MOON ON THEIR WINGS

These are a few of my favourite things. This week.

1. The first chapter of Joseph Mitchell's unfinished memoir that appears in this week's New Yorker. Ian Preece wrote a lovely piece for Caught By The River on Mitchell back in November and anyone who has a soft spot for the Big Apple and its literary tradition will love Mitchell's writing. And I am thinking of starting a campaign to get the film of Joe Gould's Secret, starring Ian Holm, released here on DVD.
2. The cover art for the obscure magazine Brooklynite also featured in this week's New Yorker. I wish there were magazines around today that looked like this.
3. Kingsbridge Books' catalogue – specialists in Polar Exploration books. I collect books about the Antarctic and after buying a second-hand book about Herbert Ponting's photographs from a stall in Wells market I found a Kingsbridge Book compliment slip tucked in the back. On contacting them they sent me their catalogue which now threatens to bankrupt me.
4. The forthcoming documentary A Death in the Life of Joe Meek. I don't know when and where we'll be able to see this but it's sure to be better than Telstar : The Joe Meek Story. More details at http://joemeekdoc.com/
5. My old Troggs LPs – played in memorium for Reg Presley who sadly died this week. To me The Troggs represented everything that was likeable about rock'n'roll. I have fond memories of The Troggs playing at Biba's!
6. Kevin Avery's book on the life and writings of Paul Nelson : Everything Is An Afterthought which I am currently reading for review in my Music Book Reader Bulletin at Caught By The River. Nelson was an idiosyncratic writer and a tragic figure. His story is a salutory one for all rock writers!
7. Django Unchained. A hugely enjoyable film that left me feeling ever so slightly guilty that I found it so.
8. Richard Mabey's essays on the weather. Heard on Radio 3 at 10.45pm every day this week.
9. Matthew E White's Big Inner album just released on Domino Records. Sublime, seductive modern take on Southern soul. http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2013/01/matthew-e-white-big-inner/.
10. Richard Williams' new music blog thebluemoment.com. Williams has just left The Guardian where he was chief sports writer. I hope that means he'll be devoting even more time to writing about music.

How Music Works

How Music Works by David Byrne (Canongate)

Not unintentionally I suspect, the cover of David Byrne's recent book How Music Works, with its padded front and back cover, stark white and black design and hefty feel resembles nothing so much as a bible. Which for anyone involved in making or listening to music (all of us?) it pretty much is. To my knowledge there's never been a more wide-ranging, stimulating and readable book on how music is listened to and heard, what its place is and has been in our lives, and most importantly what its future could be. Not surprisingly its scope means that there are aspects of music that Byrne covers which beg for more detail and substance but in this case that is a strength rather than a weakness. He opens up interesting avenues of thought about how technology has impacted on music, and what the dominant influences are on shaping an artist's music are for instance and then subtly encourages you to explore and evaluate these ideas yourself. Of course as an innovative and consummate artist himself there is a good deal in the book that is autobiographical and written from personal experience. But if you are expecting the low-down on the turmoil that broke up The Talking Heads you'll be disappointed. Byrne comes across as an affable, modest personality, non-judgmental and non-confrontational for the most part. This is more manual than memoir, but perhaps more than anything though it's an affirmation of just how important music is to our lives. Whether you are making it, listening to it, buying it, selling it, promoting it or in any way using it, and have ever stopped for a moment to ask yourself why and how, this book could answer a lot of your questions.

(Previously published in The Music Book Reader Bulletin at www.caughtbytheriver.net)