NEW MUSIC BOOKS

 

It's interesting when three music books such as these appear in one's hands at the same time. 

'Rock 'N' Roll London' presents itself as a guide to the city's musical heritage.  

The author of the book  is Tony Barrell who describes himself as pop historian, journalist, editor and Londoner who has spent much  of his life interviewing musicians. 

He writes that 'several genres of music are represented in the book but we are using the term rock 'n ' roll in its modern, overarching sense to include all the popular music of this century and the latter half of the 20th century'.

The books is divided into five main areas: Central, North, West, East and South and four themes: Life and Death, Meetings and Happenings, Performances,  Recordings. The bulk of the book is made up of short entries for each of the 100 musicians covered and their link to a building and/or place.

I was  interested to  discover that in 1974 Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas died in Harry Nilsen's Mayfair flat at 9 Curzon Place W1. In 1978 The Who's Keith Moon died in the same apartment. Both were aged 32.

The book is very well designed and is packed with excellent single and double-page photos. Three of the ones I really liked are: a black and white  of the Beatles watching a topless dancer at the Raymond Revue Bar in 1967; A beautiful colour shot of Bob Marley playing football in Battersea Park by Adrian Boot; A fabulous shot of The Clash at the  Rainbow Theatre, a gig that I attended with Chrissie Hynde and Chris Salewicz.

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UNDERGROUND: The Illustrated Bible of Cursed Rockers And High Priestesses of Sound.

Written by Arnaud Le Gouëfflec / Artist Nicolas Moog. Published by Titan Comics. 36 profiles.

'They don't do it for fame, they do it for the music - these rock legends and priestesses of sound  are the outsiders, the trail blazers, artists who changed the face of music  forever. From Captain Beefheart to Patti Smith, this odyssey through the rock hinterlands is perfect for fans of outsider artists, rock history aficionados and those modern vinyl lovers who want to discover the saga that got music to where it is today.'

Michael Moorcock writes an eloquent Preface which in part says: 'Having been closely associated with various  "underground" bands over the years, including  my own, I do know the fierce loyalty they command and the idealism, even love, they engender in their audiences.'

Each of the 36  profiles are brilliantly illustrated in black and white comic style. The ones I know of including the Captain and Patti are Moondog, Sun Ra, John Fahey, Nico, Billie Childish, Kim Fowley, Townes Van Zandt. Lots of others to discover, to learn and enjoy. ITS SUPERB!

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A remarkable book by the  American music writer who is considered  the greatest cultural critic on rock 'n' roll to add to his 15 books already published which include several on Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley with others on Van Morrison and The Doors, the history of punk in pop music.

The flyleaf of this book explains its purpose and stylistic approach. 'He selects ten songs between 1956 and 2008 then proceeds to dramatize how each embodies rock 'n' roll as a thing in itself, in the story it tells, inhabits and acts out - a new language, something new under the sun. In his hands the songs he investigates tell the  story of music which is, at bottom, the story of the desire for freedom in all its unruly and liberating glory.

REBEL MUSIX: SCRIBE ON A VIBE

 

Back in the day when Ladbroke Grove was the grooviest place to be I'd go to one of Vivien's parties where you were guaranteed to meet cool cats of all kinds and hear good music including her own.

REBEL MUSIX: SCRIBE ON A VIBE

' The articles in this book have been written over a span of forty-five years. Our aim is to faithfully replicate the original writings and interviews and therefore some of the language, ideas and attitudes expressed at the time may be outdated in a modern context.'

'Any undertaking of this kind - collecting and assessing and making       flow five decades worth of one's music journalism is bound to be an abseil into the attic of your mind.'

What a mind!!!

THIS IS AN EXTRAORDINARY BOOK : 441PAGES OF FRONTLINE ADVENTURES LINKING PUNK, REGGAE, AFROBEAT AND JAZZ

Thanks Viv for everything

'DEAR ORSON WELLES & OTHER ESSAYS' BY MARK COUSINS

 

It was very unexpected to receive an elegant card headlined FOR FAVOUR OF REVIEW from The Irish Pages Press who say they are delighted to enclose a review copy of their most recent book for your consideration entitled 'Dear Orson Welles & Other Essays' by Mark Cousins. I have had ever since the pleasant task of reading this 448-page beautifully-bound volume consisting of some 40 Essays in many different forms, most of which were written during flights and long vehicle journeys in many countries and situations connected with the world of film over a long period.

To understand the new book better some background is useful. Mark Cousins has made 24-feature films, 30 short films and 40 hours of television. He has travelled the world widely particularly for his marvellous tv series 'The Story of Film: An Odyssey' which I have watched many times on DVD. Have just brought the 550pp fully-illustrated book  that provides a deeper view of the full global study of the history of film-making 

The new book is a delightful work composed of four sections. Screen Memoirs contains10 essays which begins  with Los Angeles. He spent chunks of his 30s doing a tv show in which he  interviewed movie actors and directors liked Gus van Sant, Jack Lemmon who had a drink problem and  Rod Steiger who suffered with depression. Dennis Hopper who had developed bone cancer told him how to make martini . I like the piece on Robert Towne who wrote Bonny and Clyde, Chinatown and wrote  the famous scene between Brando and Pacino in The Godfather.

 The other sections are Dear Directors with 6 essays, Thoughts on Form, with 10 Essays and the World of Cinema with13 Essays. 
He says he not great at words and, in an essay called 'Visual Thinking' he says he runs videos in his head,

Mark Cousins was born in 1965. In Children and Trauma, the title of a talk he gave at a psychology conference in 2007, he writes:

' I was brought up in Belfast and was five when the war in Northern Ireland went into top gear.  I was a nervy little boy anyway, but the war jangled those nerves...The war took its toll on the loving world my parents had built for us. Our house was damaged by a bomb, a family friend was murdered.

Yet I had medicine for the fear, a balm to soothe it. That medicine was ... imagery.

He writes that there were no books in the house and he was never taken to art galleries 'yet from the age of eight or so, I'd go to the local library, hunker down on the floor and flick through books of Escher prints, Paul Klee drawings and, in particular, Paul Cézanne's Mont Sainte Victoire. These pictures eased my nervous system.'

He writes that he is not  interested in the escapist aspects of movies like Harry Potter  so much as films like Kes and Billy Elliot which depict grieving, or damaged or unfilled children in the process of becoming whole.  By mid-teens he became a film buff and then, when he grew up as a filmmaker.

In later years he went on to consider about the idea of kids themselves producing imagery. Fourteen years ago he co-founded a charity called Scottish Kids Are Making Movies but felt that there was too much technique in making simple films. Instead he got interested in Through the Eyes of a Child, a photo camp run  by an international NGO to give kids in refugee camps the opportunity to use cameras for a few days which has proved to be very successful in building their confidence.

 This is all one aspect of a very wide-ranging book full of ideas and information. He is a champion of female film makers and film making in Africa and many other countries. The remarkable range and depth of his knowledge provides anyone who has a passion for film-making with exciting new thoughts and ideas. He brings to life his remarkable and prolific career, shaped at it is by the philosophers, writers, actors and films that have influenced him. A great read.

ALAN EDWARDS: A NUMBER ONE ENTERTAINMENT PR

 

In the 60s Worthing was a good place for music. It had a large Assembly Room and a Pier Pavilion which promoters would hire to put on bands of all descriptions. Here's some examples: Cream, The Who, The Byrds from California, The Jeff Beck group, Small Faces, Black Sabbath, Fleetwood Mac. Underground groups from London like the Edgar Broughton band and Mott the Hoople.

We formed a group called the Worthing Workshop and started putting on our own events at these and other venues in pubs and clubs. Nightime 'meeps' on the downs with LSD. Free festivals in the park in the town. We hooked up with the art school and put on Hawkwind. We set up a short-lived folk-club in a bar near the station. It was opened by Shirley Collins, now widely regarded as the Queen of British Folk.

Several of us were to move into the music business in some way or other principally Ian Grant and  Alan Edwards who at various times worked together to stage and promote bands such as  Big Country and the Stranglers. 

 At the age of 20 Alan had returned from a trip to the hippie trail and discovered the London punk scene, cut his journalistic teeth on the music paper 'Sounds' and developed his skills by establishing a public relations agency called the Outside Organisation. 

This book catalogues his remarkable career in the celebrity entertainment world of music and sport. His closest contact was David Bowie who he collaborated with for thirty years. Mick and Keith of the Stones also used his skills as did the Spice Girls

Alan is a grand storyteller and his knowledge, tactics and experience have made him a number one entertainment PR. Good going man!

Ian went on to handle many bands with great success. I worked on the underground press, the NME and many other projects including an official portrait of Big Country entitled 'A Certain Chemistry'.  I continue to enjoy recalling those younger days and caring for my archive of memories.

GUNS N' ROSES

 No person had better credentials to write up the story of Guns N' Roses than the late Danny Sugerman who, at an early age, got his first lessons in rock 'n' roll excess from the legendary Jim Morrison.

The back blurb reads: 'In 1987, GUN N' ROSES blasted their way out of the ruins of the Los Angeles Heavy Metal Scene - and announced to the world that they were the future of rock 'n' roll.

'Fifteen million copies of their first album, and half a decade of sex and drugs later, no other  band can match them for excitement...energy...controversy...or excess.'

The story begins with Axl's slagging off his own band in front of 83,000 people in the autumn of 1989 and using racist and offensive language. Rumours had gone round that the Guns would be opening for the Rolling Stones USA tour. In the end they played only four Los Angeles dates. The contrast between the two bands is carefully studied throughout.

This remarkable book not only provides a close-up picture of the band members and their full-on sex and drugs habits but also brings to life their battles  against the music business. Sugerman also makes comparisons with poets from the past like Shelley who was an opium addict. How drugs like heroin in music began with jazz. He delves into the origins of music and recognises that rock stars have links with the shaman of the past. His detailed interviews brings the band's characters to life. Surely this is one of the greatest music books about one of the greatest bands of our time who are always on the edge, right where they belong. 

[See my earlier review of Sugerman's 'Wonderland Avenue']

WITHOUT GETTING KILLED OR CAUGHT: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF GUY CLARK

 

'Guy often says that Nashville in the '70s was like Paris in the '20s. And if that is the case, Guy and Susanna were the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald of Nashville. Married in 1972, the Clarks would come to shape the folk and singer-songwriter scene in Music City much like the Fitzgeralds fashioned the jazz age.'

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This 95-minute documentary follows Guy Clark, Susanna Clark, and Townes Van Zandt as they rise from obscurity to reverence: Guy, the Pancho to Van Zandt’s Lefty, struggling to establish himself as the Dylan Thomas of American music, while Susanna pens hit songs and paints album covers for top artists, and Townes spirals in self-destruction after writing some of Americana music’s most enduring and influential ballads. Based on the diaries of Susanna Clark and Saviano’s 2016 book Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark, the film tells the saga from Susanna’s point of view, with Academy Award- winner Sissy Spacek voicing Susanna’s narration. 

Saviano, a longtime figure on the Americana scene as a journalist, artist manager, and Grammy-winning producer, had the complete cooperation of Clark, who sat for interviews on and off camera. Without Getting Killed or Caught (the title comes from Clark’s song, “L.A. Freeway”) also offers poignant reflections from Clark’s closest friends and musical allies, most prominently Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Vince Gill, Verlon Thompson, and Terry and Jo Harvey Allen, as well as record executive Barry Poss. The film, partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign, makes good use of Clark’s songs, family photographs and archives, vintage film footage, and radio talk shows on which Clark appeared solo and in tandem with Van Zandt. The real emotional zing, however, comes from Susanna’s pained remembrances, culled from her private journals and secret audio diaries, as well as taped conversations that Susanna made of the trio and of the “salon” that regularly gathered around them--all serving as witnesses to this seemingly fated intersection of love, art, and tragedy.

CHARLIE WATTS: BIOGRAPHY AND HIS TIME IN LEWES

  

Music journalist Paul Sexton has been interviewing The Rolling Stones for over 30 years, most recently about their latest album ‘Hackney Diamonds’.

No wonder he was asked by band and family to write the authorised biography of the remarkable and much loved Charlie Watts, who passed away at the age of 80 on the 24th August 2021. He missed only one Stones' performance in 57 years.

Sexton has cleverly and carefully weaved a complex tale of the working life of the Stones. . Over the years the band has become a huge operation capable of handling remarkable tours across large parts of the globe, entertaining vast crowds of hundreds and thousands in colossal  venues or open air festivals. Who can forget it when the band finally took over Cuba.

Behind the band and the band's story is Charlie Watts who, by all accounts, is considered  to be one one of the greatest drummers of  modern times. not something that he would say of himself, 

Just listen to any Stones track and you'll hear Charlies' perfect grooves which were vital to Keith and Mick. He was the rock of the Rolling Stones.

By all accounts he was  very polite and modest. His quiet nature was highly valued.

It is better known to many that Charlie was one of the world's best dressers with a huge collection of carefully selected suits, shirts and shoes from the leading brands around the world.

Charlie was also well known as a huge collector of many objects and things. He was very generous to his friends and families.

 When he did travel he did drawings of every hotel room he slept in. 

When the Stones started doing bigger venues he used in artistic abilities to help decide the designs, and backdrops.  A man of great taste.

In the spare time in-between The Stones fixtures Charlie developed a wide variety of Jazz ensembles who also travelled extensively and produced many albums.

CHARLIE IN LEWES

I have a personal interest in Paul’s excellent book as I have been a Lewesian since 1985. Charlie and his wife Shirley enjoyed two years in Lewes [1965-1967].

I am very pleased that Paul has included some material from two editions of my successful but short-lived local paper the Lewes Musical Express which documented the town’s musical history and current musical events of the time. I hope he does not mind me adding some reciprocating quotes.

‘In June 1965 the Watts were ‘thinking  of buying the 16^th C Old Brewery House in Southover Street. Lewes. The manor house had survived when the Verral & Sons brewery buildings were demolished in 1905.

‘It was exactly what they wanted in an East Sussex town far removed from the Wild West End (and indeed from the Wild West of London)’.

‘They made an immediate offer, moved in by October. Shirley began her long passion of breeding horses. ‘Charley spent much of his time rummaging in antique shops in Lewes and Brighton.

Paul mentions Charlie doing a BBC interview in 1966 on a bench outside the house

‘In 1967 they moved to the village of Halland, 7 miles north-east of Lewes, into  Peckhams, a centuries-old manor house that NME’s Keith Altham says was once used by the 1^st Archbishop of Canterbury.

 ‘He told Keith “It’s a very old town, the County seat of Sussex and its being overrun. I don’t like the houses in suburbia. I wouldn’t live in one for free.”

‘Charlie bought Peckhams from Lord Shawcross, a former Attorney General for England and Wales. Here they had room to indulge Charlie’s almost compulsive tendencies as a collector. Paul writes that at that time they had three Collies, one donkey and a racehorse.

‘They also bought a farm in France where they lived between tours and recordings. They were required to return To Peckhams after a burglary of antique guns and American Civil War relics.

‘In 1976 they moved to Foscombe House in Gloucestershire.

 Paul writes: ‘While resident in E.Sussex and ever neighbourly to those who respected his boundaries, Charlie befriended Norman Ashdown who staged concerts in the area.’

Norman’s son Michael who I interviewed for the Lewes Musical Express said

“ I don’t know how it started  but they were big mates and certainly in first name terms. I know dad used to consult quite a bit and Charlie would give him information about producers, managers and agents – who to avoid as well as who to go with and suggest people that were reliable. He’s got a lot to say about Charlie Watts.”

“ On Friday Dec 15th 1967 Norman staged a concert by the Alan Price Set.’   Michael told me “One of the reasons Dad wanted them was quite self- indulgent because he was a great fan of Alan Price. Charlie Watts was there. I remember him coming in with a bottle of scotch and going in the dressing room”

Paul’s book refers to in an interview by the NME: that night.

“I’ve got time to do things that I’ve never been able to do before..I’ve swept in and out of dressing rooms with Rolling Stones. Now I am able to talk to people like Alan and just listen to the band. He was very good. I really enjoyed that evening.”

Paul then refers to the Lewes Musical Express and another example of Charles’s obliging nature. “He was often driven round Lewes by the horse-loving father of Doug Saunders, the guitarist/vocalist with the late 70s Mod revival band The Lambrettas”

“ When I was a kid,” said Doug, “I used to get taken to one of their houses, either the one by The Swan or the bigger place at the end of the Broyle at Halland. I knew he was a pretty big star and thought it weird that he was so very ordinary and was making a cup of tea for us. I’ve got a shirt which Charles got from Mick Jagger and which, for some reason, he gave to my dad.”

Paul writes: ‘The Summer of Love drew to a close. Charlie was on amusing form with the Melody Maker about its presence in his neighbourhood.

“ When Flower Power started it was probably fantastic” he mused. “But now it has now become a funny word like rock’n’roll. There is even a shop in Lewes which has got “Herrings are Flower Power” written up in white stuff on the window. I suppose they’ll have “Sprats are LSD next.”

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