Tag Archives: list

The Best Music Books read in 2013 by Hallgeir

December 21, 2013 Hallgeir 2 Comments

bokhylle-1

My list consists of some old and some new books. I read more than the average person, I guess, around 60 books a year. At least 20 of these books are non-fiction, and they are about art. Art in the form of literature, film, music, painting and so on. Most of them are about music.

When I read about music, I need to listen to the music I read about. A good red wine in the glass, or a good cup of coffee and the music playing in the background. The artists catalogue (and bootlegs) should be available to me, so that when I read about a concert or a record, I can listen to that music when I read. It is not always possible, but very often it is. I need to set the mood.

I don’t look at the year of release when I buy music books, but I do buy interesting new releases.

Here is my list.

1. Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years by Mark Lewisohn:

I think I’ve read more books about The Beatles than any other band/artist (yes, including Dylan) and this new book may be the best I have read. Tune In is the first volume of All These Years—a biographical trilogy by Beatles historian, Mark Lewisohn.

Ten years in the making, Tune In takes the Beatles from before their childhoods through the last hour of 1962—when, with breakthrough success just days away, they stand on the cusp of a whole new kind of fame and celebrity. They’ve one hit record , Love Me Do, behind them and the next , Please Please Me, primed for release, their first album session is booked, and America is clear on the horizon. This is the pre-Fab years of Liverpool and Hamburg—and it is told in unprecedented detail. Here is the “complete” account of their family lives, childhoods, teenage years and their infatuation with American music, here is the story of their unforgettable days and nights in the Cavern Club, their life when they could move about freely, before fame closed in.

The first ten years in 944 pages. Many people were afraid that Lewisohn should write in a dry and academic style, he does not. He transports us into the lives of these young men, and we really feel like we are with them on this exiting journey. The words make the story sing.

This is clearly the best music book of 2013.

Tune In #1
2. One More Night: Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour by Andrew Muir

one more night

‘The Never Ending Tour’ celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2013. Its time span already represents almost half of Dylan’s entire career and totals over 2,500 shows!

Bob Dylan expert (and fan) Andrew Muir documents the ups and downs of this unprecedented trek. Muir analyses and assesses Dylan’s performances over the years, with special focus on many memorable shows. One More Night traces what it all means both in terms of Dylan’s artistic career and in the lives of the dedicated Dylan followers who collect recordings of every show and regularly cross the globe to catch up with the latest leg.

Many Dylan followers collect recordings of his live shows, this is the book to get if you want to know what shows to look for (as a start). An essential addition to the canon of Dylan literature.

3. Jerry Lee Lewis – Lost and Found by Joe Bonomo (2010):

From Booklist:
“Besides “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire,” the best-known fact anent Jerry Lee Lewis is that marrying his 13-year-old second cousin scuttled his rocketing young career. Bonomo launches his appreciation of Lewis from that event, homing in on Lewis’ first British tour, at the beginning of which the news was broken. A mass cancellation followed, and back home it became hard to get new Lewis records airplay. Lewis hit the road heavily to maintain his lifestyle (which came to include hitting booze and pills pretty hard, too) and eventually scored big time on the country charts in the late 1960s. Between rock and country stardom, however, he returned to Britain in 1962 and 1963 and, concluding the ’63 jaunt in Hamburg, Germany, recorded one of the acknowledged greatest live albums ever. Accounting for every aspect of that record is the loving heart of Bonomo’s tribute, and he continues to thoughtfully evaluate Lewis’ country albums. The intrinsically interesting Jerry Lee and Bonomo’s good judgment compensate for too much rock-crit boilerplate. ”
-Ray Olson

This is a great book about one of my favorite albums. Yes, it is about more than that, but it really shines when Bonomo writes about the live album from the Star Club in Hamburg (1964). I think it is the best book written about a singular album.

Lost and found
Continue reading The Best Music Books read in 2013 by Hallgeir →

Bob Dylan, Bob Dylans's best songs, List

Bob Dylan: 10 best songs recorded in 1983

October 27, 2013 Egil 5 Comments

This is an updated & revised post originally published a year ago.

The “Infidels” Birthday inspired me to set up a list of Dylan’s best songs recorded in 1983.

I’ve chosen to include 2 versions of “Blind Willie McTell”. This is by far the best song Dylan recorded in 1983… and the both versions are fantastic.


1	Blind Willie McTell – electric version	not released*
2	Blind Willie McTell – acoustic version	The Bootleg Series 3
3	Jokerman	Infidels
4	Foot of Pride	The Bootleg Series 3
5	Someone’s Got A Hold Of My Heart – alt.version	not released*
6	License To Kill	Infidels
7	I & I	Infidels
8	Lord Protect My Child	The Bootleg Series 3
9	Sweetheart Like You	Infidels
10	Tell Me	The Bootleg Series 3

* My source is the “Rough Cuts” bootleg:

Check out bobsboots.com

Now for the goodies..

1. Blind Willie McTell – electric version:

I didn’t think I recorded it right. But I don’t know why that stuff gets out on me. I mean,
it never seems to get out on other people.
~Bob Dylan (to Kurt Loder, March 1984)

–

Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem”
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Well, I heard that hoot owl singing
As they were taking down the tents
The stars above the barren trees
Were his only audience
Them charcoal gypsy maidens
Can strut their feathers well
But nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

See them big plantations burning
Hear the cracking of the whips
Smell that sweet magnolia blooming
See the ghosts of slavery ships
I can hear them tribes a-moaning
Hear that undertaker’s bell
Nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

There’s a woman by the river
With some fine young handsome man
He’s dressed up like a squire
Bootlegged whiskey in his hand
There’s a chain gang on the highway
I can hear them rebels yell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Well, God is in His heaven
And we all want what’s His
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I’m gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Continue reading Bob Dylan: 10 best songs recorded in 1983 →

List, Rock'n Roll

Rock and Roll: 100 Best Singles – according to Paul Williams – Part 2

June 2, 2013 Egil 4 Comments

There’s a scream inside everyone of us at every moment. And every one of us has had the experience of listening to a record and feeling that scream take over. Release. Abandon. Let it all out. Rock and Roll for me is about Eros, not Logos, which is paradoxical since my job is putting the experience in words.
~Paul Williams (Author’s note)

One of our favorite authors here at JV is Paul Williams, and…. he did write about other stuff than Bob Dylan.

We all love lists, so I’ll try out a new series of posts honoring one of his lesser known books:

Rock And Roll: The 100 Best Singles

..the list is chronological, starting back before the beginning and going through the 50′s and the 60′s and the 70′s and the 80′s, and ending for the sake of convenience in 1991. So #1 is not supposed to be ‘better’ than #100. It just got in the line first.

My criteria are simple: the song has to have been released as a seven-inch 45 rpm single in the United States or Great Britain (Robert Johnson’s 78 rpm ten-inch is the exception that proved the rule), and it has be “rock and roll” according to my subjective evaluation…
~Paul Williams (Author’s note)

All quotes are from the book.

Here is #11 – 20

Continue reading Rock and Roll: 100 Best Singles – according to Paul Williams – Part 2 →

Blues, List, Rock'n Roll

Rock and Roll: 100 Best Singles – according to Paul Williams – Part 1

June 1, 2013 Egil 2 Comments

There’s a scream inside everyone of us at every moment. And every one of us has had the experience of listening to a record and feeling that scream take over. Release. Abandon. Let it all out. Rock and Roll for me is about Eros, not Logos, which is paradoxical since my job is putting the experience in words.
~Paul Williams (Author’s note)

One of our favorite authors here at JV is Paul Williams, and…. he did write about other stuff than Bob Dylan.

We all love lists, so I’ll try out a new series of posts honoring one of his lesser known books:

Rock And Roll: The 100 Best Singles

..the list is chronological, starting back before the beginning and going through the 50’s and the 60’s and the 70’s and the 80’s, and ending for the sake of convenience in 1991. So #1 is not supposed to be ‘better’ than #100. It just got in the line first.

My criteria are simple: the song has to have been released as a seven-inch 45 rpm single in the United States or Great Britain (Robert Johnson’s 78 rpm ten-inch is the exception that proved the rule), and it has be “rock and roll” according to my subjective evaluation…
~Paul Williams (Author’s note)

All quotes are from the book.

Here is #1 – 10:

Continue reading Rock and Roll: 100 Best Singles – according to Paul Williams – Part 1 →

Focusing on Bob Dylan & related music