Today is Black Friday, the start of the holiday shopping season. The use of the phrase in reference to the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year first appeared in 1975 in The New York Times. The word "black" here refers to black ink (as in, "in the black") indicating profits vs. red ink, which was used to delineate losses. For the purposes of this post, I've renamed today Book Friday, the day on which I post about books I've recently enjoyed and you might consider for gifts this season [Photo above of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward shopping for books at New York's Strand Book Store in the 1950s]:
Music: A Subversive History—Ted Gioia (Basic). For thousands of years, argues Ted Gioia in his marvelous new book, innovative songs have almost always come from outsiders—the poor, the unruly and the marginalized. If songs are stories set to music, those stories belong to disrupters who upended the status quo with new ways of articulation and delivery. Through shrewd research and big ears, Ted looks back years at the vital role the underclass has played in shaping what popular tunes. This is as true about Greek odes as it is about the blues, rock 'n' roll and rap. Outsiders repeatedly have advanced the development of music by creating new forms and new styles within forms. In this book, Ted once again connects the dots with literary and analytic ease. And like his other books, this story is smoothly told and rich with historical facts assembled brilliantly to make his case. Go here.
Janis: Her Life and Music—Holly George-Warren (Simon & Schuster). This biography of rock's first dominant female vocalist is by far the best and most dramatic. George-Warren moves slowly and deliberately through Joplin's family tree and career, shedding much light on the singer's woes, demons and vocal gifts as she traveled from Texas to San Francisco and then to Los Angeles. An enigmatic and troubled blues singer who electrified audiences with her possessed, blowtorch delivery, Joplin self-medicated with heroin and alcohol in an effort to ease the emotional bruising she endured throughout her short, comet-like life. Go here.
The History of Rock & Roll, Vol. II: 1964-1977—Ed Ward (Flatiron). In his widely anticipated second volume, Ed Ward picks up the story of rock's revolution in 1964, a year after Volume I ends. Starting with the phenomenon known as the Beatles in '64, Ward takes us through to The Last Waltz in 1976, the Band's farewell concert at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Written in essay form, the book blend's rock's major stops with the factors that caused the music to change over this 13-year period. The book also puts the history of rock in perspective. Go here.
The Specialty Records Story—Billy Vera (BMG). Specialty Records was founded in 1945 by Art Rupe just after the American Federation of Musicians' first recording ban ended. Before the ban, there were three major record companies. After the ban was resolved, dozens of new independent labels emerged, including Specialty. Initially a Los Angeles gospel record company, Specialty helped pioneer R&B beginning in the late 1940s. Among the label's top recording artists were Lloyd Price, Little Richard, Percy Mayfield and John Lee Hooker. Much of the factual material in Vera's book came from Specialty's archives, thanks to Art Rupe, who is still with us. Go here.
Anatomy of a Song (Grove Atlantic) and Why Jazz Happened (University of California Press) by me are both available in paperback. Anatomy of a Song has been referred to as a "literary jukebox," allowing readers to jump in anywhere and read the stories behind 45 hit singles in any order you wish. Go here.
Why Jazz Happened has been called "the first jazz social history," in which I look at the eight major jazz styles and the external social, business and technilogical factors that allowed them to emerge and thrive. Go here.
