Yeah you know this all fits right in. I didn’t know that but it is a perfect fit for Genesis. What an asshole.
It sounds awesome!
Yeah you know this all fits right in. I didn’t know that but it is a perfect fit for Genesis. What an asshole.
It sounds awesome!
Cosey has another book out that I’m dying to read – about women pioneers in electronic music.
Ooh. Lots of amazing ones. Anne Dudley and Gillian Gilbert come to mind.
Another one for y’all! I felt cozy today so I put my feet up and read Robbie Krieger’s Set the Night On Fire in one go. Easily my favourite Doors-related memoir. Fair and kind to all parties concerned. Warm. Well-written. Not sensationalized. No myth-making. But lots of reverence for a special time & place. And lots of laugh-out-loud funny moments.
At some point I need to shell out for Peter Hook’s book, and also Deborah Curtis’ book. Control (based on hers) was the best band movie I have ever seen.
Just repurchased this book. It was required reading for Inter-American Studies 201:History of Rock and Roll. Got an A, but lost the book somewhere along the way.
Oh gosh, yes to both!! Seeing Control in theatres was my 3rd or 4th date with my spouse.
That’s right up my alley! I’ll add that to my wishlist. You would probably really like Race, Rock, and Elvis too.
Probably!
Just got a copy of The Girl Can’t Help It so I can see the Little Richard performance (honest!).
Interesting rabbit hole;
" Their influence on pop culture was undeniable, with even Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain citing A Nation of Millions as one of his favorite albums. Yet notable awards and major mainstream accolades never came the group’s way."
You probably already knew this, but I didn’t.* Wikipedia tells us:
The Beatles were an early and lasting influence on Cobain; his aunt Mari remembers him singing “Hey Jude” at the age of two.[9]: 9 “My aunts would give me Beatles records”, Cobain told Jon Savage in 1993, “so for the most part [I listened to] the Beatles [as a child], and if I was lucky, I’d be able to buy a single.”[36] Cobain expressed a particular fondness for John Lennon, whom he called his “idol” in his posthumously released journals,[37] and he said that he wrote the song “About a Girl”, from Nirvana’s 1989 debut album Bleach, after spending three hours listening to Meet the Beatles!.[9]: 121
*I’m of a different generation, and not particularly interested in Nirvana, despite an art class I took around 2001 where the instructor was an obviously big fan. He played Nirvana tunes exclusively during one class; perhaps for the anniversary of Cobain’s death? But I don’t need to listen to Meet the Beatles to hear the influence. I think some of Green Day’s songs also have Beatles influence, as well as many others.
https://www.slapit.com/example.html
I found “Slap It!” very helpful at the beginning of my slap journey.
Well, the Beatles never (to my knowledge) recorded a song named “About a Girl,” but you found that out. I think the influence was more the way their songs (whether from Meet the Beatles or other recordings) were constructed, the vocal arrangements, musical instruments and devices used, etc. I agree that other bands, later groups, influenced others. Although I have not kept up with a lot of music in recent decades, I think for those groups that I am familiar with, I might be able to hear their influence in a modern day song. It’s just that most of what I’m familiar with is very old school. I mean, I remember when the Beatles hit the scene, as I was 10 years old back then. I’m doing pretty good when I can remember music I liked from the early 1980s, so that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!
Just off the top of my head, many people hearing it when it was released thought this song was done by the (early) Beatles, but it was not:
“Lies,” by the Knickerbockers, released in 1965. From one of the comments to the video, by a Steve Stalzle:
“Lies” is a song written by Beau Charles and Buddy Randell, performed by The Knickerbockers; the single was produced by Jerry Fuller. It reached #20 on the U.S. pop chart in 1965. It was featured on their 1966 album Lies and is famous for often being mistaken for a Beatles track due to its similarities to their style and harmonies.
Here is what original Knickerbockers member Beau Charles said about the song’s behind-the-scenes story:
“We desperately tried to write something that sounded like the British Invasion’. We wrote ‘Lies’ in less than one half hour. We demo-ed it in New York.” After a Jerry Fuller inspired re-arrangement, the track was recorded at Sunset Sound in West Hollywood with Bruce Botnick as the Engineer. Things were not quite right, so the multi-track master was taken to Leon Russell’s house in Hollywood Hills. Jerry Fuller knew Leon and “Leon had this great little studio - just a four track”. The band recorded the vocals there and overdubbed a new guitar part that was recorded from a beat up old Fender guitar amp that gave the guitar sound a meaty, edgy feel".
BTW - I have several books on the Beatles, will check titles and post them here in a bit (just to STAY ON TOPIC!)
Okay, I finally got around to it!
Below is a list of 16 books by or about the Beatles, which are found on my messy and disorganized bookcase shelves. The notable ones as I recall them are marked with a plus sign (+). Most are paperback, unless noted otherwise. I will give more of a description of each book, vs. much of a review, since it’s been some time since I read any of them. Perhaps one or two may pique someone’s interest enough to track a copy down. I’ll try to link to Amazon for each book if it is offered there, but only to show the cover image of the edition I own, and other information.
I lived through the entire Beatle period as it happened, exposed to their overwhelming presence in the U.S. I’m sure there are other BassBuzzers of that age group, who also had the same experience. It was always quite something when a new Beatle recording was released. You can get an idea of this by watching YouTube reviewer “CallMeCaroline,” (click on the Popular button under Videos) as she progressed through the Beatle catalog. For almost all of it, it was her first time hearing the music. The neat thing about her reactions is that she does analyze the songs, musically and lyrically, unlike others. Oh, but we’re talking about books. . .
I bought books about The Beatles over the years, but it wasn’t something I researched (except perhaps for one or two) before buying. A couple of them were gifts to me. Usually I came across the Beatle books while haunting a bookstore, and if it seemed interesting, I bought it. I was more on the hunt to find all their albums, since before they broke up I was too young and didn’t have funds to buy any records (my income from baby-sitting wasn’t enough, plus I just didn’t get out to stores independently). You could always hear them on the radio, anyway. I did get the “Eight Days a Week” single 45 rpm as a party favor in 1965, though!
Now to the books:
I know there are many other books about The Beatles that are worth reading, but this is what I have.
Edited to add on 4 Feb. 2023: I added to the list, in chronological order, two other books I came across when I was returning the list’s original group of books to my bookshelves: “Apple to the Core: The Unmaking of the Beatles,” and “The Longest Cocktail Party,” both from 1972
This is a stellar curation of books, @Never2Late. Thank you very much for taking the time to research it and writing it up it.
I just finished this book, fantastic.
If you like Craigyferg, you will like this, his first (and I think only) novel (other two are autobiographies.
Just heard a bit of Mark Lanegan’s memoir and it’s pretty grim, but sounds like an amazing story. Dude bounced back in the end and towards the end was contributing to really, really creative projects.
About 1/2 way through David Byrne’s “How Music Works” and man, its about the best book about music I have read, very very interesting and well written. Once finished I will be Gearing It Forward for someone else to enjoy.
This is going to be a real niche recommendation but Will Pirkle’s books on designing audio effects and synthesizers in C++ are outstanding, if you are comfortable with a bit of math anyway.