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In this book, Joe Harvard covers everything from Lou Reed's lyrical genius to John Cale's groundbreaking instrumentation, and from the creative input of Andy Warhol to the fine details of the recording process.
It was the season of the blockbuster. Between August 12 and November 26 , a whole slew of acts released albums that were supposed to sell millions of copies in the run-up to Christmas. But perhaps the most attention-seeking act of all was Guns N Roses. The power and influence of Grace increases with each passing year. Here, Daphne Brooks traces Jeff Buckley's fascinating musical development through the earliest stages of his career, up to the release of the album.
With access to rare archival material, Brooks illustrates Buckley's passion for life and hunger for musical knowledge, and shows just why he was such a crucial figure in the American music scene of the s. The recording sessions for Let It Be actually began as rehearsals for a proposed return to live stage work for the Beatles, to be inaugurated in a concert at a Roman amphitheatre in Tunisia. In this thoroughly researched book, Steve Matteo delves deep into the complex history of these sessions.
He talks to a number of people who were in the studio with the Beatles, recording the sights and sounds of the band at work - bringing to life a period in the Beatles' career that was creative and chaotic in equal measure. For many listeners, when this non-traditional, surprisingly feminine album was released, it was like hearing an entirely new form of music. In this book, Shawn Taylor explores the creation of the album as well as the impact it had on him at the time. Formed as a New York City hardcore band in , Beastie Boys struck an unlikely path to global hip-hop superstardom.
Here is their story, told for the first time in the words of the band. Adam "AD-ROCK" Horovitz and Michael "Mike D" Diamond offer revealing and very funny accounts of their transition from teenage punks to budding rappers; their early collaboration with Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin; the almost impossible to fathom overnight success of their debut studio album, Licensed to Ill ; that album's messy fallout; and their break with Def Jam, move to Los Angeles, and rebirth as musicians and social activists, with the genre-defying masterpiece Paul's Boutique.
One of the greatest double albums of the vinyl era, Sign o' the Times shows Prince at his peak. Here, Michaelangelo Matos tells the story of how it emerged from an extraordinary period of creativity to become one of the landmark recordings of the s. He also illustrates beautifully how - if a record is great enough and lucky enough to hit you at the right time - it can change your way of looking at the world.
This dazzling and prophetic album seems to foreshadow the disintegration of the old world order and the splintering of traditional alliances that have marked the start of the third millennium. In this intelligent and spiritually attuned book, Stephen Catanzarite reads Achtung Baby as an extended and universal riff on the Fall of Man, showing this to be an album that Bono rightly called one "heavy mother".
Written with the participation of the group's key members, including reclusive singer-songwriter Paul Westerberg, bassist Tommy Stinson, and the family of late guitarist Bob Stinson, Trouble Boys is a deeply intimate and nuanced portrait, exposing the primal factors and forces - addiction, abuse, fear - that would shape one of the most brilliant and notoriously self-destructive bands of all time. Offering unfettered access to the mind and artistry of Molina through exclusive interviews with family, friends, and collaborators, the audiobook also explores the Midwest music underground and the development of Indiana-based label Secretly Canadian.
Described as the perfect fusion of poetry and garage-band rock and roll the original concept was "rock and Rimbaud" , Horses belongs as much to the world of literary and cultural criticism as it does to the realm of musicology. While Horses pays homage to the record's origins in the nascent New York punk scene, the audiobook's core lies in a detailed analysis of Patti Smith's lyrics and includes discussions of lyrical preoccupations: Penned by acclaimed music critic Ben Sisario, this is a close and intimate look at the most anthemic album of this enigmatic and short-lived band.
Sisario's interviews with Frank Black while on a road trip in his Cadillac provide a backdrop to anecdotes, criticism, and interviews with other members of the band. Wyman's performance is a fitting tribute to this incredibly important album. Brilliant record and terrific account highly recommend Charles Thomas is a wonderful and lucid subject. A fine book that lends valuable insight into a genuinely classic Pixies record.
The Celine Dion book is a tour de force of criticism about the nature of criticism and art, and the Beastie Boys book is a great piece of journalism that captures an amazing moment in time, and three very unusual musicians. This entry doesn't quite reach the bar set by those two, but it's worth a read for Pixies fans. Dec 22, Andrew rated it liked it Shelves: There are multiple dull stretches where Sisario repeats himself ad nauseum about the influence of Surrealism on Thompson's lyrics or about the "sex and death vibes" that permeate the recordings.
His sometimes slangy prose is also annoying at times. The book also suffers a bit from relying too much on repetitive, none-too-illuminating interviews with the band members. As anyone who's seen the documentary "loudQUIETloud" can attest, Joey Santiago, Dave Loverling, and Charles Thompson are immensely talented individuals and horrible, shy, awkward, cipher-like interview subjects. Kim Deal refused completely to be interviewed for this book. The person who gives the most interesting insights is actually producer Gil Norton.
The saving grace of this book comes in its final third, where Sisario delves into a song by song analysis of the album, detailing the lyrical inspirations, writing process, and production details for each song. This is where Sisario's writing is the sharpest and where readers get a clear sense of the disparate elements lurid but amazingly literate lyrics, professional pop production, bent guitar notes, cooing back-up vocals that make "Doolittle"such a fun, wild, entertaining mess of an album.
If you are a Pixies obsessive, I'd recommend picking this book up. Everyone else would do well to skim through it at their local library or bookstore. Pay attention to the song-by-song breakdown at the end, then go home and play "Gouge Away" on repeat as loud as possible. Jan 24, Carol rated it really liked it Shelves: Sisario takes a very journalistic approach to Doolittle, getting most of the material for the book from interviews conducted with three out of the four members of The Pixies, with a particular concentration on Black Francis aka Charles Thompson.
Sisario covers the band's history, focusing on the years up through Doolittle's release. He provides a lot of information on the process of writing and recording the songs, and provides some really interesting discussion of the band's influences, both musical and otherwise. I especially liked the parts about Thompson's relationship with Surrealist cinema. The exploration of the songs themselves was the best part of the book. Sisario engages in some great discussions of the origins of the imagery and stories in the lyrics, despite Thompson's insistent evasion of any such analysis or introspection in their interviews.
Sisario also does a good job of discussing the musical features of the songs. I hadn't listened to Doolittle in years, and it was wonderful to dig it up and get into it again. I was 13 or 14 when it came out, and fairly new to the world of alternative music and so-called college radio. Thus the Pixies were one of the first big things we got into and their music was a big part of the sort of soundtrack for my adolescence. And even so many years later, it still resonates with me a lot.
Sisario's book was a great way to get back into their music. Oct 23, Byron rated it liked it. But the chick bass player, who might still be on drugs, didn't want to contribute, and the other three members of the group all sound like they moved on with their lives. Frank Black doesn't seem to be able to recall much from that era, and it doesn't sound like it's because he's still pissed at the chick bass player. It was just a long time ago. The guy's recorded upwards of 20 albums since. And so the biographical stuff seems to be pieced together from various newspaper and magazine articles from the era.
This is as good a place to read it, if you haven't already, but there aren't too many revelations. I feel like you got a better sense of where Frank Black was coming from from that part than you did from the actual song analysis, which I found to be a bit much. Ben Sisario and whoever contributed that part of the Wiki almost certainly knows more about surrealism than the 20 year-old Frank Black.
Jun 12, Suzie rated it liked it Shelves: Sisario's book on The Pixies Doolittle is mixed. There's a general history of the band, and some comments on the prior and subsequent albums which takes up over half of the book.
The remaining portion, most of which is on the individual songs includes too much lyrical analysis by Sisario. If you care enough to read a whole book on an album, you will probably have spent more than enough time on this yourself The no Sisario's book on The Pixies Doolittle is mixed.
There is no direct commentary from Kim Deal, and very little from Lovering and Santiago. The album portion is nowhere near the standards of an episode of tv's very fine 'Classic Albums' series. The band portion is nowhere near the standards of vh1's schlocky but entertaining 'Behind the Music. If you're patient, love the band, and can get a copy lent to you or on sale, it's worth a read. Mar 01, Dusty Henry rated it really liked it. Ben Sisario has a style that's both scholarly and zine-like, changes between the two on a dime.
It caught me off guard at first but then I found it to be a welcome change from pretentious, self-indulgent writing. He's very much a no bullshit writer, making him a great fit to cover the Pixies. He give great imagery of riding along with Black Francis. It'd be easy to be a fan-boy and geek out I mean, riding along with Black Francis in his Cadillac while listening to "Doolittle" He manages to not pick a side when discussion band tensions, which is a notable feat seeing as how he wasn't able to get Kim Deal's side of everything.
He is not totally swayed by Francis' ambiguity and pushes through to get some real answers about the narratives on this album. The album still remains a puzzle, but this book manages to bring out a few hints and some worthwhile interpretations. Jul 31, Brad rated it it was ok Shelves: I now understand what the other reviewers meant by saying this book is like an extended magazine article.
Sisario's book lacks objectivity, speaking matter-of-factly about arguments it assumes and acting as though the Pixies were the only band to influence anything that followed. Sure t I now understand what the other reviewers meant by saying this book is like an extended magazine article. That sort of scored-the-interview-now-what's-my-angle composition only gets more annoying when this magazine article extends for pages of cooler-than-thou phrasings and masturbatory vocabulary.
Jun 22, Hundeschlitten rated it liked it. A solid, journalistic peak into the legacy of Doolittle, the Pixies most album-ey album, a well-researched, albeit a little pedestrian, look at one of my faves. I really didn't need all the stuff about driving around Portland in Frank Black's car, and Kim Deal gets short shrift in this one. But Sisario picked the perfect time to write this, soon after the Pixies first reunion, when their legend had grown and it was clear their music would stand the test of time, but before they became a travelin A solid, journalistic peak into the legacy of Doolittle, the Pixies most album-ey album, a well-researched, albeit a little pedestrian, look at one of my faves.
But Sisario picked the perfect time to write this, soon after the Pixies first reunion, when their legend had grown and it was clear their music would stand the test of time, but before they became a traveling nostalgia act, a couple of steps above Foghat playing the Indiana State Fair.
Sisario also does a pretty good job analyzing the power of these songs and their meaning while still allowing enough space for other interpretations. One of my favorite lines: That goes a long way to explaining why I still love these songs. Dec 21, Patrick McCoy rated it really liked it Shelves: It contains band history, an extended interview with Black Francis.
Thus, the references and interpretation of his surrealistic songs are given a lot of analysis. We learn about the formation of the band and the context of the alternative rock scene they helped create, their influence on a generation of bands including Nirvana , the rising problems between the egos of Black Francis and Kim Deal, the recording sessions for Doolittle by Gil Norton, as well as song-by-song analysis.
In fact I never even bought arecord after Doolittle. However, there are quite a few high water marks on this album, and I have to say that this book helped create a better impression of the record overall. Feb 23, Corey Vilhauer rated it liked it. Dec 31, Fanny rated it really liked it. I feel like this book has most fulfilled the promise of the series. Just as music is highly subjective, so is a statement like that one above; for instance, my pal Jeff Johnson would probably argue that the one on Bowie's "Low" really hit it out of the park, but, while I liked that one quite a bit, it was still a little too "verse, chorus, verse" for me--in that case, "here's what Bowie was going through, here's what he did in the studio," rinse, repeat.
Sisario's book was written in a flavorful I feel like this book has most fulfilled the promise of the series. Sisario's book was written in a flavorful, interesting, but never overwhelmingly music criticky voice; the author never fell down the gearhead rabbit hole; and the book was just unpredictable in structure enough to--yes--mirror the music of the Pixies.
Sep 18, Bill rated it really liked it Shelves: Rather than attempting to be some sort of academic deconstruction or historical record, it's just a really long, well-researched magazine article. As off-putting as that may sound, I mean it as a compliment. It's not bogged down with excessive detail or an abundance of technical jargon wankery, it's just the facts - a brief history of the Pixies, using the recording of Doolittle as its centerpiece, with additional material in the back discussing the themes and stories behind the individual songs.
A simple approach, and it happens to work rather well. Jan 03, Jonathan rated it liked it. I thought it was OK Some of the trivial details were what made it most interesting to me I remember that I bought Doolittle after seeing the "Here Comes Your Man" video and that the rest of the album took a while to grow on me View all 3 comments. May 02, Gabe Durham rated it liked it. There are moments in this book that transcend music journalism and become art itself: My favorite might be the author watching llamas with Frank Black at the end of Ch 3.
Like a Pixies song, it's nearly surreal.
It's perfect for the die-hard Pixies fan --myself--and has surprisingly Nice! Product details Audible Audiobook Listening Length: But it is the contrasts that make The Pixies, and especially Doolittle, so great: Steve Matteo Narrated by: Return to Book Page. Read more Read less.
I really wish, though, that the author's smirky music journalist asides had been cut, like when he calls Black's admissions of being a dick "ideal 'Behind the Music' dish" that "sells concert tickets. Worse is earlier in the book, when he describes college guys' There are moments in this book that transcend music journalism and become art itself: Worse is earlier in the book, when he describes college guys' blues noodling as "the traditional paint-by-numbers jam technique of the small-minded.
But dude's powers of description are intact, and the book aptly honors an album I love. Oct 30, Jonathan rated it liked it Shelves: I did enjoy reading this, but mostly on the level of "I love this album, now tell me how right I am about my musical taste. He does conduct interviews with the band, but the bulk of them are with Charles Thompson.
Quotes from Kim Deal were conspicuously absent, and the rest of the band is only minimally represented. This leads to a bit of a skewed view of the creative process behind Doolittle, but overall it was still fun to get a behind the scenes look at this album. Second reading first listening of this was good. I really enjoy this series and the audiobooks are really easy listens - engaging and interesting.
May 01, Brooks rated it it was amazing Shelves: Doolittle is one of my favorite albums of all time and it's kind of weird that I never really got analytical about it. It was just this thing and I loved it and I didn't ever bother to interrogate it. Reading Ben Sisario's book on The Pixies' greatest album cracked the thing open and gave me all sorts of insight into the album and the themes that are explored in the songs.
I have a minor bone to pick with Sisario's style, which felt like it waffled between studious and dangerously loose - but the Doolittle is one of my favorite albums of all time and it's kind of weird that I never really got analytical about it. I have a minor bone to pick with Sisario's style, which felt like it waffled between studious and dangerously loose - but the overall experience was overwhelmingly positive.
If you la la love Doolittle as much as me, then you should definitely check this out. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Other books in the series. Trivia About The Pixies' Dooli No trivia or quizzes yet. Quotes from The Pixies' Dooli