How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll by Elijah Wald

The Beatles: Twist & Shout (Live. 1965)

“The Beatles were the first superstar pop group to simply cease to exist except on record. As late as the 1940s, pop music was what bands played when people went out dancing. The records were just what you listened to at home. The Beatles were the first group to realize that pop had become records, and that they never needed to step on a stage again in their lives. That’s a huge shift, and [although] I think it would have happened without them, they were the catalysts.

The thing I’m not at all sure would have happened without them is the racial split. American pop music has always been an interaction between black and white musicians — and it’s often oversimplified into black musicians creating and white musicians stealing. But black musicians always kept up with what the white musicians were doing, just the way that white musicians tried to keep up with what the black musicians were doing. By 1963, the pop charts really were intensely integrated. Billboard magazine stopped having a separate pop and R&B chart because the two charts were virtually identical. And the Beatles single-handedly re-segregated those charts. The Beatles hit white America like the biggest thing to happen maybe ever, and they hardly hit black America at all.” Laura Fitzpatrick, Time

“Wald says he grew up a fan of the Beatles, at least the matching-suited, Beatle-booted version. But he painstakingly presents his case for how they, as his title says, destroyed rock ‘n’ roll.
It began, he says, when the Beatles abandoned live performances.

Rather than releasing a new album every couple of months, each packed with chart-topping singles, the band headed into the studio for months to realize their artistic ambitions. The brilliance of those releases (Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band among them) changed the way artists worked. The album, rather than singles, became the focus, spawning the rise of FM radio and its broadcasting niches.

Did the Beatles destroy rock ‘n’ roll? Wald makes a strong argument that they did. But even if that isn’t exactly true, his book provides a powerfully provocative look at popular music and its impact on America.” Michael E. Young, Pop Matter

Memphis & The Delta Blues Trail: Great Destinations

T-Model Ford: Sallie Mae (Live at KEXP 90,3 FM Seattle)

“What tip would you give to people who want to travel the blues trail?

Bring a GPS — so many of the juke joints that we went to were literally off dirt roads in the middle of cotton fields. We’d arrive at hundred year-old buildings made out of tin and sheet metal, without a liquor license. They wouldn’t keep regular hours, either. You might read in a guide book that they were open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but we’d pull in on a Friday and they wouldn’t be open. Call ahead if you can.

Without fail, they usually serve two kinds of beer. They’d either have Budweiser or Miller and then the light beer equivalent. You’d walk in and order from a window cut into a wall, and they wouldn’t hand you a normal-sized beer. Instead, they’d give you 60 oz. bottle, paper cups, and napkins. You’d pay a man in cash, and he’d turn around hand it to another man, who would instantly put the money in a safe — in case there was a robbery. If you brought drinks with you, they’d give you a “set-up” — a Tupperware bowl filled with ice, some glasses and a can of Coke.” Jeff Weiss, LA Times

Justin Gage’s terrific blog Aquarium Drunkard

Patsi Bale Cox: The Garth Factor (A New Book About Garth Brooks)

Garth Brooks: The Dance (Lyrics only)

“Patsi Bale Cox’s new book, The Garth Factor: The Career Behind Country’s Big Boom, provides an in-depth look at the phenomenal success of country superstar Garth Brooks. In this blog, she recalls hearing his music for the first time and how it led to her latest book.” CMT Blog, Patsy Bale Cox

Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits (Book Review)

Tom Waits: Live at Mike Douglas Show (1976)

“Mr. Waits was a vivid and unusual presence in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, when he began recording for Dacid Geffen’s label Asylum Records, home to performers like Jackson Browne and the Eagles. He was the antihippie, a saloon singer who wore greasy ties and pointed shoes, anything but laid back.

“He was never going to be,” as one observer puts it, “the fourth member of Crosby, Stills and Nash.”

How much of Mr. Waits’s wino-dirtball routine, Mr. Hoskyns wonders, was an act? Where did Tom Waits end, and “Tom Waits” begin? Mr. Hoskyns suggests that the persona may have been an around-the-clock bit of performance art that simply became his reality.”

“Mr. Hoskyns quotes one admirer who asks: “Who needs alcohol and drugs when you have Tom Waits?”” Dwight Garner, New York Times

Hound Dog: The Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller Autobiography by David Ritz

“Big Mama Thorton: Hound Dog

“Q: What was it like writing for Elvis Presley? He covered 20 of your songs, including “Jailhouse Rock,” “Hound Dog,” and another Coasters’ song, “Little Egypt.” How did Elvis get your material?
Mike Stoller: I almost didn’t hear any of his versions! (Note: Stoller is alluding to a boat disaster. He was on a cruise ship and 50 people perished in an accident. Stoller and his first wife reached shore on a lifeboat, and were met by Jerry Leiber, who brought a new set of clothes and was raving about their new hit single from a new singer named Elvis Presley. “Hound Dog” was initially written at the request of Johnny Otis, the bandleader and A&R man for Big Mama Thornton, who wanted Leiber and Stoller to listen to his acts and to see if they could write some songs for them.)

“Hound Dog,” Elvis knew the record, Big Mama’s record, because he was a student, and, in addition, his first records (pre-RCA) were on Sun records. And Sun Records did the answer version, which they were sued for by Don Robey (Peacock records owner). They did “Bear Cat” with Rufus Thomas. It was a big record on Sun.

And it was a woman’s song. Jerry wrote the lyrics for Big Mama and I think we recorded it in 1952, and it was released in early ‘53 by Big Mama and it was a big R&B hit. Segregated radio, segregated charts, etc. But Elvis heard a lounge act doing it in Las Vegas and they corrupted it so they could sing it because they were guys. They put this rabbit thing in there that wasn’t in the original ‘cause the original is Jerry’s lyric, where a woman is singing to a gigolo and this is kind of meaningless, but it still has the hostility in the line ‘You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog.’ Elvis heard them sing it. I think the group was Freddie Bell and the Bell Boys, so he recorded it the way they had done it, lyrically.”

“The legendary songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller have just written Hound Dog: The Leiber & Stoller Autobiography with contributor David Ritz” Harvey Kubernik, Sonic Boomers

For Sale: Woody Guthrie Signed Annotated Book

Woody Guthrie: House of the Rising Sun

Buy It Now price: $149,999.99, Spinner

An Interview With Nelson George

James Hunter: Carina

“Q: Last Question. In the past couple of years, there’s been something of a soul revival: Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones, James Hunter and a few others. Any thoughts about it?

Yeah, I think it’s great! Last year I traveled around the country for a show I do on VH-1 called “Soul Cities.” I went to New Orleans, Memphis, Chicago and a few other cities and there are some great singers and performers out there. There’s a huge international audience for this culture that hasn’t gone anywhere. The artists that embrace it will reap rewards, and there are some great young artists doing it. Soul music is kind of like blues music – it’s a building block for so much. Soul music is benefiting from the collapse of the record business because it is a performance based culture more than dance music is. Of all the black music genres, more than hip-hop, more than slick r&b, soul benefits from performance, and with record structures breaking down, the ability to perform is becoming more important than ever –again.” A Deeper Shade of Soul/Ben Lazar

David Robertson: W.C. Handy-The Life and Times of the Man Who Made the Blues (Book Review)

Louis Armstrong: St. Louis Blues

“According to biographer David Roberts, the young Handy had intended to be “the colored Sousa”: a counterpart to the renowned composer of marches. But when Handy heard what we now know of as Mississippi Delta Blues, he changed his mind. “I saw the beauty of primitive music,” he recalled. “Their music wanted polishing, but it contained the essence. Folks would pay good money for it.” In giving the blues sophistication, Handy made the genre part of “mainstream American music” — and made himself a rich man.” The Washington Post

The Rolling Stones: Under Their Thumb (A Book Review)

The Rolling Stones: Sympathy for the Devil (Live at Rock’n'Roll Circus 1968)

““Under Their Thumb” offers some memorable details from the inner sanctum: watching a rehearsal session degenerate into a flatulence contest between Richards and Wood or witnessing the band members disassembling their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame trophies and start whizzing the pieces at one another immediately following the induction ceremony.” New York Times

Lowside of the Road: a Life of Tom Waits by Barney Hoskyns

Tom Waits: I Don’t Want to Grow Up

“…But when biographers such as Barney Hoskyns start sniffing around for “the real Tom”, they’ll find door after door closed firmly in their faces. Which means that Lowside of the Road isn’t a book which will leave fans feeling they know Waits intimately.” Telegraph