Seven Great Books on Rock (or What To Give a Rock Music Lover For Christmas)
Eighteen days till Christmas - I don't know how many 'shopping' days, but with the Internet, does that mean anything anymore?
Hannukah is coming up, too - and you need lots of presents for Hannuakah - at least one for each day....
If you are looking for a gift or gifts for that special someone who is into rock music, why not a book? There are so many great ones - my rock music library is forever expanding - but here are a few favorites to get you started. My unbiased and I don't benefit from putting this together list. Five are proper books and two are books plus CDs, one with music and one with, well, decades of reading.....
1. Any Old Way You Choose It by Robert Christgau
First on my list is an essential collection of essays by the so-called dean of rock critics, Robert Christgau. The essays were written between 1967-1973 and absolutely capture the feeling of the time. I have seen this at half price books and online really, really cheap...snap it up.
2. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Maybe everyone hasn't read this yet, but anyway, alot of people have seen the film, but not read the book. And the book is THE best novel about music ever written. Name another one as good. Salman Rushdie's? No! Hornby is a great writer, so if you like this, you can try his other novels....
3. 1000 Songs To Change Your Life by Timeout
This is a great stockingstuffer, not really a book to read from cover to cover as much as it is a book to dip into with a friend and argue about! The British perspective makes some of the suggestions seem a bit odd to those of us here in the States, but makes it interesting, too....and alot of fun.
4. Love is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970 by Alec Palao
Is this a great book of photos and essays with four phenomenal CDs attached? Or is it a phenomenal four CD set packaged ina great hardcover book of timeless photos and essays? No matter - it is fantastic. I have enjoyed hours and hours of listening and have not tired of looking at these pictures of the likes of Santana, Grace, the Dead and all the others...
5. Rock Albums of the 70s by Robert Christgau
Yes, two by Christgau. Until I read the new Robert Palmer collection of essays - which looks real good - I'll include two by Christgau. Why not? This is not really a reading book so much as it is a collection of his nutshell graded record reviews....I dip into this all the time too and so will you. If you are lucky enough to get it from your someone special - or from yourself!
6. Rolling Stone: Cover To Cover - The First 40 Years
Ok, its not really a book, per se, but you can read it, right? Forty years of EVERY PAGE OF THE ROLLING STONE on three CDs! Love it or not, for many years, it was the voice of a generation of music lovers. Yes, it became corporate and safe, but back in the day....and this includes every page, every ad, every letter to the editor....everything. And it is searchable, so you can put the disks on your computer and browse and read for almost ever.
7. Vinyl Junkies by Brett Milano
Every reader of this blog should read this collection of essays about some truly obsessed vinyl record collectors. I didn't want the book to end.
So, there you have it: seven really good suggestions of 'books' about rock music that you can give as gifts and make someone - anyone - really happy. Isn't that what its all about?
Hannukah is coming up, too - and you need lots of presents for Hannuakah - at least one for each day....
If you are looking for a gift or gifts for that special someone who is into rock music, why not a book? There are so many great ones - my rock music library is forever expanding - but here are a few favorites to get you started. My unbiased and I don't benefit from putting this together list. Five are proper books and two are books plus CDs, one with music and one with, well, decades of reading.....
1. Any Old Way You Choose It by Robert Christgau
First on my list is an essential collection of essays by the so-called dean of rock critics, Robert Christgau. The essays were written between 1967-1973 and absolutely capture the feeling of the time. I have seen this at half price books and online really, really cheap...snap it up.
2. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Maybe everyone hasn't read this yet, but anyway, alot of people have seen the film, but not read the book. And the book is THE best novel about music ever written. Name another one as good. Salman Rushdie's? No! Hornby is a great writer, so if you like this, you can try his other novels....
3. 1000 Songs To Change Your Life by Timeout
This is a great stockingstuffer, not really a book to read from cover to cover as much as it is a book to dip into with a friend and argue about! The British perspective makes some of the suggestions seem a bit odd to those of us here in the States, but makes it interesting, too....and alot of fun.
4. Love is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970 by Alec Palao
Is this a great book of photos and essays with four phenomenal CDs attached? Or is it a phenomenal four CD set packaged ina great hardcover book of timeless photos and essays? No matter - it is fantastic. I have enjoyed hours and hours of listening and have not tired of looking at these pictures of the likes of Santana, Grace, the Dead and all the others...
5. Rock Albums of the 70s by Robert Christgau
Yes, two by Christgau. Until I read the new Robert Palmer collection of essays - which looks real good - I'll include two by Christgau. Why not? This is not really a reading book so much as it is a collection of his nutshell graded record reviews....I dip into this all the time too and so will you. If you are lucky enough to get it from your someone special - or from yourself!
6. Rolling Stone: Cover To Cover - The First 40 Years
Ok, its not really a book, per se, but you can read it, right? Forty years of EVERY PAGE OF THE ROLLING STONE on three CDs! Love it or not, for many years, it was the voice of a generation of music lovers. Yes, it became corporate and safe, but back in the day....and this includes every page, every ad, every letter to the editor....everything. And it is searchable, so you can put the disks on your computer and browse and read for almost ever.
7. Vinyl Junkies by Brett Milano
Every reader of this blog should read this collection of essays about some truly obsessed vinyl record collectors. I didn't want the book to end.
So, there you have it: seven really good suggestions of 'books' about rock music that you can give as gifts and make someone - anyone - really happy. Isn't that what its all about?
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