Al Kooper
There is a new 2008 edition of the Al Kooper book - what I consider to be the most amusing rock music autobiography.
posted by Ron Kane @ 8:44 PM
The Ron Kane Files
Writing About Music
Sunday, March 23, 2008
There is a new 2008 edition of the Al Kooper book - what I consider to be the most amusing rock music autobiography.
The Ron Kane Files
Writing About Music
About Me
- Name: Ron Kane
- Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
I remain in Los Angeles. I am still listening to music. Mostly phonograph records. I like to write about it. Music is the best!
Previous Posts
- The Pharmaceuticals - "Joe's Gass House"
- Playlist
- Indulgent Dutch Music & Art Fantasies
- Pop Party
- Johnny Appleseeding
- Lately, things have been "Easy"
- Corduroy
- Acid Jazz and Mo' Wax
- 1 / 3 (One - Third )
- Time-Life CD's
4 Comments:
That book sounds like a great read! I'll have to request it from my wife [she works at a library in charge of interlibrary loan]. Once I get some free time again, I was reading Tearing Down The Wall Of Sound, the new Phil Spector tome. Wotta nutbar! Once that's finished my nightstand has Bomp!: Saving The World One Record At A Time waiting in the wings. The oversized trade features many highlights culled from Bomp! including issued laid out that never made it to press shot right from the [yellowing] mechanicals! Hotcha!
I believe Mick Farren co-wrote that Bomp! book. He now lives in L.A. and has his own blog, "Doc 40" or thereabouts.
I totally recommend the Al Kooper book. It's so cool it got re-issued, with 20 more years added!
That is awesome that Kooper revisited the book 20 years later and brought it up to date! How I wish many authors would do this with non fiction books about music! Now I really want to read this soon! Kooper must have incredible tales to tell since he's practically the Zelig of rock. And yes, Mick Farren is one of the authors of the Bomp! book, along with Suzy shaw.
One of my favorite rock music books of all time is Roy Carr/Charles Shaar-Murray's David Bowie: Illustrated record. It covers his career through 1980 and I'd love to see them bring that up to date even though there would be a lot of depressing assessments of many of those years. But their critical analysis was pretty insightful and definitely entertaining. The design of the book was another big plus. LOTS of sleeves nice and big in the 12"x12" format. It's a pity my copy is loose in the cover with "perfect" binding.
But now the likelihood of Shaar-Murray at least writing about the mere David Bowie is about a 1:10 chance. He's obviously cast his lot with more iconic figures, far closer to the epicenter of rock and roll, like Jimi Hendrix or John Lee Hooker. Though I'm not complaining too much. His Hooker bio Boogie Man was excellent and I'm by no means the biggest JLH fan.
Good news! My wife [works in a library] just bought this book so that I can read it! Apparently the current edition is too new for interlibrary loan.
Post a Comment
<< Home