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Loading... The Record Men (original 2004; edition 2005)by Rich Cohen
Work InformationMachers and Rockers: Chess Records and the Business of Rock & Roll (Enterprise) by Rich Cohen (2004)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This isn't exactly a biography of Leonard Chess or even a history of his record label, though much of the book is based on these elements. Cohen is more interested in the broad sweep of history that reaches from Jewish immigration to Black Power. His style is snappy and he's happy to gloss over details in the interests of keeping the story going. Along the way he indulges in some entertaining and provocative historical arguments that are breathtaking for their chutzpah (my favourite being that without Jimmy Rogers, Muddy Waters' guitarist, there would have been no Bill Clinton - on the same basis that without Napoleon, there would have been no state of Israel). ( ) no reviews | add a review
On the south side of Chicago in the late 1940s, two immigrants; one a Jew born in Russia, the other a black blues singer from Mississippi; met and changed the course of musical history. Muddy Waters electrified the blues, and Leonard Chess recorded it. Soon Bo Diddly and Chuck Berry added a dose of pulsating rhythm, and Chess Records captured that, too. Rock & roll had arrived, and an industry was born. In a book as vibrantly and exuberantly written as the music and people it portrays, Rich Cohen tells the engrossing story of how Leonard Chess, with the other record men, made this new sound into a multi-billion-dollar business; aggressively acquiring artists, hard-selling distributors, riding the crest of a wave that would crash over a whole generation. Originally published in hardcover as Machers and Rockers. About the series: Enterprise pairs distinguished writers with stories of the economic forces that have shaped the modern worlds; the institutions, the entrepreneurs, the ideas. Enterprise introduces a new genre; the business book as literature. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)781.660973The arts Music General principles and musical forms Traditions of music Rock {equally instrumental and vocal} History, geographic treatment, biography North AmericaLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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