Martin Popoff

Iron Maiden: Album by Album from Martin Popoff consists of 16 chapters, one for each studio album, of several Maiden fans (and peers) discussing each album. I was torn between 4 and 5 stars but went with 5 for the simple reason the book was exactly what it set out to be. I refuse to mark down because the book wasn't what it never set out to be.

The book as a whole has a strict structure with each chapter being a discussion about one album. Within each chapter there is a loose structure where show more Popoff makes sure certain aspects are always covered, such as production values and such. But most of the conversation, while prompted by Popoff's questions, go off in whatever direction each speaker wants to go. Kinda like when you and your friends are talking about something. A question sets you off but you make whatever connections matter to you.

The conversations range from close analysis of some songs to placing the songs/albums in the larger context of the music business and even to some extent world politics. We also have talk about what the band meant to some of these people when they were young and first discovered them. There is a lot of information to glean from these conversations but just be aware this is not a track-by-track technical overview of production, engineering, or the music performance itself. This is a bunch of knowledgeable people sitting around and having fun talking about one of their favorite bands. There is talk about how some things were done but that is few and far between since that wasn't the purpose of the book. This is less for the "fan" who thinks fandom is pretending not to be a fan but rather a (usually semi-literate in music) technician and more for the fan who may or may not be musically inclined but likes to hear about the history of a band. This is an oral history ABOUT the band rather than OF the band.

I recommend this to any Maiden fan (of course) as well as those interested in the history of how a band evolves over time and how a band can influence their fans and peers. The participants include musicians, rock critics/historians, even a wrestler/rock musician. We have a former (short term) Maiden member as well as a former Megadeth member as well, so this isn't just a group of everyday fans. If you're a fan of Maiden yourself, you'll have plenty to both agree and disagree with in the book, just like in any good conversation among friends.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

Readers expecting the short, energetic punch of a Ramones song won’t find it in Martin Popoff’s Ramones at 40 (Sterling). Rather, in the spirit of their rowdy yet tightly produced music, the handsomely lurid hot pink, black, and yellow band bio combines the look of a high-end coffee table book with the scruffy aesthetic of a Xeroxed zine, complete with a smattering of typos. An exhaustive—sometimes exhausting—book to warm the heart of any Ramones completist, Popoff takes the reader show more from the band’s mid-'70s origins in Queens through the its breakup and the death of every original member, in the process telling the story behind every song, album cover, design choice, recording session, and tour. The narrative is interspersed with a wealth of trivia—profiles of musical and pop culture influences, rare singles, and plenty of lists—all accompanied by dynamic photos and commentary from compatriots. Don’t look for heart-warming punk rock redemption, though—theirs was always an uneasy alliance, never hitting the heights they hoped for; the allegation that “They sold more t-shirts than records” is probably true.

VERDICT: This sharp package has something for both the curious and diehard fans, with no shortage of Ramones lore.

—My Library Journal review show less

The Publisher Says: The Who & Quadrophenia offers a generously illustrated deep dive into all aspects of one of the most popular rock albums of all time. Take a deep dive into one of the best-selling albums ever on the 50th anniversary of its release with this beautifully produced and authoritatively written slipcased edition.

Veteran rock critic Martin Popoff leaves no stone unturned in taking apart The Who’s generation-spanning masterpiece, Quadrophenia, while exploring each of the show more album’s 17 tracks and their themes of identity, anxiety, and mental health. Chapters cover:

The state of The Who as of 1973, including their role in Mod culture

The recording sessions at famed Olympic Studios and the band’s own Battersea location, including techniques used

Song-by-song studies of each album side, including analyses of lyrics and the guitars, drums, keyboards, and synthesizers employed by members Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon

The 1979 motion picture based on the album’s song cycle

The continent-hopping tours that supported the album

The rock group’s trajectory post-Quadrophenia, including notable albums and tours

Popoff also takes you on side journeys examining each band member, mod vs. rocker culture, the album’s famous graphic design, manager/producers Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert, Quadrophenia collectibles, and more.

There’s even a brief discography and complete LP tour dates.

Presented in a 10" × 10" slipcased book, The Who & Quadrophenia is illustrated with stunning performance and candid off-stage photography as well as rare memorabilia.

The result is a richly presented celebration and your ultimate tribute to the rock opera masterpiece.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: They're rising 80, Daltrey and Townshend, and yet The Who are still touring. People are still buying the album discussed here FIFTY YEARS LATER.

Getting old is as simple as just not dying, but nothing can prepare you for the weirdness of your youth being History to most of the world's population. My parents remembered the 1930s vividly and felt that the Second World War was a recent event my whole life. To me, of course, they were History. I knew somewhere in my logic circuits that, if I just didn't die (not a sure thing as a gay man in the early 1980s) it would happen to me, too.

But one of my most coveted albums, one I begged for all during 1973 (didn't get it), is now historically important enough to warrant an expensive, lavishly produced, slipcased hardcover book. That feels...weird, unsettling, a little shocking. Millions upon millions of us Boomers are left in the world sitting atop a vast pile of pilf to plonk down for gift items like this. We can afford, most of us, to give it to ourselves as well as to other old people.

Old People! Books about ROCK MUSIC for Old People!

The book itself is on-brand for Author Popoff, he of Rush: The Illustrated History and Queen: Album by Album and Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers: The Rise of Motörhead among others. He does an admirable job of delving into the songs, the ideas in, the people behind, and the legacy of this astoundingly influential and important album, treating it with the historian/fan's eye that it as a concept and as an item can easily support. The photographic documentation of the Who began before this album was released, but it definitely makrked a sea change in the intensity and the completeness of that documentation.

The table of contents, as you see above, is a beautiful design. It's also demonstrating Author Popoff's characteristic completeness of view. His analyses, and takes on the events of the day, his credibility as a rock writer with publication credits in the likes of Revolver, Guitar World, Goldmine, and Record Collector assures the fussy reader of an informed, well-presented opinion. Let me end with a page spread, which (let's be honest when it's just us here) is the real reason you'll buy the book whether for yourself or someone you really, really want to spoil: show less

Disclaimer: this review is based on an advanced reading copy of the book, courtesy of ECW Press.

I first started listening to Rush in the 90s, so by that time they were already well into their third decade. Over the course of a few years, I acquired each of their albums in no particular order - some of them came from my parents' and uncle's record and cassette collections, some I got because they were on sale or brand new at the time, and the rest were chosen because I was already familiar show more with some of the songs (from videos, live albums, and other sources). Out of all their albums, it was their mid- to late-80s output that took the most time to grow on me. The 80s saw Rush move from the sprawling, side-long opuses that defined their 70s output to a much more streamlined, keyboard-driven style of rock that - while still uniquely Rush - was a long way from where they were at the start of the decade. But what I find really remarkable was how gradually these changes occurred: any two consecutive Rush albums are more similar than they are different, but there are enough little tweaks to things like instrumentation, song structure, or overall sonic texture to show a band that was never hesitant about pushing the envelope and continuing to evolve from album to album.

Martin Popoff's "Limelight: Rush in the 80s" does a tremendous job of going into very fine detail about the band's second decade. Interviews with each of the band members, their producers, their crew members, and even some of their opening acts all contribute to an overall picture of everything that was going on with the band throughout the decade. Over the years, I've spent a LOT of time listening to, watching, and reading about Rush, and I still found myself learning a ton of new things about the band and their music while reading this book. Some of them were subtle little details, such as the meaning of the different types of water sounds that open and close "Natural Science", or details about each of the people on the Moving Pictures cover; others were much bigger things, like the reason that Geddy Lee started (and continued) singing in a lower range as time went on, or the way that Alex Lifeson's guitar solos were constructed in the studio.

There is also a tremendous amount of detail given about some of their more popular songs such as "The Spirit of Radio" and "Tom Sawyer". I almost wish that every song could be given that kind of treatment, but then the book would easily be a thousand pages long and probably not as much of a joy to read. Overall, I think Popoff has given an appropriately proportionate amount of detail to each album and song in this book (although, should he ever decide to write a "song by song" book where he goes into really fine detail about every Rush song, I would definitely want to read it). Whether you're a hardcore fan of the band's 80s output or are more on the fence about it, I would highly recommend this book - you will very likely learn some new things, and you may come out of it with a changed opinion about some songs or even entire albums. show less