Bob Stanley (1) (1964–)

A companion to Stanley's earlier book, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! The Story of Modern Pop.

Stanley is a member of the British band Saint Etienne, and an entertaining chronicler of pop history. Let's Do It covers roughly the first half of the 20th century, with a few chapters at the end following a few of that era's major trends as far as the 1970s.

Chapters are devoted to specific artists (Scott Joplin, the Boswell Sisters, Nat King Cole), musical movements (swing, British dance bands, rock'n'roll), show more and major influences on popular music (the introduction of radio, two world wars, the growing importance of film soundtracks). His focus is on the US and the UK, and since not every artist found equal success on both sides of the Atlantic, both American and British readers are likely to come across artists and careers that they didn't know much about.

It's hard to write about the sound of music without diving so deeply into technical language that you lose that part of the audience that doesn't have musical training. Stanley does that very well, as in this passage on the Boswell Sisters:

Always, they sound like an enormous heap of fun. They would take a song like "There'll Be Some Changes Made," speed it up to Charleston tempo, slow it down to a twelve-bar blues; then Connee would do her trumpet impression, and finally the girls sing together, aching like a mournful coven of clarinets. Keys changed at the drop of a bobby pin. If jazz is about digging into the core of a song and reinterpreting it, then the Boswell Sisters were its Marx Brothers.

Or in these thoughts on the "best' version of a particular song:

You want to hear a technically perfect "Someone to Watch Over Me"? Listen to Ella Fitzgerald. You want to hear the ultimate "lost lamb" rendition? Go to Blossom Dearie. Barstool blear? Try Frank Sinatra. Who wants definitive anyway? Where's the fun in that?

I think I got a bit more pleasure from Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!, Stanley's book on the rock'n'roll/modern pop era, if only because I'm more familiar with that music. Stanley's unexpected takes and insights mean more if you know the things he's talking about. But both books are delightful reading, and in a world with unlimited time, I would be happy to spend six months making my way slowly through each with Spotify at my side so that I could listen to the music he talks about, especially the stuff that I don't already know. show less

This is a curious book, subtitled The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall for a reason. The essays are inspired by The Fall and Mark E Smith in some way, but are quite oblique at times and sometimes quite heavy going. But it is also freely illustrated with notes, letters, album artwork and photographs. Its a beautifully produced book and full of interesting content, but probably of limited interest to anyone not familiar with The Fall!

The subtitle of this book describes it well. In this book, Bob Stanley tackles the seemingly impossible quest to distill all of modern pop into one book. He chooses as his start and end points “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets, and “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé. In between, we learn about a dizzying array of genres, musicians and albums. Stanley puts together some interesting connections between various bands, and puts popular bands into their historical context by show more explaining what was going on in other parts of the pop music scene at the time.

Everyone has their favourite acts, and Stanley is no exception. He doesn’t spend the entire book belabouring the point about which are his favourites, but he’ll certainly let you know which of two equally important acts he likes better, or his opinion of a popular song. It is interesting to read about his perspective and the enthusiasm he brings to the project as a whole. I still can’t say I understand house music or techno, but this book did leave me thinking I should go check out some groups I missed in the R&B/hip-hop genres, such as TLC.

The chapters are short and there are a lot of them — I couldn’t believe how much book there was. This is the sort of book that would reward multiple readings, especially with a playlist in hand. Someone has in fact created a Spotify playlist for the book, if you use that service: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ij4uEGLKW4xaUZqyk5KV3 show less

I was always going to love this book - written by Bob Stanley, music journalist and also member of one of my favourite pop groups of all time (the miraculous Saint Etienne), it's a look-back over the history of "pop" - defined by Stanley pretty broadly as anything that gets in the charts. So over 750 pages or so, he takes us from the birth of rock 'n' roll, through skiffle, Merseybeat, doo wop, girl groups, soul, glam rock, psychedelia, disco, prog, punk, post-punk, new wave, hip hop, indie, show more house, techno, Britpop, R'n'B....

It's a huge project and out of necessity Stanley is forced to condense entire fascinating histories that probably deserve their own book into just one chapter (I would love to read a book about the Brill Building scene, for instance, or riot grrl, about which I remain largely ignorant), but he's clearly got endless enthusiasm for pop and his dismissive attitude to rockist bores or really anyone who takes themselves too seriously (fans of Patti Smith, Radiohead & The Doors take note) is brilliant.

You'll come away from this book with a desire to listen to all the great pop you thought you'd forgotten, and an envy of your parents who were there, who grew up with whole other generations of pop that is actually pretty fantastic (Del Shannon is a particular favourite of Stanley's, his name pops up more than once over the course of the book).

Highly recommended for anyone who loves music - if nothing else, you'll come away with a huge new playlist and a rediscovered appreciation of Roy Orbison, Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Shangri-Las, Dusty Springfield, Donna Summer, the Pet Shop Boys and maybe - just maybe - "MacArthur Park." show less