Will Hermes

lovely book on music produced in New York City 1972-1977. dense with information, and encyclopedic in scope, it moves from one stream of music to another constantly as they ebb and flow and mingle. meticulous with its extensive notes and index, it's a reference point for anyone at all interested in the music of this place or period, how and why it was born and made and in what company, until the disparate influences combine to inevitably create something new. it's also a generous show more through-line narrative about, as the author says in the acknowledgments, "the way in which creative work is a shared chain-reaction of inspirations", and pulling that off is a major reason why i love this very readable book. show less

An archaeology of urban American musics, presented as a series of vignettes from mid-1970s New York City: punk, salsa, jazz, minimalist, dance; traditional forms stretched to new limits, the repurposing of rhythms and textures; magnetic tape, turntables, impromptu performance spaces. It was supposed to be the decade of malaise and urban decay, but the story told so well here is of something different and unexpected. It’s hard to imagine a period of such innovation and street-level cultural show more exchange ever happening again. show less

Being the life of the rock legend, chronicled in exhaustive manner by a talented author with more than a bit of logorrhea. This is the third biography of Reed that I've read, and although I enjoyed every minute of it, I'm not sure that it's the best choice for someone who's not a Reed obsessive like myself. I could foresee a more general reader getting frustrated by the book's innumerable tangents; does one pick up a biography of Lou Reed to read about the musical philosophies of LaMonte show more Young, or the career arc of Delmore Schwartz, or the address and current use of seemingly every recording studio or drag club Reed walked into during the 1970's? And while I appreciate Reed's reinvention of himself in late life in non-rock fields, musical and otherwise, this denouement might prove tiresome to most readers who have no experience of any of it all. An excellent book, but not really any better than previous efforts. show less

An amazing year for books about music history. This book stands out for me as being the first one offering equal levels of respect and perspective to all of the music that was going on in NYC in the 70s. No matter how much you know about music, you will learn something, and you will find yourself making notes about songs to track down. Even if you have an above-average knowledge of one particular scene, you will appreciate being able to compare it to everything else - punk vs hip hop, disco show more vs jazz, even the growth of latino music. I'm downloading Celia Cruz and Steve Reich and digging out Talking Heads.

Dork alert: no, the E Street Band were not named after a commercial strip in Asbury Park. show less