It’s the night before Christmas, and you’re still shopping for your favorite rock ‘n’ roll fan?
OK, the first choice is always going to be CDs. But for something different and maybe a little more thoughtful, how about a book about pop music?
I bring this up because 1997 saw the publication of a number of exceptional music-related books–from Greil Marcus’ fascinating discussion of Bob Dylan and The Band’s “The Basement Tapes” to the coffee-table-ready collection of photos by the esteemed Jim Marshall.
Most notable of the rock books of ’97 were three excellent autobiographies.
First, and best, is “Life in Double Time” (Chronicle Books; $22.95) by Mike Lankford. Who? Precisely. Lankford grew up playing drums in Oklahoma garage and bar bands and then graduated to being one-third of Salt & Pepper, a Midwest-traveling jazz/blues group. His story is emblematic of the thousands of great musicians who never make it, and his descriptions of life on the road (traveling in an equipment-packed, on-its-last-legs van, senseless violence in beer-puddled roadhouses) are some of the most compelling writing about American music ever put on paper.
Then there’s “The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing” (Chicago Review Press; $24) by 82-year-old bluesman David “Honeyboy” Edwards. A contemporary of guys such as Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, Edwards grew up in the Mississippi Delta and moved, like so many, to Chicago, where he still lives and plays.
His anecdotes (such as playing with Johnson and Little Walter Jacobs) are fascinating, and this well-organized as-told-to work is an invaluable look at the development of the blues from its Mississippi roots to its full flowering in Chicago in the ’50s.
And finally there’s the truly surprising “patient: the true story of a rare illness” (Grove Press; $21) by Ben Watt, half of the English pop duo Everything But the Girl. “Patient” details Watt’s recovery from Churg-Strauss Syndrome, which cuts off the blood supply to the small intestine and nearly killed him in the summer of 1992.
Watt lost 40 pounds, spent three months in the hospital and has since had to live on a severely restricted diet. “Patient” is a vivid, finely wrought look at having one’s future yanked away, and surviving physically and emotionally.
Of the nonautobiographies, Marcus’ “Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes” (Henry Holt and Co.; $22.50) is a must for any Dylan or Band fan. Marcus’ exploration of the history behind the marvelously ramshackle 1975 two-LP set casts new light on Dylan’s art and the American folk revival with brilliant clarity and insight.
The best pure biography of the year was Patrick Humphries’ “Richard Thompson: The Biography” (Schirmer Books; $26)–for two reasons. One, Humphries captured the personality of Thompson, the notoriously publicity-shy singer, songwriter and guitarist. Two, Humphries masterfully weaves information about the English folk-rock boom of the ’60s and ’70s into the story.
Also detailing the late ’60s–albeit in far different form–is “Not Fade Away: The Rock & Roll Photography of Jim Marshall” (Bulfinch Press; $50). Marshall was the visual chronicler of ’60s rock ‘n’ roll, the guy who gave us photos of Janis Joplin cradling a bottle of Southern Comfort, Jimi Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival, the Allman Brothers laughing against a backdrop of amp cases, a smiling Jerry Garcia in the recording studio. All are central images of the musicians and the era, and all are here, 124 duotone images that define a master photographer’s art.
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