“Americanah” I’ve been on a streak of disappointing books. I finished the David Yaffe’s Joni Mitchell tome, but tired of his analysis of her lyrics, someone who didn’t live through the era and had no context. Having said that, if you’re a Joniphile you’ll be stunned to learn so many tidbits, like the woman who […]

“Rock and roll then was real, everything else was unreal.” John Lennon This is the most depressing book I’ve read all year. There’s always been music. It’s not like the Top Forty was blank before the Beatles. Even a few good groups dominated the airwaves prior to ’64, like the Four Seasons and the Beach […]

This is a bad book. Stars write tomes that leave the dirt out. Outsiders write short briefs of sour grapes with the details included. Unlike the former, Chris Lendt can actually write, but he goes on interminably with details we don’t care about and doesn’t reveal those we do. This is an old book. Published […]

“45 RPM (Recollections Per Minute): The Morrell Archives Volume 3” He shits on Clive Davis. I received this in the mail with a note from a friend saying “Arista Part, MUST READ!” So I did. Didn’t take me long. Hell, I finished the whole book in less than two hours. But I did read it, […]