The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Bios are well and good. I also love reading other books about music in general. Here are some of my favorites. What are some others you'd recommend? I'm looking forward to Songbook by Nick Hornby, a collection of essays on his 30 favorite songs.

Da Capo Best Music Writing 200_ (any year) - Great collections of fascinating stories about music from various periodicals

The Recording Angel - A fascinating book about how recording has changed how we listen to music

Jim of Seattle wrote:I'm looking forward to Songbook by Nick Hornby, a collection of essays on his 30 favorite songs.

I actually found Songbook to be a bit of a wank. However, Hornby's High Fidelity is a great read for anyone with a passing interest in contemporary music (ie. most people here, I'm guessing)

Yeah, I saw Songbook on a shelf just the other day, and I thought it was a novel, so I started thumbing through it. When I saw what it was, I thought it was the most pretentious project any author could have undertaken. "These are 30 songs I think are great, and what they mean to me." I suppose his fans care, but it's awfully presumtuous of him.

i always find it interesting to see what kind of songs other musicians enjoy, and why. i think it gives a unique perspective into how they think as a musician and sometimes gives additional insight into music that i hadn't seen before. i don't see anything pretentious or presumptuous about it at all.

tviyh wrote:i always find it interesting to see what kind of songs other musicians enjoy, and why. i think it gives a unique perspective into how they think as a musician and sometimes gives additional insight into music that i hadn't seen before. i don't see anything pretentious or presumptuous about it at all.

Well, it's descriptions along the vein of "I was seventeen when I first heard this song, and I knew it was great." The bits I saw were dull and challenged me to care.

It sounds interesting and non-presumptuous to me as well. If it's poorly written, that's another matter entirely.

tviyh wrote:i always find it interesting to see what kind of songs other musicians enjoy, and why. i think it gives a unique perspective into how they think as a musician and sometimes gives additional insight into music that i hadn't seen before. i don't see anything pretentious or presumptuous about it at all.

Nick Hornby's not a musician - he's a writer. And one who's now famous enough to say to his readers - "give me $20 and I'll tell you what my favourite songs are". As mentioned earlier - he did a much better job of writing about music in High Fidelity

BTW - from memory, his list of favourite songs was quite a good one


another BTW:

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby is also a great book. Similar to High Fidelity - but concerning soccer rather than music. I know nothing about soccer - but enjoyed the book immensely

It's only as presumptious as anyone writing any book is being. If you start thinking along the lines of 'well, what's so special about him that he can write a list of songs he likes and pass it off as some kind of insight into all our lives' then really you might as well stop reading books altogether, because the answer is 'nothing ... and?'

Caravan Ray wrote:Nick Hornby's not a musician - he's a writer. And one who's now famous enough to say to his readers - "give me $20 and I'll tell you what my favourite songs are".

oh, i guess i misread the part of this thread where it was a book about his own favourite songs. but still, i can see where that would be an interesting read as well.. though i wouldn't shell out the money to buy it.

And all those autobiographies that stink up the shelves of our bookstores! The NERVE of those people to think that we give a crap about their pitiful little lives!

WINSTON CHURCHILL SHAME ON YOU.

well, we humans are a pretty voyeuristic lot.

...which is a good thing. i mean, it keeps hoblit employed, anyway 8)

Not books in general, but books of this sort don't tend to appeal to me. Hornby didn't seem to have much critical insight (I might have missed something in the 150 or so pages I didn't see). It looked to me like a collection of boring anecdotes, when I saw it.

15-16 puzzle wrote:It sounds interesting and non-presumptuous to me as well. If it's poorly written, that's another matter entirely.

I agree with this completely - and the Hornby book did sound like it would be interesting. But it just wasn't.

Have a read and you'll see where Generic and me are coming from

Well, I've read both High Fidelity and How to Be Good and enjoyed them both immensely, partly due to his writing style which I find entertaining. So, what I'm hoping it will do is get me excited about some of the songs he writes about to the point where I can get excited about them too. I love it when good writers write good about good music. Of course, if it's not good, then that's not good. But I don't know if the people here who say it's not good say it's not good because they think Honby in general is not good or if they say it's not good because it's not AS good as other things he's written.

Please Kill Me is probably my favorite book about music evvvvver. It got me into the Velvet Underground and to a lesser extent the Stooges.

Caravan Ray wrote: Nick Hornby's not a musician - he's a writer.

I found that this hindered his ability to write about music.

...Has anyone read walter everett's "the beatles as musicians"? it's basically a critical analysis of every beatles song. It's really good because it not only touches on the music, but the recording techniques involved...as well as lyrical content, if you care about that.

nicegeoff wrote:...Has anyone read walter everett's "the beatles as musicians"?

Very good book, highly recommended.

The Land Where the Blues Began by Alan Lomax is fucking amazing.

Jim of Seattle wrote:Well, I've read both High Fidelity and How to Be Good and enjoyed them both immensely, partly due to his writing style which I find entertaining. So, what I'm hoping it will do is get me excited about some of the songs he writes about to the point where I can get excited about them too. I love it when good writers write good about good music. Of course, if it's not good, then that's not good. But I don't know if the people here who say it's not good say it's not good because they think Honby in general is not good or if they say it's not good because it's not AS good as other things he's written.

Jim, did you ever get around to reading Hornby's Songbook? I'd be interested to hear if you got something out of it or if you were disappointed like I was.

And,

not a book, but recently the telly has been showing repeats of the series Walk on By: The Story of Popular Song - this is a great series, I'm enjoying it immensely. Essential viewing I think for anyone who may consider trying their hand at writing a song.

I picked up this book on circuit bending yesterday at Barnes&Noble. It had a 40% off sticker on it.
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitl ... 88877.html
This is the authors website.
http://www.anti-theory.com/bio/

Mike Portnoy: Anthology Vol 1
I picked up this drum transcript (signed by mike portnoy), with transcripts of such songs as 6:00, Hell's Kitchen, Metropolis Pt 1, Strange Deja Vu, Etc. I recommend it for all drummers - really interesting if you enjoy picking through massive, complex transcripts in your spare time.