Peter Guralnick | Looking To Get Lost
Adventures In Music And Writing
Little, Brown • 458 pages
Greil Marcus | Mystery Train
Images Of America In Rock’n’Roll Music
The Folio Society • 516 pages
Two books about music, and writing about music. While they share some aspects – both focus on the classic blues, soul and rock’n’roll, from Robert Johnson to Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, from Bill Monroe on to Randy Newman and Solomon Burke – they are written from different viewpoints, and they are both fascinating and inspiring reads. In the words of The Lovin’ Spoonful, »like telling a stranger about rock’n’roll – do you believe in magic?«
»Mystery Train« is yet another updated edition of Greil Marcus’ 1975 collection of his music writing. This edition comes with added bookmaking skills from The Folio Society, comes in a sturdy slipcase and has added pictures, including some fabulous shots from the Library Of Congress. Marcus’ essays about artists like Harmonica Frank, The Band, Elvis Presley and Sly Stone add unusual perspectives and curious facts to the by now well-known stories, but he also never forgets the music, and the impact it still has. And while his insistence that this all is truly (and only) American gets a bit boring in the course of this book, it was obviously an important statement in the mid-seventies after Nixon and Watergate. Most interesting though is the fact that these articles were actually written and published a good decade before Rock History as we know it nowadays was invented – this was long before reunion tours, Hall Of Fame, box sets and autobiographies from ex-wives and ex-drummers. Hell, Elvis was still alive, and The Band were considering their next album!
And in case you feel the need to listen to the music (which you surely will…) (well, I did.) there’s a whooping 300 pages of notes and discographical annotations in very small print that’ll keep you busy for months. In these additional chapters the career of someone like Randy Newman gets updated to the present, with discussions of his movie soundtracks, his later albums, and his place in the current entertainment world. In other chapters the complete body of work (from, say, Elvis or The Band) gets dissected, with comparisons and recommendations of reissues and classic albums.
Peter Guralnick has collected essays from more or less 50 years of music writing for his new book, editing and updating original articles and thereby creating a narrative of his own life as an enthusiastic listener.
He always starts with his personal experience – how he got to hear a certain album first, and then trying to find out what it was that made a lifelong impression, or how he got to meet an artist, why he was excited or disappointed by the meeting. And boy! does he have stories to tell: the chapters on Jerry Lee Lewis and Colonel Parker are especially amazing. In the end you believe him when he categorically states that ol’ Jerry Lee is a musical genius to rival Bach or Mozart, and that The Colonel was a funny and decent businessman who only wanted the best for his artists. And who’d have thought that poor old Dick Curless (you know, the »Tombstone Every Mile« hitmaker with the eye-patch) had such an interesting life. Or that Chuck Berry could recite classic English poetry at length. This collection also has (only) 50 pages of notes and guides to the essential recordings, films and books about the artists discussed.
Both books should find a home near your record collection for repeated reading and browsing. Marcus and Guralnick obviously believe in the magic of rock’n’roll, and that really comes through in their enthusiastic prose.
Gabriele Tergit
Effingers
Büchergilde Gutenberg • 904 Seiten
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