AC/DC FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the World’s True Rock ’n’ Roll Band (Backbeat Books), by Susan Masino
Madison-based writer Susan Masino is on the money with the “all that’s left to know” end of her subtitle. Under the section “The Women Who Influenced AC/DC,” she name checks every female mentioned in their lyrics—and why presumably they were so honored. The Australian hard rockers are not usually classed with the early punk scene, but Masino recounts the story of their little-known 1977 gig at CBGB.
The B-Side: The Death of Tin Pan Alley and the Rebirth of the Great American Song (Riverhead Books), by Ben Yagoda
Not everything written during the era of the Great American Songbook was great, Ben Yagoda concedes, but much of it was well crafted with memorable melodies and sophisticated rhythms and harmonies. Most of the men behind the songs were New York Jews who migrated from sheet music to sound recordings and motion pictures in a golden age that lasted from the 1920s through the ’40s. The songbook didn’t close because of rock ’n’ roll but from other changes in the music industry, Yagoda stresses in his superbly written analysis.
Born to Drum (Dey Street/William Morrow), by Tony Barrell
Drummers are reputedly the lunatics of music. Tony Barrell admits that their ranks have included notorious madmen such as Keith Moon and Ginger Baker, but counters that drumming is therapeutic (drum circles, anyone?). An entertaining advocate of skin pounders, Barrell makes his case for those most misunderstood musicians, even citing a 2008 Swedish study linking drumming with superior intelligence.
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I Found My Friends: The Oral History of Nirvana (Thomas Dunne Books), by Nick Soulsby
Biographer-blogger Nick Soulsby is right: Nirvana never existed long enough to disappoint their fans thanks to Kurt Cobain’s death. Soulsby composed a chronicle of the band from quotes by people who knew them, including musicians from their Aberdeen, Wash., hometown, as well as well-known touring mates from The Buzzcocks through The Meat Puppets and Hole. I Found My Friends captures the ragged spirit of DIY.
John Prine: In Spite of Himself (University of Texas Press), by Eddie Huffman
John Prine quit his job as a letter carrier when he realized he could make more money playing Chicago clubs three nights a week. How things have changed for local artists! Along with collecting good anecdotes, Eddie Huffman’s biography reveals a modest, self-deprecating man behind such exemplary songs of plainspoken empathy as “Hello in There” and “Sam Stone.” As Huffman writes, Prine’s lyrics counter “the vicissitudes of life with a funny story.”
Love Songs: The Hidden History (Oxford University Press), by Ted Gioia
If Darwin was right, songs of love and sex have deep roots—in songbirds. Evolutionary biology is one track followed by Ted Gioia in his witty account. But even when weighing the record of archeology and ancient texts, the evidence can support multiple assertions, as the author concedes. Gioia reminds us that love songs often pushed against established mores and expanded human potential, but his thesis that “women were the innovators and disseminators” of these songs rests on soft ground.
Pretend You’re in a War: The Who & The Sixties (Aurum Press), by Mark Blake
For fans who know The Who only through their albums and the mod legendry of Quadrophenia, it might come as a surprise that one aspect of Pete Townshend’s early musical education involved laying on the couch, smoking pot and sinking into the grooves of Booker T. and The MG’s, Ray Charles and Jimmy Reed. Mark Blake’s band biography is crammed with such telling anecdotes.
