Tunesmith murphy full#

The get over yourself award: Rocking My Life Away: Writing About Music and Other Matters by Anthony DeCurtis (Duke University Press) Uh, 'no.' But the biggest problem is that ol' Simon never has any fun: He don't dance, and in a million years, you'd never find him in a Cat in the Hat chapeau.

Tunesmith murphy full#

Simon covers all the bases-from the music's origins on the isle of Ibiza to the giant 'Furthur' rave in Hixton, Wisconsin-while arguing that techno is a totally new art form that cannot be judged via 'rockist' terms (i.e., 'artists' who record interesting 'albums' full of good 'songs'). Least ecstatic book about ecstasy and rave culture: Generation Ecstasy by Simon Reynolds (Little, Brown) Damn shame the group it covers sucks so much. This tome hearkens back to better days, combining a lavish old-fashioned homage (a la Armando Gallo's Genesis book I Know What I Like) and obsessive studio log. In the era of alternative, the 'fan book' became as cheap and disposable as the music it detailed. Alas, there are no heroes anymore: This book supports the sad but inescapable conclusion that Captain Beefheart was an asshole.īest book about a lame band: The Phish Book by Richard Gehr and Phish (Villard) Runner-up: Zoot Horn Rollo's Captain Beefheart Experience by Bill Harkleroad with Billy James (SAF)Ī tour/studio journal chronicling the Magic Band's adventures during the making of such masterpieces as Trout Mask Replica. (Note: Official publication date is this month, but since it was already in stores in December, we'll call it a '98 book.) Round about page 431 you'll be screaming, 'Enough already!' There are 300 pages after that. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for this tome, part two in the series, which covers the post-Army years, Hollywood, and, of course, the Vegas decline in excruciating detail, pill by pill. Most extraordinarily well-written and researched book no one wants to read: Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick (Little Brown)Įven if you think that Elvis doesn't mean shit to you, the first installment of Guralnick's epic Presley bio is a fascinating read and a convincing argument that his early music was holy text.

As always, they acknowledge both the good and the Anthony DeCurtis. As we've been doing every year since, ah, OK, 1999, the Dallas Observer will forgo the usual best and worst lists, opting instead to hand out awards to books of special merit. As with the year's new records, 1998's rock-and-roll reading found small pleasures coming from unexpected places, while the much-touted Big Events were ushered into the world with a resounding plop echoing throughout the lavatory.