Genres Books

Beautifully made book and absolutely wonderfully written!
Lots of food for your imagination and satisfaction to the eye!

Even if you have never thought of yourself
as being blessed with rich imagination,
this book will open that door for you,
and you will see a fragile architecture of a castle
in a snail's shell...
or even
hear a sound of a tamed piano
found in a lost land of baobabs...

COLLECT YOUR OWN MARVELS, STARTING WITH THIS BOOK!

a beautifully creative book,fit for a goddess! great for creative inspiration, open to any page and enjoy. the story is beautiful while the illustrations are sublime.

The paper it is printed on is heavy stock ecru, like a fine art paper. The illustrations are nothing short of magical and accompany the story beautifully. I won't say any more so as not to spoil any part, except to comment that it is full of whimsy.

This would make a great gift for any artist or illustrator, or any book loving friend.

The only negative was the dust-jacket of the book, which I actually removed for gift giving. Not well designed, it is incongruent with the nature of the book and makes it seem "less."

So begins this wonderful book which certainly tempted me! The magnificent Merchant of Marvels takes readers on a journey through a charming story, enhanced by various fairy tales, myths, etc. and adorned with Clement's lovely and original illustrations. This is a book that I was not content just to peruse--I HAD to buy it. A unique and beautiful acquisition for book lovers! I'm not sure if this is considered a children's book, but it seems to be one of those rare tomes that children and adults alike adore--share it with your child or your parent or your spouse or your hairdresser. Perhaps, too, it might be a good book for those who are reluctant to read (if you're a parent--this may apply to your child--particularly children interested in art, fairy tales, etc.--this book might "tempt" them!). Also, I think this is a good book to give to one you love as a romantic gesture.

What a wonderful flight for the imagination. One can just hope M. Clement continues to push us into our own worlds of make- believe. We're all children at heart if allowed to explore our whimseys, although this is not strictly a childrens book. It's a great read for bolstering the spirit of the young-at-hearts and for the young-at-heart wannabe's. A worthy gift for those one really cares about.

Mr. Satan's Apprentice is a heartfelt, soulful journey of self-discovery and self-expression. Gussow writes powerfully and lyrically about his complex friendship/partnership with the eccentric blues genius Mr. Satan. In the end, this is an uplifting example of a real-life "dialogue" between two very different -- and equally compelling -- central characters.

I could hardly put this book down to perform activities of daily living, let alone going to work. "Mr Adam" has created a masterpiece of American musical literature. Being a blues lover of many years, I was bored to death by the almost clinical approach of most writers on the subject. Not so, Mr. Gussow! He delivers a passionately honest and heart felt memoir filled with wonderfully alive and vibrant individuals, sharing with us the one true American music, the blues.

It is an amazing thing when an artist (in this case, Gussow, a writer/blues harp player) can somehow manage to make their mark despite all the confusion and hard knocks life throws at them- and they sometimes throw at themselves. This is a moving story about a burgeoning blues musician captured with excellent dialogue... Gussow has made his characters come alive and jump off the page the way writers are supposed to.

Not only is it Gussow's personal memoirs of his early years in music, but a riveting biography of one of the most unique and original blues acts in recent years- Satan & Adam. Gussow's accounts of his early music/life mentors (such as the underexposed harpist Nat Riddles) with sincerity and genuine emotion is fascinating. The telling of Mister Satan's story is a valuable contribution to blues history that could well have been lost in obscurity.

There are issues explored in this book that have rarely been expounded upon with any meaningful insight in any musician interview or book I can remember. The passages in the book where Gussow is in the middle of Harlem grappling with the rift and misunderstanding between black and white is especially poignant, particularly from his perspective as a young, white, Princeton educated "bluesman".

Although this book isn't an instructional course on technique or musicianship- for those who aren't aware- Adam Gussow is considered by many blues afficionados to be one of the best harmonica players alive today. So he's paid some dues and he knows what he's talking about.

Adam Gussow had the good fortune, the talent, street smarts and the heartfelt focus to get out there and live it- become an apprentice to a bluesmaster- just like most traditional art is passed down from accomplished teacher to eager student. I admire him for it. Mister Satan's Apprentice is a must read for any struggling musician or blues fan- it just might get you thinking about your own life's journey.

Recently it was my privilege to see author and harmonica player Adam Gussow at my local huge independent bookstore here in the Eastern US. I rarely do commercials, but if you can't catch Adam, you can check out his new novel "Mr. Satan's Apprentice". Adam calls it "a blues memoir", and so it is. The guy is a no-shit, kick-butt, street-smart harp player! FYI, I have fairly high standards in this realm. If you've seen or heard the New York duo "Satan and Adam", you'll know what I mean. The guy is ALSO a juicy and creative, energetic, sexy writer - something I'm also picky about. Princeton Ph.D. candidate - English.

Adam's book describes a journey that a few of us know, but most do not. The musician in you will relate to the tale of the emergence of deep and powerful music from the little instrument - and the romantic in you will throb with the ways the emerging harmonica player and boundary-crosser discovers the things he needs to grow musically and personally - and then sometimes fearlessly, sometimes not, sets out to acquire them. You'll meet his teachers and mentors, and like it or not, you'll see life through the eyes of this seeker of musical and personal connection. You'll go with Adam on the romantic roller coaster as loves come and go - and you'll travel with him to Paris to play in the Metro and on the street; to the American South, and to other places exotic and otherwise - including a hitch with the road company of Broadway show based on Mark Twain's Sawyer and Finn. Later we get into the recording studio with Mr. Gussow and Mr. Satan - the Harlem street mystic and one-man band who becomes Adam's main-man mentor and muse, the Mr. Satan of the book's title. Throughout the book you'll find Adam the street intellectual examining his position as a white man among black men (and black women) in this blues-filled world - an examination in which Mr. Satan plays a key role.

A book for players and lovers - of the spirit of the music, of the street; of the endless forms of beauty and love, as they are found ALL over the place. The author is one who knows, and magically, describes, many of the gut experiences we players know; to my knowledge no one's ever written quite this way about these things before. Like the performing moments, the pulling out of all the everything you've got and then some, when the audience is on it's very EDGE, right there with you; when you are truly and purely the great IT! Blowing and drawing deep, and deeper, and then high and higher; and the room is all whoops and smiles, and all there in your hand. A good player knows these things, and believe me, in a blues band, nobody gets that kind of juice but the harp player.

OK, so maybe you don't know the peak of performance grace and light - but you know your peaks, and Adam's telling can stir it back into view...

Adam Gussow writes of music, romance, conflict, and awakening in an intimately physical and heart- connected way. As a player, I'm rocked. -"Harmonica Jack" Merrylees (JMerrylees@aol.com)

In "Mister Satan's Apprentice," street musician extraordinaire Adam Gussow has left in just about everything, and it's about 40 percent too much; the book would have read far better at a sleek 250 pages. But the good stuff is really good, and the book is well worth reading despite its distractions and digressions. In his early 40s, Gussow is currently a doctoral candidate in Princeton's English department. But thousands know him as the harmonica-wielding half of the "progressive gutbucket blues" duo Satan and Adam -- three-CD recording artists, photogenic subject of any number of newspaper and magazine features, and cameo stars of the U2 movie "Rattle and Hum."

In his autobiography, Gussow gets deep inside blues, and his relationship to it, and manages to successfully translate the music into language. "Blues harmonica played well was a miniature tongued slalom, a tornado swallowed and contained," he tells us, and his words capture every bit of excitement that the grooves and notes have to offer. "Mister Satan's Apprentice" is about much more than the blues, though -- it's a provocative meditation on race from a white man immersed in a traditionally black genre, neighborhood and world. Playing around with his first harmonica, in 1974, Gussow contemplates the subtleties of playing blues. "It had something to do with being a black guy," he muses.

As the protagonist in his narrative, Gussow pales (no pun intended) next to two marvelous characters: his two mentors, Nat Riddles and Sterling "Mister Satan" Magee. Twenty-two years older than his protégé, Mister Satan is as colorful as they come. He's a visual artist and apocalyptic numerologist with a murky music-industry background, and a font of, if not wisdom, then brilliantly idiosyncratic aphorisms and soliloquies. A Harlem fixture when Gussow approaches the guitarist to jam along, he shouts and hollers, runs hot and cold, towers over other men. Mister Satan looms larger than life, but harmonica player Nat Riddles is entirely real, an odd-job taxi driver with a dazzling smile and soulful tone. "He was perpetually on the verge of becoming the blues world's Next Big Thing," Gussow writes. "A young black harp-player with the Sound." Riddles flits in and out of fortune, showing up unexpectedly to astound a New York club, phoning from somewhere in the South, destitute and desperate, surviving gunshot wounds only to eventually succumb to a cruel wasting disease.

It's the music, finally, that counts most -- Gussow gives his story its own soundtrack, one of restlessness and yearning, of his struggle to capture the Sound: "The Sound was Southern-bound, it was cocky, playful, manic, chucking, resentful, edgy, comforting, relentless. It took incredible lip strength and finesse to produce. It was sexual. It was the haunted, restless feeling of a guy's apartment late at night after the woman who used to live there had moved out. It was whatever nasty things she was doing with the other guy-a virile sensitive soulmate-this very minute. It was the best way of beating those visions back into the ghoulish cave they had crawled out of. Working hard at the Sound was a socially acceptable way of sobbing, raging, and primal-screaming from a hot heart while pretending merely to be practicing." A little of this kind of writing goes a long way, and there's an awful lot of it here. Granted, it's a real challenge to maintain a level of excitement in writing about music page after page, particularly about blues, a genre built on the same few chords locked in a repetitious groove. So it's forgivable that Gussow often leans out a little far: "The sidewalk scene dissolved; I was wandering in a garden of earthly delights, hands cupped against the sweet cold fluid air. Every bent note was a pitch-perfect arrow puncturing the gray dusk. You only live now. Blue notes danced and spun, lines endlessly unfolding like so many wrapped gifts laid bare." You have to remind yourself that he's talking about a harmonica, one of the more prosaic of instruments.

For all Gussow's breathless adjectives and action verbs, he's frustratingly vague about the technical aspects of the duo's "huge raw perfect sound." The book's photos show Gussow with effects pedals at his feet, but he makes no mention of them; he doesn't mention the basic information that he plays in "cross harp" style until page 386; Mister Satan's "phase-shifted guitar wash and deafening clatter" is described pretty much only in metaphorical terms, as, for instance, "an endlessly unrolling Persian carpet with gristle and clanks added." Gussow is so good at getting inside his playing that the narrative sags whenever it moves to other topics. A hefty amount of the bloat deals with his failed relationships. We meet mercurial crackhead Robyn and inconstant ex-fat girl Gail, but mostly there's erratic, irritable hyperfeminist Helen. Gussow tells us on page 30 that Helen left him back in 1984, so we're predisposed to dislike her, and we indeed do. "Most men had a girlfriend," he writes. "I had Aphrodite crossed with Kali the Destroyer, She of infinite ravenous limbs." Worse, the book's artfully jumbled narrative, with short sections ordered sort of sequentially on several tracks, dooms us to read about Helen over the entire course of the book. We think we're finally through with her, and then: "1983. Things with Helen had turned out surprisingly well . . ." Enough already!

In the late '80s and early '90s, a period when racial violence kept flaring up in the outer boroughs of New York City, Satan and Adam's young-old, white-black novelty made a splash, but momentum slipped away. "Minor celebrity beckoned, then faded," Gussow writes. And despite the book's vibrant cover photo of the pair, they no longer perform, according to an e-mail Gussow sent me. "[I]t's impossible to keep the act together," he wrote, noting that Mister Satan now lives in south-central Virginia and has no telephone. That's a real shame.

The 3 main aspects that anyone seeks when getting into the music industry are money, music and success. These 3 are discussed in this exceptional title that is a true insider's guide to the music industry. Good amount of information put into an easy to understand structure make this book a winner. However, a far better book is "How To Make A Fortune In The Music Industry By Doing It Yourself: Your Personal Step-By-Step Guide To Having A Successful Career In The Music Business. ... To Sell Music, Book Shows And Get Noticed!" by Ty Cohen, a title that is breathtaking by definition and takes you to places that no other book takes you.

This is a must have book for everyone who has even daydreamed about writing their own music. Knowledge of copyright law is more important than ever, and this book is just the reference for you if you're trying to make it in the music business. Plenty of times unscrupulous agents, managers, and record labels get artists to sign things they don't really understand, ending up with all the rights to a band's entire efforts. The fat cats rake in the cash while the actual band members make a measly one percent, all because they didn't understand their rights in relation to their intellectual and creative property. A well written, thoughtful book like this one, crafted by experts, can help protect the interests of the musician and therefore shouldn't be overlooked.

As a student of USC's Music Industry program, I not only had this book as a course text, but also had the extreme privilege of having the authors as instructors. I have used the book as an invaluable reference as well as a recommendation or loan to fellow songwriters who needed more information on how they may find a successful strategy toward a career in the industry.

Completely lacking any vague ambiguities regarding the often "mysterious" inner workings of the music industry, the Brabec brothers have clearly defined realistic expectations for those entering the music world from any angle. Straightforward and to-the-point explanations of just about every aspect of the business, especially on the publishing side of things, render this book an essential part of any student or songwriter's library.

Also great for the the vaguely curious, this text is a steal at any price!

Music, Money, & Success is a must read for anyone interested in music business. As a Vice President/General Manager in the fast moving industry of music publishing, I need to keep abreast of all the changes and any new developments that take place. The revised edition of this book has allowed me to do just that. I strongly recommend this book to anyone trying to keep up with the business and, most of all, anyone who is interested in getting into the business. It is written in a way that all people can easily understand the "ins and outs" of the industry and would enable anyone to grasp the knowledge to enable them to start on the road to a career in the music. It has great information on how the "web" has affected the music business and also contains all the new royalty rates for CDs, Motion Pictures, Television, and other Media.

"How did you arrive at those percentages?" I asked a colleague, after he had presented a very complex licensing proposal for a revue-style stage show. His answer embarrassed me, because I was very familiar with both of the books he cited, one of which was this title, by Jeffrey and Todd Brabec. The Brabec twins' track record goes back thirty years or so. About 1970, when I was first setting up my music companies, both brothers worked for ASCAP, and helped me with some business details. Later on, as the dust-jacket bio explains, Jeff went on into private practice, and is now associated with the Chrysalis Group. Todd has stayed with ASCAP, and is currently Director of Membership, a position that gives him high visibility in the L.A. music community. In other words, these guys know their territory: when they talk about "the inner workings of a music publisher," they lead you into a world seldom seen by the uninitiated outsider. When they talk about "sources of income," their list is exhaustive, not ending until they've included all possible licensing revenues, even "greeting cards" and "dolls and toys." When they tackle co-publishing agreements with this same attention to detail, they are recommending strategies many enterprising and entrepreneurial songwriters will want to try, sooner or later. And we're just beginning: yet to come are the fields of records, television, movies, live performance income, and, finally

musical theater, where my colleague had discovered more complex principles and formulas for computing royalties than I had seen before. Thanks, Jeff and Todd, for taking time to create this book. Okay, sure, you'll make some money with it-costs thirty bucks, for heaven's sake. But still, getting these concepts out of your heads and onto our desks is a major service. While the value of this material is obvious to anyone involved with licensing or contracts, it can be equally helpful as a university text. Consider it for honors work in music business, or for independent readings projects. Now that the book has been around a few years, it has found its way into the libraries of many star-level artists and songwriters, who regularly sing its praises to anyone who will listen. Ron Simpson, School of Music, Brigham Young University. Author of MASTERING THE MUSIC BUSINESS.

I go from month to month waiting for these books. I am never disappointed. Mr. Axler keeps you wanting to turn the page and see what our heros get into next. Please keep them coming. Faster if possible.

As a fan of all things space opera, I was pleasantly surprised by the alternate world visited in this book--and the fact that it seemed so authentic. I can easily imagine the author writing Star Trek and Star Wars novels. "Outer Darkness" is one of the best novels in the series, very entertaining and enjoyable all the way through.

Once again Outlanders bridges the gap between just another sweaty men's adventure series and a "legitmate" genre. This is a cutting edge series with sharp, intelligent heroes who know victory doesn't always rely who has the biggest guns. Big brains help, too. Fast-moving, funny at times and even tragic, this novel is a classic in the series. Loose ends are tied up and I felt sort of sorry to see Beth-Li go. The space-opera part of the novel was riveting, wonderfully detailed, but it reminded me more of Starship Troopers or Hammer's Slammers than Star Trek. "Outer Darkness" is one the best in a great adventure series.

The last part in the Lost Earths Saga was a thrill-ride from start to finish. It kept me turning pages until the wee hours of the morning. A terrific book.

Well M.E. you did it again. At the beginning of the Trilogy I had a hard time following it. I didn't really understand the reason behind going to the alternate earths. But at the end of Outer Darkness, everything made Perfect Sense! It was to date, the best you have written. The way things are going, it won't be long before Outlanders begins to out sell Deathlands! The character interaction, as always, was superb. The story flowed beautifully. There were some interesting Star Trek references! I'm embarrased to admit that most had to be pointed out to me! Ah well. Keep up the good work as always! A fan till the end.

10 stars! I agree with all of the previous reviews here, please read them all! I just want to add that it is a very unique book, heavily endorsed by the likes of Tom Waits, Allen Ginsberg, and others (on the most recent editions' liner notes). I have been a career pro musician for over 30 years and this is one of Thee Best true stories about the origins of Jazz music, America's greatest original art form, and about All music for that matter, that I've ever read. We Love you, Mezz! Also want to point out that Mezz was a sideman musician on many of Fats Waller's great recordings, that's how I first came to know of him. He played inventively with humor and with tons of feeling on all of the Fats' stuff.......check it out!

This is quite a yarn. I leave it to others to debate Mezzrow's place in jazz history. I found it interesting as a social study. Tales of 1920s gangsters and prohibition, the Chicago and Harlem music scene, and race relations. Of course, it's not always clear how much of this is true and how much may be a product of Mezzrow's (or Wolfe's) desire to make the story better.

For me, Mezzrow came across as the ultimate wannabe. He wanted to be a black jazz musician from New Orleans. He was a Russian Jew, born in Chicago. He lived the life, the music *was* his life (except when opium was his life), but he could never fully be what he wasn't.

Compare, for example, Louis Armstrong's autobiography "Satchmo." Armstrong matter-of-factly tells about his life, not wanting it to be anything else. Mezzrow is always trying to be something he isn't and never can be. He was an interesting character.

It's a good read.

Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow was a white jewish kid who was born in Chicago in 1899. In his late teens he discovered the jazz music that was being played around the south side of Chicago in those days. "Mezz" fell in love with the sound of early jazz and with the excitement of the music scene. Chicago was a jazz center then, and Mezzrow heard many of the great pioneers of the music including Freddie Keppard, Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong and many others. Soon he bought a clarinet and began trying to play like his heroes.

The club owners who employed Mezzrow were prohibition era gangsters including Al Capone. The gangsters were interesting louts. Capone once wanted Mezzrow to fire a girl singer who was developing a romantic relationship with Capone's younger brother. Capone said, "she can't sing anyway." Mezzrow was so upset that he told Capone, "why, you couldn't even tell good whisky if you smelled it and that's your racket, so how do you figure to tell me about music." (sic) Feisty!

Mezzrow wrote this book in 1946, and he uses 20's era slang to tell his story. This is as groovie as a 10 cent movie, jack. It's also fun.

Mezzrow's maniacal enthusiasm for early jazz is endearing. Not many people who were actually present at the time considered jazz music to be important enough to write books about. Part of Mezzrow's purpose is to convince the reader that jazz music is important. One of the earlier reviewers compares Mezzrow's book unfavorably to Louis Armstrong's autobiography, Satchmo. Armstong's book is good, but Mezzrow's book is more honest than Armstrong's. Armstrong was born into dire poverty. His mother may have been a prostitute, and he was placed in an orphanage at an early age. His book cleans up the criminals and murders in his story so that they are merely "colorful characters", and he leaves out as much unpleasantness as possible. Mezzrow tells more of the whole story. He candidly discusses his drug experiences, and his jail sentences as well as his happier times.

An added bonus to this book is that Mezzrow leaves out all that boring background information that plauges other books, like who his grand parents were and what his childhood was like. Mezzrow's book starts right off with his discovery of music in Pontiac reform school.

If you like this book, or Louis Armstong's book, another good book by an early jazz musician is Jelly Roll Morton's book, Mr. Jelly Roll.

the hippest trip around...this book will grab you by the soul and spin you around. reading it changed my life.

Often considered a highly unreliable autobiography, 'Really the Blues' is really an insight into the personality of Mezz Mezzrow rather than a factual retelling of his life events. Milton 'Mezz' Mesirow was a Jewish-American jazz clarinetist born in 1899 in Chicago. Mezz quickly showed a penchant smoking marijuana early in his life. But he also showed a penchant for jazz music, like his mentor Louis Armstrong, for whom he briefly may have served as manager.

Although Milton "Mezz" Mesirow is generally remembered as not being a very technically skilled clarinetist, Mesirow in-fact was very knowledgable about his instrument and about the workings of the jazz music industry. Milton's life was often a reflection of the demands of the music industry. His personality could best be viewed as a product (or reaction) of the rough-and-tumble environment of mob-controlled, Prohibition-era Chicago. Due to the uncertainty of the circumstances abound, Mezz was a fearless rebel rouser. He took risks, such as smuggling some twenty joints into a New York night club. He was stopped and caught by the police, a violation for which he was arrested and taken to prison. When he arrived, Mezzrow successfully persuaded the prison guards to let him stay in a black section of the prison by convincing them that he was African American.

In addition to music, race relations emerges as a major theme in the autobiography. Mezz married a black woman, played music like a black person, and was more interested in black culture than white culture. Mezz also dealt marijuana in spades. His marijuana dealing perhaps earned him higher distinction than his jazz playing. In the lingo of the time, "Mezz" became slang for marijuana. Milton also gained the nickname "Muggles King," at the time "muggles" being another slang word for marijuana.

The fast writing style featured by Mezz and Bernard Wolfe makes 'Really the Blues' a fast-paced, entertaining, and image-packed read. Mezz's narrative style is a self-assuring one, making 'Really the Blues' read as if Mezz were present in the room and actively trying to engage the reader. Consequently, the insight that the reader gets into Mesirow derives not just from the stories, but in large part from the narrative style itself. Mesirow's psychology is revealed to the reader through his nonchalant word choice, liberal syntax, and the larger philosophical method by which he organizes his book.

Reading 'Really the Blues' is an experience. Mezz takes the reader on a ride through another time, an era defined largely by the times. The reader is also given an entertaining educational look at the life of an important, if somewhat marginalized early jazz musician, Milton "Mezz" Mesirow.

* You may have noticed that my last name, Mesirow, is the same as that of Milton Mesirow. There actually is a familial relation. My grandfather was a first cousin of Mezz (although Mezz was a good deal older). My grandfather kept up on what Mezz was doing and introduced me and my brothers to the legacy of Mezz Mezzrow.

For years I have been collecting pieces of music that reflect the Pagan lifestyle. This is a collection that reflects the face of the Mother, and the children of Her Universe! An excellent collection of chants and musical offerings in one place. This should be on the book shelf of every Pagan, or Earth-friendly person!
Tyla

This is a great resource for anyone who likes to sing earth-friendly songs. Great selection, well organized, and the hole-punched format fits well with the many notebooks of music I have.

I am a choir director for a small, non-denominational Christian church. We like to do music from a wide variety of traditions. This book has been like a gift from the Gods! It's an amazing resource for music from so many different traditions, organized in an easy to use way. Every time I look through it I find something new.

I bought this book to use as resource for my environmental education and religion/spirituality work. As a musician and songwriter for the Earth Mama projects, I review lots of current music materials. This is the finest I have seen. Notation is clear and accurate. Commentary and notes on the songs and ideas are articulate and thoughtful. The entire volume (over 400 songs)is a rich resource of material from many traditions which I will savour and enjoy for years. References, incidentals, quotes and comments sprinked throughout are the icing on the cake. I have given several of these as gifts to schools, music departments and organizations. They are always delighted to add Songs for Earthlings to their library.
Joyce Rouse, AKA Earth Mama...

from Green Egg Magazine:This collection of songs meets all my expectations of a great songbook and more. It provides an excellent introduction to music theory in nine concentrated lessons that could easily turn a person who has never studied music into a well-grounded beginning musician and it specifically meets my thirst for a variety of songs in harmony (so to speak) with the Earth.Clearly a labor of love, Songs For Earthlings is beautifully, conveniently and informatively arranged and obviously inspired.This collection is multicultural, diverse, lovely, inspiring, and includes beloved old familiar songs and exciting new material.

Sun Ra has remained one of the most misunderstood musicians of our time. And in the case of many music geniuses, Sun Ra would keep the critics and fans at arm's length, but welcome musicians into his world of philosophy and art.

Author John F. Szwed does an almost impossible task of peeling of the layers of myth and disinformation to present the real life, struggles and triumphs of Sun Ra. Szwed brilliantly weaves through the situations which shaped his life while growing up in Birmingham, Ala., the highs and exteme lows in the jazz world of Chicago and New York City & how persistence finally yielded an understanding - on various levels - from fans who also wanted to challenge the barriers erected in the music industry.

The philosophy of Sun Ra is explained and Szwed shows how it influenced every facet of his life on and off stage. I strongly believe Szwed ends any debate on how Sun Ra lived his life and what he demanded from those around him.

This must have been a very difficult undertaking for Szwed, but his outstanding research and balanced reporting yields a fantastic biography on a person we can continue to learn from.

Great book.
If you have an interest in who Sun Ra was you ought to read this. Not a lot of musical analysis, but an extrordinary explanation of the ideas and philosophies behind it. Good job on the life as well.
I wish the highly-praised Lewis Porter Coltrane biography was a quarter as good as this.

The book is well-written and does what it sets out to do - explain who Sun Ra was and what he was doing. This is no mean feat. Sun Ra was a man of many interests and beliefs, of whom many misconceptions exist. Even most of his fans (I've been listening to Ra's music for about 10 years now) will probably learn much and gain tremendous perspective on him from this book (I certainly did).

The book's story is one of a man with artistic genius within him, who probably could have been a millionaire and musical "star" - who chose to do other things instead. Here is the unusual story of what he did and why he did it.

There is room for another book in the world on Ra's discography, that traces the patterns, forms, and themes of his vast catalogue of recorded music. There is room in the world for a book that tells the stories of the members of Ra's Arkestra. But this is not those books, this is the first logical step in studies : an explanation of Sun Ra himself. It's a difficult job very well done.

Frankly, Sun Ra seemed to go out of his way to make a biography pretty much impossible. Professor Szwed is to be commended for his effort, though I think at times the professor takes Ra and himself too seriously. It is a hip jazz disease that Ra played off of brilliantly and would have been amused by.

What is of value is you get some idea of the depth of this fellow, the complexity, the seriousness and simultaneous playfull nature. In being too deep or altogether dismissive of him, we missed the amazing creations.

The book confirmed my evaluation of Ra's heart and motivation. A few years prior to reading this book, I went with my family to an assembly of jazz musicians who processed, played outrageous free jazz, and did this while listening to an old woman recite Sun Ra's poetry while "dancing" and "singing" in Wichita. My young daughter was squealing with delight and loving the wild affair. The adults were being so "into it", solemn, and so serious. This book confirmed to me she was likely the only one Sun Ra would have concluded got it. He probably would have commenced to direct the band to improvise off of her squeals.

He from above probably was smiling and particularly happy that a little white girl "understood the vibrations" and would have been encouraged for the future of the earth which he was convinced would take all the races working in harmony to rescue.

This is, simply put, the greatest jazz biography I have ever read. Sun Ra is a complex and fascinating character, and Szwed's narrative more than lives up to the challenge. The most impressive thing about this book is that Szwed places Ra's, shall we say, bizarre beliefs in a context that makes him seem brilliant, lonely, compassionate, and vulnerable--in a word, human. Interwoven with the facts of Ra's life, his childhood, his musical development, his status as 60s cult icon, Szwed goes into long, fascinating digressions on the roots of Ra's beliefs--from ancient Egyptian mythology to the Bible. After reading this book, it was as if a whole world had been opened to me, and I now enjoy and appreciate Ra's art so much more. I wish I could convey how much this book moved me...it is more than the best jazz biography I have ever read, it is one of the best biographies I have ever read, period. If you are at all interested in Sun Ra, experimental jazz, or modern mythmaking, then DO NOT hesitate to pick this book up.

Bjorn Turoque and "To Air is Human" have done with air guitar what Al Gore and "An inconvenient Truth" have done with climate change.

This book is quite difficult to put down, as it drills you to your seat: leaving you to wonder why you're not the one rocking on an invisible instrument.

When reading this book lovers of music will appreciate the passion that Bjorn and his fellow air guitarists have for all things music. Lovers of peace will respect the greater message that air guitar promotes - that if every person in the world were to hold an air guitar then they would not be able to carry a gun. Bjorn Turoque's air guitar journey which started innocently enough but then quickly escalated to odd proportions is both riveting and hilarious.

I thought I had no interest in Air Guitar. I just didn't get it. (I'm
referring to the rise of public air guitar competitions, not unselfconscious, instinctive standing-on-the-bed performances). I couldn't believe it wasn't an ironic, nostalgia-addict-generation trend that would flare up, then die out. I thought it sprang from the same impulse that drives people to watch endless episodes of their seventies childhood tv shows.

After Crane's hilarious page turner I am schooled. I won't say what the impulses are that leads one, or at least the subject of this book, to perform in front of an audience with nothing but their bare hands, because that would spoil the author's eventual revelations, and the adventure of coming to those revelations with him is part of the fun of this read. And it is a pretty much non-stop fun read.

But not entirely airy; like any good book it taps into the human condition, as the title promises.

Crane had me hooked from the first competition; I read the book practically in one sitting. He's got perfect comic timing, an addictive voice, and an immensely likable persona --even if you're not drawn to any iteration of [...], narcissistic rock n' roll endeavors, air or otherwise, you'll find it hard not to identify with Crane's struggle to find some place in life that isn't freighted with self-seriousness, corporate-banality, or deadening adult legitimacy. It's a little bit like Bridget Jones in that it makes you feel better about your own [...] dissapointments.

Fellow female [is that an oxymoron? ed.] readers: there's a great scene at a strip club that lifts the veil over what really goes on in there (and in the male brains) that will have you horrified but hanging on every word. Scandalous! Even, maybe, sad.

Another added bonus: for anyone who's been feeling kindof out of it (suddenly finding oneself with children, or locked at work, or locked into a disturbingly lasting depressive stupor) To Air also serves as a crash course in what the kids are up to these days. With quick, deft, lol sketches, Crane captures a demographic ethos in an inclusive way that leaves you feeling cheerfully in the know.

My only complaint: I wish he'd given more than just tiny peeks into his failing relationship. The book returns repeatedly with little butterfly-wing brushes to interpersonal juicyness issues -- is Bjorn stealing away from commitment and Air Guitar is just the getaway car, or there another reason the romance ends? -- but never fully explains what happens.

But maybe this was enough generous self-exposure for one book. If so, I look forward to the next.

Bjorn Turoque has given his audience a Roque solid, chAIRsmatic, and hilarious tale of his determination and perseverance to not only become the "World's Greatest Air Guitarist", but to also emulate the true spirit and message of Air Guitar - World Peace.

I'm eager to see Air Guitar and it's competitive circuit sweep the nation and hope that America will embrace it as the Finns have!

I was in a hurry to pick up some books for a transatlantic flight and I picked this book up, without much expectations. After all, how good could a book be about one man's quest to become the world champion in "air guitar" play? Then I started turning the pages...

In "To Air Is Human: One Man's Quest To Become The World's Greatest Air Guitarist" (304 pages), author Dan Crane brings the improbable tale of how he decided on a whim to enter the 2003 NY regionals and subsequently the world championships, and what happened next. The book is "co-authored" by Crane's alter-ego, the air guitarist Bjorn Turoque (get it?). With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Crane tells of his encounters with (semi)celebraties like Carson Daly and others along his way to try and become the world champ. Most of the tales are quite funny, which is what kept me turning the pages. Some of his observations are so off-kilter (such as "Air guitar, I had learned, is about commitment. It's not unlike love, really") that I just couldn't stop smiling as I was reading. Many of the better moments in the book are about the many side-characters that pop up.

In the end, this book was much better than I expected it. Of course, I had low expectations to begin with. But this book is funny and irreverent from begin to end. If you are in the mood for that, this book is for you.

the most detailed read on so many artists&there impact on the charts.it covers Artists from A-Z&everything else in between.a very fun kind of read for folks like myself that just love Music.and also great to understand the changes with Charting&also how songs got as far they did&whatnot.a Great Read.

In recent years, the RIAA and its member record companies have bemoaned the decline of music sales, blaming digital music piracy and other hobgoblins. One look through this informative tome will tell you the real problem - the industry has destroyed its entree for the fans to new and talented artists - the hit single!! At $$$ a pop, not too many buyers are willing to try new or unfamiliar music, but at $-$, if an artist or group has several "hit" singles (established by radio air play), the subsequent investment in an album seems less risky. The music industry, in it's zeal to maximize profit by selling full length CDs instead of priming the demand pump with singles, has contributed to its own decline. If you peruse the shear breadth of music styles listed in Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles that have been able to make the "Top 100" over the years, you realize just how rich and exciting music WAS in the 50s through the early 80s. As the corporate entities who owned the stations became fewer and fewer due to mergers, the current blight of narrowcast programming blossomed. It worked - for a while. But a steady (and excessive) diet of your favorite food will ultimately become boring. This book is not just a dry list of song titles, artists and dates. It's our lives writ large in song - teenage crushes, first dates (and dances!), first automobile, leaving home, possibly time in military service, marriage, kids - all of these events punctuated with the musical nuggets listed in this volume. Here's hoping that a bright future continues to exist for the indelible impact of the "hit single".

This is a great collection for the music lover and for anyone who wants to get to know their favorite artist. This book features all of the songs from 1955 that hit the top 100. So if a song hit 92 you will find it in this book. the only problem I have with this is the price I think 50-70 dollars is high but it is worth it. I recommend this item to the music lover inside everyone.

You don't need to buy TOP POP SINGLES 1955-1999, because Joel Whitburn's own site (record research) will sell you the most up to date volume TOP POP SINGLES 1955-2002. I still have my TOP POP SINGLES 1955-1993. Essentially, it's the same book but updated by the year, by the inclustion of "B" sides, and Top Air Plays, making the new the edition the better buy. Why can't Amazon sell us the current most up to date record of this valuable resource? Any collector of popular music from 1955 to 2002, will find the TOP POP SINGLES 1955-2002, the best value. No school music library should be without this book as an addition to the curriculum. All songs the made the top hundred along with information on the artist is great as a resource book, a coffee table book or just for looking up your favourite song.

Joel Whitburn's book covers the pop charts from the Hit Parade era on up to the end of the century. This book is not just for collectors, but rather, it will satisfy anyone who loves music and has a desire to know more about the dynamics of the Billboard pop charts. Besides the easy, alphabetical listings by artist, the book includes features such as:

* debut date for each song
* a chronological listing, by peak date, of every song
* the peak position and weeks on chart for each song
* a listing, in the back of the book, of all song titles (listed alphabetically) in the artist selection
* assorted chart "facts and feats"

In addition, the book's typeface and bolding features makes it easy to read, without straining for particular entries. In total, this book is the most comprehensive source of info available for the music of this era. No one but Whitburn does anything close to this in terms of music factology. It's well worth the money, and if you intend on flipping through it over and over, the few extra bucks for the longer-lasting hardcover will be worth the expenditure.

This is a great book. I especially enjoy reading about Gary Griffin....he's a real cutie. It's interesting to find out that life on the road isn't all glamor. A wonderful inside view of the people and songs that we all remember.

Bob Greene takes fans of 60's music through an insightful story from behind the scenes as he tells of his travels with Jan and Dean. His observations as one of the back up musicians reveal little known things about musicians and how concerts work. He also has many anecdotes about Jan and Dean after Jan's "recovery" from his terrible accident. Some of them are humorous and some rather sad. Reading this book led me to buy other books by Greene that I hadn't read so far in addition to buying another book about Jan and Dean. A good read.

Do you remember "Jan and Dean"? Do you remember those "surf songs" that were/are so much fun to dance to and sing along with? Do your kids remember these songs? This book, so easy to read, gives us one man's remembrance of what it was like to tour and sing/play with the various and ever-changing group inspired by the original Jan and Dean. What a wild and wonderful ride they all had...

This was a fascinating read for me and I was amazed about so many details of "life on the tour" that Bob Greene remembered. For all I know, he may still be on tour...

You might also like reading one of Bob's other recent books, And You Know You Should Be Glad. He has a gift for being able to write about how it felt growing up in a (fairly) small town in the 50's/60's and has a way about explaining feelings that he had as a teenager and those feelings of his friends. Things were sure different then and young people today might enjoy seeing how one particular guy saw things. When I have read his books, I have said to myself, "yeah, I know what you mean," but have not been able to put it into words. He talks about the importance of sustaining friendships and not all of us have been able to keep such long relationships. His recounting of those times also kept me laughing, it was not all seriousness. In fact, I think the humour is what kept the whole thing going in both of these books.

Sincerely,
Diane Commendatore
loudotcomm@comcast.net

Bob Greene has yet another winner with 'When We Get to Surf City'! Mr. Greene has such a wonderful writing style. You honestly think you are there on tour with those guys as you read it. I highly recommend this book to anyone. You don't need to be in a band, you don't need to be of the surfer song era, you don't need to be a musician OR a guy, to enjoy 'Surf City'. You will laugh and smile and be moved to tears...and what a journey it will be!!! 5 STARS!

Bob Greene's 'When We Get To Surf City' is for everyone who loves warm summer weather, hot dogs, pretty girls and great music - not necessarily in that order. Over more than a dozen years, Greene wound up with what for many would be a dream job - playing great music with some of the idols of his youth. This is the story of those years on the road with the legendary Jan and Dean.

Opening up this book is like slathering on the sunscreen and sitting in a beach chair listening to the sounds of the ocean. The reader gets a first-hand look at a rather sad fact of life - namely, that untalented headliners (I could name a ton) hit a stage and rake in piles of cash, when people like Jan and Dean - who, like the Beach Boys and countless other groups, provide the template for the music that other artists blatently steal - wind up flying coach, staying in Motel 6s and considering themselves lucky to have a meal provided them before a show. Much like corporate radio's complete disregard for the Oldies format, it's sad to see what groups that once sold out halls across the country doing their time, usually outside in hot summer weather, just to make ends meet. Nobody in these groups travels by private Lear Jet and scarfs caviar. That, in a word, is obscene.

But, lest I digress further, this in no way diminishes the joy Greene expresses throughout the book. As a professional musician myself, I can completely understand how the fatigue of travel and sometimes difficult circumstances all go right out the window the minute the lights come up and the crowd reacts. That makes it all worth it. Greene's book is a completely absorbing, yet easy, breezy read. I kept having to remind myself that the events in the book happened over a period of years; it seems like the book takes place over one long, glorious, never-ending summer - and that's probably exactly what it felt like.

Throughout the book, Greene never really has a bad word to say about anybody - although the band crosses paths with other Oldies artists on occasion, some of whom are less than professional. There's always one in a crowd. From gig to gig to gig, the reader feels like nothing so much as a ghost roadie, and the whole book serves as a testament to a life and a sound that is disappearing way too fast.