Cowboys and Indies: The Epic History of the Record Industry
This is a straight-ahead chronological history of the record business—the performers and record men in America and the UK—from early innovations in sound technology to the present: from Enrico Caruso through big-band jazz, Elvis Presley (and Tom Parker), R&B and rock (Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler), the Beatles (and Brian Epstein) and Stones (Andrew Loog Oldham), Bob Dylan (and Albert Grossman), Motown (although otherwise very little on black music), the Beach Boys, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix, through disco, rap, hip-hop, and synth-pop. Much of it is familiar and conventionally told, and the emphasis on the business rather than the creative side of the industry (and not enough about the conflict implied by the cutesy title) dampens one’s interest, but there are enough gems and oddities (a brawl between the burly Grossman and Alan Lomax; the Beatles first experiences smoking marijuana, when meeting Dylan; and, apparently unrelatedly, a quite funny misunderstanding of Beatles’ lyrics by Dylan) to make the book an enjoyable, if not quite indispensable, addition to the musical bookshelf. --Mark Levine