BMG Books’ RPM Series launches with Sub Pop, Excello Records stories

The Reverend loves books about music – heck, I’ve written a couple dozen of ‘em myself, and I’m currently reading the bio of former Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen – so I’m particularly hepped up with this news of a new series from BMG Books. Dubbed ‘RPM’, the series kicks off on November 20th, 2018 with the publication of its first two books – Gillian G. Gaar’s World Domination: The Sub Pop Records Story and Randy Fox’s Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story.

Each tome in the RPM series is sized at 7” x 7” square to resemble the dimensions of a 45rpm record and each book features a special insert offering rare and previously-unpublished photographs. In a press release for the new series, BMG’s Kate Hyman, who conceived of the project, states “we want to honor the truly special independent labels. We want to celebrate the days when fans would buy records based on the logo alone. Let’s hope there will continue to be more of them that take the big risks and break the mold of the majors.”

Future volumes in the series will explore the history of Chrysalis Records (home to essential recordings by Procol Harum, Jethro Tull, Blondie, and many others) and the Cold Chillin’ label (a pioneering hip-hop imprint that released albums by Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, and Biz Markie, among other ground-breaking artists). In the same press release, Publisher and Senior Director of BMG Books Scott B. Bomar says “As a self-proclaimed music geek, I’ve always been a big fan of the 33 1/3 series. We wanted to take that concept and build upon it. Instead of focusing on a single album, each volume in the series covers a label that made an important splash in one way or another. We’ve given ourselves space to dive into some of these stories in ways that maybe haven’t been explored in the past.”

They’ve certainly picked a couple of good ‘uns to launch the series. I’ve been reading Gillian G. Gaar, a Seattle-based writer, for years in publications like Mojo, Rolling Stone, and Goldmine and she’s written better than 15 books on subjects like Nirvana and Elvis Presley. As Senior Editor of Seattle’s The Rocket music magazine, Gaar was at ground zero in the late 1980s when Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman launched the legendary Sup Pop Records label with recordings by regional bands such as Green River, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, and Screaming Trees, among many others. Gaar’s World Domination draws upon her years of covering the local music scene to provide a comprehensive history of the label from its founding to the present day.

Nashville’s Randy Fox is an acquaintance of mine, a well-known local DJ, music journalist and historian who has written for publications like The East Nashvillian, Nashville Scene, Record Collector, The Journal of Country Music, Vintage Rock, and others. A co-founder of the independent free-form Nashville radio station WXNA-FM, Randy hosts “Hipbilly Jamboree,” a weekly broadcast of classic country, rockabilly, and Western swing music. Fox is uniquely qualified to write about the legendary Excello Records label.

Fox’s Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story dives into the history of the trailblazing record label. Founded in 1953 by Ernie Young and operating out of Ernie Young’s Record Mart (“The Record Center of the South!”), Excello found a natural partnership with Nashville’s WLAC-AM, a 50,000-watt clear channel station that would broadcast R&B and blues music across much of the U.S. every night. Excello’s releases by artists like Slim Harpo, Lazy Lester, Lonnie Brooks, Lightnin’ Slim, Marion James and others were tailor-made for the station’s playlist, which helped extend the label’s popularity across the country and even to the U.K. where it would influence young musicians like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Eric Clapton.

Buy the books from Amazon.com:
Gillian G. Gaar’s World Domination: The Sub Pop Records Story
Randy Fox’s Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story

Daryl Sanders’ That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound & the Making of Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde

In late 1965, rock ‘n’ roll legend Bob Dylan began recording the album that would subsequently become widely considered as his masterpiece. But the initial recording sessions for Blonde On Blonde, held in New York City, didn’t go all that well so Columbia Records staff producer Bob Johnston recommended moving the project to Nashville (an action that Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman, was vehemently opposed to). Dylan agreed to the relocation and recording on the album reconvened in February 1966 at Columbia’s Studio A in Nashville.

Johnston brought keyboardist Al Kooper and guitarist Robbie Robertson down to Nashville for the sessions, but otherwise the producer rounded up a bunch of the Music City’s most talented players to record – legendary musicians like harmonica wizard Charlie McCoy, guitarists Wayne Moss and Joe South, and drummer Kenny Buttrey. Over the course of roughly eight days spread across February and March 1966, Dylan and his band spun pure magic out of these sessions, and Blonde On Blonde would be released as a double-album in mid-1966 to nearly universal critical acclaim. It would peak at #9 on the Billboard album chart in the U.S. and #3 in the U.K. and would eventually be certified as double Platinum™ for over two million in sales (during an era when few albums sold a quarter of that number).

On October 2nd, 2018 the Chicago Review Press will publish That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound, author Daryl Sanders’ in-depth history of the making of Blonde On Blonde. A well-regarded Nashville music journalist, Sanders has served as editor for a number of local publications, including Hank magazine, Take One magazine, and Bone music magazine and as a writer he’s contributed to The Tennessean newspaper, The Nashville Scene, and The East Nashvillian, among other publications. That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound provides the definitive account of the sessions that resulted in this classic album, Sanders interviewing the people who played on the album, correcting much of the misinformation that swirls around Blonde On Blonde with new details sourced by years of exhaustive research.

Daryl Sanders is a friend and colleague of mine dating back some 40 years. He has been my editor at three different publications, and we spent more than a few hours on the phone talking about this new book. When it comes to Dylan, Daryl knows his stuff and he’s been around the Music City, and involved in the local music scene, long enough that he knows all the major players, from the recording studios to the executive suites. There are a heck of a lot of Dylan-related books available – enough to stock a smallish library, really – but none of them have dug this deep into the making of one of the Scribe’s most creative, critically-acclaimed, and commercially-successful albums. If you’re a Bob Dylan fan, you’ll want a copy of That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound on your bookshelf.

Buy the book from Amazon.com: Daryl Sanders’ That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound

It’s A Memphis Rent Party in March!

Grammy™ Award-winning writer and music historian Robert Gordon (no relation) is the author of some of my favorite books on music, including It Came From Memphis, Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion, and Can’t Be Satisfied, the best Muddy Waters bio, bar none. Gordon has a new tome that will be published on March 6th, 2018 titled Memphis Rent Party: The Blues, Rock & Soul in Music’s Hometown, an exploration of the great music made by legends like bluesman Furry Lewis, rocker Alex Chilton, and many others.

On March 9th, a few days after the publication of what promises to be another great book by Gordon, Fat Possum Records will release a soundtrack LP on glorious vinyl to accompany the book. Featuring a veritable “who’s who” of unsung Memphis musical idols, the album covers the genres and artists that make the Bluff City special, from the aforementioned Lewis and Chilton to Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, early rockers Charlie Feathers and Jerry Lee Lewis, and bona fide Memphis music legend Jim Dickinson.

Better than half of the Memphis Rent Party album is comprised of previously-unreleased material like Chilton’s reckless performance of reggae legend Jimmy Cliff’s classic “The Harder They Come”; a collaboration between the North Mississippi Allstars’ Luther Dickinson and Sharde Thomas, granddaughter of bluesman Otha Turner; and Big Daddy Jim Dickinson’s tongue-in-cheek track “I’d Love to Be A Hippie (But My Hair Won’t Grow That Long).”

Memphis Rent Party also includes two lo-fi recordings that Gordon made on location with a cassette recorder – Junior Kimbrough’s “All Night Long,” recorded in 1986 in the Hill Country Blues legend’s living room, and the Fieldstones’ “Little Bluebird,” caught live at the notorious Green’s Lounge in Memphis. The album also features music by local talents like jazz legend Calvin Newborn, pianist Mose Vinson, and country singer Jerry McGill’s reading of the Guy Clark classic “Desperados Waiting For A Train,” the singer backed by Dickinson’s Mud Boy and the Neutrons, the song recorded while McGill was on the run from the law.

No matter your taste in music, there’s something among the dozen tracks on Memphis Rent Party to tickle your fancy, the album’s creative diversity making it the perfect soundtrack to listen to while reading Gordon’s latest book!

Memphis Rent Party LP tracklist:

Side A
1. Jerry McGill – “Desperados Waiting For A Train”
2. Luther Dickinson and Sharde Thomas – “Chevrolet”
3. Junior Kimbrough – “All Night Long”
4. Furry Lewis – “Why Don’t You Come Home Blues”
5. Calvin Newborn – “Frame for the Blues”

Side B
1. Alex Chilton with the Randy Band – “Johnny Too Bad”
2. Jerry Lee Lewis – “Harbor Lights”
3. The Fieldstones – “Little Bluebird”
4. The Panther Burns – “Drop Your Mask”
5. Mose Vinson – “Same Thing on My Mind”
6. Charlie Feathers – “Defrost Your Heart”
7. Jim Dickinson – “I’d Love to Be A Hippie”

Buy the book from Amazon.com: Robert Gordon’s Memphis Rent Party

By the LP from Amazon.com: Fat Possum’s Memphis Rent Party

Bill Kopp’s Reinventing Pink Floyd

It’s only fitting that our final news story of 2017 should be about friend and colleague Bill Kopp. A veteran music journalist and critic, Bill has written for publications like Blurt magazine, Goldmine, Prog (U.K.), Ugly Things zine, and Record Collector (U.K.), among others, as well as tending to his own excellent Musoscribe blog. Now Kopp has another lofty credential to add to the list – his first book!

On February 15, 2018 Rowman & Littlefield will publish Kopp’s Reinventing Pink Floyd: From Syd Barrett to the Dark Side of the Moon. In celebration of the 45th anniversary of the band’s groundbreaking Dark Side of the Moon LP (released in ’73), Kopp takes a look at Floyd’s reinvention after the departure of band founder Barrett as well as the musical evolution of the band that would result in the aforementioned breakthrough album that would subsequently spend an unparalleled 741 weeks on the Billboard charts (that’s better than 14 years!).

Kopp explores the band’s attempts to establish a fresh musical identity and style after the loss of their brilliant band leader, including the obstacles, experiments, creative missteps, and eventual development of the influential “Pink Floyd” sound that would result in a handful of bona fide classic albums (Wish You Were Here being my personal favorite). Kopp worked from archival interviews and reviews to put together a history of the band circa 1968 through 1973, adding information glommed from exclusive interviews with folks like Steve Howe (Yes), Jerry Shirley (Humble Pie), Davy O’List (The Nice), Robyn Hitchcock, and many others.

The result is a tome that every Pink Floyd fan or any lover of the classic rock era is going to want on their bookshelf! You can pre-order Revinventing Pink Floyd right now from Amazon.com...

Alice Cooper Guitarist Michael Bruce’s No More Mr. Nice Guy

Guitarist Michael Bruce was an integral part of the sound and fury that was the original Alice Cooper band. Co-writer of many of the band’s best-known and beloved songs, Bruce was around for classic Alice Cooper albums like Love It To Death, School’s Out, and Billion Dollar Babies. After Alice left the band to pursue solo stardom, Bruce and fellow bandmates carried on under the name Billion Dollar Babies at first, recording a single album titled Battle Axe. The guitarist would later forge a lengthy and impressive solo career that includes a half-dozen albums as well as a pair of recordings with the band Ant-Bee.

In February 2018, Gonzo Multimedia will be reissuing Bruce’s critically-acclaimed biography No More Mr. Nice Guy as part of a limited edition box set. The box includes the book, written by Bruce and his Ant-Bee bandmate Billy James, originally published in 1996 and recently updated; as well as a signed certificate, a 1996 interview CD, and reproductions of Alice Cooper group memorabilia. The box set is limited to 250 copies and is currently available for pre-order through PledgeMusic.

For Michael Bruce/Alice Cooper fans there are also a couple of other items on the Pledge Music page that might pique your interest. If you don’t want to pony up $67 for the deluxe box set, you can buy Bruce’s No More Mr. Nice Guy bio by itself for a very reasonable $13.50 (plus shipping) and/or pick up a copy of the very first show by Billion Dollar Babies on CD for a mere $12.15 (plus shipping). Performed in Flint, Michigan in 1977, Billion Dollar Babies included Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, and Neal Smith from the original Alice Cooper band as well guitarist Mike Marconi and keyboardist Bob Dolin. The book and the CD are available in a bundle for $24 (plus shipping).

In a press release for the box set, Bruce says “it’s not often we get a chance to redo, remake or, in this case, re-release a book...my book. It is with much thought, great enjoyment, many thanks, and heartfelt appreciation for family, friends, and fans that I present the re-release of No More Mr Nice Guy, a compilation of hilarious rock ‘n’ roll stories and life events that made me the man I am today.” Check it all out on the PledgeMusic website.

Essential Modern Progressive Rock Albums

It’s no surprise that we’re prog-rock fans here at ThatDevilMusic.com HQ…the Reverend got his first taste of King Crimson when he was in short pants. Throughout our years publishing the Alt.Culture.Guide™ music webzine (1998-2006), we covered the growth of progressive bands like Spock’s Beard, IQ, the Flower Kings, Porcupine Tree, and many others. In 2011, the Rev and ACG writer/editor Tommy Hash published Prog 2010, a book-length collection of the best album reviews and artist interviews from the webzine along with some tasty new, exclusive content that covered the first decade of the progressive millennium. Suffice it to say, when it comes to prog, we know our stuff ‘round here!

Which is why the Rev is excited to hear about Essential Modern Progressive Rock Albums: Images and Words Behind Prog’s Most Celebrated Albums 1990-2016 by Roie Avin, editor of The Prog Report online zine. A 280-page paperback book featuring color photos, album cover artwork, and original press photos, Essential Modern Progressive Rock Albums revisits more fifty ‘gotta have’ album releases by better than 30 bands from the past quarter-century of progressive rock music, a chapter each for works by artists like Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Spock’s Beard, Marillion, the Flower Kings, Riverside, and others. The book includes original interviews with innovative prog musicians like Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci of Dream Theater, Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree, Roine Stolt of the Flower Kings and Transatlantic, Neal Morse of Spock’s Beard, and many other artists.

Essential Modern Progressive Rock Albums: Images and Words Behind Prog’s Most Celebrated Albums 1990-2016 can be ordered now from The Prog Report website and is scheduled to ship at the end of November. Pre-orders come with a free download of a chapter from the book covering prog supergroup Transatlantic’s classic album The Whirlwind. Check out the video trailer for the book below and I think that you’ll agree that this is a tome deserving of a place on the bookshelf of every prog-rock fan.

Marie Trout’s The Blues – Why It Still Hurts So Good book

Dr. Marie Trout, PhD is a familiar name to most blues fans – the wife and manager of blues-rock guitar legend Walter Trout, Marie has spent much of her life immersed in the blues as both a fan and an industry professional. Two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet (in or out of the industry), Marie and Walter lived the blues with the guitarist’s recent life-threatening illness and subsequent liver transplant. The good Dr. Trout’s original academic research of blues fans has resulted in a powerful new book, The Blues – Why It Still Hurts So Good, scheduled for publication on February 3rd, 2017.

Using the “Grounded Theory” methodology of research, Trout studied blues fans, musicians, and industry professionals about the role that blues music plays with modern audiences. Dr. Trout surveyed over a thousand blues fans, and interviewed many others as well as musicians and others in the blues business, coming to the conclusion that the role of blues music for contemporary audiences, as well as its transformative musical potential, had not been sufficiently explored in literature. She found that today’s blues fans (primarily white baby boomers) are encouraged and strengthened by and find healing power in their love of the blues. Fans and musicians alike find the music raw, sincere, and “real,” as opposed to a frustrating, superficial popular culture. She also writes of the power of blues music to express difficult and complex emotions,

All proceeds from The Blues – Why It Still Hurts So Good will benefit The Blues Foundation’s HART Fund, which was established to assist blues musicians and their families in financial need due to health concerns, the fund providing acute, chronic, and preventive medical and dental care as well as funeral and burial expenses. In a press release for the book, Marie states “it is important for Walter and I to give back to the community that literally and figuratively bought stock in Walter’s liver. And to help musicians in need of help, is just passing on what we received. I hope many will find that the book gives them a new appreciation for, and understanding of, blues music. And simultaneously that the funds raised will be a blessing to those who are ill and are currently living the blues.”

Buy the book from Amazon: Marie Trout's The Blues - Why It Still Hurts So Good

Hawkwind’s Early Years Remembered In Print

If you’re of a similar vintage to the Reverend, then British space-rock pioneers Hawkwind probably hold a special place in your heart. The band’s early ‘70s albums like In Search of Space and Space Ritual were mind-blowing, consciousness-expanding experiences for many young rock ‘n’ roll fans on both sides of the Atlantic.

Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Nik Turner has enjoyed a lengthy solo career exploring the outer limits of rock music, but he was also an early and essential member of Hawkwind, contributing to seven of the band’s albums during the decade of the 1970s. Turner has documented these anarchic, chaotic early years in the pages of The Spirit of Hawkwind 1969-1976, a beautiful deluxe hardback book that was published on October 30th, 2015.

Written with music historian Dave Thompson, Turner provides readers with an inside look at the band, from the drug bust of original band bassist Lemmy K to the band’s notorious Glastonbury Festival appearance. The book runs 300 pages and includes an enormous number of rare and never-before-seen photos as well as a comprehensive Hawkwind discography (no mean feat, considering their various side projects, single releases and such), a complete list of band gigs, an a reproduction of Turner’s tour diary from the band’s first U.S. tour in 1975.

The deluxe tome also includes a reproduction of the band’s 1971 single “Sonic Attack,” and a reproduction of a 1971 twenty-page 6”x9” promotional booklet. The Spirit of Hawkwind 1969-1976 ain’t cheap – the Cleopatra Records website is selling it for around $60 – but it’s also a unique piece of Hawkwind memorabilia.

Turner will be touring the U.S. beginning in November in support of his new album Space Fusion Odyssey, performing songs from the rich and deep Hawkwind catalog. The book will be available at the merch table, and Turner will be signing copies of The Spirit of Hawkwind at the shows, which we’ve conveniently listed below.

Nik Turner North American tour dates:

Nov 12 - Brick And Mortar, San Francisco CA
Nov 14 - El Corazon, Seattle WA
Nov 16 - Lion's Liar, Denver CO
Nov 18 - Shank Hall, Milwaukee WI
Nov 20 - Reggie's, Chicago IL
Nov 21 - Token Lounge, Westland MI
Nov 22 - The Rockpile, Toronto, ON Canada
Nov 23 - Grand Victory, Brooklyn NY
Nov 24 - Cafe Nine, New Haven CT
Nov 25 - The Bug Jar, Rochester NY
Nov 27 - Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia PA
Nov 29 - Brighton Bar, Long Branch NJ
Nov 30 - Sellersville Theater, Sellersville PA
Dec 1 - The Pourhouse Music Hall, Raleigh NC
Dec 2 - The Masquerade, Atlanta GA
Dec 3 - Siberia, New Orleans LA
Dec 4 - Notsuoh, Houston TX
Dec 5 - 237 @ The Korova, San Antonio TX
Dec 6 - 7th Street Club, Austin TX
Dec 8 - Rebel Lounge, Phoenix AZ
Dec 9 - Till Two Club, San Diego CA
Dec 10 - The Whiskey, West Hollywood CA
Dec 12 - LVCS, Las Vegas NV
Dec 13 - The Continental Room, Fullerton CA

Related Content: Nik Turner's Space Fusion Odyssey CD Preview

Archive Review: Peter Guralnick's Careless Love (1999)

Subtitled “The Unmaking Of Elvis Presley,” Careless Love is Peter Guralnick's second book on the great American icon, a sequel of sorts to the writer's critically-acclaimed Last Train To Memphis. Picking up where his first book left off, Guralnick chronicles the life of Elvis from his induction into the Army in 1958 through his death almost twenty years later.

Careless Love, by any accounts, is an exhaustive work, with some six hundred and fifty pages of story, over six hundred footnotes and more than a dozen pages of bibliography. For his work on both books, Guralnick is to be envied as a scholar and a journalist. Created from hundreds of personal interviews, magazine articles, and books, Careless Love will leave you knowing more about the rise and fall of Elvis than you ever cared to know.

Nonetheless, it's a story worth telling. Elvis was the first true rock star, and if his excesses and undignified death have been documented extensively elsewhere, they've not been done to this extent or provided such context. Guralnick's Elvis is a troubled man, an artist whose startling rise to fame only created its own problems. Elvis had his eccentricities, to be sure – his fondness for underage girls, for instance, is knowledge to even the most casual Elvis fan, but Guralnick puts it in perspective, with Elvis' desire for innocence and purity represented by these teenage paramours. Elvis was also a responsible man, a corporate kingpin with dozens of relatives and employees on the payroll.

Most of all, Guralnick's Elvis was an immature man, burdened with unprecedented fame and the fortune to indulge his fantasies. Self-centered to a fault, Elvis always had to be the center of attention and affection, and would often play friends, relatives and employees off one another, manipulating them for his own purposes and enjoyment. Given the sordid debauchery of today's standard rock star, Elvis was a choirboy. He always had his girlfriends, often times carrying on relationships with more than one woman (or girl) at a time.

He was sincerely against drugs, although his own abuse of various pharmaceutical substances escaped him. He and his posse often got rowdy and tore up hotels and such, and, at times, would rough up overzealous hangers-on. But, in his heart Elvis was a good-natured, conservative, God-fearing mama's boy from deep in the heart of Dixie. All else aside, this is how Elvis pictured himself, and who are we to argue with it?

Guralnick goes into great depth in Careless Love on the relationship between Elvis and Col. Tom Parker, his manager and promoter and, perhaps, the real creator of the myth that was Elvis. It's interesting to read of the love/hate relationship between Elvis and the older Parker, the lengths to which Parker would go to ensure “his boy's” success and loyalty. The details of Elvis' relationship with Priscilla are also laid bare, from his earliest infatuation with a teenage girl through their stormy marriage and eventual divorce.

One important myth, that of Elvis' racism, is touched upon only marginally by Guralnick, mostly in tales of Elvis' meetings with various R & B artists. From my reading of Careless Love, it doesn't seem to me that Elvis Presley was more or less bigoted than any other Southern white male of the era. Often accused of “ripping off” black artists, Elvis has a sincere love for many blues, gospel, and R & B songs and artists and, indeed, helped the careers of many of the black artists he respected.

Another myth shattered by Guralnick is that of the “evil” Doctor Nick. A Memphis physician, who ended up on Elvis' payroll, Dr. George Nichopoulos is usually made the villain of the Elvis story. Guralnick gets to the heart of the matter, which is that Dr. Nick, as he was known, truly cared for Elvis. Realizing that he couldn't control his famous patient – much less oversee his actions twenty-four hours a day – instead Dr. Nick did his best to try and lessen the impact of various drugs on Elvis' system and keep the star alive, if not healthy. There were plenty of other unscrupulous physicians and pharmacists who were ready and willing to provide whatever pills and powders that Elvis wanted, and Dr. Nick fought a valiant battle to try and keep Elvis from killing himself. He failed in the end and, with Elvis' death, became the scapegoat for Presley's self-destructive behavior.

At its core, Careless Love is the story of a man overwhelmed by his fame and the expectations that accompanied it. Like many artists that would follow, Elvis fell prey to celebrity and its requirements. An uncertain man, Elvis was never quite sure that he was good enough, that he could juggle performing and recording and movies and keep the fan's adoration that he craved. Only in the music did Elvis find release, and in the end even it couldn't save him. It's the music that Elvis created, however, that built and continuesth and legacy that is Elvis Presley. (Little, Brown 1999)

Buy the book from Amazon.com: Peter Guralnick's Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley

Book Preview: Lloyd Price’s sumdumhonky

New Orleans R&B legend Lloyd Price is best known for his string of late 1950s/early ‘60s chart-topping hits, classic songs like “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” “Stagger Lee,” and “Personality,” several of which crossed over from the R&B chart to become Top 10 mainstream hits as well. Price’s songwriting skills are often overshadowed by his dynamic and powerful vocals, but his songs have also been recorded by artists as diverse as the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, and Dr. John, among many others. Price was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2010.

Along with Price’s status as a recording artist and live performer, he has also found success as a pioneering businessman. His Double L Records released soul giant Wilson Pickett’s first recordings, and Price was one of the first African-Americans to own and operate a nightclub in New York City (Lloyd Price’s Turntable, on 52nd and Broadway). His Icon Foods brand is known for its Lawdy Miss Clawdy food products and Energy-2-Eat snack bars, and Price also has his own line of clothing and collectibles. Price’s historic career has spanned seven decades and, at 82 years old, the singer shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. 

Needless to say, Price has stories to tell, and on October 13, 2015 the singer’s book sumdumhonky will be published by Cool Titles. No garden variety autobiography – he already covered that territory with his 2011 book The True King of the Fifties: The Lloyd Price Story – Price’s sumdumhonky mixes stories from across Price’s lengthy and storied career with his unique perspective on matters of race. No matter how successful he may have been in bridging the pop and R&B charts with his music, Price was still too-often judged by the color of his skin, and he writes frankly and openly of the racism he found in his hometown of Kenner, Louisiana and beyond – bigoted policemen, record executives trying to take advantage of him, and of his eye-opening sojourn to Africa. 

“Times have changed since I was born more than eighty years ago,” Price says in a press release for the book. “Blacks can now drink from the same water fountain as white people, eat at the same restaurants, ride in the front on public transportation, get a bank loan, hold jobs in management and we don’t get lynched quite as often as we used to.”

As a Southern-born African-American who came up through the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and ‘60s, Price experienced his share of racial discrimination, and he takes on the hatred and bigotry he’s suffered with insight and humor. If you’re looking for an intelligent, first-hand account of where race and rock ‘n’ roll intersect, look no further than the great Lloyd Price’s sumdumhonky.

Buy the book from Amazon.com: Lloyd Price's sumdumhonky

Who Invented Heavy Metal?

Writer Martin Popoff is a buddy of mine, a respected colleague in the dark art of rock criticism, and a rabid music fan who has forgotten more about heavy metal music than most of us will ever know. Popoff is the former editor of Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles magazine, and the author of almost four-dozen books on hard rock and heavy metal (including seminal texts on classic bands like Rainbow, Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, and UFO). He’s also worked as a consultant on the VH1 Classic documentary series Rock Icons and Metal Evolution.

Popoff’s latest tome is Who Invented Heavy Metal?, an erudite discussion of the roots of metal music that begins with rock ‘n’ roll’s origins in the 1950s and ends in 1971 after the release of influential and classic albums by Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Uriah Heep. A thought-provoking effort, the book was written to appeal to more than the obvious metalhead audience, and Who Invented Heavy Metal? promises to be an entertaining and informative read for any rock music fan.

In a press release for the book, Popoff says, “folks, this was a monster undertaking, comprising quotes from 126 different speakers (mostly the metal-makers themselves), many of them interviewed multiple times, blasted at you with much of my own contextualizing over 120,000 words of oral history, strict and detailed timeline, obsessive philosophizing, punctuated by more than 250 graphics. This book arose from years of debating this question with people, as well as talks I’ve given on the topic at university conferences. I’ve endeavored to include everything related to the story, the result being a massive arrangement of all the salient arguments, in a weighty tome that ends in 1971!”

Who Invented Heavy Metal? can be ordered directly from Popoff through his website, where you can also find information on his many other books. I’d personally recommend Martin’s three-part series on Thin Lizzy or any of his Ye Olde Metal books, but as Popoff is a knowledgeable and passionate writer, you can’t go wrong with any of his books (and I own a bunch of ‘em!).