has just been named as (lucky) number 13 in the top 100 essential New England books by the Boston Globe. See the list here. The Globe says, "A gut-wrenching memoir about the author’s anguished, tragedy-filled childhood in the housing projects of South Boston. McDonald’s simply-crafted story, as good a rendering of the Irish-American experience as anything ever written, achieves a haunting, lyrical grace through the unadorned way it depicts the tragedies of drug abuse, alcoholism, loss, survival and, ultimately, redemption" As Michael mentioned to me, behind Thoreau, and in front of heavy hitter classics. That's pretty heady company!Now, as for the new books:
First up is a new one from Jon Savage, England's Dreaming Tapes, so far only available in the UK. In the spirit of Simon Reynolds follow up to Rip It Up & Start Again, entitled Totally Wired (and not available in US stores yet either), this new Savage collection ties together a lot of loose ends, and includes the full versions of many of the interviews Savage did in the late 80's while doing research for his monstrous history of punk, England's Dreaming, Revised Edition: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond
.As Savage himself says on his blog: "This month (June 2009) sees the publication of The England’s Dreaming Tapes by Faber and Faber. This book collects 58 of the interviews that I conducted during 1988 and 1989 for the research of England’s Dreaming. Comparatively little of each interview was used in the original book – in some cases, only 20% or so – and so there is plenty of extra material. The transcripts are not chopped up, as in many oral histories, but run in full – giving in some cases a sense of each interviewee and their story. It was not possible to include all the interviews in the new book for reasons of space, and so I will be running some of them on this site. Ed Kuepper, Edwyn Collins and Claude Bessy are already up, and to coincide with publication there are new interviews with Ben Westwood, Bob Gruen and Adele Bertei. More will follow in the future."
I would highly suggest subscribing to Savage's RSS feed to keep abreast of any added content.
Second up is Richie Unterberger's White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day by Day
. I've just ordered my copy, but had already seen one in a store, and it looks pretty exhaustive. The press release says: "Richie Unterberger' s "White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day" is by far the most comprehensive book on the Velvet Underground ever published. The 368-page, 8 1/2" X 11"-sized book
covers the group's recording sessions, record releases, concerts, press reviews, and other major events shaping their career with both thorough detail and critical insight. Drawing on about 100 interviews and exhaustive research through documents and recordings rarely or never accessed, it unearths stories that have seldom been told, and eyewitness accounts that have seldom seen print, from figures ranging from band members to managers, producers, record executives, journalists, concert promoters, and fans. The July issue of MOJO magazine hails it as "an impressive means to reflect on the conundrum of what could be the ultimate cult band...detailed and anecdote-packed. "
Though "White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day" has plenty of information about what happened when, it's not just a reference book. This chronologically sequenced overview of the band's life and times also offers weaves a wealth of passionate analysis and musical description into the research. The result is not just a document of their perpetually fascinating performances, hirings, and firings, but also insight into the creation of their music-the aspect of the Velvet Underground' s legacy, after all, that's by far the most enduring.
"White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day" includes not only basic nuts-and-bolts facts, but also many behind-the-scenes stories as to how their songs were written and recorded; how their strikingly original stage shows were devised; how the band were perceived by reviewers at the time of their 1965-70 heyday, not just in
retrospect; and how the group as a whole underwent a most improbable, incessantly unpredictable evolution from the most avant-garde of bohemian origins into a highly accessible, yet still boldly creative, rock band by the time Lou Reed left the group he'd co-founded with John Cale in early 1965.
While the bulk of "White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day" documents the period from 1965 to 1970 in which Lou Reed was the group's chief singer and songwriter, it also offers in-depth coverage of the individual members' surprisingly extensive (if mightily obscure) pre-1965 activities; the solo or non-VU projects in which they were involved between 1965 and 1970, which were numerous and often quite intimately related to what the group themselves were doing; and the ways in which the band's legacy was both influential and expanded upon after 1970, not only via the numerous releases of unissued Velvets material, but also through how the stature of their achievements grew and grew with a wealth of posthumous honors and tributes. Along the way, many unreleased concert and studio recordings are vividly
described; many obscure and unlikely concerts delineated; and many myths that have grown up around this most legendary of all cult bands untangled and dissected.
"White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day" also features more than 100 illustrations, including reproductions of rarely or never seen photos, concert posters, letters, and other assorted documents and memorabilia. It's the ultimate history of the band that did more than any other to break down barriers between rock music and the avant-garde, incorporating electronic innovations, experimental
instrumentation and improvisation, and lyrics detailing the realities of sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll with greater skill and daring than anyone else.
Visit Richie Unterberger's website to view sample excerpts of chapters from the book; lists and commentary of
interest to Velvet Underground fans; and updates on his current and future projects."
Jonathan Richman presciently charts the status of the Velvet Underground in a 1967 issue of Boston music mag, Vibrations. Read his article here.
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