Follow the Music: The Life and High Times of Elektra Records in the Great Years of American Pop Culture
Author: Jac Holzman, Gavan Daws
List Price: $18.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0966122100
Publisher: First Media Books (30 August, 2000)
Sales Rank: 131,031
Average Customer Rating: 5 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
You must read this book
Jac Holzman has given us a gift with this book, right down to the paper he chose himeself to print it on. If you have any interest in the history of recorded music, the music business, and why we listen to the music we enjoy today, you absolutely must read this book. It's not only a fascinating account of how a major record label came to be, it's a fantastic insight into what goes on behind the scenes in the very quirky world of music business. If you love music and cherish the sounds of the fifties and sixties, from folk to blues, rock to psychedelia, and you haven't read this music giant's first hand account of making so much of it happen for you, you're doing yourself a major disservice. Thank you Jac and Gavan!
Rating: 5 out of 5
EXCEPTIONAL LOOK INTO ELEKTRA..THE HOUSE THAT JAC BUILT.
"FOLLOW THE MUSIC' is an essential addition to the bookshelves of public and campus libraries, and of everyone in, and around, today's "music industry". This is the musical history tour of Elektra Records, home to The Doors, Judy Collins, Bread, Queen, Tim Buckley, Carly Simon, LOVE, Theodore Bikel, The Incredible String Band, Harry Chapin, Paul Butterfield and dozens of other folk, folk/blues, blues/rock and hard rock acts. Co-author Jac Holzman was the founder and guiding light of this exquisite and unique record label, and he, along with many of his friends, family and associates tell the inside story of the creation and eventual success of Elektra, its classical sibling Nonesuch, along with insights into the artists and folk/pop/music/drug culture of the Fifties, Sixties and early Seventies. This is an extremely well-researched, at times humorous, sad, enlightening, technical and truthful treasure chest of an autobiography. Holzman presents himself a! s an extremely bright, lucid, tasteful and technically talented 'individual', qualities that have made him loved and respected by legions of label honchos, singer/songwriter legends and record album archivists/historians. One of the most entertaining, intelligent and insightful popular music history books of the year, if not the decade.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Journey of 1000 miles begins with a step
Once, in the MUSIC business, there were men and women in charge of labels who, with a combination of passion about great music,
and just the right amount of business acumen, were able to nurture the explosion of musical creativity in the 60s. Jac Holzman is just such a person.The exciting and interesting story of Elektra records is told using an oral history approach; illuminating the story with a fascile balance of viewpoint.
I had never heard the full story of how Love and then, The Doors,
became labelmates at Elektra. There were moments in the telling of that particular story where I felt that I could almost reach out and touch the participants.
FOLLOW THE MUSIC is an entertaining, engrossing, sometimes funny-sometimes tragic account of one of the titans of American music and his lovechild; whose ability to follow his dream to it's fruition has enriched us all. Oh, if we could all be so blessed.
The recent failure of the modern music industry shows what happens when people who aren't committed to music and creativity are in positions of authority. Everything suffers; most of all, the music.
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