Books about Music

[Con Murphy]

How could I have forgotten this book, mentioned by Greil Marcus on the programme of 4th June? It's a highly (some might say surprisingly) readable account of the life of minstrel singer Emmett Miller, and explores the early roots of late 19th/early 20th Century American music - it's kind of a prequel to all those books that take jazz or blues as the start point for popular music.

Miller is described by Tosches as "one of the strangest and most stunning stylists ever to record ... the last mutant mongrel emanation of old and dead and dying styles, the first mutant mongrel emanation of a style far more reckless and free than the cool of scat." His yodelling scat style appears to have been a precursor to the likes of Jimmie Rodgers and Louis Armstrong.

One way it really succeeds is by not making any concession to political correctness so all the references to coon music and blatantly racist songs are set as the context for the likes of Miller being a 'missing link' between spirituals and country blues and jazz. The sharp change in racial sensibilities in the early 20s and the replacement of vaudeville with cinema (and, it has to be said, a bit of a predeliction for whiskey) killed off the career of Miller, but at the same time he and many other 'blackface' performers also seemed to get airbrushed out of American popular music history, and Tosches' book does a great job at seeking out these Dead Voices.

[Des]

Am very much enjoying Gary Stewart's 'Rumba on the River' at the moment.

[Tom McPhillips]

My wife has a liking for Cowboy music, and was wondering where the yodel came from...

Her limited research led us to think that it was something that Hollywood added to the Cowboy song since yodelling was a popular phenomenon at the time (20's and 30's)... So the two things - an early form of country which incorporated cattle calls and the European yodel/polka thing intersected at the movies?

So where does Emmett Miller as a scat yodeller fit into the scenario?

And is the link between Yodel and Cowboy milk-related? (How Blegvadian!)

[Adam Blake]

I thought yodelling was from Switzerland?

[Con Murphy]

My wife has a liking for Cowboy music, and was wondering where the yodel came from...

Her limited research led us to think that it was something that Hollywood added to the Cowboy song since yodelling was a popular phenomenon at the time (20's and 30's)... So the two things - an early form of country which incorporated cattle calls and the European yodel/polka thing intersected at the movies?

So where does Emmett Miller as a scat yodeller fit into the scenario?

And is the link between Yodel and Cowboy milk-related? (How Blegvadian!)

Well, Nick Tosches has written another book called Country, with a chapter wonderfully-entitled Yodeling Cowboys and Such, in which (and I quote) "[he] devoted some pages to the course of old-fashioned, Tyrolean-style yodeling from early 19th Century British stage performances to its place in American music." and goes on to recommend a couple of other publications for further research. This must surely be essential reading for your wife, Tom!

In Where Dead Voices Gather, he talks about yodelling being extant in minstrelsy from as early as 1885 (Matt Keefe - described as a singer of "Yodle (sic) songs" in a Minstrels program of 1908), and a whole list of obscure names are mentioned to pull the thread through to Miller in the '20s, and subsequently Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills and onwards to Hank Williams and beyond.

Anyway, if anyone out there is still awake after all that, this has prompted me to ask that if anyone has any recommendations on books about Louis Armstrong, I would be very grateful to hear them. I'm reading the Jones, Clinton biography of 1970 at the moment, but would welcome a more recent viewpoint.

[Des]

Am still very much enjoying Gary Stewart's 'Rumba on the River' at the moment.

[NormanD]

this has prompted me to ask that if anyone has any recommendations on books about Louis Armstrong, I would be very grateful to hear them. I'm reading the Jones, Clinton biography of 1970 at the moment, but would welcome a more recent viewpoint.

Con, it's a work of fiction, not a biography: "Play That Thing", by Roddy Doyle is an enjoyable read. Louis Armstrong (that's Lou-ie, by the way) is one of the main characters in the 1920s Chicago setting. Highly recommended (by me).

Norman

Ps How's the book going Des?

[Con Murphy]

Con, it's a work of fiction, not a biography: "Play That Thing", by Roddy Doyle is an enjoyable read. Louis Armstrong (that's Lou-ie, by the way) is one of the main characters in the 1920s Chicago setting. Highly recommended (by me).

Norman

That’ll do for me, thanks Norman. In fact it’s a perfect recommendation because I’ve read all of Doyle’s books up to A Star Called Henry and had forgotten about that one. It’s going on the Xmas list with the book about the Brill Building and Rumba On the River, which I believe Des is very much enjoying at the moment.

[Des]

Blimey you must be able to read my mind - I was just going to say how much I was enjoying Rumba on the River.


Might buy the Joe Boyd book or put it on my Christmas list along with the Rough Guide Africa/Middle East volume.

[Gordon Neill]

Des reassured us that:

Am still very much enjoying Gary Stewart's 'Rumba on the River' at the moment.

I had assumed that you were reading the CD. And quite slowly. But I see now that there's a book with the same name. Helpfully, Amazon tells me that it measures 5.7 inches by 7.7 inches (interesting mix of decimal and imperial). So that's swung it for me. I'll get Santa to do the business. Ta for the tip.

PS Des, if there's a surprise ending, please keep it to yourself. I like to try and work out who dun it myself.

[EleanorT]

as is Billy Holiday's 'Lady Sings the Blues.'

I've just finished reading this and loved it. Indeed - who cares if it is ghost-written and at moments factually incorrect. Not quite up there alongside "Treat It Gentle" by Sidney Bechet, but an eye-opening read. It doesn't do any harm to be reminded of some of the outrages of recent black history, and Billie Holiday clearly had more than her fair share of some of the injustices raging at the time. What a tough beginning. I enjoyed this especially as despite everything that life throws at her, her strength of character and self-belief do shine through.

My favourite bit is this:

"Everyone's got to be different. You can't copy anybody and end up with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling. And without feeling, whatever you do amounts to nothing. [ ... ] I can't stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years. If you can, then it ain't music, it's close-order drill or exercise or yodeling or something, not music."

Here are a couple of related links:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... L68691.DTL

and

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... song-today

[garth cartwright]

Great to see you posting again, Eleanor! I hope life is treating you well. Try the Etta James autobiography if you want a book that will curl your hair.

[EleanorT]

Hi Garth. Thanks for the recommendation - will definitely look out for it. Hope to see you soon.