Machers and Rockers: Chess Records and the Business of Rock & Roll
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Book Overview
A tour-de-force history of Jews, blues, and the birth of a new industry. On the south side of Chicago in the late 1940s, two immigrants, one a Jew born in Russia, the other a black blues singer from Mississippi met and changed the course of musical history. Muddy Waters electrified the blues, and Leonard Chess recorded it. Soon Bo Diddly and Chuck Berry added a dose of pulsating rhythm, and Chess Records captured that, too. Rock & roll had arrived, and an industry was born. In a book as vibrantly and exuberantly written as the music and people it portrays, Rich Cohen tells the engrossing story of how Leonard Chess, with the other record men, made this new sound into a multi-billion-dollar business aggressively acquiring artists, hard-selling distributors, riding the crest of a wave that would crash over a whole generation. Full of absorbing lore and animated by a deep love for popular music, Machers and Rockers is a smash hit.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:039305280X
ISBN13:9780393052800
Release Date:September 2004
Publisher:W. W. Norton & Company
Length:220 Pages
Weight:0.71 lbs.
Dimensions:1.0" x 8.6" x 5.8"
Related Subjects
20th Century Arts, Music & Photography Business Business & Investing Distribution & Warehouse Management Ethnic Studies History Industries & Professions Management & Leadership Music Politics & Social Sciences Popular Economics Recording & Sound Social Sciences Specific Demographics State & LocalCustomer Reviews
5 ratings
An Extraordinary Book That Is It's Own Soundtrack
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
The author tells the stories of the Chess Family, the Northern Migration, Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry and how they turned into Elvis and everbody else, how regionall culture turned into pop culture and then into world culture, and what it's like bid goodbye to a generation of fathers. It's an American story, and a great one. This is non-fiction at the highest level -- non-fiction where the writing pushes it into the realm of the classic. It's the best book about music I've ever come across: You'll smell the sweat and the Thunderbird, hear the feet stomping on pine floorboards, taste the cigarette smoke, and watch a whole new world get born before your eyes
Tough Blues
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
Another addition to the "hey I never knew" series of books put out by this author. Gritty, tough, hard to put down. This is a great read and short enough that it doesn't give you a hand cramp. What could be better? Okay, so maybe Chess was a bit of a thieving creep, but he was interesting and did something with his life. No? You might also check out: Tough Jews. Different characters, same gestalt, more blood.
A Great Book
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
This is a book about American Pop Culture. About music, yes, but also about a certain type of person, and and a certain time, and a certain culture that is on its way out. Or already gone. I think it is really like a Chicago version of that Irving Howe book, "World of Our Fathers." It is about Jews, blues and the old city of Chicago. I reccomend it highly.
like a clean guitar line
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
this book reminds me of a great old rock and roll song. more than any other book or movie i know, it makes clear all the connections, where the blues turns into rock and roll, and where the businessman becomes the rock and roll executive. it is also the bigger story of race and culture, and how that old nation became the new America.
I had no idea
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
I read this book in one sitting, it just flows. But it's also full of surprises and things you will want to tell people about. I had no idea who Leonard Chess was before this, and now I cant believe that was the case.
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