Enjoy a good book while you're lazing on the beach? Maybe you seek something to motivate your creative streak; or perhaps you'd just like an engaging distraction. Here's my prescription for your year. While this is mostly music-related, it's a fair bet that non-musicians could find a lot of the following books a fun read.
Writing Down the Bones
Poet Natalie Goldberg helps you unlock your creativity by helping you unlearn all the restrictive writing practices acquired in school. Receiving this book as a gift back in the early 90's was a turning point for me as a lyricist – and even as a musical improvisor. Goldberg's method of taking a few minutes every day for non-self-judgemental, stream-of-consciousness writing is a crucial kind of process to true creativity. As Goldberg points out, we're conditioned to reject most or all of our own ideas as we sit before a blank page – yet so many of these rejected ideas are ultimately diamonds in the rough because they are so uncensored and genuine. Typically, we just need to develop the courage and lack of self-consciousness to let these ideas see the light of day on a regular basis. It certainly doesn't mean that every little thing you do is magic, but it does mean you'll take an important step toward finding your own voice, rather than being trapped by your restrictive cage of vanity and conformity. How You Think You Should Be might be quite different – and far less interesting – than How You Are.
The Lesson
If this book had not been written by a world-famous, Grammy-winning, jaw-droppingly accomplished bassist by the name of Victor Wooten, it might have been a bit difficult to swallow. This is the story of Wooten, in his days of struggle as an unknown, unmotivated, freelance bassist in Nashville. As he falls asleep one day during a dull practice session at home (a common occurrence for him), he is visited by an uninvited stranger named Michael. This mysterious, oddly-dressed intruder reveals himself to be a music teacher par excellence, whose concern is developing Wooten as a true artist, rather than a capable technician (which is a major pitfall of music education in general – we teach what to say, how to say it, but not how to feel, or how to generate sounds from feelings). Initially very sceptical and even a little hostile, Wooten ultimately finds that the feelings employed and unleashed by music ultimately take care of the technical aspects of musicianship more efficiently and pleasurably than hours of repetitive practice. A hugely entertaining and informative read, this is the musician's equivalent of Star Wars: “Trust your feelings, Luke – use the Force!”. For Wooten, the Force is the Spirit of Music. Is Michael a metaphor rather than an actual man? Most likely – but Wooten leaves that question tantalizingly unanswered.
Age of Persuasion
Terry O'Reilly worked in Advertising for decades, and- as you'd expect from an Ad Man – he has a knack for grabbing your attention and holding it with his observations, stories and theories about the business of Persuasion. Admittedly, this book has nothing to do with music, but it's certainly applicable to the business of music – a necessary evil if ever there were one. From the invention of Aunt Jemima to the fall of billboards, O'Reilly paints a fascinating portrait of the very inexact science of pitching product. Best of all, the story doesn't end with the book – O'Reilly has a weekly show on CBC Radio from January to June every year, now called Under the Influence. As hugely entertaining as it is informative.
Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business
I can't exactly call this book inspiring – but it's unquestionably an eye-opener.
Fredric Dannen's Hit Men tells the story of Payola – the practice of American record companies paying radio stations to play their music. This has been deemed an illegal act for almost as long as music has been played on radio, but the practice has continued in many forms up to the present day. Most of this book's action takes place following the great payola scandals of the '60's, after which bribing radio stations simply took on a new name, and thereby a quasi-legal (or at least difficult-to-prosecute) form. Over time, the sums required to keep the “Promotion Men” (the glorified, independent mobsters who spoke directly to the radio stations on behalf of the record labels) happy grew so high that a few label execs decided to fight back. I won't spoil the story by describing how things conclude, but this will certainly dash the expectations of those who believe that artists' careers progress on the basis of talent and a bit of luck. Money talks – and if the soulless thugs who run record labels and 'promote' music to radio stations happen to like you, you might have a career of sorts.
The good news is that this explains why corporate radio seems to have such singularly bad taste in music so often. Here I'd worried it was the public's fault...
Fascinate
Fascinate disects the phenomenon of capturing and holding human interest. Author Sally Hogshead (no, I'm not making this up) suggests that there are seven possible 'elements' that potentially draw our attention, and those people, places, products and brands that capture our hearts and minds most effectively are those that employ the greatest number of these elements. The seven elements specifically are: Prestige, Mystique, Alarm, Lust, Power, Trust and Vice. Certainly, if you point to any celebrity musician and ask yourself which of these elements the celeb employs, you'll likely find that the bigger the name, the more elements are employed – and to a greater degree. Of course, Paul Simon once famously said that he'd played with some of the best musicians on the planet, all of whom nobody had heard of; and you'll notice that 'skill' or 'artistry' are not among the elements that fascinate us. True, you think? I wish it weren't...
Also in the Recommended Book Bag, enjoy:
Effortless Mastery (Kenny Werner – in some ways, the music-specific version of 'Writing Down the Bones').
Life Inc. (Douglas Rushkoff – the invention and development of the Corporation and its culture from Renaissance France to present day. For better or worse, this explains a lot – including what might be done to alleviate the damage...)
One Train Later (Andy Summers – Police Guitarist recounts his whole life – including early Jazz leanings, touring the world in '60's British bands such as the Animals, heady years in the Police, and post-stardom drift. A little flowery in style, but more complete than those autobios of his Police bandmates.
the Cello Suites (Rock Journalist Eric Siblin takes on three stories in one book: the life story of J.S. Bach, the life story of 20th Century cellist Pablo Cassals, and Siblin's own experience in getting to know the cello and how Bach's famous Cello Suites bind all three stories together.
Hope your summer was good to you! See you at the Roxy on October 15!