Lovely telling of Elektra and the '60s music industry
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Elektra emerged from the '60s as one of a very few independent labels to match the majors success. While others had fleeting commercial success or labored in record-collector obscurity, Elektra managed to maintain its artistic roots as it found its way up the top-40 charts. Label founder, Jac Holzman, and co-writer Gavan Daws re-tell the music industry's transformation to a conglomeratized business through the prism of Elektra's emergence in Greenwich Village folk clubs to its absorption into the WEA triad. Holzman's first-person reminiscences are brilliantly interwoven with interviews from many of those who were there, providing additional shades to many of the story's events. The first half of the book is particularly fetching, following Holzman as he founds his label amid the folk revival of the early '60s, and makes up business practices to match his feel for the art and artists. Also of great reward are Holzman's tech-rich descriptions of equipment and recording sessions. Less incisive is Elektra's flight into the arms of Warner Brothers, no doubt reflecting Holzman's relative disinterest in the business of music.
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great book about the music biz
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This book really knocked me out. It's a great look inside the sixties and seventies music business. What makes it particularly appealing is that the author was not just there but one of the major figures who made it happen. Jac Holzman and Gavan Daws have chosen to write the book from multiple points of view, quoting extensively from many of the best artists and producers of the time (even when their point of view is uncomplimentary or very different from the authors'). FOLLOW THE MUSIC lets you in on the party from many fascinating points of view. Reading this book brought me back to a time when this end of the century was being invented. I really loved it.
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Fascinating chronicle of the rise of a record company
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The tale of Elektra records, while a personal chronicle of the anxiety and triumph it's founder faced, is a fascinating review of just how a lot of the music of the 60's, 70's, and 80's came into being. The reader, if raised in the 70's and 80's, remembers the music, and will learn a lot of what went into it's creation. It is also an intersting review, first hand, of just how tough it is to start a business, keep it running, and take it to newer and greater levels (as Elektra achieved). It was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
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An in depth and fabulous look at Elektra Records.
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"Follow the Music" by Jac Holzman and Gavan Daws An in depth and fabulous look at the music business through the eyes of the musicians and the people involved with it, the man who made much of it possible and how he did it...the creator of Elektra Records, Jac Holzman. Just who he is and what his contribution to the music world has been (and continues to be) will surprise you. A must read for anyone who loves music and who cares about how the music business has evolved to what it is today. Some real inside stories first hand from the people who lived them and a wonderful peep at the sixties.
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EXCEPTIONAL LOOK INTO ELEKTRA..THE HOUSE THAT JAC BUILT.
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"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.
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