If you’re wondering what all you’re going to put on that Kindle you’ll no doubt be receiving as a gift this holiday season, might we make a few suggestions? Because here it is again, our bi-annual book review! The past six months have brought about some great books dedicated to exploring the various facets of rock music and the cultural components contained there within, and we’ve got reviews of those fascinating tomes for you to consider. Happy holidays and happy reading!

When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin
by Mick Wall
(St. Martin’s Press, 2009 / Orion UK, 2008)

If it were anyone else writing a fat bio about Led Zeppelin—likely the most written about group in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll—as late in the game as 2009, you’d have to ask, “What can anyone possibly say that Stephen Davis didn’t already throw at us with his encyclopedic and aptly titled doorstop of debauchery, Hammer of the Gods?” But Mick Wall should be forgiven, even praised, if for no other reason than there’s a brand new army of teen garage rockers out there starving for a tome of fresh verbiage on the world’s all-time meanest rock band. Zeppelin will unarguably reign king of the Clear Channel galaxy into perpetuity, and who better than Wall to chisel the notorious lore surrounding them into what will likely go down as the ultimate testament of life backstage? The author is well known for his journalistic ambitions; whether it’s Guns N’ Roses, or even Bono, he likes taking on the big stuff. The difference with this volume, however, is that Wall brings readers something the other Zep bios lack: An intimate perspective. With a shrewd twist in style, the author puts readers inside the minds of each player with vignettes of first-person internalization that segue back and forth between pages of solid rock journalism. The result? Four iconic rock gods (plus kingpin manager Peter Grant) are finally made human, complete with feelings, thoughts, and flaws. From the band’s late 1960s formation to the infamous hotel room orgies that marked the decadence of an era, the pages drip sexily with assorted trivia as Wall focuses extensively on Zeppelin’s powerful music experimentalism that continues to inspire and influence generation after generation. – Ben Corbett

Jimi Hendrix Gear: The Guitars, Amps & Effects that Revolutionized Rock ‘n’ Roll
by Michael Heatley
(Voyageur Press)

“He had no worries outside the usual stress of business…” The business was being Jimi Hendrix, and the line is from Hendrix’s coroner’s report—one of the many gems in the new book, Jimi Hendrix Gear: The Guitars, Amps & Effects that Revolutionized Rock ‘n’ Roll. I desperately tried to find something I did not like in this book, lest I appear to fawn all over it. But the Bold as Love truth is, the book is a beautifully put together tribute to the man and his magic kit.

For those of us tied to digital signal processing, amp and effect modeling, and 200 multi-effect presets available with a twiddle of the knob, this book is a reminder that once upon a time, fuzz and flangers lived in separate boxes and came with a whiff of solder. In the five years he spent fronting his own experience (as opposed to backing up acts like the Isley Brothers), Hendrix drastically changed rock music and what it meant to be an electric guitar player. This book shows us the tools he used to do that.

This is not another book full of worn-out anecdotes and pictures you’ve seen a dozen times—though it has some of that. This book is about staring in awe at a charred Stratocaster—one of the most famous guitars in all of rock ‘n’ roll—and then reading details about the fire. This book was created by and for gear sluts who are perfectly content staring at a rare and beat-up Octavia octave pedal (the pedal largely responsible for the guitar tone on “Purple Haze”), and countless other rare and beautiful relics of the analog world and its dead messiah. “I’m gonna sacrifice something here I really love,” Hendrix told the crowd before burning his Strat alive on stage. This book is about that love. – Max Mobley

Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973
by Clinton Heylin
(Chicago Review Press)

In 2008, Bob Dylan won a Pulitzer Prize for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” Indeed, the life and music of the man whom some have dubbed “America’s Bard” have now been studied and dissected so intensively that Dylan has rightfully earned his own classification among musicologists: Mmm hmm, Dylanology. One of the chieftains of this sect is Clinton Heylin, who also penned Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades, and Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, 1960-1994. Like his other titles, Heylin’s new volume is for those serious Dylan freaks (oh, and they are many) who pride themselves on attaining every last morsel of trivia about their musical god. To them, every morsel is absolutely vital, and Heylin does not disappoint. Written in encyclopedic style, this volume details 300 titles starting with “Song to Brigit” (“Rumored to be Dylan’s first-ever song”) and ending with “Wedding Song.” Heylin’s stated objective was to provide the stories behind the tracks. Each entry includes the date of all known studio recordings, number of takes, and date and venue of its first live performance—all this followed by a thick paragraph of information about the song, either in Dylan’s own words, or which Heylin culled from his years of research. Nicely, the author does not weigh us down with tedious analyses of Dylan’s canon of work. As the author states in the introduction, “Put plainly, too many writers are starting with the whole issue of ‘What does it mean?’” Albeit a borderline academic approach to Dylan’s work, this one is highly readable and rich with delicious insight. As per normal, Heylin has done his research and done it impressively. – Ben Corbett

Best Music Writing 2009
Edited by Greil Marcus
(Da Capo Press)

The annual “Best Music Writing” series faces a different challenge in its 10th edition than it did in its first. Everybody today knows that most music news is disseminated through (generally superficial) blogs and tweets and that long-form publications like Crawdaddy! are becoming a rarity. In response, Best Music Writing 2009 handles the task of redefining what good music writing is in the first place.

Editor Greil Marcus’ answer is something very different than the day-to-day music writing we most often encounter. He combats the idea that breaking news is important, musing, “I distrust the notion that something has to happen in any given year that in the future we will look back upon as a portent of something…” These essays don’t even try to compete with the internet’s band-a-minute approach and instead stand indifferent to time period.

Forget that these essays are non-fictional—forget that they’re even about music at all.  Marcus has painstakingly curated an array of stories that tackle issues crucial to any thinking person, music nerd or not. The best music writing, it turns out, are stories told through music and not simply about music.

None of which is to say that (most of) these essays won’t satisfy the biggest music nerd.  Between John Jeremiah Sullivan’s excellent essay on early blues obscurities and William Hogeland’s essay on the commonly misrepresented backstory of Pete Seeger, the book’s folk scholarship is accessible to laymen but stimulating even for experts. With new music, however, Marcus’ age might show a bit; essays don’t go deeper than a not particularly informed article on Girl Talk or a list of bands playing the over-hyped SXSW festival.

But on the whole, the range of style and subject matter is very inclusive and generally masterful—one essay analyzes the media whirlwind surrounding Britney Spears’ tumultuous career; another by Jace Clayton (DJ /rupture) divulges his glamorous and gritty insider perspective of DJ culture; yet another paints a maniacal picture of globalization inspired by MIA’s Kala. From country to jazz to pop to funk, Best Music Writing 2009 is no less eclectic than today’s most voracious listeners. – Nathaniel Roe

Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves
Edited by Jason Bitner
(St. Martin’s Press)

“They were into you, so they made you a tape. Today you don’t have a cassette player, but you still can’t toss that mix.” So went the first line of the press release for Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves. I might say the same, except for the part where they say that you can’t toss that mix. You can toss that mix. I’ve tossed several in my day, as a way of shedding a former part of myself that contained more bad memories than good. But even if I did toss the tapes into a trash bin, I never tossed the music from my memories. Now that’s impossible. Those songs still come out of the woodwork, even today, and they always slap me across the face and say, “Hey! Remember me? I was on that mix tape!” I nod with sheepish approval and a bit of a laugh. It’s okay. With some distance, the most meaningful mix tapes of my life are still just that—even if they’re under a heap of trash somewhere in a Jersey dump.

The “audio valentines” committed to cassette tape required a certain formula that was explained quite eloquently in High Fidelity. A subtle art with many do’s and dont’s. Kick it off with a killer. Then take it up a notch. But don’t blow your stack right away either. No back-to-back songs from the same artist. I don’t know if Nick Hornby wrote this or not, but sometimes it even takes drafts, and the kickers are the ones you get without a track listing (the gift that keeps on giving throughout your life!). Point is, it takes a lot of time to make a mix tape. Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves features 60 noted writers and musicians, like Rick Moody, Rob Sheffield, Jancee Dunn, and Larry Smith, to write on their experiences with selected mixes they feature in the book, and the nostalgia ranges from sweet to sad to heartbreaking and funny. Oftentimes a picture of the original tape and handwritten list (sometimes even with a handwritten note) accompany each mix, giving the trip through this book a feeling of finding a stranger’s journal. It’s like walking down a memory lane of memories you may or may not have, at turns reminded of your own past relationships and great tunes possibly forgotten. Essentially, it’s a coffee table book celebration of an art made obsolete by technology, but it’s one that has me picking it up again and again, just like I did with those mix tapes. – Jocelyn Hoppa