#663: Good days

Well, the heat & sun didn't stay around here & I don't care. We needed a break. Today it's overcast & in the 50s & my feet are cold & I don't even mind much. Plus I'm a little sick -- something I ate didn't like me, so I'm mostly sprawled out on the bed with a stack of books I've put off reading for too long. Some of them are even music-related.....
* Marc Fisher's SOMETHING IN THE AIR is an at-times beautifully written history of American radio -- & the best parts recap some of the pioneers in the field -- people like Jean Shepherd (the guy who wrote the movie A CHRISTMAS STORY, among other things) telling long, winding late-night stories over the air in Cincinnati & New York ... Long John Nebel, who carried on the late-night-weirdness tradition at WBAI in New York ... Tom Donahue, who invented "underground" free-form FM radio in the San Francisco Bay area in the mid-'60s ... & others who messed-with the AM/Top 40/DJ format & in some cases are STILL doing it -- though nowhere near where I live....
It's not all nostalgia: Howard Stern, Tom Leykis, Don Imus, Rush Limbaugh, & other current stars are also profiled here. The portraits & interviews are beautifully handled -- Fisher has a great eye for detail. Clearly he loves the format, the history, & the people who made it happen. This book's available cheap -- if you're a fan of radio or Top 40, you need to track it down.
* Ben Fong-Torres's AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING is an affectionate history of Top 40 radio disc jockeys -- people like Wolfman Jack & Dick Clark & Murray the K & Cousin Brucie Morrow & dozens more. & it touches on the changes that have hit radio over the last 35 years, & why it's now a boring ghost of its former self. This will take me awhile longer to digest, but it looks worth it. The period photos are cool, & the book closes with a long list of chart-toppers from THE GAVIN REPORT that indicates the most-played songs at Top 40 radio stations across the country over the years weren't always the biggest sellers. Could've used more info on the Wolfman, but interesting & worth a look....
* Paul Stump's UNKNOWN PLEASURES is an amusingly cranky history of the British glam-rockers Roxy Music, & I'm getting more out of it in my second read-through. Stump is solid on the band's formation & the recording of their first album -- & the marketing that went on around it. I think he's a little harsh on their late-'70s/early-'80s comeback, but to compensate there are long looks at the solo careers of leader Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, & guitarist Phil Manzanera....
* Hunter S. Thompson's THE PROUD HIGHWAY is his first collection of letters, from the late 1950s to the mid-'60s, & I've just gotten into it. If it's half as good as his later letters collection FEAR AND LOATHING IN AMERICA (reviewed below under "Scrambling for $$$"), I'm sure it'll be worth the trip. I just hope it's only half as EXHAUSTING....
* John McPhee's UNCOMMON CARRIERS is about the various ways freight gets moved around the U.S., & about the people who move it. A section on long-distance truckers opens the book, & as always McPhee has found some great characters to help tell the story. As good an eye for detail & as funny as any of McPhee's recent books.
* Janet Malcolm's THE SILENT WOMAN is about poet Sylvia Plath, her husband British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, & how Hughes's family handled Plath's tragic, angry legacy. It's one of my favorite non-fiction books ever.
* Malcolm's THE JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER is about writer Joe McGinness, & how he was sued for libel by convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald after profiling him in the bestselling book FATAL VISION. MacDonald thought McGinness was his FRIEND, that McG believed MacDonald's story about how the murder of his family happened -- & sued McG because he felt betrayed. This is an amazing book that shows all the ways a journalistic "relationship" can go wrong. Having been sued herself by the subject of a profile she wrote, Malcolm knows how ugly this stuff can get, & she writes unflinchingly about it.... Worth a look for anybody who's ever considered a career as a reporter.
Just a little light reading....