Will Hermes

Calling this with no star rating at page 95. This is really well done but the level of detail is just more than I want to know about Lou Reed. I am a Lou Reed fan of long-standing (my life was actually saved by rock n roll!), and three of my favorite NYC moments involve him. (IRL friends, ask me about finding myself talking to Lou's sister Meryl, Iggy Pop's bass player, and an A&R woman from the 60's who did mescaline with Janis Joplin when I was at the launch party for the Reed archive at the Library for the Performing Arts. And that was only the start of the evening!) Even for me though, this is too much info. That means it's a great bio and I am the wrong reader. I didn't even really make it out of Syracuse.… (mere)

lovely book on music produced in New York City 1972-1977. dense with information, and encyclopedic in scope, it moves from one stream of music to another constantly as they ebb and flow and mingle. meticulous with its extensive notes and index, it's a reference point for anyone at all interested in the music of this place or period, how and why it was born and made and in what company, until the disparate influences combine to inevitably create something new. it's also a generous through-line narrative about, as the author says in the acknowledgments, "the way in which creative work is a shared chain-reaction of inspirations", and pulling that off is a major reason why i love this very readable book.… (mere)