Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Ten top music books

Jarvis Cocker is a musician, singer-songwriter, radio presenter and editor. He may be best known as frontman for the band Pulp.

One of Cocker's top ten music books, as shared at the Guardian:
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

There's a section when Hank and Leland Stamper have an argument about jazz and Leland tells Hank that the reason he can't handle John Coltrane is cos it's too "black" for him – then he goes and smokes a joint. It's good to read Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test in tandem with this. Kesey is king.
Read about another entry on the list.

Sometimes a Great Notion may be The Great Oregon Novel. The book appears on John Mullan's list of ten of the best fraternal hatreds in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue