Elektra Records and Bread book package £14 Bournemouth

[Mickeyboro]

These two books have proved entertaining and informative lockdown reading for me, a US music fanatic. It’s now someone else’s turn to enjoy them at a substantial discount - combined published price is well over £30.  

Becoming Elektra by Mick Houghton tells the incredible true story of the pioneering Elektra Records label and its far-sighted founder, Jac Holzman, who built a small folk imprint into a home for some of the most groundbreaking, important, and enduring music of the rock era. Placing the Elektra label in a broader context, the book presents a gripping narrative of musical and cultural history that reads like an inventory of all that is exciting and innovative about the 60s and 70s: The Doors, Love s Forever Changes, Tim Buckley s Goodbye and Hello, The Stooges, The MC5 s Kick Out The Jams, Queen and Queen II, The Incredible String Band, Carly Simon s No Secrets, and many, many more. First published in 2010, Becoming Elektra was praised as 'eye-opening (Q) and a 'dazzling narrative (The Sun), and for 'perfectly encapsulating the enigmatic, unpredictable spirit of the label (Record Collector). This fully revised and expanded edition includes a brand new foreword by John Densmore of The Doors and draws on extensive new interviews with a wide range of Elektra alumni, including Tom Paley, Judy Henske, Johnny Echols, Jean Ritchie, and Bernie Krause, as well as further conversations with Holzman himself. It also adds two new chapters: a look at Elektra in Britain in the 60s and a reappraisal of the label s 70s output.

 

Bread: A Sweet Surrender: The Musical Journey of David Gates, James Griffin & Co.
Author:-Searles, Malcolm C
Format:-Paperback / softback
Publisher:-Post Hill Press
Publisher Date:-24/09/2019
Pages:-320
Genre:-Biography, Composers & Musicians, Music

Amazingly detailed biography of an underrated band, with fascinating description of the shifting dynamics as they found success on the Elektra label.

Features exclusive interviews with musicians and associates.