This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You, by Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas. W.W. Norton & Co, 2022

I found this book very interesting- the main author was a recording engineer for years (working with such people and Prince and Bare Naked Ladies) and has many stories about how creating an album works. After being an engineer, she went back to college and became a neuroscientist, specializing in how music and sound works in people’s brains (Ogas, her co-author, is also a neuroscientist that works in sound). So she understands music and sound from multiple angles. She explains what seven different aspects of music are- lyrics, melody, rhythm, timbre, novelty, realism, and authenticity- and how they work. She talks about doing ‘record pulls’, where multiple people bring out their favorite music and share it, and how, if you like a certain musician, you’ll probably like musician “X”, also. It’s a really educational read.

But- there is always a but- at no point does it tell you what the music says about you. Well, I did learn that my complete lack of rhythm is genetic and there is nothing I can do about it, sadly. I was kind of expecting something that told you how empathetic you were or if you were forward thinking. So, I enjoyed the book- lots of anecdotes about working in the music industry and lots of neurology information- but the title is a little deceptive. Four and a half stars.

Never a Dull Moment: 1971 The Year That Rock Exploded. David Hepworth. Henry Holt & Co., 2016

David Hepworth’s theses is that 1971 was the most important year in the history of rock/pop music. It was the year of innovations in how albums were made. It was a year of great albums made that still endure today, like ‘Tapestry’, ‘Led Zeppelin IV’, ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’, ‘Sticky Fingers’, ‘Blue’, ‘Pearl’, ‘Madman Across the Water’, ‘Harvest’, and, of course, ‘American Pie’. It was, actually, the year that albums became more important than 45 rpm singles. It was the year the Beatles were no more. The technology of making music and recording it changed. Arena rock started, as opposed to playing in clubs and halls.

Each chapter is one month in the year 1971. He doesn’t just tell us what was released by who; he goes deeper into the rock scene, covering things like Mick Jagger’s wedding, various rock stars battles with drugs and alcohol, and what producers and managers were doing. Some of the people he covers really never went anywhere. Being British, it’s seen through a British lens, but there is plenty about the American scene.

Was 1971 the most important year in rock history? I don’t know. I was surprised to find that ‘Blue’ and ‘Tapestry’ came out in ’71; they were such a seminal part of my teens (I could sing every word of both those albums) that I would have sworn they came out earlier. Likewise, I would have sworn Elton John, Rod Stewart, and Van Morrison became really big before that point. But he’s got the dates correct; that music was just so important to me that it colors my memories of the era.

It’s an interesting book- I read it in two evenings- but oddly unstirring. Hepworth is a reporter, not an ad man, and he gives us just the facts, ma’am. But the facts showed me what was below the surface of the music I came of age to. 

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The Predictions, by Bianca Zander. William Morrow, 2015

 

 It’s 1978, and teens Poppy and Lukas have grown up at Gaialands, a commune in New Zealand. This is not a smoke-pot-and-groove commune; this vegan community grows its own food, lives without electricity, lives in leaky, mouse-ridden shelters, shares everything, and works hard all day, every day. Even the kids have been brought up communally, having their own group shelter rather than living with adults- they didn’t even know who their parents were until recently, when circumstances forced the adult’s hand.

Lukas can’t wait to come of age and escape to the larger world. He wants to form a punk rock band. Poppy just wants to be with Lukas, who she loves. But when a new person enters the commune, she begins to doubt that love.

Shakti arrives, fancy Gypsy caravan and all. She’s a New Age chick, ankle bells, Indian clothing, Tarot cards, consciousness raising, and beautiful- and too good to do any actual work on the commune. Manipulating others into doing things for her is as natural as breathing.

As a coming of age ritual for the kids, she creates predictions for them. Poppy’s states that she’ll find love in a land far away. This is almost heartbreaking, given her feelings for Lukas, but when he leaves the commune, she goes with him. It’s the only way she’ll find her true love. Things don’t go as planned, and life out in the world turns out to be harder than they thought. They eventually end up in London, where hair metal and drugs are the current hot things. 

It’s a rather harsh coming of age story, but I think pretty realistic for the time and subculture. Poppy and Lukas both take their time growing up. I liked Poppy, but found her frustrating and kept finding myself wondering what the heck she was thinking when she did things. Lukas has no real depth to him, sadly. There is a side plot of a mystery that seems like it should have upset people more than it did. The story reads like the author hurried herself and she didn’t have time to develop characters and refine the plot properly. A good editor would have helped her immensely. I can only say I liked the book; I definitely can’t say I loved it.  

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The Devil of Echo Lake, by Douglas Wynne. JournalStone, 2012

Billy Moon is a rock star, an idol to Goths around the world in the late 1990s. The producer who made him a star, Trevor Rail, holds a contract that requires Moon to create one more album for him. Rail is a creepy dude that no one likes and who scares most people. Moon thinks Rail might just be the devil himself. And now Rail has called in his chip, and takes Moon to a secluded compound in the mountains, with a studio in an old church, to force him to write and record a new album in record time.

Moon is willing, but his mind is not all on the music. He’s dealing with the sudden death of his father, and strange things are happening in the church, which serves as Moon as living quarters as well as studio. Legend has it the church is haunted, and it’s starting to look like it’s true. Rail doesn’t believe it, though; he makes a point of telling others that Moon is under stress and unbalanced. But Moon isn’t the only one seeing and hearing odd things; Jake Campbell, fresh out of college assistant sound man, is witnessing it, too, as well as the terror that is crazy man Rail.

This is very well done horror. Part psychological and part supernatural, it isn’t until the end that the reader gets to see where the boundaries of each are. Tension is sustained throughout the book, and the end is unexpected. I hope this book gets picked up by Amazon and other distributors so more people can enjoy it. Right now it seems to only be available from the publisher, JournalStone  http://journal-store.com/fiction/the-devil-of-echo-lake/