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Unsung Forum » Ye Old Metal - Martin Popoff |
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Stevo 6664 posts |
Jan 24, 2011, 18:41
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I've just been going through the Rockadrome site when I came across this book http://www.rockadrome.com/superstore/product_info.php?products_id=4002 Ye Old Metal: 1968-1972 Book. Detailed examination of early 70s and late 60s hard rock albums, many lost to the sands of time, some merely in need of a celebratory re-visit. Primarily through the use of new, exhaustive interviews with the band members who were there - the focus being on one classic album - Martin meticulously pieces together the complete story of each album, lending his respected critical eye to the record, massaging in bucket loads of trivia previously unpublished. The end result is a collection of essays that are variously surprising, funny, revealing, and scholarly. Above all, it is the author's hope that the enclosed "love letters to ancient metal" enrich the serious musicologist's enjoyment of each record so reverently examined. The Records: Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum, MC5 - Kick Out The Jams, Sir Lord Baltimore - Kingdom Come, Bloodrock - Bloodrock, Warpig - Warpig, Cactus - One Way & Or Another, Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride, Uriah Heep - Look At Yourself, Nitzinger - Nitzinger, Dust - Hard Attack, Humble Pie - Smokin', Buffalo - Dead Forever &, Captain Beyond - Captain Beyond, Trapeze - You Are The Music & We're Just The Band. The Interrogated: Dickie Peterson, Paul Whaley, Wayne Kramer, Michael Davis, John Garner, Stevie Hill, Jim Rutledge, Ed Grundy, John Nitzinger, Rick Donmoyer, Terry Hook, Carmine Appice, Tim Bogert, Jim McCarty, Leslie West, Corky Laing, Ken Hensley, Mick Box, Marc Bell, Kenny Aaronson, Jerry Shirley, Dave Tice, Bobby Caldwell, Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt, Glenn Hughes, Tom Galley, plus maybe a dozen others amusingly quotable and fleshing out the terrific tale. looks like it could be pretty interesting. Certainly seems to cover areas that Julian has plus some he hasn't. Anybody familiar with it? Stevo
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booga 129 posts |
Jan 24, 2011, 18:51
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Nope, but I want it. Wonder how deep the 'interrogations' go? Very, I hope. I love minutiae.
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Robot Emperor 762 posts |
Edited Jan 24, 2011, 20:02
Jan 24, 2011, 19:57
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I have "The Collector's Guide To Heavy Metal Volume 1: The Seventies" by Martin Popoff which is... eccentric, yet brilliant. The rating system ("first number is a heaviness number, second number is how good I think the album is" - so who decides how heavy the record is?) is so unapologetically subjective that it says more about the author than the record. He is often wrong (again - subjective/objective, who decides?) but suprisingly often on the money. In its favour, never swayed by popular opinion (or the vagaries of what from the past is trendy today), and never a mention of the montary value of a record, this is all about the music. I think Cope had a moan at this book on this site, without mentioning author or title, in regards to money wasted following the tips in a book about seventies metal. Worth getting but treat it with a pinch of salt. The same, I would suggest, would be true of the title being discussed. As an aside, on Hawkwinds' Space Ritual (6/4 - see above rating system) he says the following "this tortuous flood of distorted chords, feedback, and exhausting synthesizer workouts, Hawkwind (create) a document akin in metal-stamping mechanics to Lou's Metal Machine Music.... It is considered one of the band's classics. This is troubling, as is the fact that the album reached no.9 on the UK charts" (he is, I think, Canadian). How I swelled with rarely felt patriotic pride at those words. EDIT : erm, removed one of the punctuation errors I spotted.
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Fatalist 1123 posts |
Jan 25, 2011, 21:32
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Robot Emperor wrote: I have "The Collector's Guide To Heavy Metal Volume 1: The Seventies" by Martin Popoff which is... eccentric, yet brilliant. The rating system ("first number is a heaviness number, second number is how good I think the album is" - so who decides how heavy the record is?) is so unapologetically subjective that it says more about the author than the record. He is often wrong (again - subjective/objective, who decides?) but suprisingly often on the money. In its favour, never swayed by popular opinion (or the vagaries of what from the past is trendy today), and never a mention of the montary value of a record, this is all about the music. I think Cope had a moan at this book on this site, without mentioning author or title, in regards to money wasted following the tips in a book about seventies metal. Worth getting but treat it with a pinch of salt. The same, I would suggest, would be true of the title being discussed. As an aside, on Hawkwinds' Space Ritual (6/4 - see above rating system) he says the following "this tortuous flood of distorted chords, feedback, and exhausting synthesizer workouts, Hawkwind (create) a document akin in metal-stamping mechanics to Lou's Metal Machine Music.... It is considered one of the band's classics. This is troubling, as is the fact that the album reached no.9 on the UK charts" (he is, I think, Canadian). How I swelled with rarely felt patriotic pride at those words. EDIT : erm, removed one of the punctuation errors I spotted. I love this book. As the Emperor says, it's inevitably subjective, but it's pointed me in the direction of many a great album. It's Anglo-America centric, but does take the trouble to survey albums from other parts of the world - first time I heard about Flower Travellin' Band's Satori was here. Overall, probably the best and most entertaining introduction to this period in rock history I've read.
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achuma 503 posts |
Feb 01, 2011, 15:06
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I have mixed feelings about this one. I bought it when it came out a while back, and in some respects I like it a lot. Many of his reviews are fun to read, but I found that so many of them I either agreed with or totally disagreed with, so it became hard to really tell if it was something I'd want to check out or not, if it was one I hadn't heard. Also the heaviness rating is a good idea, but even more subjective seemingly than his 'like it' rating, and to my ears often seemed to be a bit exaggerated with some of the albums he has a particular liking for, and a bit downplayed with albums he didn't. To be fair I came at this as someone who's been heavily, obsessively delving into late 60's and 70's hard rock/heavy rock/metal for over 20 years, and by the time I got this book the bulk of the stuff that was made then that is up my alley, and a lot that turned out not to be, I'd already sought out and heard, and I found myself getting frustrated at all the bands he left out (a hell of a lot!) or unfairly dismissed to the almost-rans in the appendices whilst including less worthy bands, the dissings of favourite bands, the dissings of bands who don't sing in English for his and the marketplace's benefit, the mistakes I found (regarding years of release, mainly), and his seeming disdain for the psychedelic era, finicky pickiness with much early 70's stuff and fondness for mainstream late-70's hard rock and commercial metal. (I mean, I like Ram Jam for example, but I'm referring to commercial stuff that doesn't have the chops, heaviness or great songs of Ram Jam - who btw are pretty under-rated and forgotten these days except for Black Betty.) I also thought the interview he did in the back made him seem a bit ignorant of the topic despite his apparent long-time love for it in general. Anyway, I know he's incredibly subjective and that's a good thing, because mostly it's nonetheless enjoyable to read (good for the toilet, too, because of the short but still substantial entries!), but here's my chance to be subjective back ;-) Years ago I left a review on Amazon saying pretty much the same thing, but it got removed quickly, I presume because I didn't actually buy my copy from Amazon... He's also done books on 80's metal and hard rock, and 90's stuff. I think the late-70's and 80's were more his time due to his age group, so I'd be curious to see what he has to say about a lot of 80's thrash and death metal bands like, but I've never seen that book in a shop and I'd be reluctant to mailorder it without first having a look, because of my mixed reaction to his 70's book.
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zphage 3378 posts |
Feb 01, 2011, 17:29
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i agree with all that has been said i am glad he wrote the book but he may not be the right guy to appreciate the bands he tends to misread the scene
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achuma 503 posts |
Feb 08, 2011, 14:14
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I'm yet to see a book that covers this era of hard/heavy rock that really satisfies me, but they all have something going for them. Even Chuck Eddy's Stairway to Hell, while not being at all reliable, is still heaps of fun to read over and over, and did actually put me onto a few good things (like the first J.D. Blackfoot album). Anyway... I just ordered Popoff's Blue Oyster Cult book, Secrets Revealed, which BOC fans seem to agree is great, and the current edition has heaps of photos added in and more info that wasn't in the first one, which now seems to be a collector's item like Krautrocksampler! I know he's really into BOC and I am too (to a point - I think their studio albums get real inconsistent - more filler, less killer - starting with Agents of Fortune), so hopefully I'll be pleased with this one. As far as I know it's the only book on the band, so it's not like I had to try to pick what would be the one to buy ;-)
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