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Summary: The Story of Elektra Records
Review: Legendary music business figure Jac Holzman's historical account "Follow The Music: The Life and High Times of Elektra Records In The Great Years Of American Pop Culture," is newly released in paperback to coincide with Elektra's 50th anniversary. The new edition contains a CD featuring 26 pre-rock Elektra recording artists. Part social history, part secret diary, 'Follow The Music' is a marvelous history that chornicles popular culture from the folk era to The Doors, Carly Simon and Queen. Holzman founded the acclaimed record company at age 19 on $600 and turned it into one of the most important labels of all time. The stories of it's development are often wild and sometimes poingnant with insider anecdotes that are heartwarming, shocking and funny. It chronicles the modern recording industry when times were good and people had fun.
Rating:
Summary: The Story of Elektra Records
Review: Legendary music business figure Jac Holzman's historical account "Follow The Music: The Life and High Times of Elektra Records In The Great Years Of American Pop Culture," is newly released in paperback to coincide with Elektra's 50th anniversary. The new edition contains a CD featuring 26 pre-rock Elektra recording artists. Part social history, part secret diary, 'Follow The Music' is a marvelous history that chornicles popular culture from the folk era to The Doors, Carly Simon and Queen. Holzman founded the acclaimed record company at age 19 on $600 and turned it into one of the most important labels of all time. The stories of it's development are often wild and sometimes poingnant with insider anecdotes that are heartwarming, shocking and funny. It chronicles the modern recording industry when times were good and people had fun.
Rating:
Summary: Highly reccommended!
Review: Like one of the other reviewers, I too got Jac Holzman's book after hearing him on NPR's "Fresh Air." I can't say enough about it! My suggestion is to grab a handful of old Elektra records and read the book while listening to them. More than a trip down memory lane, it's an interesting, informative and entertaining behind-the-scenes look at the MUSIC business and the music BUSINESS.
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Summary: Journey of 1000 miles begins with a step
Review: Once, in the MUSIC business, there were men and women in charge of labels who, with a combination of passion about great music,
and just the right amount of business acumen, were able to nurture the explosion of musical creativity in the 60s. Jac Holzman is just such a person.The exciting and interesting story of Elektra records is told using an oral history approach; illuminating the story with a fascile balance of viewpoint. I had never heard the full story of how Love and then, The Doors,
became labelmates at Elektra. There were moments in the telling of that particular story where I felt that I could almost reach out and touch the participants. FOLLOW THE MUSIC is an entertaining, engrossing, sometimes funny-sometimes tragic account of one of the titans of American music and his lovechild; whose ability to follow his dream to it's fruition has enriched us all. Oh, if we could all be so blessed. The recent failure of the modern music industry shows what happens when people who aren't committed to music and creativity are in positions of authority. Everything suffers; most of all, the music.
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Summary: Fascinating chronicle of the rise of a record company
Review: The tale of Elektra records, while a personal chronicle of the anxiety and triumph it's founder faced, is a fascinating review of just how a lot of the music of the 60's, 70's, and 80's came into being. The reader, if raised in the 70's and 80's, remembers the music, and will learn a lot of what went into it's creation. It is also an intersting review, first hand, of just how tough it is to start a business, keep it running, and take it to newer and greater levels (as Elektra achieved). It was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
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Summary: great book about the music biz
Review: This book really knocked me out. It's a great look inside the sixties and seventies music business. What makes it particularly appealing is that the author was not just there but one of the major figures who made it happen. Jac Holzman and Gavan Daws have chosen to write the book from multiple points of view, quoting extensively from many of the best artists and producers of the time (even when their point of view is uncomplimentary or very different from the authors'). FOLLOW THE MUSIC lets you in on the party from many fascinating points of view. Reading this book brought me back to a time when this end of the century was being invented. I really loved it.
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Summary: Doors fans' book.
Review: This is a history of Electra Records, and Jac Holzman, and I don't really care about them, so I skipped a lot of the stuff that didn't have to do with the Doors and Jim Morrison. But the stuff on Jim Morrison (and there is a LOT of it) is really riveting, and included a lot I haven't found elsewhere (like when Eric Burden fired a gun at Morrison and his groupies, to get them out of Burden's house!). If you're a Doors fan, read it.
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Summary: A Must-Read for All Music Lovers
Review: With "Follow the Music", Jac Holzman and Gavan Daws provide an inside look at the music industry that most of us have never been privy to before. Not only did they do that, but they also allow us to see what it takes to build a business from the ground up. The book is filled with obvious careful attention to detail. The roots of folk music and the stories behind all the troubadours that made up the music scene in Greenwich Village and L.A. in the fifties, sixties, and seventies are captivating and right on the money. Substantive comments and interviews with music legends and record label entrepeneurs abound. Anecdotes, hard-luck stories, and successful musical ventures are sometimes inspirational and oft-times motivational. The authors show us what real determination and absolute dedication and hard work are all about. Jac Holzman gives new meaning to the independent man, the independent thinker, the independent innovator. This world hasn't seen many men like him. He was hi-tech when the only chip anyone ever heard of came from a potato and was packaged in a bag with a wise old owl on the label. Indeed, a wise young man was he, and if you've ever had the pleasure of conversing with Jac you will find that Jac also adds new meaning to the saying "you're only as old as you feel". As he approches what most men consider to be retirement age, Jac makes most young turks look like mousekateers. While reading the book, you get to see how he sometimes appears to be light years ahead of all the rest. It appears to be his nature, his mental make-up, his lust for new ideas, and his love for family and friends that keep him younger than those who dictate today's trends and visions. You can easily see, by reading "Follow the Music", how Jac proved that honesty, integrity and sheer class are the true characteristics that go into the making of the prototypical "real man". He and Gavan Daws show all who read this literary work of art that values do count and they do matter and they are rewarded in the long-run. The key words here are "long-run". Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was Elektra. It took time, foresight, intuition, confident decision-making, and guts. Jac Holzman had a vision and he followed his well intentioned instincts to achieve what no other music industry executive has accomplished. And after all his hard work, Jac's reputation as a gentleman and a man of his word is even stronger today than it ever was. This is a must-read book. In the second half of this fast-fading millenium there are very few people that a person can admire. Jac Holzman has joined a very short list of twentieth century American heros, and I'm glad that his family pressured him into letting the story of Elektra Records be told. If you think about it, "Follow The Music" was almost fifty years in the making. I wish I had been a part of it. Jac Holzman...I tip my hat to you and I thank you for all the positive contributions that you've made to the world of music. I am extremely happy that back in 1950 the founder of Elektra Records made the decision to just follow the music.
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