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Rating: 
Summary: The rock business is even worse than you think
Review: I bought this book because I was mildly interested but before long I was sucked into the tale about how the money talked louder than any musician's ability. This is story of how several clever people took the talent-driven music of the mid to late sixties and gradually turned this into a money-driven enterprise where all the artist needed to do was keep the gullible public into believing that "it's all about the music, man!" The book covers some of the major players like Bruce Springsteen's manager, Jon Landau, and record mogul David Geffen, along with the artists they were involved with like Dylan, Neil Young, the Eagles, and plenty more. The book shows how the industry evolved from Warner Brothers execs (in WB blazers) signing the Grateful Dead (and being scared to death of being given LSD) - to the CBS policy of the mid-eighties of taking acts that the company wanted to succeed and have them make a few low-selling albums and play live gigs so they would have more credibility with record buyers. The execs were every bit as exotic as the artists they represented, and thought nothing about double-dipping their clients' earnings even though they were already assured of millions. I was astounded to learn that at the height of the Eagles' success they went out on tour and got NINETY-SEVEN AND A HALF PERCENT of the receipts, leaving the venue with just two and half percent. Essential reading for anyone interested in the music industry, especially people trying to break into the scene. Check your integrity at the door, because it will just be an impediment otherwise.
Rating:
Summary: An important and revealing book
Review: If anyone has any doubts that the record industry--in its modern, corporate incarnation--has essentially destroyed the public's ability and desire to hear edgy, experimental, and true music, than this book just might erase them. It covers the business side of things more than the musical, showing how money, agents, and moguls had their influence to different degrees on artists like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Bruce Springsteen, among others. What the book doesn't cover, and probably doesn't need to, is how the business dealings and marketing schemes that were initiated during the time period covered here laid the groundwork for the overwhelming McDonald-ization of the music industry that has come to fruition today. In the modern music scene, iconoclasts and visionaries are pushed aside to relative obscurity, in favor of 'fast food' music, music that is consumed precisely because it's unsurprising and doesn't challenge its audience, an audience that prefers safe choices to something different. Goodman subtly shows this shift, which changed the industry from a place where Dylan and Young could become superstars, to a place where they'd be outcasts. And survival for a musician like Springsteen meant compromises and handing over his career to businessmen. An essential read for those interested in how the music industry pushes our buttons.
Rating: 
Summary: It's a good starting place
Review: If anyone reads this book and is confused about Bruce Springsteen's relationship with his first manager; Mike Appel, then you can get Mike's book, written by Marc Eliot; "Down Thunder Road", ISBN 0671789333 for the real story complete with verbatim copies of the contracts that are signed by Bruce and Mike at the very beginning. If anything "Down Thunder Road" The making of Bruce Springsteen is too complete, too thorough, it reveals the whole truth of the matter and leaves no room for confusion. As such I came away from it much less of a fan of Bruces', so beware...you may loose alittle of your fondness for an artist who was simply in need of a "Father figure" but also someone who could make a second rate band sound first rate with advice on musicianship. Both Mike Appel and Jon Landau were guys who for one reason or another tried to be rock musicians but, like 99% of such, just didn't quite have what it takes...so they found an alter-ego, and supplied the needed business acumen. The winner of the contest of who was gonna be Bruces manager/confidant/advisor/father, turned out to be the guy who could spend the most time being his buddy. That's not quite the way it's supposed to be, that's why there are such things as contracts. Bruce didn't live by his contract, he betrayed Mike Appel because he was guided by Jon Landau. He simply couldn't think for himself. "It's all in the percentages."
Rating:
Summary: "Money doesn't talk - it swears!"
Review: In the words of Bob Dylan, one of the main artists highlighted in this book, we can see exactly what is meant when he says "money doesn't talk - it swears". This book illustrates graphically how a musical form that began as a rebellious and riotous yawp against numbing conformity and blandness, was co-opted almost entirely by the powers-that-be. From the idealistic beginnings of the 60's folk boom to the frantic money grabbing of the 90's corporate recording industry mergers, we can watch the power and financial stakes growing. Amidst all of the down-and-dirty money deals, Goodman shows us several high-visibility "musical artists"(primarily Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Bruce Springsteen) as they walk the tightrope between integrity and the marketplace. As the book makes perfectly clear, it is nearly impossible for the artist to maintain any kind of purity or innocence when dealing with the juggernaut of big business. Those artists unable to protect their interests or find someone to do it for them, are quickly chewed up and spit out by the music industry in the constant "dog-eat-dog" race to find the next money-maker. Goodman tells several somewhat sordid tales of managers and agents all doing battle to come out on top, often at the expense of the artists they are supposedly representing. I found this book incredibly helpful in understanding what it really took to get any kind of "honest, truthful music" into the marketplace in the last 30 or 40 years. And I feel it is a glowing testament to the artists who managed to actually "say something" with their music, while they danced (like Shiva) on the skulls of financial moguls and corporate robber-barons.
Rating: 
Summary: A review by a Springsteen fan
Review: My motivation for purchasing this book was my belief, based on other reviews, that it would present some new unbiased insights into the work of my favorite artist Bruce Springsteen and add some balance to the what I've read over the years from the Dave Marsh and Jon Landau propaganda machine. Although it did provide this, unfortunately (for me), very little of the book was actually devoted to Springsteen and the other artists mentioned in the title. The book is more a history of the record industry, chronicling its rise from its roots in the underground music scene of the mid to late sixties, to it's present form as multi-national conglomerates. It presents the story as a morality tale of a sixties paradise lost and it's consumption by the dark forces of capitalism .
The author while having researched his material very well, brings some biases into his work, typical of his generation. These biases become glaringly obvious when reading the book. One of these is his implication that someone like Springsteen, because he has maintained a consistently high level of commercial success over the years, is a sell-out, and a manufactured creation of his manager. Whereas someone like Neil Young, because he hasn't been ashamed to release some real crap, is an artist of integrity, who won't give in to crass commercialism, by always giving his fans music that they will actually enjoy. I will agree with the author to some extent, that Jon Landau as manager and producer has had a huge influence on Springsteen. However, by using this to tear down the integrity of the artist himself, he better be prepared to do the same to the Beatles, The Stones and Elvis, all of whom had managers and/or producers that influenced them and pushed their work and careers in directions they would not have gone in, on their own. If you, like the author, finds the business deals, managers and record company executives more fascinating than the artists themselves, then you'll probably enjoy this book. If however you're like me, and are more interested in the music and the musicians themselves, you'll find yourself skipping over large portions of the book in order to get to the more interesting parts on the MC5, Dylan, Young and Springsteen.
Rating:
Summary: A review by a Springsteen fan
Review: My motivation for purchasing this book was my belief, based on other reviews, that it would present some new unbiased insights into the work of my favorite artist Bruce Springsteen and add some balance to the what I've read over the years from the Dave Marsh and Jon Landau propaganda machine. Although it did provide this, unfortunately (for me), very little of the book was actually devoted to Springsteen and the other artists mentioned in the title. The book is more a history of the record industry, chronicling its rise from its roots in the underground music scene of the mid to late sixties, to it's present form as multi-national conglomerates. It presents the story as a morality tale of a sixties paradise lost and it's consumption by the dark forces of capitalism .
The author while having researched his material very well, brings some biases into his work, typical of his generation. These biases become glaringly obvious when reading the book. One of these is his implication that someone like Springsteen, because he has maintained a consistently high level of commercial success over the years, is a sell-out, and a manufactured creation of his manager. Whereas someone like Neil Young, because he hasn't been ashamed to release some real crap, is an artist of integrity, who won't give in to crass commercialism, by always giving his fans music that they will actually enjoy. I will agree with the author to some extent, that Jon Landau as manager and producer has had a huge influence on Springsteen. However, by using this to tear down the integrity of the artist himself, he better be prepared to do the same to the Beatles, The Stones and Elvis, all of whom had managers and/or producers that influenced them and pushed their work and careers in directions they would not have gone in, on their own. If you, like the author, finds the business deals, managers and record company executives more fascinating than the artists themselves, then you'll probably enjoy this book. If however you're like me, and are more interested in the music and the musicians themselves, you'll find yourself skipping over large portions of the book in order to get to the more interesting parts on the MC5, Dylan, Young and Springsteen.
Rating:
Summary: HARD..
Review: Oh, boy, this is hard reading... YOu are introduced to so many new names and characters per page, that you get overwhelmed !!! This is the only flaw of the book, the way I see it, at less... The general intenction was good and the writer clearly knows about what he's talking. The book deals about the "rock revolution" in America, picking up a few bands' careers to use as example, like Buffalo Springfield, Bob Dylan, MC5, J. Geils Band, Peter Frampton, Bruce Springsteen, etc, etc. |But I thin he could have been less evasive.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of time
Review: THis books seems to be a great footage of rock articles. IT presents no definitive theory about the rock industry, nor it gives a real portrait of the rock scenario through the years. It only gives separeted pieces of histories about Springsteen, Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Peter Frampton, Grateful Dead, MC-5 and a handful of others. The writing style is dry and badly developed. DOn't recommended.
Rating:
Summary: hard to read
Review: This is a good book, but a little bit hard to read, due mainly to the small type lettering and a confusion of names, places, dates and bands that just doesn't seem to go together to make some point !!
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