Love Goes to Buildings on Fire

I can’t see myself writing a detailed chronicle of a specific location and period without pulling my hair out. But Will Hermes did precisely that (well, not the hair-pulling-out part) by relating five crucial years in New York. It initially reads weird, maybe even slow, because he writes short intersecting snippets of music history.

Once I got deeper into it, I fell in love. I already knew much of the history he touched on regarding stuff like punk, Bruce Springsteen, and salsa, but those fun factoids aren’t the point of Hermes’s book. Instead, it’s about how multiple scenes coexisted and… show more.

The New York arts scene in the 1970s was like a small town; the truth of this oft-repeated cliché is borne out in my research, and it comes to life in the pages of Hermes’ fascinating book about contemporary music history. The book profiles iconic musicians, including jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, members of the rock band Talking Heads, and minimalist composer Philip Glass.

As a music lover, I was surprised and delighted by how New York’s village feel allowed seemingly disparate musicians to influence each other’s work.

This book is a chronicle of five years in New York City that changed music history, charting the birth of genres like hip-hop, punk, and more. I used to stay up until 4am reading this book because Hermes’s writing is so captivating and the subject is fascinating. I loved how he took us into the neighborhoods and sometimes even into the apartments where these genres came to life.

Love Goes to Buildings on Fire looks at the New York music scene from 1973 to 1977. What makes this period (and this place) so fascinating is that so many different styles of music emerged from and evolved through it: punk, hip-hop, jazz, and the more traditional rock ‘n’ roll of Bruce Springsteen. What makes the book so fascinating is that Hermes examines how the different movements informed and energized each other. If you really want to understand the roots of contemporary music, this is the book you need to read.