Mystery Train
Book description
The perfect gift for music fans and anyone who loves artists like Elvis Presley, Randy Newman, Sly Stone, Robert Johnson, and Harmonica Frank.
In 1975, Greil Marcus’s Mystery Train changed the way readers thought about rock ’n’ roll and continues to be sought out today by music fans and anyone…
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Why read it?
2 authors picked Mystery Train as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
The book begins with short chapters on a couple of blues players—Harmonica Frank and the mysterious Robert Johnson, who allegedly sold his soul to the devil so he could play guitar—before moving to extended chapters on Elvis, and others.
Marcus’s project is to cross-reference American history with American music and to try and make sense of them both. It sounds like something an academic would get up to, and plenty of research went into the making of Mystery Train (at 224 pages, the Notes and Discographies section of the 2015 edition is considerably longer than the original book).
However, Marcus…
From David's list on books about Rock and Roll that really rock.
A groundbreaking book by rock’s foremost interpreter, Mystery Train presents the case for rock’s cultural – and political – significance as a specifically American art form.
Want to know what Herman Melville and Elvis Presley have in common? Or what rock tells us about the nature and experience of American life? Rock critic Greil Marcus has the answers, but even more influentially, he taught us to ask these questions in the first place.
From Nicholas' list on making you rethink everything about rock ’n’ roll.
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