Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock n’ Roll Music – Greil Marcus [In The Stacks]

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I know, a book review, but yes, I read a book, and I am going to write a little bit about it, so there you go. So anyway, I have never been too knowledgable or have searched too much (at least since high school) into rock literature or anything of the sort so this was kind of a reintroduction into these things. Nor have I really ever regularly read Rolling Stone or any other music writings with any regular occurrence, so I dove into this book, which was highly thought of, and I actually thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think despite the age of the original text (from the 70s), it still provides some salient points for today’s audiences as well.

Now, probably the biggest assumption or point to be made here is that to really enjoy this you should probably have at least a basic, remote knowledge of who the principles in the book were (aside from Harmonica Frank I would say, who I had never heard of before). The principals of course are Robert Johnson (legend, etc), The Band (‘The Weight’, ‘Last Waltz’, etc), Sly & The Family Stone (some classic funk), Randy Newman and Elvis Presley (The King). I have to admit that aside from Elvis my knowledge was pretty lacking on most of these, but I at least knew who they were. Now that being said I don’t think you need to have a deep knowledge of these guys to appreciate it, just a cursory knowledge.

The book is structured into two parts; the ancestors (Robert Johnson and Harmonica Frank) and the inheritors (the rest of them). The book covers the roots of blues music and rock and roll to give a great foundation for the myriad of topics covered later in the book. The book covers a lot of political and social issues intertwined with the careers of these artists in addition to exploring in detail their works both on and off the stage.

This is the fascinating part about the book as it doesn’t really just discuss the records of these artists, but really brings out something unique about all of them. For the ancestors of course their uniqueness is largely in their stories and their status as pioneers. Then for the other artists the careers are really explored in an interesting way that almost makes some of them microcosms of the world of fame and music that still can hold true today.

For The Band the interesting discussion revolves around how they created this amazing music almost in a vacuum that really became bigger than they would have ever thought, and the struggle of their trying to bring that music to the masses in the form of their live shows or in terms of following up on their success after having been exposed to the public is really a fascinating angle in the book. Although this is obviously about the band it is almost a universal story. The write up in the book of The Band’s first disastrous concert in San Francisco riding on the heels of such a wildly loved and cherished album (Music From The Big Pink) is just so poignant. Think about how many bands can create that first great record shut off from the world and then when it becomes a smash, they can’t live up to it in their live show or they can’t match that success again. Happens all the time. It is a really interesting way to look at their career.

For Sly Stone the interesting angle is to look at the up and down of an artist who reaches unbelievable heights only to reject the ‘selling-out’ that got him there and try to come back with something more ‘real’ that his populist audience ultimately rejects (There’s a Riot Going On). Again, this is a timeless story as well. Once you reach popularity and the masses want you just going through the motions repeating your latest sound/hit, how do you react, where do you go from there? Sly Stone lashed out against it and where his story goes from there and because of that is a great tale.

For Randy Newman, it was that he had chalked up a bevy of critical acclaim and success, but deep down it seemed he really wanted more mainstream success. Again, such a universal and interesting question in popular culture. You have this underground loyal audience, but you want more popularity, how does that affect your art and how you progress from there? Do you betray your small audience to try and get big or do you settle for what you may not really want?

And with Elvis, there is not such a kind of case study with a universal question for him as there is with the other principals since the real crux of his section is that there is not/was not/never will be anyone quite like him again. I think the real interesting story here is to really examine his work not as this larger than life tapestry but to examine it as it was and see that he really did break the mold, and he really did have something no one else had, but he also really did squander it into mediocrity with those movies and commercialism. But the book continues on that once he came back and really tried to come back he still had something in there. I like that it really examines him in a more human way, that he was in the studio and he was making these records just like other musicians do. His legend is overwhelming to be sure, but in the book it is examined in a very understandable way.

Anyway, this book was quite a good read, and the notes and discographies at the end are so incredibly extensive it will blow your mind. It does an incredible job of connecting the dots on a lot of things happening in music in the 1970s. I think what makes the book a very poignant read in 2009 is for the reasons I pointed out above, the stories of the principals in the book have an almost universal quality to them that you can think about in terms of things happening today. It is interesting to try and draw parallels with his treatment of stardom, fame, ‘selling-out’ and other topics with the modern music world. It is a pretty effusive book in general about its principals but it also shows their warts as well, which makes it more interesting.

I’m sure a lot of you have already read this book, but it is an interesting, good read, especially if you are into any of the artists discussed, and even if you aren’t it covers a lot of interesting ground that I have probably not really thought critically about before or periods and artists in music that I was not quite as familiar with. For both the history and the treatment, it is an interesting read.

Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music is available here in paperback from Amazon.