Summer Music Reading

Those of us who live the life we hear about in the songs, like to read books about music. At least I do.

It's not uncommon for me to be creeping among the shelves of the Providence or Fall River public libraries looking for
good books to read about music. I'm not talking about the fan books--at least not usually--but more "serious" books.

Well, not that serious.

For example, currently I'm reading "Magical Mystery Tours, My Life with The Beatles," by Tony Bramwell. I resisted picking this book up for awhile, because I believed I read nearly every serious book written about The Beatles, and didn't think I needed another one. But this one is written by a boyhood friend of "the boys" who later went to work for them. I'm up to page 33, and it's charming, even for this Beatle-hardened reader.

So, I was delighted to find at npr.org a program that focused on books about music to take to the beach (although for me "the beach" is the Starbucks in Wayland Square, Providence). If you have speakers on your computer, you can listen to it at your leisure. If memory serves, they discuss books about Bob Marley (one I haven't read, but have seen around), punk rock (another one I haven't read, but have seen around) and one by the late guitarist John Fahey (pictured above) dealing with how bluegrass music ruined his life. I've never even heard about this one.

Anyway, here's the link.