BOOK MUSIK 019 - "It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track" by Ian Penman

Book Musik 019 – It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track by Ian Penman

Posted on April 1, 2020 by Book Musik

Tosh and Kimley discuss It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track by Ian Penman. Penman is a well-established British music journalist who has been writing since the 70s. This book of some of his more recent longform essays covers the mod music scene of the 1960s and seven additional essays on music icons James Brown, Charlie Parker, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, John Fahey, Steely Dan/Donald Fagen and Prince. Penman digs deep and examines the broader cultural context of each of these amazing musicians. This is the book that every smart music junky craves.

Theme music: “Behind Our Efforts, Let There Be Found Our Efforts” by LG17

"Beautiful Idiots and Brilliant lunatics" by Rob Baker

ISBN: 978-1-4456-5119-4 Amberley Books

"Beautiful Idiots and Brilliant Lunatics: A Sideway Look at Twentieth-Century London" by Rob Baker

For me, a city is something of brilliance.  I never cared for nature or the world outside of a city.  What I love is neon lights, people walking from there to here, cars, public transportation, and various cafes and restaurants.   Each city has a definite identity.  My favorite cities are Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, and the subject matter of this book "Beautiful Idiots and Brilliant Lunatics," London.  It is odd when I walk around London, I'm consistently looking for something from the past.   My main interest is London in the 19th and 20th century - and I have a pretty good collection of books on that subject.  My favorite, I think is this book.  It captures the mystery, the eccentricity, and life flowing through its streets.

The book covers everything from Mary Quant to woman nazis to Christine Keeler to underground gay culture.  Rob Baker has the eye of a historian, but the heart of a poet - and he takes the reader down various pathways to a world that is very much London, but also going against the grain as well.  

This superb book is based on Baker's incredible website "Another Nickel in the Machine."  I discovered this site by accident, and like any good accident, it led me to other worlds that are within London.   His amazing collection of photographs is reason enough to visit the site, but now he made a book, and it is equally great.

For those who love London, this book is a must, but even those who never been to that part of the world, yet find the urban world of great interest, will need to own and read "Beautiful Idiots."  

- Tosh Berman

"A To Z of Mod" by Paolo Hewitt and Mark Baxter

Prestel ISBN: 978-3-7913-4605-2

At first glance "A To Z of Mod"  looks just like a gift book that one would put near the register, but alas its a tad more than that.  This is actually a pretty good general introduction to the Mod aesthetic and its people.  Paolo Hewitt and Mark Baxter did a good job with the text, but even more important the images in this book is pretty great. One wished it was in a larger format, but alas the world we live in is never perfect.  But it does give the key clothing figures as well as brands that makes the everyday Mod happy, and also equally important the major figures that made this movement happen.  So as you read the book you realize that this is a well-thought out little (in size) volume of what is essential for one's knowledge about Mod culture.   A good book for the quick reference if you need, but if you are a die-haed Mod, this book is not really for you - but more for your friend or family member who thinks you are weird.    For me the Mod is perhaps the most nobel individual on this planet.   Anything dandy related is better than the non-dandy world.  

"Mod: A Very British Style" by Richard Weight

Bodley Head Isbn: 9780224073912

The cover and title is basically a magnet and it pulled me in right away. But as I read it there are two mistakes that really bothered me.  One is claiming that Boris Vian was married to Juliette Gréco (he wasn't) and that the Beatles met Elvis at Graceland (they didn't meet there).  The author Richard Weight is a historian, so this is a major mistake on his part or his research assistants.  So as you can gather, "Mod" is the history of that cult, but it goes beyond Mod to what the author feels is their influence on future cultural movements.   I think the book at this point over extends the subject matter or loses the object of desire that is Mod, when focusing on almost every music and youth movement in the U.K. after the golden era of Mod.

When he writes of the original Mod figures of the 60's and before that decade, its very interesting. But he wonders off the beaten path to write about the entire history of British pop culture.   Mod to me was a very unique movement at a very specific time.  It would have been much more interesting if he just focused on that world and nothing else.  Also the author seems distant to his subject matter.  I got the feeling that he isn't really into music or culture - more of a historian looking at his subject matter.   There are other great books out there on the subject matter of Mod, but this one isn't part of that pack.

It doesn't have the colorful appreciation from someone like Andrew Loog Oldham, or even the wit and charm of Simon Napier-Bell.  Mod is a big subject matter, and hopefully there will be more books in the near future.   But this is a very dry history on a fascinating world.  At its best it can serve as an introduction and hopefully the reader will do their own research to track down authors, personalities, and other book titles.  His suggested reading on Mod Culture is good, but not large enough, which is ironic because this book is pretty hefty in the page and text department.

"Revolt Into Style: The Pop Arts" by George Melly

It took me forever to locate "Revolt Into Style" and finally I found a copy at my neighborhood record store.  I couldn't even find it via the Internet - so hooray for the neighborhood store (Rockaway Records by the way.)

But now that I have located the book by the legendary blues singing Surrealist bi-sexual dandy George Melly - I find it slightly boring. The hint for it was more exciting than reading the book.  But saying that it is still an unique look by a crazed Soho figure on the British pop world of the '60s.  So it's very much a period piece of that decade.  He write most of the book in 1969, and therefore the subject matter was still happening while he wrote this book.

For a gent that was born during the '20s his attitude to the '60s generation is pretty hip, but you still get traces of his jazz past.  The book is divided by music, films/theater, fashion, and literature.  The problem with the book is that Melly didn't go far enough with his personality regarding his subject matter.  I suspect he was paid by a paper for most of these observations. But still a collectible and a must for a Mod obsessive reader.

It took me awhile, but i finally found this book (thanks Alias East!) and like the pleasure of finding something that you really tried to find - the pleasure of the book even becomes more important, and sensual,  to you.  My interest in the photographic works of David Bailey is pretty much set in the 1960's. He's consistently fine, but the peak of his powers i feel is when he documented the faces of London.  Or I should say the various 'Face" of London.  That would include Mick Jagger, Jean Shrimpton, a very young Jane Birkin and various beautiful models of that period.

David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton

Michael Caine by David Bailey

Bailey had the East London street know-it-all, and its interesting he did a series of iconic portraits of the Kings of East London - The Kray Twins.  The mixture of the visual arts, rock n'  roll, filmmakers, fashion, and gangsters is a heady mixture and a dynamic cocktail.  You got to find this book and buy it. Essential recording of London circ. 1960's and other ports of the world.  But it is seen through the eyes of an East London lad.

Mick Jagger by David Bailey

"Boutique London: King's Road to Carnaby Street" by Richard Lester

Not an easy subject matter to find in book form, and it almost takes an obsessive (and surely I am) person to collect all things that are groovy London fashion in the height of the late 50's to the mid-1960's. Nevertheless this is a beautifully and fun design of a book regarding one of my favorite subject matters - The classic (by my term) London Boutique.

With vintage shopping maps to lead you to the shops in the Soho/Mayfair area of London to great images inside the boutique - which is actually a rare viewing, due that there is little visual records of the 1960's boutique. So this book is a must for anyone thinking of opening their own boutique or want to shoplift some ideas for the purpose of improving their retail work space.

The beauty of shops or boutiques is that they convey someone's idea of paradise. And when you put that in a retail landscape, it becomes a form of self-expression. Early Carnaby Street to me at a very young age served as sort of a Disneyland - a place that I think couldn't possibly exist. But alas, it did (past tense) and this book proves it did exist

The King of Carnaby Street

The King of Carnaby Street: A Life of John Stephen by Jeremy Reed

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Well first, the poet Jeremy Reed has excellent taste, but second, he's not one of the greatest biography prose writers that's out there. This book is more of a 'think' piece then a straight ahead biography. But besides that point, John Stephen is a fascinating man in an equal fascinating world of street fashion at the right time and place.

"The King of Carnaby Street" is a portrait of John Stephen who pretty much started the whole groovy Mod Carnaby Street scene. The first one to open a series of shops, he was also a taste-maker and obsessive worker. His private life was hellish like any other gay man who lived in the outlaw U.K., where at the time it was illegal to have homosexual sex. This book is a must for those who collect Mod-era subject matters. And I do, but I just wished the book was a bit more bio like and less.....well, Jeremy Reed.

View all my reviews >>

Tosh is listening to vintage Mod music while writing.

Graham Bond Organization


Steampacket


The Artwoods "Art Gallery"

My Mod Life

The Who, Ossie Clark, and Paul Jones/ Uber-Mod London Freak Out

This is a little fascinating TV history- super early footage of The Who with an interview with one of my all-time favorite singers Paul Jones. London designer Ossie Clark is also featured as well. The documentary is from 1966, and I believe it's from a Canadian TV show.



Part One



Part Two



Part Three