Robert Palmer (1)Critiques

Interesting account of where the blues came from and how they affected rock and roll, etc. Makes me want to listen more to Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and others.

Palmer's book serves as a great introduction to the Blues Greats from Charlie Patton to Otis Rush, with a big focus on Muddy Waters, whom Palmer must have talked to for days on end. It is an interesting history of how some of the poorest people in the United States created one of its enduring musical treasures--but as Ted Gioia points out in his "Subversive History of Music", new musical innovations always rise up from the minority. Palmer's writing is not always the most fluid, especially when reeling off so many dates and places, but when he starts to write about the music itself and its effect on him, every word rings true.

No idea how to rate this one; it was a good history, as histories go, but then there's the enjoyment factor, too. I blogged a bit about it: https://wp.me/p4LPys-kM.

Hollar Back: I think I may go out the back door under the moon and catch a train to a crossroads to see what sound resounds and who I might meet in the deep blue of midnight.

I have a number of biographies of the Killer and haven't got around to collecting any of the latest slew of releases about the great man, I suspect that "Jerry Lee Rocks" would rank around the middle of the pack for enjoyability.

"Jerry Lee Lewis Rocks" isn't a conventional biography, rather author Robert Palmer (not the musician) jumbles the Killer's life around, concentrating on moments of Jerry Lee's life, and including a large collections of photos, including a rare shot of the Killer with a moustache.

I'm convinced that Jerry Lee Lewis is immortal and so his biographies can never be complete but "Jerry Lee Lewis Ricks" helps flesh out the man we call the Killer who long ago became a legend rather than a mere man.½

Renowned director Robert Mugge and music scholar Robert Palmer went deep in the Mississippi Delta to seek out the best blues acts in the country. From the juke joints of northern Mississippi, to the blues clubs of Greenville and Clarksdale, to the porche.

The best book on the blues I have read. I would like to know how something like this can be done better. Palmer uses Muddy Waters as the pivotal figure on which to base his history of the blues. It is because this device is utterly plausible that a seamless narrative account immediately takes shape and flows easily through at least a century's worth of American history and beyond. Filled with insight, research, historical and cultural information, extrapolation into folklore and African forms, anecdotes with the author's discographical and bibliographical sources all fully referenced. Yet the narrative style is laid-back, conversational and (given the breadth of the subject) utterly UNintimidating. A joy to read for anyone at all interested in the blues and other popular musics at any level.