What’s better than listening to music? Reading about people listening to music, of course. Two professors up at the university released books for popular consumption about our favorite topic: tuneage.
HarperCollins released a memoir this week by Mark Edmundson, an English professor, called The Fine Wisdom and Perfect Teachings of the Kings of Rock and Roll. One portion was excerpted this weekend in the New York Times, where Edmundson writes about botching a stage crew job at a Pink Floyd concert. At the end, he resolves by asking a question of his students that bears asking to many at this time of year: Upon hearing of their rigid post-graduation plans, he asks, "Shouldn’t they hang out a little, learn to take it slow?" (Read a C-VILLE interview with Edmundson after the release of 2007’s The Death of Sigmund Freud.)
Two new rock reads fall from the ivory towers.
Another new read, this one still unreleased, comes in two forms from Scott DeVeaux, professor of music. The first is a 700 page, authoritative survey of jazz called—what else?—Jazz. DeVeux also undertook the enormous task of reducing that tome into a manageable read called Jazz: Essential Listening, for the hoi polloi. The reduced form will be out early next year. Read more here.
Am I missing any good music reads from the other side of the town/gown divide?
