Geoff Edgers

. I received this as a bit of a fun Father’s Day present. Yes I can pick holes in it; it repeats a few Beatles myths and opinions (a look at the short biography at the back points to where they were sourced), there’s a couple of factual mistakes, the text contradicts itself in a couple of places, and I’m sure some of the references will sail past the intended readers age group. But overall it turned out to be a nice light, well thought out primer on the Fab Four that I’m sure I’ll be sharing with the grandkids at some point. #books #review #2021reads… (mer)

"The Song That Changed America"? Uh, no. The song that forced MTV to FINALLY play hip hop? Yes, and the story behind it all beats what nobody these days likes or remembers much, Run-DMC’s remake of the Aerosmith hit “Walk This Way”. And if you're going to like or remember this book, you've got be a trifecta fan of mid-'80s post-disco music, the Toxic Twins Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, and Run-DMC (Run, Darryl, and Jay of Hollis, Queens). Edgers really catches the roots and the rise of rap and how it took both a pair of producers, black and white, to yank it out of the playgrounds and streets of the black community and monetize it by cutting albums and videos to get the entire world hooked. The producers are Rick Rubin, a nice Jewish boy from Lido Beach, NY, who worked out of his NYU dorm room with Russell Simmons, entrepreneur and brother of Darryl, to start Def Jam. In 1986, Aerosmith was washed up from excessive drugging and inter-band quarreling, and they had no clue that that the iconic, powerful opening riff from “Walk This Way” had been sampled by hundreds of MCs. So when Rubin and Simmons wanted to build a bridge to cross over, Run-DMC, who'd never heard of the band (and vice versa for Aerosmith), reluctantly agreed to cover the entire song and to feature it on their upcoming album. And that was that - for prog rock and Top 40 radio, and, eventually, for MTV. The internecine battles - Tyler vs Perry, Rubin vs Simmons, and, eventually, Darryl vs Jam Master Jay vs Run - make for a dispiriting yet amusing look back at a formative and silly time.… (mer)