All Hopped Up and Ready to Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927-77 [Paperback]

Tony Fletcher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 26, 2009

A penetrating and entertaining exploration of New York’s music scene from Cubop through folk, punk, and hip-hop.

From Tony Fletcher, the acclaimed biographer of Keith Moon, comes an incisive history of New York’s seminal music scenes and their vast contributions to our culture. Fletcher paints a vibrant picture of mid-twentieth-century New York and the ways in which its indigenous art, theater, literature, and political movements converged to create such unique music.

With great attention to the colorful characters behind the sounds, from trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie to Tito Puente, Bob Dylan, and the Ramones, he takes us through bebop, the Latin music scene, the folk revival, glitter music, disco, punk, and hip-hop as they emerged from the neighborhood streets of Harlem, the East and West Village, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. All the while, Fletcher goes well beyond the history of the music to explain just what it was about these distinctive New York sounds that took the entire nation by storm. 33 photos

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the Brill Building to CBGB, from Washington Square Park to the Apollo Theater, New York has been the birthplace and center of an astonishing variety of musical trends. In his richly detailed study of 50 years of the city's most important music history, music journalist Fletcher vividly recreates the birth and evolution of jazz, folk, pop, punk and hip-hop as the strains of these musical styles emerged from the urban cacophony of New York. Drawing on interviews and archives of well-known stories, Fletcher nimbly explores the ways that various musical styles benefit from and grow out of their contact with their surrounding cultures. For example, the music scene of the Lower East Side was a direct product of the area's thriving movements in poetry, filmmaking, avant-garde music and experimental theater. Fletcher chronicles the beginnings of the folk movement in the sing-alongs in Washington Square Park and the opening of the Folklore Center on MacDougal Street in 1957, where musicians could hold hootenannies. Fletcher observes the folk scene on the wane as John Sebastian leaves Jim Kweskin's Jug Band and teams with Canadian Zal Yanovsky, formerly of the Mugwumps (which became the Mamas and the Papas), to form the rock band the Lovin' Spoonful, and provides one of the best brief histories of CBGB. Fletcher's terrific music history captures the teeming life of New York's thriving music scene. (Oct.)
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Review

“Fletcher’s commentary melds very different cultures to shows interrelationships and how new genres built upon the foundations of predecessors... Anyone interested in popular music and the rich cultural heritage of New York—indeed, of all of the U.S.—should read this book.” (Booklist )

“Like Alastair Cooke’s America, All Hopped Up is an unapologetically opinionated overview of zeitgeists that sparked their own theme music.... An indispensable reference book for college students and a survival guide for modern musicians.” (Chronogram )

“In All Hopped Up and Ready To Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927-77, Tony Fletcher has demonstrated extraordinary depth in his research and vibrancy in his writing. Not only was I fascinated by his stories of times and styles about which I knew little, but, in those areas in which I knew a lot, he has connected all the dots for me…oh, yeah, and it’s a damned good read.” (Mike Stoller )

“Thoroughly researched, engaging, and perceptive.” (Library Journal )

“In his richly detailed study of fifty years of the city’s most important musical history, music journalist Fletcher vividly recreates the birth and evolution of jazz, folk, pop, punk and hip-hop as the strains of these urban styles emerged from the urban cacophony of New York.” (Publishers Weekly )

“Fletcher tells the story well.... His gift is enthusiasm.” (The New York Times Book Review )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Original edition (October 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039333483X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393334838
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.4 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #935,752 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tony Fletcher is the author of seven non-fiction books and one novel. His biography of drummer Keith Moon, "Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend," has been named in many a Best Music Book list, and his biography of R.E.M., updated in 2013 as "Perfect Circle," has been published in over half a dozen countries. His latest biography, "A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of The Smiths," was published in the UK by William Heinemann in September 2012, and by Crown Archetype in the USA in December 2012. A memoir of his South London schooldays, "Boy About Town," will be published in the UK by William Heinemann in July 2013.

Fletcher gained his entry into music journalism by founding a fanzine at his London school in 1977; by the time Jamming! ceased publication in 1986, it was selling 30,000 copies a month. Along the way he interviewed the likes of Pete Townshend, Paul McCartney, Paul Weller and U2, as well as dozens of up-and-coming, predominantly independent post-punk acts.

A contributor over the years to a multitude of magazines, newspapers, radio and television shows, primarily in the UK and USA, Fletcher now lives with his wife and two sons on a mountaintop near the village of Woodstock in New York State. There he runs, skis, maintains his web site www.ijamming.net, serves on his local school board, and plays Hammond B-3 and Rickenbacker in the Catskill 45s, a group that only performs songs from 45 calendar years ago.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great History of New York Music November 21, 2009

By William Olmstead

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

A great overview of New York musical history from the Twenties to the Seventies. It covers jazz, folk, doo wop, rock, punk, etc. My only complaint of this great book is that it is more about the music business than the individual artists. There is however information about the artists but I could have used more. That said, this is an excellent read..

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars All Hopped Up and Ready to Read February 17, 2010

By Daniel Tandarich

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

There are a lot of "golden ages" when it comes to the various music scenes in NYC. Many of us did not have the privilege of standing stage-side when the likes of the Velvet Underground, the Ramones, DJ Kool Herc, Dizzy Gillespie, the Stillettos, or Blondie first took an audience under their spell. With a reading of All Hopped Up and Ready to Go, one no longer needs to feel that they missed out. Tony Fletcher goes right to the source on the many different music scenes and he speaks with individuals who were on the front lines of many a music battle as well as the more underground players. Mr. Fletcher weaves one musical storyline into another as the tales of these musicians bleed over into the lives of the next takers of the rhythmic baton. For this reader, the early disco houses and the burgeoning rap scene gave tons of knowledge. And I can never get enough of the punk scene centered around CBGBs and Max's Kansas City. You can tell the author loves his subject and that makes it all the more fascinating for us. Highly recommended!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read, not your typical music book December 1, 2009

By Mark Lerner

Format:Paperback

A real treat for any music fan or musician. The book has an unusual approach, revealing the roots of various NYC musical scenes by focusing on key players. The subtitle is telling: "Music from the Streets of New York." It's not an exhaustive history of Afro-Cuban jazz, the folk revival, punk, or disco. Rather it shows you how those genres (and others) were formed in and by the city. It sketches a lot of fascinating connections between musicians and industry folks, and once a genre has really taken hold and a few groups have had hits, the book moves on, because that's when the story becomes less of a local phenomenon and more of an international one (and in most cases, a familar story).
I looked forward to the chapters on Brill Building pop, Greenwich village folk, and punk; I was pleasantly surprised to find out how much the other chapters, particularly the early ones, captured my interest. Fletcher doesn't fall prey to the hyperbole that I find brings down a lot of music writing, but he writes with enthusiasm and wit. I was moved to check out some of the acts that I wasn't familiar with.