Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

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..

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!

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.

Music and the fortunes of New York City trace their paths through the book. From the excitement of the skyscrapers and high society, the depression and war, the cold war prosperity, white flight and urban decay, and first hints of renewal, alongside the Apollo Theater, Charlie Parker, Atlantic Records, Tito Puente, the new folk music, the Ronettes, Janis Ian, the Velvets, Patti Smith, New York Dolls, and Talking Talks feature in the narrative. I got the book mostly out of interest in the latter part of the story, the downtown scene that lead to NYC punk, but learned a lot, and gained a healthy appreciation for, the earlier generations of musicians who had also emerged downtown. It's a thick book, well written, and focused on individuals through which to carry the story. We see Bob Dylan arrive in the city, the signing of the Talking Heads to Sire Records, the Latin Jazz craze of dueling Titos, and the first audience walking out as the Velvet Underground played "Heroin."

Firstly let me acknowledge my bias - I love a variety of music and I love New York - and so this book is one I automatically gravitated to. And it doesn't disappoint. Although some of the styles of New York music that Fletcher covers here have been out of my orbit and although I lived in New York directly after the period he covers, his writing style is so fluid and the content so thoroughly researched that the genres that are new to me are just as interesting as the ones that are familiar. The Bebop, Latin Jazz in the beginning had a lot of names that I was totally ignorant about and induced a little feeling of learning stuff I'm glad I won't be tested on but Fletcher's skill in evoking the feeling of NYC of the period helps bring the musicians alive. Of course then getting to the music of my interest which includes the Brill pop, the Greenwich Village folk scene, the Velvets, the Glitter and Punk scenes and to some extent Disco I found the book one I couldn't put down and readily devoured it. I even found the birth of Hip Hop fascinating and an important story to learn. His fluent and witty writing style has you wishing that he could take you off on tangents with more anecdotes about certain genres but of course as is New York itself there are probably a million stories to tell.
I must note a lovely touch in this internet age is the link mentioned in the book [...] where you can go and listen to snippets of the music as you read about them. Nice, very, very nice.

VERY INTERESTING READING ABOUT MUSIC IN NYC OVER A SPAN OF 50 YEARS. ANY MUSIC LOVER WOULD ENJOY.

Having lived in NYC for a good number of years myself, I was drawn to this book. Most books tend to cover one music era or another, but here, I got a good overview of how the various players became involved with each other. The author also shows (especially in the punk era) how the various scenes have all taken nods from their predecessors.
It also sets the record straight on how a lot of deals and so on went down, without ever digressing into "tell all" mode.
The politics, social scene, and other historical points of interest are also discussed to frame out the why's and how's of what brought each scene together .
Of particular interest to me was the Brill Building era and also the early days of DJ'ing, where you needed more than a soft ware program to beat match and scratch records.
I'd recommend this whether you have a deep knowledge of music or pedestrian. Historical books like this can be a little confusing if you are are totally unfamiliar with the era, but I think the author does a good job of introducing the characters.
Goes along well with " Please Kill Me" and the "Disco Files"

Fletcher does an amazing job of focusing in and presenting on such a complex topic as the New York City music scene. This book is a great read for anyone who participated in the scene or who just wishes they had. For those active in the current NYC goings-on, it's an interesting perspective of then versus now.

This book is so great they should give Tony Fletcher the key to the city.