Customer Reviews

The Record Men: The Chess Brothers and the Birth of Rock & Roll (Enterprise)

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First, my wife ordered both "The Record Men" and "Machers and Rockers" for me on the Amazon Buy-Together discount, as I was researching Chess Records for a historical presentation we are working on. They turned out to be the exact same book, only with different titles and one has a hardcover. This is misleading on the parts of the author, publisher AND Amazon.
Second, the subtitle of "Machers and Rockers" is Chess Records and the Business of Rock & Roll. Well, these subjects are covered, but not in the detail one would expect from the title. It covers a broader history of American music, but doesn't do either the justice they deserve. Considering the title(s) (of both books) do we really need to cover the story of W.C. Handy's first experience of Delta Blues? It's been done much better in other books.
And third, the author is sloppy with some of the details. He refers to a 1977 concert by The Who promoting their album "Who's Next" which was actually released in 1971.
If you are only going to read one book on Chess Records, either one (the're both the same) is adequate. However, for a more in-depth look at Chicago blues, I would recommend the biographies of Muddy Waters ("Can't Be Satisfied") and Howlin' Wolf ("Moanin' At Midnight") - both excellent books.

I enjoyed this book very much. Mr. Cohen has a distinctive voice, and once you pick up his rhythms the book is an entertaining read. (A number of great anecdotes also help make it a fun read). He weaves the various strands of the story - musical, cultural, sociological, historical - together fluently, and makes a number of insightful points that help the reader connect the dots. As other reviewers have noted, this is not a purely chronological history full of lists and footnotes; but it will take you back to a time and place that is forever gone. Highly recommended.

This is a nice book about the Chess family. However, it is mostly a short history of American popular music of which there are already so many. The history of Chess is short and not in much depth and you constantly feel you are missing something.
Nice to buy when the price is low, but really not that special.

This is a wonderful book--extremely well-written--that profiles Leonard Chess as a symbol of the American-immigrant experience, taking us back to the Chess family roots in Poland and their coming through Ellis Island. While lots of books discuss how rock and roll was born of integration, this one looks specifically at how the Jews, as fellow outsiders, were critical in finding and recording African American artists. It also acknowledges the fortunes Chess made off the musicians and how that affected him and the company as the Civil Rights Movement took hold. I teach American Studies at the college level and will use this in my classes.