Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City [Paperback]

Paul Morley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

Has pop burnt itself out?

Paul Morley takes the reader on an epic drive through the history of music to find out. A succession of celebrities, geniuses and other protagonists led by Madonna, Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, Erik Satie, John Cage and Wittgenstein appear to give their points of view. Detours and sights along the way include Missy Elliot, Jarvis Cocker, Eminem, Human League, Radiohead, Lou Reed, Now! That's What I Call Music, Ornette Coleman and the ghost of Elvis Presley.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"After 20 pages, I was convinced that Words and Music was the best book about pop that I had ever read. After 280 pages, I was at least convinced that it was the weirdest book about pop I had ever read. But that too is a kind of recommendation."--The Guardian

"Mr. Morley, to be sure, is something of a genius; he is also a very strange man. He appears to have actually listened—not heard, listened—to almost all the music you might file under 'Popular'. This is no mean achievement; arguably it's a very perverse one. What's more, Mr. Morley has done it with a very large brain indeed."--The Independent

"Morley's book manages to fascinate, bore, infuriate, provoke, amuse and stimulate: and he knows it. The book's Napoleonic ambitions throw up an ultimately overwhelming succession of lists and genealogies, which paradoxically proves the impossibility of corralling all the music mentioned (let alone listening to it in one lifetime). But it makes you want to try: which is why this book is at heart a passionate, irresistible encouragement to listen more, and to listen better."--Sunday Times of London

"Paul Morley is the greatest thinker/writer/social critic/tv presenter since plato/keynes/duchamp/betjeman.*" *(delete where not applicable)--Brian Eno

"The British music paper NME wasn't always the limp joke ('Rock Is Back!') it is now; back in the late '70s and early '80s, it owned. Chalk it up to punk and post-punk exploding in the U.K. at the time, but another key to NME's success was a cadre of young writers, not least among them Paul Morley, who made music journalism—not just music—seem strange, beautiful, vital.”--Village Voice

"Finally, a book weird enough to make Greil Marcus’ Lipstick Traces read like Pat the Bunny. Yes, Paul Morley's Words and Music is engaging, unique and on occasion infuriating, sometimes all at once. . . . With an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music surely the envy of every rock critic alive, Morley’s lists—like his book—are far-reaching, utterly enjoyable and informative."--Creative Loafing (Charlotte)

"A riotous book . . . Paul Morley is a sort of Lester Bangs for the readers whose life experience owes more to The Human League than to Van Morrison. . . . Words and Music stands to alter how readers hear the sounds all around them, from the whirring of a hard-drive to the photocopied notes of garage bands to the silence that never really exists, even when we want it to."--Andy Battaglia, The Onion

"His musical trip to the center of the secret history of man/machine music is all about the ride and not the arrival."--HARP Magazine

About the Author

Paul Morley is a magazine and newspaper journalist, TV critic, TV presenter, TV producer and director, record producer, and formerly a musical artist with the group The Art of Noise. His books include Nothing, the acclaimed memoir, and Ask, a collection of his writings from the British pop music weekly NME (New Musical Express).

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820327050
• ISBN-13: 978-0820327051
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,612,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music and list junkies of the world unite, for the highly analytical, December 22, 2008

By 

J. Book "music's biggest fan" (Pasco, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City (Paperback)

I grew up reading the liner notes of Paul Morley on records by Art Of Noise, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Propaganda, and whatever else he did on ZTT in the early to mid-1980's. I became aware of his work as a journalist with the New Musical Express, but being from Honolulu with no access to the NME, I never read those pieces. Nonetheless, Morley's unique style of writing made a big impact on me, as he seemed to be someone who just didn't take a casual listen. He went in deep, and as Brother J from X-Clan would say after hearing a reply from Professor X the overseer, deeper than Atlantis.

"Words And Music" is an intense read from start to finish, as Morley explores the world of pop music through the metaphor of a city, a city that perhaps the author referred to in the video to "Beat Box" by his group, Art Of Noise. If the ZTT building was in the very heart of the city, this book explores every organ, cavity, orifice, avenue, dead end, open end, pond, river, hidden room, and basement in the city that never sleeps, a city that has no beginning or end, a city that has no boundaries within its own self-proclaimed boundaries.

WTF? In truth, it's his examination of recorded music, how popular mainstream music has often flaunted with the stranger and avant-garde without really knowing it, and how we as fans, creators, and archivists react to the music we listen to, the voyages we travel on, and the listening experience and what we gain from it. It's heavy with metaphor and it may seem like a difficult read at first but if you stay on track, everything will fall into place once you get closer to the last chapter. As for a chapter, the first one is over 100 pages long, and even if you stumble and fall, Morley knows you'll want to get up, dust off, and get back on his ride.

"Words And Music" is very much about music, but it's also about Morley and his love of music, his love of writing, but also his love/hate relationship with it all. He at times (if not most of the time) turns the mirror on himself, which may be a way of reflecting the mirror on you to figure out how and why the music you listen to is as powerful as it could and should be.

Outside of being analytical, it's very funny and very Morley. If you're at all familiar with his liner notes, you should know what you're getting into. It's like reading the back of a ZTT album cover, times 100. It's incredibly researched, making the connection between the creative minds of the 18th and 19th centuries, the feel and touch of instrumentation and a curiosity about new technology being incorporated into the music we've create and listened to in the 20th and 21st centuries.

For the musical journeyman in all of us, a mandatory read.