James E. Perone - The Album: A Guide to Pop Musics Most Provocative, Influential, and Important Creations

A Guide to Pop Musics Most Provocative, Influential, and Important Creations

James E. Perone

Copyright 2012 by James E. Perone

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

The album : a guide to pop musics most provocative, influential, and important creations / James E. Perone, editor.

v. cm. (The Praeger singer-songwriter collection)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents: Vol. 1. Country, rock, soul, pop, and blues : the 1960s Vol. 2. The golden age of the singer-songwriter : 19701973 Vol. 3. Adding punk attitude to the mix : 19741988 Vol. 4. An explosion of diversity : 1989Present.

ISBN 978-0-313-37906-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-313-37907-9 (ebook)

1. Popular musicHistory and criticism. I. Perone, James E.

ML3470.A24 2012

781.6409dc23 2012026593

ISBN: 978-0-313-37906-2
EISBN: 978-0-313-37907-9

16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5

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Some content appearing in these volumes was originally published in the following titles:

Kirkpatrick, Rob, The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2006); Bennighof, James, The Words and Music of Paul Simon (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2007); Bielen, Ken, and Ben Urish, The Words and Music of John Lennon (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2007); Moskowitz, David, The Words and Music of Bob Marley (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2007); Bielen, Ken, The Words and Music of Neil Young (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2008); Gable, Christopher, The Words and Music of Sting (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2008); Kessel, Corinne, The Words and Music of Tom Waits (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2008); Tarr, Joe, The Words and Music of Patti Smith (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2008); Woldu, Gail Hilson, The Words and Music of Ice Cube (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2008); Hage, Erik, The Words and Music of Van Morrison (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2009); Benitez, Vincent P., The Words and Music of Paul McCartney: The Solo Years (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010); Bennighof, James, The Words and Music of Joni Mitchell (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010); Inglis, Ian, The Words and Music of George Harrison (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010); Moskowitz, David, The Words and Music of Jimi Hendrix (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010); Bielen, Ken, The Words and Music of Billy Joel (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011).

The Words and Music of Van Morrison

The Words and Music of Jimi Hendrix

The Words and Music of Paul McCartney: The Solo Years

The Words and Music of Joni Mitchell

The Words and Music of George Harrison

The Words and Music of Dolly Parton: Getting to Know Countrys Iron Butterfly

The Words and Music of Billy Joel

The Words and Music of Patti Smith

The Words and Music of Neil Young

The Words and Music of Ice Cube

The Words and Music of Sting

The Words and Music of Prince

The Words and Music of Tom Waits

The Sound of Stevie Wonder: His Words and Music

The Words and Music of Frank Zappa

The Words and Music of Carole King

The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen

The Words and Music of Bob Marley

The Words and Music of John Lennon

The Words and Music of David Bowie

The Words and Music of Paul Simon

The Words and Music of Beck

The Words and Music of Mariah Carey

Although the term singer-songwriter might most frequently be associated with a cadre of musicians of the early 1970s such as Paul Simon, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, and Carole King, the Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection defines singer-songwriters more broadly, both in terms of style and time period. The series includes volumes on musicians who have been active from approximately the 1960s through the present. Musicians who write and record in folk, rock, soul, hip-hop, country, and various hybrids of these styles are represented. Therefore, some of the early 1970s introspective singer-songwriters named here will be included, but not exclusively.

What do the individuals included in this series have in common? Some have never collaborated as writers, whereas others have, but all have written and recorded commercially successful and/or historically important music and lyrics at some point in their careers.

The authors who contribute to the series also exhibit diversity. Some are scholars who are trained primarily as musicians, whereas others have such areas of specialization as American studies, history, sociology, popular culture studies, literature, and rhetoric. The authors share a high level of scholarship, accessibility in their writing, and a true insight into the work of the artists they study. The authors are also focused on the output of their subjects and how it relates to their subjects biography and the society around them; however, biography in and of itself is not a major focus of the books in this series.

Given the diversity of the musicians who are the subject of books in this series, and given the diversity of viewpoint of the authors, volumes in the series differ from book to book. All, however, are organized chronologically around the compositions and recorded performances of their subjects. All of the books in the series should also serve as listeners guides to the music of their subjects, making them companions to the artists recorded output.

James E. Perone

Series Editor

Welcome to The Album. This four-volume set is part of the Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection and as such includes critical analyses that are drawn from some of the previously published volumes in the series. The bulk of the essays in The Album, however, are new and were specially written for the publication you hold in your hands right now. Because the book is a part of the series, most of the material here focuses on the work of singer-songwriters, some of whom were and are solo artists, and some of whom are most closely associated with bands. In short, the focus is on performers who largely or entirely write their own material. Still, there are some albums that do not fit this criteria, such as Aretha Franklins Lady Soul on which Franklin receives writing credit on only some of the songs, and Elvis Presleys From Elvis in Memphis and Dusty Springfields amazingly similarly titled Dusty in Memphis, both of which consist almost entirely of covers and songs written forbut not bythe performers. And there are some other albums that are just so important, series or not, that they are included. In assembling the list of titles, I made every attempt to be as fully inclusive as possible, in every sense of the word. This means, among other things, that some of the albums about which you read in this set are true no-brainers. An example would be Michael Jacksons