- 444 Pages
- Published by Jawbone Press
- Softcover with CD
Jac Holzman witnessed a cultural transformation during the time he ran Elektra Records from 1950 to 1973. Follow the Music captures pivotal scenes of pop culture as Holzman saw them, from what happened backstage when Bob Dylan went electric to Jim Morrison’s legendary shenanigans.Amazon.com Review
The Doors, Love, Judy Collins, Tim Buckley, and Phil Ochs were all products of the nurturing environment at the Elektra Records of the ’60s and early ’70s. With help from coauthor Gavan Daws, the label’s then head, Jac Holzman, collects his reminiscences and those of many of his cohorts in the enlightening, often hilarious Follow the Music: The Life and High Times of Elektra Records in the Great Years … More >>
This is a history of Electra Records, and Jac Holzman, and I don’t really care about them, so I skipped a lot of the stuff that didn’t have to do with the Doors and Jim Morrison. But the stuff on Jim Morrison (and there is a LOT of it) is really riveting, and included a lot I haven’t found elsewhere (like when Eric Burden fired a gun at Morrison and his groupies, to get them out of Burden’s house!). If you’re a Doors fan, read it.
Rating: 5 / 5
Jac Holzman was an business innovator throughout his life. He is known as the founder of Elektra Records. Proximate to the milieu of the rock stars who he brought to his label, he was nonetheless himself cut from different cloth. Follow the Music faithfully outlines both the closeness and the difference. Holzman was not a posturing musical artist like those whose personalities he converted into material for consumption by fascinated record buyers. Not being taken in by the romance of rockstardom, he occupied an excellent position to offer commentary and narrative of the activity of those who passed through his perview.
Holzman’s book is a salutary antidote (full of anecdotes..)for those readers fascinated by the lives and movements of Rock Stars but who can do without the fawning tone of that milieu’s groupies. I strongly recommend it.
Rating: 4 / 5
I bought this book for the CD. Most of the Elektra catalog is out of print and was never re-released on CD. The CD is great, though I would have liked more international folk music. There’s only one foreign language song on the disc. The book itself turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. While I am only about one fifth of the way through it, I’m finding the story of Elektra Records fascinating. I didn’t realize (or, more likely had forgotten – you know what they say about the 60s) how many big names in rock got their start there. A great read about the little record company that could.
Rating: 5 / 5
Great book for those that enjoy the inner workings of a record label,its history and the people that made it happen.If you dig musicology this book is a must read.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book really knocked me out. It’s a great look inside the sixties and seventies music business. What makes it particularly appealing is that the author was not just there but one of the major figures who made it happen. Jac Holzman and Gavan Daws have chosen to write the book from multiple points of view, quoting extensively from many of the best artists and producers of the time (even when their point of view is uncomplimentary or very different from the authors’). FOLLOW THE MUSIC lets you in on the party from many fascinating points of view. Reading this book brought me back to a time when this end of the century was being invented. I really loved it.
Rating: 5 / 5