Bob-Dubery
Another item that is not easily available over the counter but can be got from Kalahari etc.
And not strictly a book about guitaring, though some good players do pop up.
Boyd was a producer, promoter and tour manager in the 60s and early 70s. He worked mostly in London and was involved in some fairly significant goings on: Managing UFO, the first "underground" club in London (early on the house band was Pink Floyd), produced the first Pink Floyd recordings; plugged in Dylan's electric guitar at Newport in 1965; discovered, signed, managed and produced Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band and Sandy Denny; managed John Lee Hooker's first tour of the UK. And so on.
He made some of the most interesting recordings of the late 60s, though was not hugely succesful in commercial terms (the same can be said of many of the acts in his stable). I don't believe this bothers him that much. If you consider "the music business" as being a tension between music and business, then Boyd was absolutely at the music end of the contimuum. He recorded what sounded interesting to him.
So that leaves him well placed to fill a book with anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories, but his book is quite a bit more than that. The beauty of this book, for me, is that Boyd also takes in overarching themes about the 60s - why they were remembered as something special, when they started (not, he says, on January 1st 1960), when they ended (not December 31 1969) and why. What the legacy is and what was achieved.
He doesn't do a lot of intrusive digging into people's lives. The portrayal of Nick Drake, for example, is more sympathetic and ultimately less intrusive and more respectful than Trevor Dann's recent biography.
Boyd is a Harvard graduate and wrote the book himself. He has a slightly irreverant style and certainly does not take himself too seriously. Besides, whilst the book is drawn from his own rich experience, it is not really about the author.
I have read few books about music and musicians that are as engrossing and illuminating as this book.
FatBoy
Ordered it today! Kalahari had great sepcials on some Xbox 360 games, so I had to order, and remembered this post. Cant wait to read it!
