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228th out of 708 books
—
481 voters
Waiting for the Sun: Strange Days, Weird Scenes, and The Sound Of Los Angeles
No city in the western world exerts such a fascination as the damned paradise of Los Angeles. For decades an uneasy mix of glamour and debauchery has served as a magnet for everything venial and diseased. Waiting for the Sun offers an excavation of L.A.'s dark, detailed, and twisted music scene, from the days of the thriving jazz clubs in the '40s to the menace of West Coa...more
Hardcover, First Edition, 356 pages
Published
August 1st 1996
by St. Martin's Press
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I've read several books by Hoskyns, and this one is the best researched of the bunch. I learned a lot about obscure LA bands and music figures, and a lot about the music scene of the 40s and 50s. MY own interest in LA music stems from the fact that I grew up in extreme Northern California, where there is a kind of love/hate relationship (mostly the latter) of all things SoCal in general, and all things LA in particular. However, whenever I visited the LA basin I could not deny the excitement and...more
"The Sound of Los Angeles" -- now what does that mean to you? Or anyone? NWA? Black Flag? Tha Alkaholiks? Firefall? Lots of folks will zoom in on the sixties, Beach Boys and Byrds and Doors, and yes this history devotes considerable attention to that very fertile and strange, even demonic era. But Hoskyns really does try to encompass the whole of L.A. music history, from early jazz beginnings all the way up to 1992 (this was published in 1996, but his narrative stops in that grunge-besotted year...more
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As a former SoCal resident and music/music history fan, I found this book fascinating. You'll learn of the important distinctions between NorCal and SoCal music scenes, as Hoskyns delves deeply into the movements and contributions of notable artists, engineers, record companies...how they all came together over many decades to give us the stuff we love: From the early East-Coast transplant jass masters to the happen-stance formation of notable group like The Doors, all sub-genres are addressed....more
Terrific overview of the Los Angeles music scene - or, I should say, the Los Angeles music scenes, since Hoskyns takes us from the zoot-suiters of the 1940s to the gangstas of fifty years later, covering everything in between in a series of carefully considered thematic overviews. Maybe the best test of books such as this is whether they send you off to your record collection, digging out old favourites, reassessing old familiars, exploring overlooked gems. By this yardstick WAITING FOR THE SUN...more
Lots of fun for rock and roll fans. Hoskyns’ research yielded some great stories. There is a lot of detail, minutiae even, on the personalities involved, their personal lives, the creative process, business dealings, and how famous and not-so-famous bands came about and worked together. In the chapters on the sub-genres I was less interested in, I did some skimming, but most of it was really entertaining. Got some real insight into just how crazy Phil Spector was even way back (and we know how t...more
Jun 05, 2011
Thomas
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
40-somethings interested in bands/albums/songs of 1970s FM radio.
Recommended to Thomas by:
Amazon.com
A good survey but the author tried to bite off more than he could chew in this book. Some important acts were covered in 1 paragraph while others had pages and pages (really? Randy Newman? He was given as much coverage as James Taylor!!!) I'd rather have read 3 books and gotten more details about later periods of time that were only touched on here. I did like hearing his opinions come out (We Are The World, etc.) and I'm glad he "got" Janes Addiction, even though he obviously didn't "get" Excen...more
read this (or the relevant chunks of it) again while in LA doing the LA PROJECT, and man-- still amazed by how well it takes a sprawling and ineffable subject and, y'know, renders it effable. the only bound works i picked up more times this week were Alan Furst's NIGHT SOLDIERS and the room-service menu.
Amazing!! After I read this I bought about 10 CDs of Los Angeles Bands because this book really makes you understand all the great music that came out of LA. The title is misleading because people might think its a Doors book, but it's not.
Exhaustive, detailed. Long on names and short on substantive analysis or much real discussion of the music. But I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. Not for the faint of heart.
When will Barney Hoskyns limn the history of Detroit music with his vivid, cheeky prose?
Good, if a bit brief, book outlining all the music to come from LA.
I'd forgotten until recently what a fun book this cultural history of the LA music scene is. The scope is impressive: from the late 40s of King and Sinatra to the early 60s of B. Wilson, the late of everybody in the world, and on to the Runaways, hair bands, and assorted other scenesters. I didn't always agree with his estimation of the music itself, but then this isn't a review book. It's a worthy model of how to structure an broad view of a place.
A fascinating look at music from the perspective of a city rather than an artist or genre. Very well-researched.
This book radically shifted my perceptions of this adopted city of Los Angeles for the better. It also got me listening (and re-listening) to a lot of amazing music that I had not appreciated to the extent that I did after reading it. Thank you, Barney!
Great account of the history of music in La La Land by an almost always topnotch music writer, the West Coast editor of Mojo magazine.
started (on the bus), but took a break. Also purchased at the EMP Pop Music Conference in Seattle -- 2003?
May 07, 2013
Christie
marked it as to-read
Apr 24, 2013
Mike S
marked it as to-read
Feb 08, 2013
Sreevidhya
marked it as to-read
Feb 02, 2013
Route 66
marked it as to-read
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I did see a G'n'R tribute band once and they were pretty fun.
Jun 27, 2011 07:40pm