Kimmelman and Caruso together have wrought a lyrical splendor. Kimmelman's deft poems - their lightness, their space, their languid-ness - beautifully match Caruso's evocative watercolors. A joy to read and a joy to behold. They have created a gift for the world.

The book was a great summary about the history of business and popular music in the last 30 years or so. Unfortunately, I was hoping for some more information on the actual artists: Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, etc.

The author goes a little overboard with the business aspects of the music industry by throwing around dollar figures of which many of us don't have any idea of anyway. There was no need for him to devote pages and pages to Geffen and his various business deals. You quickly get the point that Geffen is strictly a businessman anyway. I also wish that he would have expanded more on the birth of underground radio and rock journalism. He never set out to explain the contradictory fact that Dave Marsh was both a protege of John Sinclair and Jon Landau (opposing figures). He exposes several realities about the selfish and greedy attitudes of artists, managers, DJ's, promoters, ect. Welcome to the real world Fred. I also wish he would have gone deeper into the politics of the MC5 and John Sinclair instead of wasting energy making Jon Landau and Bruce Springsteen look bad (I certainly didn't need any convincing). I did like the stories regarding Ray Riepen, Frank Barbalosa, Mo Ostin, and Dee Anthony. A good book for those who still believe in all that 60's lovey-dovey stuff.

This is one fantastic book. The author does a very good job of tracing the history of how music and business came together. His use of Youngs', Dylans' and Springsteens' careers as examples were first-rate. Young and Dylan came out looking pretty good, I think, but Springsteen-- not so good. If you like Springsteen (and Landeau) you're not going to like reading some of the chapters that deal with them. The author pretty much shatters the myth that surrounds them and I won't look at Springsteen the same way again. The book also takes some side streets to other artists (the Eagles, MC5, etc.) that I thought were interesting. I like reading about how live music shows went from clubs to stadiums and how the artists had to deal with the promoters.