Books > Words and Music

Words and Music: a history of pop in the shape of the city

'Paul Morley is the greatest thinker / writer / social critic / tv presenter since plato / keynes / duchamp / betjeman*' Brian Eno *(delete where not applicable); from the front cover

ISBN 0 7475 5778 0
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing

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"Part novel, part critique, part history, part confessional, part philosophical enquiry, part ultimate book of musical lists, Words and Music shows how pop music will live as long as the imagination because 'even though it has all happened before, everything has been done, every variation of everything has been tried, there continues to be something new under the sun." - 'synopsis' from the back cover. The book is set in Bembo which was the font used for Factory's famous boxed cassette series.

An extract from the book: "1983 - New Order, 'Blue Monday' - rock, as such, goes dance, as such, and things, as such, are never, as such, the same, as such, again, again, again, as such. In one history of popular music, a line drawn from the La Monte Young, via The Velvet Underground, all the way to Daft Punk and Missy Elliott, passes right through the drum-tender centre of 'Blue Monday'."