Quotes
“Just when you thought the record label beast
was dead and buried, along comes Gareth Murphy with a tour de force that makes
you almost want to dance with that devil again. Through Cowboys and Indies, new artists will get a sense of history that
will enlighten their success and lessen the pain of being ripped off!” Andrew Loog Oldham, Rolling Stones producer and founder of Immediate Records
“Thought I knew everything about the music
business. Must admit, I learned quite a bit inside these pages. Highly
recommended!” Seymour Stein, cofounder and chairman of Sire Records
“In his first book, freelance writer and record producer Murphy captures
the ever-changing nature of the record industry as it ebbs and flows
with trends, technology, and time…Through setting out to document the lineage of the record industry,
which he’s done, Murphy has as well created a history of popular music
told from the inside out to give music fans and historians a new and
dynamic perspective of this oft-covered topic.” Publishers Weekly
“This is a straight-ahead
chronological history of the record business—the performers and ‘record
men’ in America and the UK—from early innovations in sound technology to
the present…There are enough gems and oddities (a
brawl between the burly Grossman and Alan Lomax; the Beatles first
experiences smoking marijuana, when meeting Dylan; and, apparently
unrelatedly, a quite funny misunderstanding of Beatles’ lyrics by Dylan)
to make the book an enjoyable…addition to
the musical bookshelf.” Booklist
“Record labels, at their best, are invariably
driven by the taste, the personality, and the ambition of one man, or woman—this
book fascinatingly charts their course, their perversity, their bloody-mindedness. It’s those men, those labels, that found and broke the artists who
have created our musical world.” Martin Mills, founder of the Beggars Group
“Spectacular, compelling, evocative—this book
places you at the heart of the record industry’s defining moments. Far more than
recounting the history, it’s an artful and long-overdue look at the fantastic
characters, companies, and shifting cultures that have given birth to the
soundtrack of modern life. Essential reading.” Craig Kallman, CEO of Atlantic Records
“Cowboys and
Indies passionately tells the story of those driven individuals who trusted
their own taste and instincts and, in turning a deaf ear to the commonplace,
gave shape to the world of modern music. Essential reading!” Jac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records
“If this book was a group, I would definitely
sign them. It is that good.” Geoff Travis, founder of Rough Trade Records