Search -
Machers and Rockers: Chess Records and the Business of Rock and Roll
Machers and Rockers Chess Records and the Business of Rock and Roll Author:Rich Cohen A tour-de-force history of Jews, blues, and the birth of a new industry. On the south side of Chicago in the late 1940s, two immigrantsone a Jew born in Russia, the other a black blues singer from Mississippimet and changed the course of musical history. Muddy Waters electrified the blues, and Leonard Chess recorded it. Soo... more »n Bo Diddly and Chuck Berry added a dose of pulsating rhythm, and Chess Records captured that, too. Rock & roll had arrived, and an industry was born. In a book as vibrantly and exuberantly written as the music and people it portrays, Rich Cohen tells the engrossing story of how Leonard Chess, with the other record men, made this new sound into a multi-billion-dollar businessaggressively acquiring artists, hard-selling distributors, riding the crest of a wave that would crash over a whole generation. Full of absorbing lore and animated by a deep love for popular music, Machers and Rockers is a smash hit. 12 illustrations. About the series: W. W. Norton and Atlas Books announce the launch of a dynamic new series: ENTERPRISE pairs distinguished writers with stories of the economic forces that have shaped the modern worldthe institutions, the entrepreneurs, the ideas. Enterprise introduces a new genrethe business book as literature.« less