From the
Beach Boys and Jan & Dean
to the Byrds and the Mamas
& the Papas, acclaimed
music journalist Joel Selvin
tells the story of a group of
young artists and musicians
who came together at the dawn
of the 1960s to create the
lasting myth of the California
dream.
Read
more..
|
ALTAMONT:
The Rolling Stones, the Hells
Angels, and the Inside Story
of Rock's Darkest Day
Available
from Amazon
“In this
breathtaking cultural history
filled with exclusive,
never-before-revealed details,
celebrated rock journalist
Joel Selvin tells the
definitive story of the
Rolling Stones' infamous
Altamont concert in San
Francisco, the disastrous
historic event that marked the
end of the idealistic 1960s."
|
LONG-AWAITED BERT BERNS
BIOGRAPHY PUBLISHED BY
COUNTERPOINT PRESS
Available
from Counterpoint Press
“Here
Comes the Night: The Dark
Soul of Bert Berns and the
Dirty Business of Rhythm and
Blues” is both a definitive
account of the New York
rhythm and blues world of
the early ‘60s, and the
harrowing, ultimately tragic
story of songwriter and
record producer Bert Berns,
whose meteoric career was
fueled by his pending doom.
His heart
damaged by rheumatic fever as
a youth, doctors told Berns he
would not live to see
twenty-one. Although his name
is little remembered today,
Berns worked alongside all the
greats of the era – Jerry
Leiber and Mike Stoller, Ahmet
Ertegun and Jerry Wexler, Burt
Bacharach, Phil Spector, Gerry
Goffin and Carole King, anyone
who was anyone in New York
rhythm and blues. In seven
quick years, he went from
nobody to the top of the pops
– producer of monumental
r&b classics, songwriter
of “Twist and Shout,” “My Girl
Sloopy” and others.
His fury to
succeed led Berns to use his
Mafia associations to muscle
Atlantic Records out of a
partnership and intimidate new
talents like Neil Diamond and
Van Morrison he signed to his
record label, only to drop
dead of a long expected fatal
heart attack, just when he was
seeing his grandest plans and
life’s ambitions frustrated
and foiled.
|
Follow Joel on Instagram @thejoelselvin
|
A
tell-all biography of
the epic in-fighting of
the Grateful Dead in the
years following band
leader Jerry Garcia’s
death in 1995
Available
from Hattchette Book Group
|
'Wear
Your Dreams,'
by Ed Hardy with Joel
Selvin
Ed
Hardy & Joel Selvin
David
D'Arcy
July
7, 2013
Wear
Your Dreams My Life in
Tattoos By Ed Hardy with
Joel Selvin (Thomas
Dunne/St. Martin's; 293
pages; $26.99)
|
HAGAR
AUTOBIOGRAPHY HITS NO.
1 ON NY
TIMES BEST-SELLER
LIST FIRST WEEK
OUT
Sammy
Hagar—legendary lead
singer of Van Halen,
founder of the Cabo Wabo
Tequila brand, and one
of rock music’s most
notoriously successful
performers—tells his
unforgettable story in
this one-of-a-kind
autobiography of a life
at the top of the
charts. From
his decade-long journey
alongside Eddie Van Halen
to his raucous solo career
with Chickenfoot and
everything in between—the
drugs, groupies, and
excesses of fame, the
outrageous stadium tours,
and the thrill of musical
innovation—Hagar reveals
all in this treasure trove
of rock-and-roll war
stories. Red is a
life-changing look at one
of music’s biggest
talents—an essential read
for music fans and anyone
dreaming of becoming
rock’s next number one
star.
...Read More
|
|
|
VIDEO
FROM JOEL'S "RETIREMENT"
PARTY
|
|
|
An
explosive,
wrenching tale
of music,
madness and
murder coming
in February
2024 from
Diversion
Books.
Pre-order from Amazon
|
HOLLYWOOD
EDEN PRESS: |
•
NEW
YORK TIMES:
From Brian Wilson
to Nancy Sinatra:
The L.A. Music
Scene in the ’60s
Joel
Selvin, the former
pop music critic
of The San
Francisco
Chronicle, has
explored rock’s
history in a
string of fun
books, including
“Monterey Pop”
(written with Jim
Marshall) and
“Summer of Love.”
In his new one,
“Hollywood Eden:
Electric Guitars,
Fast Cars, and the
Myth of the
California
Paradise,” he
tells the story,
set between 1957
and 1967, of a
network of young
Angelenos who
“captured a
California of the
mind” — one of
“cars, sun, sex
and surf; ‘Gidget’
set to a rock ’n’
roll beat.” |
•
LA
TIMES: How
California’s
culture industry
manufactured the
California dream
As
Selvin writes, a
handful of young
artists, including
Jan and Dean, the
Beach Boys and the
Mamas and the
Papas, were
largely
responsible for
implanting the
myth of Southern
California in the
national
consciousness.
“Good Vibrations”
sounds like a
forever future, as
if a fleet of
tanned aliens
touched down to
share their music.
(In fact, it was
just the genius of
Brian Wilson and
an army of session
musicians.)
|
|
VIDEO
from TIME.com:
Let Paul
McCartney
Introduce You To
Bert Berns, The
Best Songwriter
You’ve Never
Heard Of
click
here |
|
HERE
COMES THE
NIGHT PRESS: |
•
New York Times: Many-Hit Wonder, Out of Obscurity
Bert Berns,
Songwriter and
Producer,
Remembered
Even
in his mid-1960s
heyday, Bert
Berns was barely
known beyond the
obsessives who
studied
songwriters’ and
producers’
credits on 45
r.p.m. records
and LP album
jackets. And
then, after his
death in 1967 at
the age of 38,
something truly
odd happened:
Though the songs
he wrote and
produced, like
“Twist and
Shout” and “Hang
On Sloopy,”
proved to have
durability,
growing in
stature and
popularity as
the years
passed, Berns’s
own reputation
receded even
further into
obscurity.. |
"Ok,
just finished
the book on Bert
Berns "Here
Comes The Night"
and it was
great. Anyone
who loves early
Rock and Soul
will love it." |
"BANG!
THE BERT BERNS
STORY. Great
rockumentary
about a
forgotten
giant.
Narrated by
Little Steven,
written by
rock legend
Joel Selvin,
my old
bandmate. |
|
•
Los Angeles Review of Books: Stephen Deusner on
Here Comes the
Night : The Dark
Soul of Bert
Berns and the
Dirty Business
of Rhythm &
Blues
IN
HIS NEW BOOK,
Joel Selvin
describes three
different
recordings of
the song “Twist
and Shout.” Two
were not simply
big hits, but
seminal
contributions to
the rock ’n’
roll canon. ... |
More
HERE COMES THE
NIGHT press
here... |
|
--- N E W S
.
F R O M .
J O E L S E L V I N . C O
M ---
|
|
READ
MORE EXCLUSIVE NEWS
FROM JOELSELVIN.COM
|
|
Browse
all of Joel's San
Francisco Chronicle
pieces here. |
Linda
Ronstadt back in
public eye, and it’s
not so easy
Sunday,
May 27, 2018
Linda
Ronstadt doesn’t feel like
company much these days.
At least, not too much
company. And on a recent
visit, she is definitely
not going to put on
clothes and makeup.....sfgate |
Jefferson
Airplane’s Paul
Kantner dies at 74
Friday, January 29, 2016
Jefferson
Airplane founder Paul
Kantner, a giant of the
San Francisco rock
scene, died Thursday
afternoon after
suffering a massive
heart attack in his
sleep two days earlier.
He was 74 and surrounded
by his three children at
the time of his death....sfgate
|
Dead
offers
paint-by-numbers
show, but fans
provides color
Sunday, June 28, 2015
No rock band in the
world boasts an audience
as devoted and engaged
as the Grateful
Dead, and it was
the Deadheads who
brought the party
Saturday to Levi’s
Stadium for the first
show on the five-concert
“Fare Thee Well” tour
featuring the four
living members of the
Dead back together for
one last roundup.....sfgate
|
A
night at the
Fillmore changed
B.B. King’s career
forever
Saturday, May 16, 2015
One
night in San Francisco
changed everything in
B.B. King’s life — in
amazing and
unpredictable ways.
B.B.
King, the greatest
bluesman of his
generation, who died
Thursday at 89 in Las
Vegas, had played the
Fillmore Auditorium many
times before that night
in February 1967. It had
been operated by Charles
Sullivan, a ghetto
entrepreneur who ran
jukeboxes and cigarette
machines up and down the
coast, as well as
producing rhythm and
blues concerts at the
1,100-seat upstairs
dance hall in the middle
of a black neighborhood
that had thrived prior
to urban redevelopment,
a well-known stop on the
so-called chitlin
circuit....sfgate
|
Music:
Ron Nagle’s ’70
album, popular flop
and cult hit,
returns
Wednesday, January 28,
2015
Ron
Nagle, a longtime
curmudgeon of the San
Francisco art and music
scene, was swimming
upstream in 1970 with
the release of an album
of dark, melancholy pop
songs at the height of
the San Francisco hippie
psychedelic era. “Bad
Rice,” his lone solo
album, is a long-lost
cult classic about to be
issued on CD for the
first time in a two-disc
deluxe set....sfgate
|
On
tour with Janis
Joplin — an
insider’s view
Wednesday, October 29,
2014
John
Byrne Cooke strides
across Washington
Square, a place familiar
to him because he lived
around the corner of 45
years ago when he was
road manager for Big
Brother and the Holding
Company.
“The
guys in Big Brother all
wanted to know why I
didn’t live in the
Haight,” he says, “and I
told them 'I’m a
beatnik, not a hippie.’”
...sfgate
|
Emmylou
Harris touring for
reissue of cult
classic 'Wrecking
Ball'
Friday, March 28, 2014
The
country music career of
Emmylou Harris was
already finished when
she set foot in the
studio in winter 1995 to
make "Wrecking Ball"
with producer Daniel
Lanois. Country radio
had stopped playing her
records, and her label
had no idea what to do....sfgate
|
Jeff
Beck, Brian Wilson
review: perfect
harmony
Wednesday, October 23,
2013
Brian
Wilson and Jeff Beck
have lived their lives
in parallel musical
universes, but in the
wide, wonderful world of
rock 'n' roll, parallel
lines do meet. At the
Paramount Theatre in
Oakland on Tuesday, in
an unforgettable
tableau, the exquisite
British blues-rock
guitarist drew out
Wilson's sunny melodies
in silvery, wavering
guitar lines as the
combined forces of his
band and the Beach Boys
founder's backing group
stitched together the
complex harmonies and
orchestrations from
Wilson's lost
masterpiece, "Smile." ...sfgate
|
Rascals'
show revisits era of
good lovin', playin'
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
How did
Little Steven find the
time?
He tours
the world playing guitar
with Bruce Springsteen and
the E Street Band. He
maintains a thriving
acting career launched by
a long-running part in
"The Sopranos." He hosts a
syndicated weekly radio
show and runs his own
record label, among other
enterprises....sfgate
|
Fillmore's
Poster Room filled
with walls of sound
Wednesday, September 25,
2013
They ran
out of space on the
walls of the Poster Room
at the Fillmore
Auditorium years ago.
The most recent addition
advertises a Black Keys
concert from 2007. Every
available inch of the
wall space in the
upstairs bar and
restaurant as well as
the adjacent balcony
room is covered with
framed posters from
sold-out Fillmore shows
of the past ...sfgate
|
Giving
credit to Woodstock
hero Alvin Lee
Friday, March 8, 2013
His
frantic, flashy guitar
playing on the nearly
10-minute "I'm Going
Home" made British rock
musician Alvin Lee, who
died this week at age 68
in southern Spain, one
of the heroes of
Woodstock, both the
music festival and the
subsequent movie....sfgate
|
Singer
Rick Stevens
embraces 2nd chance
Monday, January 28, 2013
Wearing
a glacial-white suit and
tie, set off by a
blood-orange shirt, the
compact, dark-haired
vocalist Rick Stevens
leaned into "You're
Still a Young Man," his
signature song as lead
vocalist of Tower of
Power, when the band
burst out of the East
Bay funk scene 40 years
ago and Stevens had a
promising future. ...sfgate
|
Review:
Johnny Cash Columbia
boxed set
Monday, December 3, 2012
Johnny
Cash had to disappear
from the skyline before
it became obvious how
tall a tree he truly
was.
If any
doubts remain, the newly
released 63-disc boxed
set, "Johnny Cash - The
Complete Columbia Album
Collection" - takes the
full measure of the man's
recorded legacy. With the
addition of a single disc
covering his first three
years of recording for the
Sun Records label - and
Cash's absent latter-era
sessions with producer
Rick Rubin notwithstanding
- this unwieldy set is an
American treasury along
the lines of....sfgate
|
Browse
all of Joel's San
Francisco Chronicle
pieces here. |
|
Contact Joel: joelselvin@aol.com
Literary
Agent: Frank Weimann: fweimann@theliterarygroup.com
|
"An absolute treasure
for fans of American
roots music."
-Booklist
Available from Amazon
|
Long considered the
definitive account
of the meteoric
career of the
pioneer funk-rock
band, Sly & the
Family Stone: An
Oral History by Joel
Selvin, the 1998
classic that has
been out of print
for years, returns
in a new, updated
edition from
Permuted Press.
Available from Amazon
|
|
|
|
|
SELVIN
ON THE CITY PODCASTS
|
•
LINDA
RONSTADT
• ANDREW
GOLD
• LOUIS
JORDAN
• SAN
FRANCISCO, 1978
• INSTRUMENTALS
• SAN
FRANCISCO -1967 to 1968
• NORTON
BUFFALO
• VIETNAM-THE
WAR ON RECORD
• FAKE
BANDS!
• THE
WHO
• 50
YEARS OF THE TWIST
•
ALL KEITH
• AHMET
ERTEGUN
• SF
GARAGE
• VAN
COMES TO AMERICA
• ELVIN
BISHOP
• SLIM
GAILLARD STORY
• ELECTRIC
SITAR
• THE
TIKI ROOM
• SAL
VALENTINO
• YOUNG
PHIL SPECTOR
• NEW
ORLEANS 78s
• ORGAN
ROOM
• JOURNEY
SUPERJAM
• CHARITY
RECORDS
• STEVE
DOUGLAS
• JACK
NITZSCHE
• JERSEY BOYS
• GEORGE
MARTIN
• LEE
HAZLEWOOD
• DONOVAN
• T BONE
BURNETT
• BIG AL
ANDERSON
• TOM WAITS
• BOOKER T.
• ROLLING
STONES 1971
• THE MUSIC OF
FRANK ZAPPA
• THE ORIG.
FLEETWOOD MAC
• SLY STONE IN
NORTH BEACH
• CHRIS ISAAK
AND KENNY DALE JOHNSON
• SAMMY HAGAR
• ATTACK OF
THE KILLER B'S
• JERRY LEE
LEWIS
• ROY BUCHANAN
• RY COODER
• STEVE MILLER
•
BLAXPLOITATION
• FAMOUS
BROTHERS
...
Full Podcast Page
|
|
Available
at Amazon
|
|
MORE
SMART ASS
|
•
BBC:
Joel Selvin
discusses LSD and the effect
the drug has had on music,
culture and society.....
• Los
Angeles Times: Tattooist
Ed Hardy, whose name adorns
a near-ubiquitous clothing
brand has signed a deal to
write a memoir with the help
of Joel Selvin.....
• New
York Times: Julie
Bosman on Sammy Hagar and
other rock star's books....
• Examiner.com:
Q&A
with author Joel Selvin on
Sammy Hagar’s ‘Red: My
Uncensored Life in Rock’
....
• LA
Weekly: San
Francisco Chronicle pop
music critic Joel Selvin is
the last of the great rock
& roll newspapermen.
....
• KGO
Newstalk Radio: Joel
Selvin joined Ronn Owens to
take your calls and talk
about his new book,
Smartass: and his
co-authorship of Sammy
Hagar's new book Red: My
Uncensored Life in Rock.....
• The
California Report: Since
the early 1970s, Joel Selvin
has been reviewing concerts
and writing about rock 'n
roll...
• Sacramento
Bee: Veteran
rock 'n' roll writer Selvin
looks back -Carla Meyer
• KQED
Radio: Selvin
joins Forum with Michael
Krasny to talk about
California musicians and
Smartass
• NPR:
"A 'Smart
Ass' Take On San Francisco
Sound" -Felix Contraras
• Crawdaddy:
"David
MacFadden-Elliot reviews
Smart Ass"
• Michael
Heaton, Cleveland Plain
Dealer: "With
Merle Haggard, all things
are possible"
• S.F.
Chronicle: "Joel
Selvin On Dennis Wilson,
Puck of the Beach Boys"
• Santa
Cruz Sentinel: "Music
journalist Joel Selvin looks
back on a career chronicling
California's contribution to
rock history"
• The
Daily Californian, Culture
Shot: "Selvin
at Moe's"
|
BOOKS
|
• SMART
ASS:
The Music Journalism of
Joel Selvin
• ED
HARDY:
Wear Your Dreams: My Life
in Tattoos
By
ED HARDY with Joel
Selvin
• HERE
COMES THE NIGHT:
The Dark Soul of Bert
Berns and the Dirty
Business of Rhythm and
Blues
PEPPERMINT
TWIST:
The Mob, the Music and the
Most Famous Dance Club of
the 60s
By Joel
Selvin with John Johnson
Jr.
• THE
HAIGHT:
Love, Rock, and Revolution
By
Joel Selvin with
photographer
JIM MARSALL
• SING
TO ME:
My Story of Making Music,
Finding Magic, and
Searching for Who's Next
By
L.A. REID with Joel
Selvin
•
ALTAMONT:
The Rolling Stones, the
Hells Angels, and the Inside
Story of Rock's Darkest Day
•
FARE THEE WELL:
The Final Chapter of the
Grateful Dead's Long,
Strange Trip
•
RUST IN PEACE:
The Inside Story of the
Megadeth Masterpiece
By DAVE
MUSTAINE with Joel
Selvin
• HOLLYWOOD
EDEN:
Electric Guitars, Fast
Cars, and the Myth of the
California Paradise
• RED:
My
Uncensored Life in Rock
By
SAMMY HAGAR with Joel
Selvin
• RICKY
NELSON:
Idol for a Generation
MONTEREY
POP
By
Joel Selvin with
photographer
JIM MARSALL
• SUMMER
OF LOVE: The True
Story of LSD, Rock &
Roll, Free Love and High
Times in the Wild West
• MID-LIFE
CONFIDENTIAL: The Rock
Bottom Remainders Tour
America With Three Chords
and an Attitude
• SAN
FRANCISCO: The Musical
History Tour
• PHOTOPASS:
The Rock and Roll
Photography of Randy Bachman
• SLY AND
THE FAMILY STONE: The
Oral History
• THE
TREASURES OF THE HARD ROCK:
The Official Guide To the
Hard Rock Café Memorabilia
Collection
...
Books Page
|
|