Today’s Book: Mystery Train

Greil Marcus wrote Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, one of the earliest books of rock and roll criticism as literature, back in 1973-74 but it still holds up well. Probably that’s due not only to his writing talent, which is important, but also because none of the artists he covers have done significant work since then. Marcus writes about, in order, Harmonica Frank, Robert Johnson, The Band, Sly Stone, Randy Newman, and Elvis Presley. True, Newman has had some chart success in the last 25 years and The Band’s Robbie Robertson has done interesting solo work but nothing that matches the importance of the early recordings covered in this book.

Although Marcus does spend a reasonable portion of his pages on the actual music and a good few on biographical material, the meat focuses on these musicians and how their work reflects on and motivates American culture. His focus is on the tension between ambition and ease, the two conflicting aspects of the American Dream. I think I understand the choices he made in his artist selections (The Band over Dylan, Sly Stone over Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye, Newman over Brian Wilson), given the focus he was looking for, and the book is insightful and interesting.

Marcus is clearly an important writer: he has his own fan websites. Not to mention a platoon of imitators such as Dave Marsh (much as I like his two Springsteen books). Speaking of Springsteen, reading this it occured to me that The Boss must have read this book when it came out; I swear I can hear resonances of it on Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town.