Reviewed by John Cheek

Back in the day, when forming the controversial mod band Secret Affair, singer Ian Page placed a classified advert in the music press, in a musicians-wanted style. Looking to recruit a drummer and bassist, the brief description of both concluded with the line, "must have a grudge against the music business". This book reports plenty of real-life feuds, intrigues and down-right scams which have characterised the history of the modern music industry. The writer Steve Turner once published an account of popular music from the angle of the best examples being a search-for-redemption, and this title now gives the history of the subject from another original view, that of the "record man" - producers, managers and record-label bosses. It argues that the current concerns about the state of the industry in the west, particularly over recorded product, have their echoes in previous eras, where the business seemed threatened by other developments but still pulled through, usually the same factors proving to be the ways the industry came back. In the 1920s, record sales plummeted because of the advent of radio. Why buy something when you can hear it for free? However, the next decade or so saw sales rise sharply as listeners wanted to possess physical copies of songs which they could no longer hear on the air-waves. Likewise, Murphy is not unduly concerned about the effect of downloads and so on. Instead, he gives a frank account of the technological birth of recorded sound and, indeed, acknowledges the presence of a religious influence present from the start and later, at the dawn of rock 'n' roll, especially in the chapter covering Sam Phillips and Sun Records. It was, of course, at that renowned Memphis label that the Christian beliefs of Elvis, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis became the trajectory first taken by pop and rock and that key period is accurately and succinctly described here. Murphy subtly implies a spiritual, other-worldly root to all this magical music; he refers to the Judeo-Christian tradition and many of the chapter headings evoke the Bible: Exodus, Psalms, Acts, Revelations and so on. The author reveals the seedy side of much of the post-war industry, but amongst the betrayals, rip-offs and drugs binges there are two gems of Christian witness. The arrival of U2 on the scene saw record label staff joking "that U2 was the only band in the world whose manager partied like a rocker while the saintly boys went back to bed early, at the hotel." Equally countercultural is the account of a newly-converted Bob Dylan at the Grammy Awards, in turn both eliciting shock and smirks from the faces of bow-tied record executives when performing "It may be the devil or it may be the Lord/But you're gonna have to serve somebody." A treat for any anorak, Cowboys And Indies will bore the general public but reveals that the businessmen have had as much to do with everything we have ever loved as those who have actually made the music.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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