Download Last Night a DJ Saved My Life Frank Broughton 9780755313983 Books

Product details Paperback 608 pages Publisher Headline; Rev Ed edition (2006) Language English ISBN-10 0755313984

Last Night a DJ Saved My Life Frank Broughton 9780755313983 Books Reviews

• Except for the latent sexism throughout the whole thing, this book is a well of knowledge, professionally compiled and WELL written. With sexism I mean the authors seemingly adore the macho antics of DJ circles and try to make jokes about them which I guess is meant to make the text more readable/enjoyable. If the authors made more fun of themselves then perhaps it would be ok, but like this it distracts me from the otherwise pretty good & reliable DJ history.
• Being a DJ myself since the mid-80's, it was an immense pleasure to remember a lot from scene that I lived my youth in, partied and played and followed since then. But it was even better to LEARN a HUGE lot about the history and development of this art before I fell in love with dance music and DJing.
  
  The book shows an enormous amount of research and data, names, tracks, labels, clubs and everything. And it's cleverly written, in such a way you feel like following a novel. It goes well into advancing through the time, showing all the different, multiple and sometimes parallel scenes that took place in sometimes far away places, connecting the dots and highlighting influences, as they happened in fact.
  
  Today, with internet and iTunes and online music stores one can read the book and go search for the artists, DJs and the music playlisted in the book while reading it, making up for an amazing "timeline" soundtrack that encompasses a great part of modern life. I did exactly that of course, and had such a good time discovering new stuff as well as "crate digging" my collection of records, most listed on the book, But even if you don't I certainly recomend you look around and hear every track as you read the book, it's a lesson and I'm sure you'll have lots of fun while learning a lot too.
  
  DJing is no longer a "career" for me, though I still play clubs, gigs and radio shows frequently. I guess you love music and that's it, you can't leave it or get left by it if you really love playing. This book shows why, the people who love finding new music, people who are daring, creative, passionate about discovering new sounds and showing to people to make them dance, that's such an amazing craft.
  
  Though the book sometimes lack depth about specifics (I'd like to have read more about some important tunes, artists, scenes or clubs), that's more on a personal note than a "fail" as it would have been impossible to tell everything about everything. DJing and all that it means is such a broad, wide and deep scene that it would take many books (they exist, even from the authors) but this one is very special and reaches a high standard in all aspects. It's mandatory for music lovers, society researchers, marketeers and of course, DJs. Just read it!
• A must read for all aspiring and current DJ's alike. This well reasearched book covers it all from the beginning of single-turntable jocks to US and European Big Band spinners; it treks thru the Motown/Stax DJs, with a quick nod to the Jamacian "Sound System" approach before taking you thru Northern Soul and the NY Gay Disco trend-setting dual-turntable "mixing" innovators. With many "choice" classic cuts pointed out along the way, there's a myriad of names you will undoubtedly recognize from their many remixes in the dance/house/diva-pop genre. On a personal note it was thrilling to see both Robbie Leslise (Studio 54, The Saint) and Shep Pettibone (Mastermix remix/Productions too many to list, and co-author of Vogue & many other Madonna hits,) mentioned in the book. Not only do I have the utmost honor of being a resident DJ in Shep's amazing "Paradise" niteclub, but I also just had the privilege to spin alongside Robbie on a recent RSVP Caribbean Cruise. Living Legends both, and sweetheart gents to boot! (by dj Mick Hale, 2013)
• In the last 20 years since my aha moment, I have read a lot on the history of dance music. This is probably the single most comprehensive book on that. The writers have been at the forefront of resurrecting and propagating the best of that history in several veins through this book and their other projects. Given that breadth and depth it can be a slow read at times and gets bogged down by too much editorializing. The sections about disco and post disco NYC and middle period British DJ culture seem the most inspired to me. Those are well chronicled elsewhere and so the gems for me were the more obscure stories in these sections and more so the view into their parallel offspring in other parts of.the world.
• I'm glad my friend recommended this book to me. I was floored at the red thread that ran through my musical tastes not like a string, but like the mighty Mississippi River. From rock & roll allnighters, the mod scene of northern soul (myself an avid scooterist), the beautiful disaster of disco giving rise to early house music, and of course the hiphop scene of the almighty grandmasters of the Bronx DJ culture, I lived some of it, and I am part of it now myself as I bring all that music together at parties and basements today. It is the most awakening musical journey.