Anatomy of a Song

The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop

By: Marc Myers

Narrated by: Jonathan Yen

Part artist confessional, part musical analysis, Anatomy of a Song ranges from the Isley Brothers' "Shout" to Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" to R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion".

After being discharged from the army in 1968, John Fogerty does a handstand and revises Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to come up with "Proud Mary". Joni Mitchell remembers living in a cave on Crete with the "mean old daddy" who inspired her 1971 hit "Carey". Elvis Costello talks about writing "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" in 10 minutes on the train to Liverpool. Mick Jagger, Jimmy Cliff, Roger Waters, Jimmy Page, Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt, and many other leading artists reveal for the first time the emotions, inspirations, and techniques behind their influential works. Covering the history of rock, R&B, country, disco, soul, reggae, and pop, Anatomy of a Song is a love letter to the songs that have defined generations of listeners.

©2016 Marc Myers (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Fabulous insights to powerful songs!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would have given it five stars had the actual song followed each chapter.

Worth the Wait

Marc Myers presents 45 seminal songs that he has identified as having been influential in the course of rock, soul, and pop music in the latter half of the 20th century. Based on his Wall Street Journal column, he presents each cut in the form of oral history, interviewing artists, songwriters, producers, and other figures involved in the creation of each recording.

I resisted listening to this book for quite a while. A look at the list of the 45 songs that are dissected by Myers had me worried -- too many titles that I was either lukewarm about to begin with (Big City, Stand By Your Man) or tired of after hearing them too many times (Proud Mary, Maggie May), or even in some cases that I never even heard of (Lawdy Miss Clawdy, Fist City). I was worried too about how the songs I really love would be treated.

Yeah, I'm an idiot. This book is wonderful. It was worth the wait. Even the songs I'm not all that interested in had very interesting stories. It's amazing how many big hits were that last song added to an album because they needed one more, or came as a stroke of inspiration in the middle of the night, or were brought out of moth balls of earlier incarnations.

The most amazing story to me was Janis Joplin's Mercedes Benz. It was the last song she recorded, created in a bar in Port Chester NY, performed spontaneously on stage, and sung in the studio while killing time when the tape machine broke -- but luckily captured by a back-up tape, just three days before her tragic death.

This is great stuff, all placed within context, with golden nuggets of back story on the writing and recording process, utterly fascinating for fans of the popular music of the 50s through 90s -- and fascinating even if you don't necessarily agree with Myers. I also just read an advance print edition of Myers' follow-up, Anatomy of 55 More Songs, and it's even better -- better selection of songs (IMO).

PS Listen to the songs while you're reading the book, even if you think you already know them well...

Too Many Genre

I was fascinated with the stories of the 60s but lost interest when it went into the music of the 90s.

Interesting look at artists' process

the stories of the songs we're very interesting. Many assumptions about the lyrics, the stories behind the songs, the tall tales that make the rounds, are simply not true. It was a fascinating look at the artists' process.

The narration was okay, but left a little to be desired. I wanted a little less Casey Kasem and a little more rock fan enthusiasm. But maybe that's just me.

Just No.

Ugh, this was painful to get through. The anecdotes were weak-sauce and the narrator was god-awful... reminded me of a low-rent Casey Kasem. Not insightful and grating all the while. Would have been less painful to check the Wikipedia pages for each of the songs. Also I disagree on the songs selected... That Elvis Costello song was terrible and same with the Stevie Wonder and many others. Disproprotionate amount of time spent on songs by artists the author interviewed in person (which you would think would be time well spent but this book is just not good...the anecdotes for even these songs were bad). Droll and surfacey. It's too bad... couldn't find many other titles like this one. Wish it had been better.

no no no

really not very good at all just boring and uninteresting. I think my time would have been better spent reading a good book.

Why Listen when you can read?

What would have made Anatomy of a Song better?

I was disappointed because I had read many of the columns in the WSJ and found it a challenge to listen to a narrator say: Introducing Quicy Jones and then reading in the safe voice as before. With audio, why couldn't we have the audio of the creators --- also, it would have been great to have a companion audio tracks so that you could hear the song. The chapters all run into each other -- maybe a few bars to introduce the chapter would make it more lively.

What didn’t you like about Jonathan Yen’s performance?

Not a great reader -- and his task was to represent many different people - hard to do.

Any additional comments?

It is really repackaging the WSJ articles - some I missed and the stories are great -- that is why I liked the columns so much --

Very sterile view of a naturally exciting topic

The narrators delivery was dull and tepid. The authors method of presenting the actual conversations was uninspired and lacking effort. This book could have been great considering the subject. I liked a few of the selections of artists but I couldn’t feel any creativity from the descriptions of their music production process. I bought this in the airport in an attempt to get away from the science, political and historical books I usually read and I’m sadly disappointed .