Pick up the pieces Excursions in Seventies music

A decade is just a way to hold back the rush of time, Corbett writes in his introduction to this thoroughly enjoyable and gorgeously written joy ride down his version of 1970s memory lane. He does, however, look back to the music of that time as an adult, specifically a Chicago gallerist, jazz and film expert, teacher, and writer, discovering, along the way, songs that he missed or failed to grasp the first time around. He pegs the start of the 1970s to the demise of the Beatles and its conclusion to the birth of rap. Pick Up the Pieces also a hit by the Average White Band, a Scottish white funk group is as much a self-portrait as a work of music history. As he notes, you carry songs around with you forever. While discussing Joni Mitchell's Blue, he asks, What makes a perfect record perfect? With his reflections on the Kinks' Lola and Patti Smith's Horses, Elvis Costello's This Year's Model and the Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight, music lovers are sure to enjoy Corbett's delightful book about a fascinating, often-misunderstood time of musical innovation.--June Sawyers Copyright 2019 Booklist

This work by Corbett (Vinyl Freak) starts slowly, and, as with the music he reviews, readers initially won't be sure what exactly he's got here. Memoir, musicological history, song reviews, social analysis? Actually, it's all of these things and more, and just as a rich gumbo benefits from the perfect combination of diverse ingredients, so does Corbett's analysis and so do the 1970s songs and performances he examines. The author places all of this firmly in the context of his own experience, and there's a little more autobiography than might be strictly necessary, but he deftly balances youthful discovery and development with several decades of hindsight. Occasionally, he indulges in speculation and fan theory but effectively walks the line between fact and opinion, and it's a tribute to his ability that one is always willing to hear him out. VERDICT Corbett is in the upper echelon of music criticism, and anyone who lived through this period-or cares to discover some of the best music of the decade-will find much to enjoy here.-Bill Baars, -formerly of Lake Oswego P.L., OR © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.