Joe Boyd – författare

A memoir from a man present at the birth of modern rock and the author of And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, praised by Robert Plant, Brian Eno and more'From Dylan to Pink Floyd, Boyd was there and can remember it all' Daily ExpressWhen Muddy Waters came to London in the early '60s, Joe Boyd was his tour manager. When Dylan went electric at the Newport Festival, Joe Boyd was plugging in his guitar. When it was the summer of love, Joe Boyd was running the coolest club in London, the UFO. When a bunch of club regulars called Pink Floyd recorded their first single, Joe Boyd was the producer. When a young songwriter named Nick Drake wanted to give his demo tape to someone, he chose Joe Boyd.More than any previous '60s music autobiography, Joe Boyd's White Bicycles offers the real story of what it was like to be there at the time. As well as the '60s heavy-hitters, this book also offers wonderfully vivid portraits of a whole host of other musicians. His greatest coup is bringing to life the famously elusive figure of Nick Drake - the first time he's been written about by anyone who knew him well.'Profound ... and beyond' Robert Plant

A Financial Times, Irish Times, Mojo and Uncut Book of the Year.Winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Book Award.'I doubt I'll ever read a better account of the history and sociology of popular music than this one.' Brian Eno'Joe Boyd is a fantastic author on music. And the Roots of Rhythm Remain is an incredibly impressive and extraordinary book.' Jools Holland'Boyd's book is the Proust of music history - à la recherche of much music lost, here regained and affirmed in our present.' ObserverLegendary producer and record label boss Joe Boyd has spent a lifetime travelling the globe and immersing himself in music. He has witnessed first-hand the growing popularity of music from Africa, India, Latin America, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe since the 1960s and was one of the protagonists of the 'world music' movement of the 1980s.In this sweeping history, Boyd sets out to explore the fascinating backstories to these sounds and documents a decade of encounters with the most extraordinary musicians and producers who have altered the course of music for us all.And the Roots of Rhythm Remain shows how personalities, events and politics in places such as Havana, Lagos, Budapest, Kingston and Rio are as colourful and momentous as anything that took place in New Orleans, Harlem, Laurel Canyon or Liverpool. And, moreover, how jazz, rhythm and blues and rock 'n' roll would never have happened if it weren't for the notes and rhythms emanating from over the horizon.

A memoir from a man present at the birth of modern rock and the author of And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, praised by Robert Plant, Brian Eno and more''From Dylan to Pink Floyd, Boyd was there and can remember it all'' Daily ExpressWhen Muddy Waters came to London in the early ''60s, Joe Boyd was his tour manager. When Dylan went electric at the Newport Festival, Joe Boyd was plugging in his guitar. When it was the summer of love, Joe Boyd was running the coolest club in London, the UFO. When a bunch of club regulars called Pink Floyd recorded their first single, Joe Boyd was the producer. When a young songwriter named Nick Drake wanted to give his demo tape to someone, he chose Joe Boyd.More than any previous ''60s music autobiography, Joe Boyd''s White Bicycles offers the real story of what it was like to be there at the time. As well as the ''60s heavy-hitters, this book also offers wonderfully vivid portraits of a whole host of other musicians. His greatest coup is bringing to life the famously elusive figure of Nick Drake - the first time he''s been written about by anyone who knew him well.''Profound ... and beyond'' Robert Plant

From the legendary producer of Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, REM, and Taj Mahal and author of White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s comes a riveting, world-spanning tour of the artists, histories, controversies, and collaborations that shaped global music. 

When Paul Simon first heard the Zulu accordion flourish that would open his multi-platinum album Graceland, he told Joe Boyd that it seemed to proclaim, “You haven’t heard this before!” Yet the “world music” boom of the 1980s that Simon’s album helped to usher in had roots that extended back through the decades and across continents: tango on the eve of World War I, Latin dance across the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, reggae in the ’70s, pre-War samba and pre-Beatles bossa nova, Eastern European ensembles filling capitalist concert halls during the Cold War, Indian ragas changing rock and roll in the 1960s, gypsy music inspiring classical composers of the 19th and 20th centuries.  As far back as 1853, the music that had intrigued Simon had captivated London during a Zulu choir’s extended run there. (Only Charles Dickens dissented.) Like that of other far-flung musical traditions sweeping the globe, the story of Zulu music and its relationship to neighbors, invaders, appropriators, and admirers—from brutal 19th century massacres to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”—is more controversial, colorful, and complex than many imagine. 

Joe Boyd was part of a small group of label heads and journalists who chose “world music” as their marketing slogan in the 1980s. Already the legendary producer of artists including Pink Floyd, The Incredible String Band, Soft Machine, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, Toots and the Maytals, and many others, Boyd had little idea how fast and how wide those simple words would spread, or how far back the history went. He would soon learn, producing pathbreaking music in Cuba, Brazil, Bulgaria, Mali, Hungary, Spain, and India under his label Hannibal Records. 

Following the success of his book White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s, a self-published smash hit, Boyd now sets out to explore the stories behind the world music he had helped to popularize. He has traveled across continents and interviewed dozens of musicians, producers, and academics, and spent years reading, listening, and writing. The one-of-a-kind result is And the Roots of Rhythm Remain: a riveting, symphonic, globetrotting tour of the music that shapes our world.