Turn it up,I can't hear the words by Bob Sarlin

There is a second-hand english exchange bookshop in Amsterdam (along Kloveniersburgwaal as you walk from Hotel Europe towards Nieuwmarkt ) called "The Book Exchange" and i knew & loved this place for many years. It's not a ordinary,boring bookshop since it depends on unexpected arrivals of the books, so although titles are lined up and catalogued by genre, you will probably not find what you were looking for - but at least several other titles. I enjoy "The Book Exchange" far more than any other bookstore in Amsterdam and always make a pilgrimage there, my visit to town simply can't happen without checking out what's going there. I have this fantasy that one day I will come with a hand-luggage sized bag and just buy books here until bag is full. 

The latest discovery was a 1973. paperback print of "Turn it up,I can't hear the words" by Bob Sarlin: it is a collection of serious essays about than-current rock music and artists who worked as singer-songwriters back than. 

It is important to understand this was originally written and published in early 1970s: author is really passionate about the subject and obviously very inspired. This is not just pop music that blasts trough the radio or any nameless background,but music as poetry that works on many different levels and brings people together. Sarlin discusses how rock music changed from its start in 1950s when it hardly meant anything other than dance and entertainment (surprisingly uninterested look at Chuck Berry and others) via 1960s when singer-songwritter trend brought eruption of talented but introverted artists, to 1970s when corporate industry slowly took over and started to push artists into boxes. I can't express how much pleasure this little old paperback book has given me and it did occupy me for some time completely - its delightful to meet author who writes about music with passion, focusing on meaning and art and not on gossip like so many today's writers who would not miss to analyze private lives. Sarlin covers artists like Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro and Randy Newman - all of them in a first bloom of their success - discussing their albums, work, poetry and how they affect the listeners. It was the time when people actually listened vinyl LPs from start to finish, memorized the lyrics and followed someone's work with or without hits on charts. Nostalgic perhaps - from today's perspective - but its not only about the artists as much as about almost sacred experience of enjoying music as art.  What I see everywhere around me today is music as noise and background but hardly anyone bothers with lyrics and it seems that singer-songwriter genre is now completely obsolete. Kids are buying not albums but songs on iTunes - this makes the whole idea of album pointless - apparently what sounds catchy would sell and that in itself is the beginning and end of the whole contact with music for lots of today's listeners who have extremely short attention span.