Steve Waksman is the 1998 winner of the Ralph Henry Gabriel Dissertation Prize awarded by the American Studies Association. He is Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at Bowling Green University, and is on the editorial board of Popular Music and Society.
Instruments' natural-language passages are knowledgeable and
sympathetic. Waksman's profiles of musicians Charlie Christian and
Les Paul--each chapter centers on one guitar icon--provide useful
overviews of their careers and an aficionado's suggestions for
listening.
*Business Week*
Until recently, the history of the electric guitar, the most
influential of the 20th century, had never been fully chronicled.
Now, Instruments of Desire traces it through its 70 years of
development, examining its pan-genre musical influence, its role in
race and gender politics, and the unprecedented power that rewarded
those who mastered it.
*National and Financial Post*
[Waksman] plays to both ax-heads and bookworms so that prickly
issues of race, sexuality...and technical authorship are also
addressed in this perceptive and overdue narrative of a singularly
American machine.
*Kirkus Review*
As a survey of the development of the electric guitar and its
impact on society, the book is invaluable--and frequently
fascinating. Instrument designers such as Leo Fender and Paul
Bigsby are given their due, but the focus is on the musicians
themselves. Among those discussed in detail--and with a keen
musical ear--are Charlie Christian, Chet Aktins, Muddy Waters,
Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Wayne Kramer (of the proto-punk MC5),
and Jimmy Page.
*Berkeley Express*
Waksman presents a scholarly treatise on the history and
development of the electric guitar and how its use shaped the
course of popular music...Well written, and with extensive
footnotes...this is an excellent analysis of the growth and impact
of the electric guitar on popular music and culture.
*Library Journal*
Waksman's critical look at the electronically enhanced plectral
lute and meticulous tracing of its influence is a darn fine
book...Although it tells blues and rock musicians' stories, this
isn't a book about musicians or, really, music. It is an
exploration of the 'racialized nature of rock's favorite mode of
Phallocentric display... the electric guitar.' Waksman makes much
of the sexuality conveyed by the instrument and keeps the issue of
race close to the surface of the discussion. Far more theoretical
and involved than most other books about guitars, Waksman's is a
delineation of the implications of one of our era's endemic icons,
the boy with his guitar. Persuasive, responsible, and wide-ranging,
this is the thinking headbanger's guide to the evolution of the
mighty axe.
*Booklist*
As a musician Steve Waksman can get deep enough inside the guitar
to explain its workings with a precision uncommon in musicologists
and unknown in social scientists. As a historian he has the taste
and guts to meld sources humble and hifalutin into a coherent
narrative that is neither. Thus he comes closer to revealing the
secrets of the definitive 20th-century instrument than anybody else
who's been foolhardy enough to try.
*Robert Christgau*
Instruments of Desire is a powerful book. The way in which Waksman
moves with real authority from style to style as he considers each
guitarist is almost a virtuosic accomplishment in itself.
*John Covach, editor of Understanding Rock*
This is a new kind of--polyphonic and polyrhythmic--history of
popular music. It seamlessly weaves together everything from theory
to biography, from economics to technology, from race and gender to
aesthetics. Anyone interested in popular music will enjoy reading
this book, and everyone will leave it wiser than when they came to
it.
*Lawrence Grossberg, author of Dancing in Spite of
Myself*
These instruments of desire are the tools of our trade, the means
of production and while the muddled, middle-aged prophets of year
zero predict their demise, Steve Waksman lays out a history that's
essential reading for all foot soldiers in the music biz wars.
*Jon Langford, The Mekons*
Instruments of Desire is an extremely useful addition to the
dog-eared debate on the theme: 'guitar as pinnacle of ecstatic
sonic excess versus guitar as phallic appendage for big-haired
white boy dorks'. Due largely to Waksman's ongoing engagement with
rock's under-the-counter culture (he's more likely to quote Bangs
than Benjamin), this is a highly readable account of the rise and
subsequent fetishisation of six electric strings.
*The Wire*
If you're fascinated by how the electric guitar became what it is,
and by what it's told us at each stage in its development, then
Waksman is as cool, erudite, provocative and non-geeky a guide as
you could possibly desire.
*Mojo*
Few of the histories of American popular music address the manner
in which technology embodies a range of concepts and propositions.
Steve Waksman's Instruments of Desire corrects this lapse
He
employs a wide range of theoretical formulations in his work and is
particularly successful in his attention to a variety of public
media in which musicians were featured
Instruments of Desire is
one of the most groundbreaking studies of popular music in recent
memory and will be of interest to all readers, whether they are
prone to playing power chords or merely addicted to the more common
practice of air guitar.
*The Journal of American History*
An American studies scholar, Waksman offers intriguing information
and ideas
Instruments of Desire provides a cultural context for the
electric guitar in a thought-provoking manner.
*Technology and Culture*
Steve Waksman's book is a selective history of the electric guitar
since the thirties, focusing on eight key performers or groups who
especially illustrate the instrument's cultural
significance
Waksman's narrow but brilliant study will inspire more
investigation of the impact of the richly stimulating "axe" that
still carves paths through planet Earth's musical forest.
*Notes*
Instruments' natural-language passages are knowledgeable and
sympathetic. Waksman's profiles of musicians Charlie Christian and
Les Paul--each chapter centers on one guitar icon--provide useful
overviews of their careers and an aficionado's suggestions for
listening. -- Jim Taibi * Business Week *
Until recently, the history of the electric guitar, the most
influential of the 20th century, had never been fully chronicled.
Now, Instruments of Desire traces it through its 70 years of
development, examining its pan-genre musical influence, its role in
race and gender politics, and the unprecedented power that rewarded
those who mastered it. -- Patchen Barss * National and Financial
Post *
[Waksman] plays to both ax-heads and bookworms so that prickly
issues of race, sexuality...and technical authorship are also
addressed in this perceptive and overdue narrative of a singularly
American machine. * Kirkus Review *
As a survey of the development of the electric guitar and its
impact on society, the book is invaluable--and frequently
fascinating. Instrument designers such as Leo Fender and Paul
Bigsby are given their due, but the focus is on the musicians
themselves. Among those discussed in detail--and with a keen
musical ear--are Charlie Christian, Chet Aktins, Muddy Waters,
Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Wayne Kramer (of the proto-punk MC5),
and Jimmy Page. -- Lee Hildebrand * Berkeley Express *
Waksman presents a scholarly treatise on the history and
development of the electric guitar and how its use shaped the
course of popular music...Well written, and with extensive
footnotes...this is an excellent analysis of the growth and impact
of the electric guitar on popular music and culture. -- Eric C.
Shoaf * Library Journal *
Waksman's critical look at the electronically enhanced plectral
lute and meticulous tracing of its influence is a darn fine
book...Although it tells blues and rock musicians' stories, this
isn't a book about musicians or, really, music. It is an
exploration of the 'racialized nature of rock's favorite mode of
Phallocentric display... the electric guitar.' Waksman makes much
of the sexuality conveyed by the instrument and keeps the issue of
race close to the surface of the discussion. Far more theoretical
and involved than most other books about guitars, Waksman's is a
delineation of the implications of one of our era's endemic icons,
the boy with his guitar. Persuasive, responsible, and wide-ranging,
this is the thinking headbanger's guide to the evolution of the
mighty axe. -- Mike Tribby * Booklist *
As a musician Steve Waksman can get deep enough inside the guitar
to explain its workings with a precision uncommon in musicologists
and unknown in social scientists. As a historian he has the taste
and guts to meld sources humble and hifalutin into a coherent
narrative that is neither. Thus he comes closer to revealing the
secrets of the definitive 20th-century instrument than anybody else
who's been foolhardy enough to try. -- Robert Christgau
Instruments of Desire is a powerful book. The way in which
Waksman moves with real authority from style to style as he
considers each guitarist is almost a virtuosic accomplishment in
itself. -- John Covach, editor of Understanding Rock
This is a new kind of--polyphonic and polyrhythmic--history of
popular music. It seamlessly weaves together everything from theory
to biography, from economics to technology, from race and gender to
aesthetics. Anyone interested in popular music will enjoy reading
this book, and everyone will leave it wiser than when they came to
it. -- Lawrence Grossberg, author of Dancing in Spite of
Myself
These instruments of desire are the tools of our trade, the means
of production and while the muddled, middle-aged prophets of year
zero predict their demise, Steve Waksman lays out a history that's
essential reading for all foot soldiers in the music biz wars. --
Jon Langford, The Mekons
Instruments of Desire is an extremely useful addition to the
dog-eared debate on the theme: 'guitar as pinnacle of ecstatic
sonic excess versus guitar as phallic appendage for big-haired
white boy dorks'. Due largely to Waksman's ongoing engagement with
rock's under-the-counter culture (he's more likely to quote Bangs
than Benjamin), this is a highly readable account of the rise and
subsequent fetishisation of six electric strings. -- David Keenan *
The Wire *
If you're fascinated by how the electric guitar became what it is,
and by what it's told us at each stage in its development, then
Waksman is as cool, erudite, provocative and non-geeky a guide as
you could possibly desire. -- Charles Shaar Murray * Mojo *
Few of the histories of American popular music address the manner
in which technology embodies a range of concepts and propositions.
Steve Waksman's Instruments of Desire corrects this lapse He
employs a wide range of theoretical formulations in his work and is
particularly successful in his attention to a variety of public
media in which musicians were featured Instruments of Desire
is one of the most groundbreaking studies of popular music in
recent memory and will be of interest to all readers, whether they
are prone to playing power chords or merely addicted to the more
common practice of air guitar. -- David Sanjek * The Journal of
American History *
An American studies scholar, Waksman offers intriguing information
and ideas Instruments of Desire provides a cultural context
for the electric guitar in a thought-provoking manner. -- Rebecca
McSwain * Technology and Culture *
Steve Waksman's book is a selective history of the electric guitar
since the thirties, focusing on eight key performers or groups who
especially illustrate the instrument's cultural significance
Waksman's narrow but brilliant study will inspire more
investigation of the impact of the richly stimulating "axe" that
still carves paths through planet Earth's musical forest. -- Burton
W. Peretti * Notes *
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