Jersey Bookshelf
Books by and about Jersey musicians
‘To Newark with Love: A City, A Family, A Life’ by Helen Lippman
With a lump in my throat reading about the town I too grew up in and loved, Lippman is the first author since the revered Philip Roth to make that town truly come alive again. There’s even a compendium of modern-day attractions that the newly gentrified Newark has to offer.
‘Jersey Metal: A History of the Garden State’s Heavy Metal Scene’ by Frank White and Alan Tecchio
This monster of a book should keep metalheads of any state highly engrossed and entertained for hours on end. Between longtime photog White’s illuminating shots and the prose of both authors, its 344 full-color 8-by-11-inch oversized pages, on good glossy-sturdy paper, makes for a welcome addition to any coffee table.
‘The Price You Pay’ by Jim Fusilli
Jersey City. Mid-1970s. It’s a rough’n’tumble town where Teamsters stick together, the mob’s tentacles reach out and the cops have to know which side of the bread that the butter’s on. To that end, protagonist Mickey Wright’s father is an old-school cop, steeped in nefarious doings with drug dealers, fellow rogue cops and crooked politicians. When he gets his son a job with the Teamsters, Mickey soon realizes that his silence on certain matters is a foregone conclusion. That’s the heart of this tough-guy page-turner of a tale.
‘Baseball, Nazis & Nedick’s Hot Dogs: Growing Up Jewish in the 1930s in Newark’ by Jerry Izenberg
Rutgers grad Jerry Izenberg’s loving memoir of his home town of Newark fills in a lot of the holes for us Jersey Boys who grew up reading his sports reporting in the Newark Star-Ledger. Born down the shore in Neptune City 93 years ago, he’s still going strong writing words that leap off the page, and, boy, does this memoir ring true.
‘A Song For You: My Life With Whitney Houston’ by Robyn Crawford
Prior to 1985, when Whitney Houston busted out of Newark in her meteoric rise to the top of the charts, she palled around with Robyn Crawford, her best friend. In 2022, a feature film biography, ‘Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody,’ was well-received. It was based partially on Crawford’s very personal memoir recounting her life before Bobby Brown muddied the waters.
‘Ivy Hill’ by Arthur Ruben with Eleanor Cooney
Ivy Hill is in the Vailsberg section of Newark. Taken from true events like the 1967 race riots, Eddie is traumatized by the death of his dad, and alienated from the asshole his mom decides to marry. Music is his salvation and he forms a band, The Camaros…
Joel Selvin’s Blockbuster Jim Gordon Biography, ‘Drums & Demons,’ Set For February
He might have been the greatest rock drummer of them all. But now his name is hushed over, hardly mentioned, a mere footnote to rock history, and the book on his tumultuous life and horror ending had never been written. Leave it to Joel Selvin—who wrote the definitive Altamont book—to tackle this subject.
West Long Branch Author Writes The Book Beatle Fans Have Been Waiting For
Leave it to Kenneth Womack, 57, of West Long Branch, to write ‘Living The Beatles Legend: The Untold Story Of Mal Evans’ (Dey Street Books), a project that has had Beatle fans buzzing for years.
Linking Bruce & Billy: ‘Bridge and Tunnel Boys’ by Jim Cullen
‘Bridge & Tunnel Boys’ (Rutgers University Press), by Jim Cullen, subtitled ‘Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and the Metropolitan Sound of the American Century,’ is a $28.50 262-page book detailing the similarities of two artists who grew up similarly influenced on those who came before them.
Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska,’ by Warren Zanes
“After decades in the world, Nebraska is one of those recorded works recognized for its simplicity but also for its density, its many-layeredness. It’s a record you come back to, a record with more than its share of mystery, a record that keeps mattering and keeps throwing off new meanings”—Author Warren Zanes