Now it’s been a good while since I wrote another book review.
On my blogsite, Music from the Other Side of the Room that has been going on
for 11 years. I’ve done two book reviews which might be true or not. The first one
I did was back in 2011 of Mark Powell’s Prophets
& Sages: An Illustrated guide to Underground and Progressive Rock
1967-1975. And Anil Prasad’s book, Innerviews:
Music Without Borders. So it’s time to do another book review. And this one
is a real special treat for you.
Cedric Hendrix is a name you may or may not recognize. But
for all of us, music has always been a part of the soundtrack of our lives.
Cedric has always provided the music in his life also. For nearly four decades,
Cedric is more than just a geek, but he’s always searching for real good music
that will be his next cup of coffee.
And his new book released last year entitled, I Can’t Be the Only One Hearing This: A
Lifetime of Music Through Eclectic Ears, he takes us on a journey that
makes us want to go through our CD/Record collection that has been with us for
the rest of our lives. Published by Global Publishing Group, the book travels
through 449 pages of the bands/artists he grew up on.
From the realms of XTC, King Crimson, Genesis, Miles Davis,
Frank Zappa, and Joni Mitchell, Cedric takes the reader through a trip down
memory lane. Born in Arkansas and settling in St. Louis, Hendrix grew up with
his parents collection of listening to the soul/R&B sounds of Motown, Stax,
and the Philly sound they would listen to the radio and then buy the song from
the stores after liking what they heard.
When he was five years old, after getting his first record
player and listening to the stories of Jack
and the Beanstalk and Rumplestiltskin,
he discovered perhaps one of the true visionaries which was the late great
David Bowie. After hearing Space Oddity, his
life changed. But for him, its more than just a trip down memory lane. He talks
to people including Radio DJ Randy Raley, and his discussion of various record
stores and the subject matter on downloadable music.
Not only that, but he talked to musicians from Markus
Reuter, Adrian Belew, Chick Corea, and journalist Anil Prasad. When you read
some of the topics he talks about, you can understand why its been going on
during the times now with commercial radio, his brief period working in a
record store and the changes between Best Buy and F.Y.E., and what is happening
now, you could understand that Cedric is giving the readers a chance to open
their eyes right now.
And after reading the book, it shows that Cedric shows no
sign of stopping of listening to real, real
good music. So if you’re sick and tired of watching and hearing things that
are on MTV, VH1, and on commercial radio nonsenual bullcrap, then this book is
worth checking out. He also runs his own blogsite entitled CirdecSongs in which he does interviews, stories on the open road,
and reviewing classics and new gems. So in the words of Jack Kerouac, “There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so
just keep on rolling under the stars.”
Please check out his website CirdecSongs:
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