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The Long-player Goodbye: How Vinyl Changed the World | 
 enlarge | Author: Travis Elborough
Publisher: Sceptre
Category: Book
List Price: £14.99
Buy New: £6.00
You Save: £8.99 (60%)
New (26) Used (8) from £4.87
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 68522
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.8 x 1.9
ISBN: 0340934107
EAN: 9780340934104
ASIN: 0340934107
Publication Date: July 10, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new never been read but has slight markings caused from being moved around shelves.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Amusing sashay through the madness of the music world August 29, 2008
Sasha Alexei (London, UK)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This often laugh-out loud, pin-sharp account of the various interlocking stories behind the vinyl LP's success is rather wonderful. Elborough has clearly aimed to make a details-driven book for a non-music-nerd audience and the book achieves this balance rather well. The author seems to be something of an emerging specialist on social history with an eyebrow raised (the author's other book was a similarly broad review of the history and demise of the Routemaster bus - a long time feature of London's streets) and a similar approach is used here. The chapters on the insane amounts of smooth and easy listening that shifted in the 50s and 60s are a particular highlight, particularly resonant as one considers the maddening success of the likes of James Blunt... Hmmm... And as one might have expected given its now-stricken state, most of the music industry's success with the LP seems to be a series of domino-style accidents, a point the author captures nicely. A top read.
 An Author In Search of a Proofreader August 28, 2008
K-Square (UK)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
It seems churlish to criticise a book that cites so many sources, which imply that Elborough did his homework, but fat bibliographies do not ensure accuracy. (Neither does the author's weakness for footnotes.) Despite the long list of reference works, somehow this book is so riddled with mistakes and misprints that it is rendered - like a dictionary with but one erroneous definition - utterly undependable. That it's highly readable should be enough to support a recommendation, but the jarring misspellings and factual errors occur far too frequently. Any LP lover/music fanatic/record collector who actually bought vinyl records when they were the primary format will find it infuriating, especially if they also have shelves full of Mojo or Record Collector.
For what purports to be a history of the LP and its impact, this author is far to glib and too concerned with looking both hip and dismissive - very 1970s NME. His grasp of the contemporary zeitgeist and its relationship with the music of the day is tenuous at best, betraying his age with his third-hand view of events. Astonishingly, Elborough somehow managed to skirt the entire role of the industry that developed the LP's playback to the highest fidelity - the audio industry - which is not unlike writing about motor racing and leaving out Ferrari, Dunlop and Shell.
Clearly, Elborough ignored the rule which advises: never write about something you didn't experience first-hand if the topic exists within living memory and witnesses are plentiful. And if you can't resist, go to primary sources: the living participants. A pity this book wasn't edited by someone who knew how to spell Ezio Pinza, Astrid Kirchherr, Glenn Miller, et al.
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