The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen, and the Head-on Collision of Rock and Commerce

Neil Young and Rick James used to be in a band together. Neil Young is color blind and epileptic. The Eagles carved their career specifically to be rich and successful. Bruce Springsteen isn't the brightest of bulbs. As a breed, record label owners and musicians' personal managers are giant tools. David Geffen got super-rich mostly due to good timing. Much of the what we know as the music industry was formed by individuals who aspired to be rich and influential power players, not by the development or nurturing of good music or musicians. The success of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" album was preordained and the product of a marketing juggernaut. Jon Landau was never a good record producer but that didn't stop him from doing it anyway.There -- that's a gross oversimplification of "Mansion on the Hill", with a couple of fun facts tossed in.I've been reading quite a few books lately on the record business and the movie business (emphasis on the word "business"). "Mansion on the Hill" is one of the better ones I've read, but its impact on me was sort of like learning as a kid that there was no Santa Claus. There is often an ugly and depressing truth under any facade of glitz and glamour, and MOTH peels back each layer to show you the behind-the-scenes players, the histories, the pettiness, and the ugly manipulation.What little respect you may still have for the music business will be whittled down to next to nothing before you are finished with this book.It's a fascinating read nonetheless.Good companion books to read with this one include "Hit Men" (published 7 years before this one but might be better if read after this one) and "Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Business in the Digital Age" (to be read after MOTH).The music business is steadily being eroded from the inside. It's almost over, folks. Music has now officially become "product" (and that's not really news). And if you watch "American Idol" and buy those contestants' records, you are probably part of the problem.I feel bad for young kids today who grow up thinking that the new junk they hear on the radio today is good music. They're just too young to know how deluded they really are -- or how much they've been robbed.

Despite the fact that the Kindle version is rife with typos and errors (it’s Cookie, Cookie Lend Me Your Comb, not “Rookie, Rookie) I enjoyed this book for its inside look at the rise and fall of music’s most powerful and influential. The coverage of Jon Landau was especially of interest since he is a 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee as recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun award. Will read other books by Fred Goodman but I’ll try to avoid the Kindle versions.

Most underated book about rock history. This guy tells it like it really happened. Prepare to have your little rock heroes bashed around a bit, possibly. No punches pulled, the real story is told here, filling in the blanks to the history of rock. This will really help you understand why you were listening to that lamo junk music on the radio when Led Zeppelin II was collecting dust!

This book does an excellent job of doing what it sets out to, and contains many marvelous insights about the industry. However, the Kindle edition is littered with so many spelling errors and formatting issues that the actual reading experience is quite horrible. I would recommend reading the print version if at all possible. Publishers really shouldn’t be this sloppy when preparing their books for electronic release.

fantastic book!

my husband is reading the book and he really likes it. he says it give you a different perspective on the growth of music in my ge ge ge neration

This is a fascinating book that is engrossing from the first few pages. However, as others have mentioned, the Kindle Edition is TERRIBLE! I often find myself re-reading sentences to account for spelling and typing errors, and a clear lack of thought to the formatting of this particular e-book. As a full-time musician, and part-time student, I travel and read a lot, so physical books are a less desirable option. It is very frustrating that more care wasn't taken in making this book available on Kindle. This is the first time I've encountered such a sloppy digital product.

Needed this book for a class, and ended up really enjoying it! Awesome read.

Bought this for my husband and it is now in Ireland with our daughter, they both really enjoyed it and the insight into an interesting era in music.

Great book. i have not finished it completely yet, but well written and interesting. I was disappointed that Amazon damaged the book before shipping. There was a shipping barcode glued all over the book. Sloppy work. Guess morale is very low in the warehouses.