I've been re-reading Jon Savage's England's Dreaming the past week. Not the whole thing from start to finish, as I did that at least half a dozen times back in the 1990s, but highlights throughout. I first reviewed it 30 years ago - actually published 30 years ago this week! - in the first issue of Year Zero, and heaped praised upon its words, as had everyone the prior 18 months. It was originally published in 1991 and immediately hailed as music book of the year, many claiming it was the best book on punk rock ever written. I'm too embarrassed to go back and look at what I wrote, but I'm pretty sure I was in agreement.

I first read it in mid-1992, and its prose, turn of phrase, structure and breadth of knowledge, as well as its characterisations of the main players, remains flawless. The book hit me deep. John Lydon said at the time that he hated it and Jon Savage had it all wrong, but he would say that. The depiction of Lydon throughout, both good and bad, remains totally convincing. Savage also sets the book up perfectly, not even introducing the members of the Sex Pistols (first up: Steve Jones) until page 70. Prior to that, we get the preamble with Malcom McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's relationship, business ventures and art-school shenanigans throughout the late '60s and early '70s. Savage also did what few other British writers had done prior to this period, and gave due credit to the music of Cleveland, Brisbane and Los Angeles. Savage went to California in 1978 on a writing assignment for Sounds magazine, and the music and unhinged nature of its scene players left an indelible impression. He wrote as such in various missives for the Brit press at the time (as well as pieces for Slash and Search & Destroy), but it clearly didn't make much of an impression in his homeland, the British press and punk scene so keen to copyright Punk as their own invention and dismissive of most things American, bar a few acts from NYC.

Jon Savage was born in 1953 and studied to be a lawyer, so he had a few years on a number of the key players in the UK punk scene he was writing about (and a few years less than others). He has written before of his love for '60s west coast psychedelia, particularly being a big fan of the music in the pre-punk landscape of the UK in the early '70s. The music itself was only a few years old, but few at that stage were yet looking back, reissues of out-of-print titles only just starting to seep in from places like France. The great '50s revival of the early '70s, which went fully mainstream with the success of Happy Days, was also a big thing, and this is touched upon c/o Ted Carroll in the book. Ted was managing Thin Lizzy in the early '70s and running a rock & roll stall at the Golborne Market on weekends, selling rockabilly, R & B and doo-wop records to teddy boys and rockers. His and McLaren's worlds would meet at the time, due to a shared interest in these sounds (though McLaren was more Billy Fury than Dale Hawkins), and Carroll would go onto start the Chiswick label and eventually the fantastic Ace Records empire. The way Savage weaves these stories into the grand narrative of how this all happened - 1976 and all that - is quite masterful. He is the most literate of writers.

OK, but back to psychedelia from the west coast. This has also been a fascination of mine the past decade or so, ingesting the sounds of early Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, Quicksilver et al, and one that Savage has long been a fan of is the sole 1968 LP by San Francisco's Kak, which he writes about here. Living in a dreary post-psychedelic England in the early '70s, I'm sure the exotic nature of this far-flung technicolour music held great allure to the curious. The album has a twin-guitar attack, wirey six-string work interweaving with a rough garage-rock approach certainly in the same musical stratosphere as Moby Grape and Quicksilver, and it's a cult classic well worth an earful for the psychedelic faithful. And this leads me to the most shameless segue way you'll read on this page for the next fortnight, which is a brief discussion of another contemporary of Savage's, though I'm not sure if they've ever even crossed paths, and that's Ivo Watts-Russell of 4AD Records.

Over the summer, I read the 600-page history of 4AD by Limey music journalist, Martin Aston, Facing The Other Way: The Story Of 4AD, originally published in 2013 and, at the time, similarly hailed as the music book of the year. Again, I can make no arguments against this claim, as it's the best book on the subject of music I have read in a number of years. I can lay no great fandom for the label and much of its music, though it's one I can respect and see the appeal of for those with differing tastes to mine. More than anything, it was a book which informed me greatly - almost flawlessly! - on the history of a label and its trials and tribulations over the years, problems mostly brought on by being a victim of its own success and forced into expansion beyond what its owner originally wished for. The only flaws I could say the tome possessed would be when author Aston attempts to discuss the trans-Atlantic indie world of the US a la SST, Touch & Go, Dischord, etc., and it appeared to these keen eyes and ears that he should have stayed in his lane (and please, don't ever refer to Sonic Youth as a 'hardcore band'). 

That aside, it's a book I can unreservedly recommend if you're interested in the business and culture of music and what makes a successful independent label tick, and what fascinated me deeply was the character of Ivo himself. Born into a comfortable and large family in 1954, he spent most of the '70s working in record shops and was, if anything, largely Anglophobic in his tastes, surprisingly so for a guy at the helm of a label many people would consider as English as dripping and weekly baths. Largely bypassing the early '70s sounds of Bowie and Roxy Music, neither of which interested him much, his musical fascinations centred around west coast psych, singer-songwriters and cosmic country, his favourite artists being Spirit, Gene Clark, Tim Buckley, Steve Miller Band, Quicksilver, The Byrds, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. LA's Spirit were his particular faves, and their first four albums, a curious mix of psychedelia, folk, jazz and proto-metal, are quite excellent. Their lineup, forming in '67 when guitarist Randy "California" Wolfe was only 16 and his stepfather, Ed Cassidy, then in his 40s, on drums, was perhaps even more unique. 

Spirit deserve their own lengthy rant here one day, though again, this English fandom for these sounds during the glam era is something which should be explored as a phenomenon, and these two books do at least touch upon it. Ivo sold up his 4AD stocks in 1999 after a nervous breakdown or two (it's now fully owned by the Beggars Group) and did very well for himself, now living with his dogs in a remote town in New Mexico. I hope he's living well, as it appeared he didn't have the alpha-male personality required for the cruel business he found himself in, trying to steer the ship of a multinational corporation. Jon Savage is still writing and being eternally interesting and I think it's about time he wrote his autobiography. After all, no one else will do it for him.

England's Dreaming has aged well, its tale eternal, even if some of its participants haven't. No amount of stupidity c/o John Lydon can take away the seismic cultural and musical changes he and the band and all those around them brought about ca. 1975 - 1978. It remains an essential read.