I Don’t Sound Like Nobody takes its title from a famous quote attributed to Elvis Presley. For the first half of the book of the same name by Albin J. Zak III, the same cannot be said. The musical history contained within the first few chapters is a retread of what’s been said many times in other histories of popular music, and is familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of the twentieth century’s first half.
While no better nor worse than the coverage that came before, the subject of ’50 rock ‘n’ roll and its attendant rise in youth purchasing power has been covered ad nauseum. However, I Don’t Sound Like Nobody starts really kicking about halfway through, when Zak starts examining the concept of covers and copies in chapter five, “Surface Noise.”
While one wouldn’t expect that the analysis of legal cases involving copyright law to be anything other than dry, Zak manages to take a potentially dull topic and make it exciting. It’s in the legal realm that the importance of recording in determining a record’s sound becomes spelled out most clearly. When Al Patrick of Supreme sued Decca for recording a version of “A Little Bird Told Me” that sounded identical to the original, it moved along the idea that a song might be more than words and notes on paper.
Zak’s examination and analysis of recording techniques and how they shaped the history of popular sound makes a case for the ’50s being the important decade of popular music. Granted, every book that pitches a certain era as being the decade where “it all changed!” has a valid point, be it the advent of recording, the rise of jazz, punk, or what-have-you. Zak’s postulation as to the rise of the recording and its producers and engineers as defining the sound of music is just as valid and cogently argued.
Pre-order the book from the University of Michigan Press. It comes out in September.
Listen to sample audio tracks of songs mentioned in Albin J. Zak III’s I Don’t Sound Like Nobody.