Mystery Train by Greil Marcus

Mystery Train by Greil Marcus
I read this book a long time ago when it was published in paperback.  Mr. Marcus wrote about some important figures in American pop music culture-Robert Johnson, Elvis Presley, Sly Stone are the ones that I remember.

He showed how they were influenced by American culture and then influenced others.  What was exciting was following his line of thinking-the connections he made between what initially seemed like disparate parts of culture, for instance, he talked about the fictional figure Stagger Lee (the title character in a Lloyd Price song) and how this fictional character was a product of past images and in turned played a role in the make-up of 1960s black militants like the Black Panthers to a musician like Sly Stone.

The book was exciting to read and I felt like it opened my mind to see things that I would not have noticed before and it was focused on subjects I feel passionate about-movies, politics, music, books.  In any case, that was my favorite book.