Recommended Books

I'm a reader, but more often a user of books. They are consultants, information centers, repositories of collective memory. I go back to them again and again. Here are a few I can recommend that point to the source of my own creative intuition.

Eric Sackheim (editor)

The Blues Line: Blues Lyrics from Leadbelly to Muddy Waters

by Eric Sackheim (Editor), Jonathan Shahn (Illustrator)

http://www.amazon.com/Blues-Line-Lyrics-Leadbelly-Waters/dp/1560255676/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395636085&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Blues+line

Howlin' Wolf

Moanin' at Midnight, The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf

by James Segress and Mark Hoffman

https://www.amazon.com/Moanin-Midnight-Life-Times-Howlin/dp/1560256834/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486362702&sr=1-1&keywords=howlin%27+wolf

Willie Dixon

I am the Blues, The Willie Dixon Story

by Willie Dixon with Don Snowden

https://www.amazon.com/Am-Blues-Willie-Dixon-paperback/dp/0306804158/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486362611&sr=1-1&keywords=willie+dixon

This Wheel's on Fire

by Levon Helm

The Story of The Band

Bob Dylan

Lyrics 1961-2012

https://www.amazon.com/Lyrics-1961-2012-Bob-Dylan/dp/1451648766/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486455499&sr=1-2&keywords=bob+dylan+all+the+songs

Bound for Glory

by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger

A People's History of the United States

by Howard Zinn

Pete Seeger

Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Singalong Memoir

http://www.amazon.com/Where-Have-All-Flowers-Gone/dp/0393338614/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395638462&sr=1-1&keywords=pete+seeger+where+have+all+the+flowers+gone

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen:

Interviews and Encounters (Musicians in Their Own Words)

By Jeff Burger

Carl Sandburg

The American Songbag

https://www.amazon.com/American-Songbag-Carl-Sandburg/dp/015605650X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486362420&sr=1-1&keywords=carl+sandburg+American+songbag

Greg Milner

Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music

http://www.amazon.com/Perfecting-Sound-Forever-History-Recorded/dp/0865479380/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395777458&sr=1-1&keywords=perfecting+the+sound

Mark Lewisohn

Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years

http://www.amazon.com/Tune-Beatles-All-These-Years/dp/1400083052/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395611166&sr=1-1&keywords=lewisohn+Tune+In

The History of Rock 'n Roll, Part I

by Ed Ward

The History of Rock 'n Roll, Volume II

by Ed Ward

Ken Kesey

Sometimes A Great Notion

https://www.amazon.com/Sometimes-Notion-Penguin-Classics-Paperback/dp/B0039ZDCF8/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486531440&sr=1-2&keywords=sometimes+a+great+notion+ken+kesey

Tom Wolfe

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Kool-Aid-Acid-Test/dp/031242759X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396045811&sr=1-1&keywords=tom+wolf+electric+koolaid+acid+test

William S. Burroughs

Nova Express

https://www.amazon.com/Nova-Express-Restored-William-Burroughs/dp/0802122086/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486524458&sr=1-1&keywords=nova+express+burroughs

Jim Powell

Substrate: Poems

by Jim Powell

Ken Kesey

One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest

https://www.amazon.com/One-Flew-Over-Cuckoos-Nest/dp/0451163966/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486457705&sr=1-1&keywords=ken+kesey+one+flew+over+the+cuckoo%27s+nest

Allen Ginsberg

Howl and Other Poems

https://www.amazon.com/Other-Poems-Lights-Pocket-Poets/dp/0872860175/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486455378&sr=1-1&keywords=howl+by+allen+ginsberg

Greil Marcus

Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n Roll Music: Sixth Edtion

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L9AY1RS/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb

Jack Kerouac

On the Road - The Original Scroll

https://www.amazon.com/Road-Original-Scroll-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143105469/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486455195&sr=1-2&keywords=Jack+Kerouac+On+the+Road

William J. Craddock

Be Not Content: A Subterranean Journal

by William J. Craddock (Author), Rudy Rucker (Introduction)

http://www.amazon.com/Be-Not-Content-Subterranean-Journal/dp/0984758550/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395628860&sr=1-1&keywords=William+J+Craddock+Be+Not+Content

Charles Perry

The Haight-Ashbury: A History

by Charles Perry (Author), Bob Weir (Introduction)

http://www.amazon.com/Haight-Ashbury-History-Charles-Perry/dp/193295855X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395624907&sr=1-1&keywords=the+haight+ashbury+a+history+charles+perry

Richard Farina

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me

(Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

by Richard Fariña (Author), Thomas Pynchon (Introduction)

http://www.amazon.com/Been-Looks-Penguin-Twentieth-Century-Classics/dp/0140189300/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395628428&sr=1-1&keywords=richard+farina+been+down+so+long+it+looks+like+up+to+me

Greil Marcus

The Old, Weird America: The World of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes

http://www.amazon.com/Old-Weird-America-Dylans-Basement/dp/0312572913/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442291329&sr=1-1&keywords=Greil+Marcus+the+old+weird+america

James W. Douglass

JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters

http://www.amazon.com/JFK-Unspeakable-Why-Died-Matters/dp/1439193886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395631548&sr=1-1&keywords=douglass+JFK+and+the+unspeakable

JFK, The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy

by Fletcher L. Prouty

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Profiles In Courage

https://www.amazon.com/Profiles-Courage-1961-John-Kennedy/dp/B00R0UVV6A/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486362942&sr=1-2-fkmr1&keywords=JF+Kennedy+Profiles+In+Courage

American Dreamer, A Life of Henry A. Wallace

by John C. Culver

The Bending Cross

by Ray Ginger

Alain Danielou

Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysus

http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Love-Ecstasy-Traditions-Dionysus/dp/0892813741/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395637974&sr=1-1&keywords=danielou+Gods+of+Love+and+Ecstasy

Door of Perception

by Aldous Huxley

John G. Neihardt

Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Elk-Speaks-Being-Oglala/dp/0803283598/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395627629&sr=1-2&keywords=Black+Elk+Speaks

Joseph Campbell

Hero With A Thousand Faces

https://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Faces-Collected-Joseph-Campbell/dp/1577315936/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486362800&sr=1-1&keywords=Joseph+Campbell

The Basic Writings of C.G. Jung

by Carl G. Jung

Claude Levi-Strauss

Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture

by Claude Levi-Strauss

Kabbalistic Metaphors

Jewish Mystical Themes in Ancient and Modern Thought

by Sanford L. Drob

https://www.amazon.com/Kabbalistic-Metaphors-Mystical-Ancient-Thought/dp/0765761254/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486451760&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=Kabbalistic+Metaphors+S.L.+Drob

H.D. Collected Poems 1912-1944

by Hilda Doolittle

Tropic of Capricorn

by Henry Miller

Ezra Pound

Cantos

https://www.amazon.com/Cantos-Ezra-Pound-Directions-Books/dp/0811203506/ref=sr_1_1_twi_har_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486361583&sr=1-1&keywords=Ezra+Pound+Cantos

T.S. Eliot

Collected Poems 1909-1962

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Poems-Plays-1909-1950/dp/015121185X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486362142&sr=1-1&keywords=ts+eliot+The+complete+poems

James Joyce

Ulysses

http://www.amazon.com/Ulysses-James-Joyce/dp/1613821174/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395637779&sr=1-3&keywords=ulysses

James Joyce

Finnegan's Wake

by James Joyce

W.B. Yeats

The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Poems-W-B-Yeats/dp/0684807319/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486361349&sr=1-1&keywords=WB+Yeats+Complete+Poems

Emily Dickinson

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Poems-Emily-Dickinson/dp/0316184136/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395639814&sr=1-1&keywords=emily+dickinson+complete+poems

Mark Twain

A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthurs Court

https://www.amazon.com/Connecticut-Yankee-King-Arthurs-Court/dp/153059989X/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486453200&sr=1-8&keywords=mark+twain+a+connecticut+yankee+in+king+arthur%27s+court

Carl Sandburg

Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years & the War Years

(Library of the Presidents)

http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Prairie-Library-Presidents/dp/0883658321/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395632147&sr=1-2&keywords=sandburg+Lincoln

W.E.B. DuBois

John Brown

by W.E.B. DuBois (1909)

Kenneth Clark

Civilisation, A Personal View

https://www.amazon.com/Civilisation-Personal-View-Kenneth-Clark/dp/B0016XQ7LQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486369314&sr=1-1&keywords=Kenneth+Clark+Civilization

The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake

by William Blake

Giambattista Vico

New Science

by Giambattista Vico

Penguin Classics

Don Quixote

by Miguel Cervantes

Francois Villon

Poems of Francois Villon, translated by David Georgi

Shakespeare

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-William-Shakespeare-Knickerbocker-Classics/dp/1631060244/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486369205&sr=1-4&keywords=Shakespeare

The Red Book

by Carl Jung

Daniel C. Matt, Trans.

The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Vol. I - XII

by Daniel C. Matt (Editor, Translator)

http://www.amazon.com/Zohar-Pritzker-Vol-1/dp/0804747474/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395630977&sr=1-2&keywords=zohar+pritzker+edition

Dante Alighieri

The Divine Comedy: Vol. I - III

I. Inferno II. Purgatorio III. Paradiso

(Penguin Classics)

by Dante Alighieri (Author), Mark Musa (Translator, Commentary)

http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Comedy-Inferno-Penguin-Classics/dp/0142437220/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395630360&sr=1-4&keywords=Dante%3A+Divine+Comedy

William Langland

Piers the Plowman (Penguin Classics)

by William Langland

J.F. Goodridge translator

I Ching

https://www.amazon.com/Ching-Book-Changes-Bollingen-General/dp/069109750X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486371145&sr=1-1&keywords=I+CHing

The Koran

https://www.amazon.com/Koran-Penguin-Classics-N-Dawood/dp/0141393831/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486369580&sr=1-7&keywords=Koran

Holy Bible

King James Version

https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-King-James-Version/dp/0310941784/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486368899&sr=1-1&keywords=Holy+Bible+King+James+Version

The Bhagavad Gita

introduced and translated by Etnath Easwaran

https://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Easwarans-Classics-Indian-Spirituality/dp/1586380192/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486519337&sr=1-1&keywords=bhagavad+gita

The Torah

https://www.amazon.com/Torah-Five-Books-Moses/dp/0827601018/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486369043&sr=1-9&keywords=Torah

The Tibetan Book of the Dead

The Tibetan Book of the Dead:

First Complete Translation

Tao Te Ching

https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061142662/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486452131&sr=1-3&keywords=tao+te+ching+by+lao+tzu