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Becoming Elektra
The True Story Of Jac Holzman’s Visionary Record Label
by Mick Houghton
The
house that Jac built, brick by exquisite brick
Working
closely with Elektra founder Jac Holzman, veteran writer Mick
Houghton has produced that rare kind of book which succeeds
on every front. He recounts in exquisite detail the founding
of the label, started 60 years ago, with as much attention
lavished upon the formative years as on The Doors’ golden
age, complete with full discography and illustrated with an
eye-blasting gallery of album sleeves, historic correspondence
and photos.
Holzman
chose Houghton to write this remarkable story after working
on 2006’s Forever Changing box set when, according
to the latter, “Jac started realising what he had achieved
with Elektra.”
The
result perfectly encapsulates the enigmatic, unpredictable
spirit of a label which has instigated musical sea-changes
and tantalised collectors for decades. (The story stops in
1973 when, having already sold Elektra to the Warners Group,
Holzman moved on, feeling he had achieved all he’d wanted
and no longer felt the challenge.)
The
story begins in the early 50s, with Holzman opening a Greenwich
Village record store after starting Elektra in college, releasing
early folk, blues, Jewish folk, world music, Spanish flamenco,
sound effects and jazz through to the 60s folk boom which
sparked the label’s first golden age, with names including
Tom Rush, Phil Ochs, Fred Neil, Judy Collins and the groundbreaking
Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
After
signing Love, then The Doors, Elektra shifted focus to the
West Coast, spearheading the psych revolution, then inadvertently
kickstarting punk in 1969 after Holzman sanctioned the signing
of MC5 and The Stooges before ever actually hearing them.
The
anecdotes are relentless and intriguing, including Pat Boone
being first to cover Tim Buckley with Song To The Siren
and Neil Young pulling out of producing Love’s Forever
Changes. Elektra are one of the few labels to merit a
whole book’s devotion and Houghton has done Holzman’s
uncanny visions more than proud.
©
2010 Reviewed by Kris Needs/Record
Collector
In
Becoming Elektra, author Mick Houghton names two chapters
after Tim Buckley albums. Chapter 18 is called Happy Sad
and consists largely of Tim's musical progress on Elektra,
as well as shorter sections on his Elektra contempories Tom
Rush, Judy Collins and David Ackles.
Chapter
22 - the final chapter - is called Goodbye and Hello
and tells Jac Holzman's story after he left the company he
founded.
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