Tony Fletcher, author of All Hopped Up and Ready to Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927-1977, reads from and discusses his new book.

Fletcher paints a vibrant picture of mid-twentieth-century New York and the ways in which its indigenous art, theater, literature, and political movements converged to create such unique music.  With great attention to the colorful characters behind the sounds, from trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie to Tito Puente, Bob Dylan, and the Ramones, Fletcher takes readers through bebop, the Latin music scene, the folk revival, glitter music, disco, punk, and hip hop as they emerged from the neighborhood streets of Harlem, the East and West Village, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens.  All Hopped Up and Ready to Go contains the key interviews, conducted with all of the major and minor players, many of whom have rarely been asked to look at the emergence of all this music.  All the while, Fletcher goes well beyond the history of the music to explain just what it was about these distinctive New York sounds that took the entire nation by storm.

Fletcher, in addition to founding the music magazine Jamming!, has contributed to Newsday, Spin, and Rolling Stone.  He lives in Mt. Tremper, New York.

Read about Tony's book in Chronogram!

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Please join us for National Bookstore Day, a day devoted to celebrating bookselling and the vibrant culture of bookstores on Saturday, November 7th.

We'd like to thank you for your support by offering 10% off all books purchased in-store on 11/7.

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The Oblong Book Group meets to discuss The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

If you're interested in joining our book group, email Suzanna Hermans. 

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