The Blue Monday Diaries
Author: Michael Butterworth
Genre: Non-Fiction
Year: 2016
Rating: 10 of 10
Typically I don’t enjoy reading about music, but this book was an exception. Most of the book is written in diary form and gives the reader an accurate glimpse into the process of creating an album. Rather than making the musicians larger than life characters, Butterworth tells it like it is and paints a human picture of the band. More fascinating than the story of New Order is the feeling of being immersed in the history of England at the time, both in feeling and in behavior. The story told contextualized many cultural connections that are not necessarily obvious for one who was not there at the time, but makes many of the things that occurred make more sense. After reading this book one gets the distinct feel that they missed out having not been in Manchester during the late 70s and early 80s. A must read for fans of post-punk and counter-culture.
Purchase: Buy!