About the Book

When Paul Simon first heard the Zulu accordion flourish that would open his multi-platinum album Graceland, he told Joe Boyd that it seemed to proclaim, “You haven’t heard this before!” Yet the “world music” boom of the 1980s that Simon’s album helped to usher in had roots that extended back through the decades and across continents: tango on the eve of World War I, Latin dance across the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, reggae in the ’70s, pre-War samba and pre-Beatles bossa nova, Eastern European ensembles filling capitalist concert halls during the Cold War, Indian ragas changing rock and roll in the 1960s, gypsy music inspiring classical composers of the 19th and 20th centuries.  As far back as 1853, the music that had intrigued Simon had captivated London during a Zulu choir’s extended run there. (Only Charles Dickens dissented.) Like that of other far-flung musical traditions sweeping the globe, the story of Zulu music and its relationship to neighbors, invaders, appropriators, and admirers—from brutal 19th century massacres to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”—is more controversial, colorful, and complex than many imagine. 

Joe Boyd was part of a small group of label heads and journalists who chose “world music” as their marketing slogan in the 1980s. Already the legendary producer of artists including Pink Floyd, The Incredible String Band, Soft Machine, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, Toots and the Maytals, and many others, Boyd had little idea how fast and how wide those simple words would spread, or how far back the history went. He would soon learn, producing pathbreaking music in Cuba, Brazil, Bulgaria, Mali, Hungary, Spain, and India under his label Hannibal Records.

Following the success of his book White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s, a self-published smash hit,Boyd now sets out to explore the stories behind the world music he had helped to popularize. He has traveled across continents and interviewed dozens of musicians, producers, and academics, and spent years reading, listening, and writing. The one-of-a-kind result is And the Roots of Rhythm Remain: a riveting, symphonic, globetrotting tour of the music that shapes our world.

Praise for And the Roots of Rhythm Remain

“What an amazing book! Joe Boyd has distilled decades of experience and observation of how musical ideas interbreed, and how culture is formed, into a tumultuous, gripping and dramatic story. I doubt I’ll ever read a better account of the history and sociology of popular music than this one.”

—Brian Eno

“Joe Boyd has an acute ear for music and an astute eye for talent that has led him around the world, recording and returning with music that has been and will be an indelible and fascinating part of our culture. Here he reveals the searching intellect, the generous spirit, and the deep heart beneath his extraordinary life’s work.” 

—T Bone Burnett

Praise for White Bicycles

“White Bicycles is a brilliant book. He’s got a really interesting view of London in the ’60s, because he was an outsider who ended up in the thick of the whole hippie movement. His writing really brings that era alive.”

—Elton John, The New York Times Book Review

“As a memoir of the enchanted Sixties, White Bicycles is among the elite. It isn't just that Boyd was among the era’s movers and shakers, he has a rare recall of events . . . and a fluid, engaging style. The book bristles with evocative anecdotes . . . [An] exhilarating read.”

—Neil Spencer, The Guardian

“The simple brilliance of White Bicycles is that its author never overstates his own importance or exaggerates his failings, and still ends up telling an irresistible tale . . . Boyd’s wit and candor are rare enough, but what truly makes his writing stand out are his insights into an era when rock ’n’ roll still seemed exciting and strange.”

—Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times

“Boyd is one of that select group of rock luminaries, like John Peel, or the American producer Rick Rubin, who didn't have to pick up a guitar to shape the evolution of entire genres of music. And this book is the perfect literary echo of a lifetime's subtle facilitation . . . Boyd's pages abound with astute observations and fascinating personal detail . . . For anyone with the faintest interest in how the music they love came to sound the way it does, White Bicycles will be a transport of delight.

—Ben Thompson, The Independent

“One of the most lucid and insightful music autobiographies I’ve read . . . Boyd demonstrates clear-eyed analysis and an unusual awareness of the broader picture. Indeed, White Bicycles is virtually unique among rock memoirs in its avoidance of woolly sentimentality and wild exaggeration . . . White Bicycles has, I think, enough of a grasp of larger issues - historical, philosophical, psychological - to be of interest to readers unfamiliar with the records Boyd produced.”

—Michel Faber, The Guardian

“Gloriously entertaining . . . even those unfamiliar with back catalogues and B-sides will be intrigued by Boyd's ability to dish the dirt.”

—The Observer

“From Dylan to Pink Floyd, Boyd was there and luckily for us, he can remember it all.”

—Daily Express

“Whenever anything musically noteworthy occurred in the ’60s, Joe Boyd was probably nearby . . . White Bicycles bursts with rollicking anecdotes, eyewitness accounts and canny observations about politics and youth . . . Boyd guides us through the decade with keen ears and restless intellectual curiosity.”

—Pitchfork

“Brilliant and inspiring . . . one of the finest music books ever.”

—Mike Scott, The Waterboys

About the Author