Amazon.com: Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry (9780312142896): Clinton Heylin: Books

I recall when this came out in the early 90s.

Had forgotten about it until a few days ago when I stopped in to my fave used book store and found it staring at me in the Music section.

Got it for 4 dollars in mint condition.

So far I am up to the late 70s. VERY interesting. Starts back in Shakespeare's time.....while he was alive he did not authorize the printing or dissemination of his plays.

The first "tapers" were peeps who would attend his plays, sit there and transcribe what was going on in shorthand, and then would go home, re-write it in longhand, and then get it printed.

We are talking about the years 1600-1620.

I began taping shows in 1976. Did not know there was such a thing as a 'bootleg' industry, and tape trading was just beginning to occur, as casette tape technology was just beginning to get "high quality". I just did it because I wanted to tape shows I was at.

The earliest recording I still have was Boston in Wichita, Kansas in March of 1979 on their second album tour.

I gave up recording of shows by the early 90s, as I did not want to risk getting my recorder confiscated or me being ejected from the show, with one exception, that being when Queensryche gave their fans permission to tape their shows on the Promised Land tour with any kind of gear you wanted, so I borrowed a pro-grade VHS camcorder and got the entire concert.

But I digress.

Anyway, the book is a fascinating read. I give it two thumbs up.