(Gotham Books)

www.penguin.com

Danny Goldberg has the enviable knack of being in the right place at the right time. Wanting to break into the music industry, he answers a New York Times classified ad and ends up with a writing gig at Billboard. Leaving music journalism behind to move into PR, he lands a gig handling Led Zeppelin. Deciding to develop his management skills, he eventually works with Nirvana. And, not surprisingly, picks up a number of anecdotes along the way.

Anyone who's worked in the industry for any length of time will find this book a treasure trove of insights about the various folks they may have encountered (PR man Howard Bloom's advice to John Mellencamp on dealing with the media: "You need to be like a hooker and make every interviewer feel that they are the best you have ever met"), not to mention personal trivia about the artists themselves (Zep drummer John Bonham had a penchant for grabbing men in the crotch and inquiring "How's your knob?"). And speaking of the media, a real disdain for the Fourth Estate is a recurring theme, Gene Simmons deriding those elitists suffering from "holier-than-thou Jon Landau disease," and Warren Zevon only stopping his anti-media rant when he learns, to his horror, that Ann Coulter is one of his fans.

Goldberg tends toward accentuating the positive, largely focusing on the commercially successful artists, when it would be interesting for a man of his experience to examine why some musicians fail to break through. He also avoids undue unpleasantness, merely noting, for example, that during his short term as Warner Bros. chairman he "lost perspective," making "several dozen" remarks he now wishes he could rescind. But overall, Goldberg has a clear-eyed perspective on the music biz few others could offer. GILLIAN G. GAAR