It looks at the evolution of modern popular Kiwi music as an industry; the changes in musical fashions, technology and social mores.
Chris Bourke, a former Rip It Up editor and long-time music writer, spent four years researching and writing this book, but his interest in the period covered stretches back nearly 30 years.
The author did not get off to a good start. Some interview subjects could not remember places or dates, let alone the names of musicians they played alongside. And of course many people who feature prominently had long since died.
Bourke was not put off by such an unpromising start and eventually completed a book which is both a page-turner and a fantastic reference text. I've never come across anything like it on early New Zealand music.
The scope is wide, from patriotic songs to jazz, swing, country, the Hawaiian sound and the arrival of rock'n'roll. What this book makes clear is that while New Zealand may have followed overseas trends, it brought its own creativity to the music.
The wonderful photos which accompany the stories almost deserve a review of their own. Two years of searching in private collections, the Alexander Turnbull Library and Radio New Zealand Sound Archives paid big dividends. The pictures, some published here for the first time, are stunning in both content and clarity.
I was curious why Bourke focused on the period 1918-'64. In a recent interview, he said: "The opening and closing years needed to be meaningful as 'game changers'. I chose 1918 because that's when the soldiers came home from World War 1. They had seen the world, dance rhythms and styles were changing, and the first jazz records were being produced and were soon to arrive. [I chose] 1964 because that's when the Beatles toured New Zealand and 'popular music', especially live gigs, became so identified with the beat bands, with the guitar the most prominent instrument."
One of my favourite stories in the book illustrates how music played on the radio in the early days could captivate people. In this particular case, it had serious consequences.
"Off the coast of Greymouth in 1932, the crew of the Kaponga eagerly awaited a song they had requested to be broadcast on 3YZ, He Played His Ukulele as the Ship Went Down. After playing it, the host Mick Spiers heard the wail of the ship's siren. Thinking it was the crew expressing its gratitude, he spun the song again. But the enthralled crew had let the Kaponga run aground on the Grey River bar; the ship was wrecked but no lives were lost."
Blue Smoke is an important recording of a specific aspect of our social history, presented in a very appealing and accessible manner.
• Geoffrey Barnett is a Dunedin journalist.
