Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York that Changed Music Forever

Love Goes to Buildings on Fire is a highly intelligent review of the 1973-77 New York City music scene. It considers not just the usual suspects but also the lesser-known figures: early hip hop pioneers (Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash), "loft jazz" musicians (Anthony Braxton, David Murray), Latin musicians (Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, Willie Colon), radio disc jockeys (Frankie Crocker), and rock critics (Ellen Willis, Lisa Robinson, Robert Christgau). Above all, Hermes shows how small and localized the NYC music culture was, with artists bumping into each other and crossing over into other artistic genres — crucial catalysts for the era's musical creativity.