Becoming Elektra: The True Story of Jac Holzman's Visionary Record Label (Revised & Expanded Edition)

Becoming Elektra recounts the remarkable true story of the pioneering Elektra Records label and its visionary founder, Jac Holzman. He transformed a modest folk imprint into a home for some of the most groundbreaking, important, and enduring music of the rock era.

Placing the Elektra label within a broader context, the book delivers a gripping narrative of musical and cultural history that reads like an inventory of all that was exciting and innovative about the 1960s and 70s. It features iconic acts and albums such as The Doors, Love's Forever Changes, Tim Buckley's Goodbye and Hello, The Stooges, The MC5's Kick Out The Jams, Queen and Queen II, The Incredible String Band, Carly Simon's No Secrets, and many, many more.

First published in 2010, Becoming Elektra was praised as "eye-opening" by Q, a "dazzling narrative" by The Sun, and for "perfectly encapsulating the enigmatic, unpredictable spirit of the label" by Record Collector. This fully revised and expanded edition includes a brand new foreword by John Densmore of The Doors and draws on extensive new interviews with a wide range of Elektra alumni, including Tom Paley, Judy Henske, Johnny Echols, Jean Ritchie, and Bernie Krause, as well as further conversations with Holzman himself. It also adds two new chapters: an examination of Elektra in Britain during the 60s and a reappraisal of the label's 70s output.