DATE: Tuesday, March 25, 1997               TAG: 9703250045

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E7   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: BOOK REVIEW 

SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT 

                                            LENGTH:   76 lines

``MANSION'' LOOKS AT TIES BETWEEN ROCK MUSIC, MONEY

GET THIS: There are people in the music industry who are interested in making lots of money. Hard to believe? Fred Goodman lays it all out in his first book, ``The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen, and the Head-on Collision of Rock and Commerce.''

Former Rolling Stone editor Goodman writes as if shocked that musicians are drawn to money, and that an overtly commercial art form such as rock has come to harbor such mercenaries.

The impulse to cash in has often been part of even the noblest rockers' motivations. (Chuck Berry once said that without the financial incentive, he wouldn't have had the time to write songs.) And yet, artists like the late soul singer Joe Tex - who entered the business, by his own account, simply to buy his grandmother a house - are indeed rare. But that Neil Young or Bruce Springsteen might want to be as well-compensated as baseball players or the CEOs of their record labels isn't exactly news, and is hardly worthy of such a reaction.

Much of Goodman's book is given over to interesting but well-trodground - David Geffen's career as manager and record executive, for example. His chapters on the building of Springsteen's career spark the most interest.

Goodman takes an accusatory tone in recounting the making of Springsteen's image as pop populist, all but insulting the artist's intelligence with his implication that without manager/producer Jon Landau, such an evolution would never have occurred.

Goodman also appears scandalized by the commercial calculations that went on behind the scenes of Springsteen's ``Born in the U.S.A.'' album and tour. Offering an overly simplified portrayal of Springsteen's shift from long-form artistic statements to briefer, Top 40-ready work, Goodman fails to credit the artist with creating adventurous works, such as the ``Nebraska'' and ``Tunnel of Love'' collections.

As for rock critic Dave Marsh's personal ties to Springsteen - Marsh's wife, Barbara Carr, works for Landau - he's never made a secret of them. And despite his reputation as a highly visible Springsteen fan, Marsh has never withheld criticisms of the superstar's music.

Goodman also stretches too far in trying to catch Landau in a net of conflicts of interest. In 1975, should the then-critic really not have continued reviewing records for Rolling Stone while co-producing Springsteen's breakthrough ``Born to Run''? Is this an ethical conflict that merits quite so much spilled ink?

While expending great space on Springsteen/Landau matters, Good-man falls short in his reporting on other major figures. He's rightfully disgusted by Geffen's 1984 lawsuit against Neil Young for making records that were far afield of even Young's past eclectic impulses. At the same time, Goodman fails to discuss the contractual conflicts between Geffen Records and acts such as Aerosmith and sometime Eagle Don Henley, the latter an important character in Geffen's rise in the business.

This book is full of colorful tales and interesting music-biz history; the sections on Detroit proto-punks MC5 and Bob Dylan's late manager Albert Grossman make good, briskly paced reading. But ``The Mansion on the Hill'' runs a distant third to Fredric Dannen's ``Hit Men'' and Bruce Haring's ``Off the Charts.''

Both of those chronicles of record-company excess and malfeasance not only got there first, but are considerably more convincing, not to mention entertaining. One repeatedly wonders at Goodman's professed dismay at rock's growth into a multibillion-dollar industry. Perhaps informed fans shouldn't approach the music without a degree of skepticism, but Fred Goodman simply protests too much. MEMO: Rickey Wright is a former pop music critic for The Virginian-Pilot

and a contributor to many national and regional publications. He lives

in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: BOOK REVIEW

``The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen, and

the Head-on Collision of Rock and Commerce''

Author: Fred Goodman

Publisher: Times Books. 432 pp.

Price: $25

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