Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia by William Knoedelseder

Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia Reviews

• 
  Jeremy

  A friend of mine recommended this book to me as background on Scorpio, the production company that is generally responsible for those cheap, flimsy-jacketed, pirate-looking vinyl reissues. If you grabbed a cheap copy of the Velvet Underground & Nico for $8.99 and it looks like someone posted a bad photocopy of the label onto the middle of the record, Scorpio is responsible. The book is about a DOJ and IRS investigation into MCA Records in the 1980s, an investigation that was quashed at the highest levels of the Justice Department just when it was on the verge of widespread success and exposure to MCA. It's a pretty good read, but didn't shed too much light on Scorpio (though Scorpio was a significant player in part of the investigation into the sale of cut-out records).
• 
  fonz

  Ojalá alguien le hubiera pasado a Scorsese este libro antes de que se pusiera a pergeñar la decepcionante "Vinyl". Se trata de una investigación periodística que, a pesar de tratar de cosas con tan poco glamour como los fiscales de distrito, ejecutivos de discográficas, la banalidad del día a día de los currantes de la Mafia, las cortes de justicia y el fascinante mundo burocrático de las fuerzas represivas estadounidenses, resulta muy entretenida en general, quizá en algún momento se complica demasiado, como cuando el asunto central del libro se enreda con el escándalo de payolas de los ochenta que quedó en agua de borrajas, pero es algo que me ocurrió sólo en contadas ocasiones. También me hizo gracia un recurso habitual del autor, de acabar casi todos los capítulos con una zanahoria para el lector, pero bueno, no molesta.
  
  El argumento narra muy detalladamente la complicada venta por parte de la MCA de unos discos descatalogados a un distribuidor de vinilos y cassettes de saldo, que acaba convirtiéndose en una movida importante con la Mafia como principal protagonista, una trama que, de haberse permitido investigar, hubiera alcanzado al propio Ronald Reagan y el gobierno de los USA. Al final uno se queda con la idea de que el capitalismo en los ochenta se ha transformado en una amalgama de corporaciones en simbiosis con la estructura del Estado, una estructura corrupta de la que apenas se puede arañar la superficie de su naturaleza y menos aún combatirla desde las reglas de la legalidad, tal y como comprueban amargamente los dos investigadores de fraudes que acaban renunciando (o siendo expulsados de la función pública) simplemente por cumplir con su trabajo. Ahí lo lleváis, reformadores del sistema.
  
  
• 
  Lolo García

  Started off as a fascinating read and as such, I'd recommend it to anyone interested in how mobsters operated underneath the whole record company scene. This is Scorsesey gold. Now, not meaning to say it ended up disappointing me but it indeed turn sort of sloggy once the mafia glamour wears off and get into a long and almost dull string of jury scenes, which is interesting enough (and you'll be left with a bitter aftertaste), but might need some serious effort. Now, I'm curious to know whatever happened to some of the top guys who managed to escape with barely any scratch and still, to this day, kicking.
• 
  Michael J. Flynn

  Great insights into how the now top brass in the music biz think and how the industry as we know it was created.
• 
  Rob Paczkowski

  Probably out of print I assume but wow! I thought I wouldn't make it out of the first couple chapters. What a story.
• 
  Andrea

  Prescribed—wink, wink—reading for all of us working at MCA at the time.
• 
  Mary

  Fascinating read about a tax evasion case which propels a straight-shooting Justice Department lawyer into a scandal that threatens to shake up an entire record company and spread into the highest echelons of government.
  
  Of course, it doesn't, and the reasons why may never be completely known. Still, the author (a former L.A. Times reporter who covered the story) tells a compelling tale.
• 
  Lawrence

  reading this books makes me glad i only ever MILDLY annoyed some of the people it portrays.
• 
  Eamonn

  Fascinating story about MCA and the mafia told through the US dept of justice's attempts to investigate cutout sales, extortion, kickbacks, payola, etc. Ultimately it fails to answer the central question, but is worth reading.