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About the Author
Eric Tamm was born in New York City in 1955 and spent his early years listening to Mozart,
Swedish folk-pop tunes, Chet Atkins, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Episcopal hymns.
A little later around 1964 he heard the music of the Beatles and something inside him
changed forever. His first band was called the Humbugs and did covers of songs by the
Beatles, the Monkees, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and the rest of the usual late-60s
groups.
In college Tamm studied the history of Western theology and comparative religions, travelled
in Israel and Europe, and spent a year in Tamil Nadu, India. Reading Kierkegaard, Jung, and
Nietzsche brought him back to his senses, and when he returned to the U.S., he threw away
the philosphy books and began concentrating on music.
Ten years of study ensued: Tamm received the B.Mus. from Immaculate Heart College in Los
Angeles (1978), the Master of Arts in music from Cal State Northridge (1982), and the Ph.D.
in musicology from the University of California, Berkeley (1987). He taught music history,
theory, rock and roll, contemporary music, and piano at San Francisco Bay Area colleges
and universities from 1983 to 1990. He is the author of Robert Fripp: From King Crimson to
Guitar Craft; Right-Brain Musical Improvisation; and numerous critical articles on popular
and classical music.
Dr. Tamm developed an abiding passion for high technology, musical and otherwise, and cur-
rently works as a senior writer at PeopleSoft, Inc., a leading vendor of client/server business
software applications. He plays lead guitar and sings in a rock band, the Raving Daves, com-
poses music for films and corporate videos, and manages Yak Productions, which records and
publishes rock and roll, ambient, neo-classical, progressive rock, electro-acoustic, new age,
and MIDI music.
This book is available in hypertext format (Microsoft Windows). For more information,
please contact:
Yak Productions
1532 Francisco Street
Berkeley CA 94703
eric_tamm@peoplesoft.com