For the Record chronicles the struggle of recording musicians — that is, professional musicians who play in studios (for films, TV, records, etc.) for a living — to achieve respect within their own union environment.

Ignored, even ostracized, by members of the American Federation of Musicians in the 1940s and ’50s, they eventually formed their own union (the Musicians Guild of America, 1958-61), then rejoined a chastised AFM. The struggle didn’t end there, however, and the founding of the Recording Musicians Association in 1969 was a first step toward professional musicians’ eventual acquisition of the power and prestige that they enjoy today within the AFM.

Foreword by Edward Asner.