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A Brief History of Rock 'n' Roll
Music journalist Nick Johnstone charts the events of the year rock 'n' roll broke into the mainstream and explores its African-American roots. He also shows how the DNA fused in that one burst of creativity persisted over the next 50 years.
- GenresMusic
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 3, 2019
Well, it's riddled with minor inaccuracies, it's not particularly well-written and some of the author's critical biases are questionable, but...I can't say it wasn't at least a bit fun to read through the more outlandish stories from the genre's origins. And Johnstone seems to at least acknowledge the unverifiability of some of the stories, which is more honest than some. Essentially, rock 'n' roll mythological junk food.
November 25, 2010
so far i've found two mistakes that make this sorta interesting book hard to read and take seriously.
p. 130: the Rolling Stones song was/is "Mother's Little Helper" not "little mother's helper" and
p. 136: "baling wire" not "baleing wire". "baleing" is defined in the urban dictionary as a man's penis becoming aroused by a woman yelling at it. i assume that not to be the usage meant for 13 year old Carl Perkins.
finally gave up because i don't know what to believe in the book. the author writes a good story then qualifies that it might not be true. He quotes Greil Marcus liberaly and gives credit, thats a plus.
errror, i think, p. 212. "Cash turned up w/his wife June" the session being referred to is in the mid fifties, Johnny wouldn't marry June for a decade yet.
p. 217 and others, the author refers to "the moral majority" Maybe unaware that was was a real organization in the late 20th century. there was no such thing in the fifties.
p.162 "Elvis set a trend for rock and roll stars to...step over in to acting." only because there were no rock and roll stars of his stature before him, but Sinatra, Crosby, Jolson had all done first.
p. 130: the Rolling Stones song was/is "Mother's Little Helper" not "little mother's helper" and
p. 136: "baling wire" not "baleing wire". "baleing" is defined in the urban dictionary as a man's penis becoming aroused by a woman yelling at it. i assume that not to be the usage meant for 13 year old Carl Perkins.
finally gave up because i don't know what to believe in the book. the author writes a good story then qualifies that it might not be true. He quotes Greil Marcus liberaly and gives credit, thats a plus.
errror, i think, p. 212. "Cash turned up w/his wife June" the session being referred to is in the mid fifties, Johnny wouldn't marry June for a decade yet.
p. 217 and others, the author refers to "the moral majority" Maybe unaware that was was a real organization in the late 20th century. there was no such thing in the fifties.
p.162 "Elvis set a trend for rock and roll stars to...step over in to acting." only because there were no rock and roll stars of his stature before him, but Sinatra, Crosby, Jolson had all done first.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews