So You Think You Know Rock and Roll?: An In-Depth Q&A Tour of the Revolutionary Decade 1965-1975

by Peter E. Meltzer

Rolling Stone magazine recently released its list of the 100 greatest albums in rock music history, a period spanning more than fifty years. Nearly 60 percent of those albums were released in the decade from 1965 to 1975—the golden age of classic rock. This book is a wide-ranging portrait of that transformative and remarkable time, from the dawn of the singer-songwriter era to days before disco.

This book is presented in a question-and-answer format, but it is hardly a “trivia” book. It covers such diverse topics as censorship, chart phenomena, album covers, rock groupies, manufactured bands, one-hit wonders, rock festivals, supergroups, novelty songs, and the Beatles.

All of the major figures of the ‘60s and ‘70s are here: Cream, CCR, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel, the Who, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Queen, Neil Young, the Eagles, the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, Pink Floyd, Billy Joel, Marvin Gaye, David Bowie, James Taylor, Carole King, Aretha Franklin, Lou Reed, Carly Simon, Laura Nyro, and many others.

Exhaustively researched, So You Think You Know Rock and Roll? is filled with “I never knew that!” moments on every page.

Genres: Music

416 pages, Paperback

Published June 6, 2017

Reviews

[J.J. Lair]

I really enjoyed this book. I really did learn some new things. I even used some of the stories for the basis of four weeks of blogs. How many albums did Cream release? It’s here. Who wrote that song? You’d be surprised when a songwriter wrote several songs across several genres. How many hits came out of American Sound Studios? Spoken word.
So many categories and so much interesting information.
five stars

[Eric]

A great and fun read

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I thought the details Meltzer gives the reader in the book will amaze and delight true music fans, especially ones of the era the book covers. I also like that he covers songs that would be considered more pop but also goes into some great rock stuff. I thought it was researched very well. I worked for Billboard and was there when they switched over to Bookscan and there were a few, and I wouldn't call then inaccuracies, things regarding chart positions and history that could of been explained better but it didn't affect my enjoyment of this book and those who are big music fans that might not have worked in the industry won't be bothered by this at all. All in all this is a great book about a great era of popular music. One thing a reader could do with it is open it up when fellow music fans are around and turn it into a trivia contest. There are some things in here that are obscure or you might not have thought of that would challenge the most hard core music trivia fans.

[Lisa]

#6 of 120 books pledged to read during 2023

[Tore]

Excellent, a wealth of trivia and interesting tidbits for the music trivia inclined. Well researched, concise and precise, about the pop and rock music scene between 1965 and 1975, or "the Decade", as the author puts it. Really enjoyed it.

[Martin]

Quite a few typos, but otherwise some amazing stuff.

[Du]

Fun and quirky. I love the style of using trivia to explain the decade. It's a cool format and it feels more conversational than non fiction. The information flows like a Jeopardy episode.

[J]

Gift to DJ.