That Old-Time Rock & Roll

That Old-Time Rock & Roll
Author: Richard Aquila
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2024-04-22
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0252056809

Elvis Presley and Bill Haley. Sam Cooke and the Shirelles. The Crows and the Chords. American Bandstand and Motown. From its first rumblings in the outland alphabet soup of R&B and C&W, rock & roll music promised to change the world--and did it. Combining social history with a treasure trove of trivia, Richard Aquila unleashes the excitement of rock's first decade and shows how the music reflected American life from the mid-1950s through the dawn of Beatlemania. His year-by-year timelines and a photo essay place the music in historical perspective by linking artists and their hits to the news stories, movies, TV shows, fads, and lifestyles. In addition, he provides a concise biographical dictionary of the performers who made the charts between 1954 and 1963, along with the label and chart position of each of their hit songs.

That Old Time Rock & Roll

That Old Time Rock & Roll
Author: Richard Aquila
Publisher: Schirmer Trade Books
Total Pages: 424
Release: 1989
Genre: Music
ISBN:

Places rock & roll music in historical perspective with the decade's top news stories, movies, TV shows, fads, and lifestyles. Hit records are listed by year, artist, popularity, and subject.

History of Rock 'n' Roll in Ten Songs

History of Rock 'n' Roll in Ten Songs
Author: Greil Marcus
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2014-09-02
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0300190301

The legendary critic and author of Mystery Train “ingeniously retells the tale of rock and roll” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Unlike previous versions of rock ’n’ roll history, this book omits almost every iconic performer and ignores the storied events and turning points everyone knows. Instead, in a daring stroke, Greil Marcus selects ten songs and dramatizes how each embodies rock ’n’ roll as a thing in itself, in the story it tells, inhabits, and acts out—a new language, something new under the sun. “Transmission” by Joy Division. “All I Could Do Was Cry” by Etta James and then Beyoncé. “To Know Him Is to Love Him,” first by the Teddy Bears and almost half a century later by Amy Winehouse. In Marcus’s hands these and other songs tell the story of the music, which is, at bottom, the story of the desire for freedom in all its unruly and liberating glory. Slipping the constraints of chronology, Marcus braids together past and present, holding up to the light the ways that these striking songs fall through time and circumstance, gaining momentum and meaning, astonishing us by upending our presumptions and prejudices. This book, by a founder of contemporary rock criticism—and its most gifted and incisive practitioner—is destined to become an enduring classic. “One of the epic figures in rock writing.”—The New York Times Book Review “Marcus is our greatest cultural critic, not only because of what he says but also, as with rock-and-roll itself, how he says it.”—The Washington Post Winner of the Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award in Music Criticism, given by the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers

Travelin' Man

Travelin' Man
Author: Tom Weschler
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2009
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780814334591

Tom Weschler spent more than ten years from the late 1960s through the 1970s in the Bob Seger camp, working as tour manager and photographer during Seger's hard-gigging, heavy-traveling, reputation-making early days. Weschler's behind-the-scenes photographs document the frustrations and triumphs of recording, performing, songwriting, and building the Seger empire before the breakthroughs of Live Bullet and Night Moves. Travelin' Man collects Weschler's early photos with additional images leading into the present. Weschler and award-winning music journalist Gary Graff annotate the images with Weschler's recollections of the events and Graff provides additional background on Seger's career in an introduction, timeline, and cast of characters section. Weschler's photographs and stories pull back the curtain on seldom-seen aspects of Seger's career, including time in the studio recording Mongrel, early struggles to get radio airplay, and small shows at schools and shopping malls. Weschler captures Seger's personality on stage and at home and reveals the colorful personalities of those people he worked and performed with, including Alice Cooper, Bruce Springsteen, Glenn Frey, and KISS. He takes readers inside Seger headquarters in Birmingham, Michigan, and practice space in Rochester, Michigan, introducing them to renowned manager Punch Andrews and the various members of Seger's bands. Weschler's photos feature highlights like Seger's show at the Pontiac Silverdome in 1976, his first gold record in 1977, the first meeting between Seger and Bruce Springsteen in 1978, and Seger's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. Travelin' Man also contains art from eight Seger album covers that Weschler designed, a foreword by John Mellencamp, an afterword by Kid Rock, and a comprehensive discography. Seger fans and readers interested in music and biography will enjoy the one of a kind story in Travelin' Man.

Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life

Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life
Author: Steve Almond
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2010-04-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0679603654

Drooling fanatic, n. 1. One who drools in the presence of beloved rock stars. 2. Any of a genus of rock-and-roll wannabes/geeks who walk around with songs constantly ringing in their ears, own more than 3,000 albums, and fall in love with at least one record per week. With a life that’s spanned the phonographic era and the digital age, Steve Almond lives to Rawk. Like you, he’s secretly longed to live the life of a rock star, complete with insane talent, famous friends, and hotel rooms to be trashed. Also like you, he’s content (sort of) to live the life of a rabid fan, one who has converted his unrequited desires into a (sort of) noble obsession. Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life traces Almond’s passion from his earliest (and most wretched) rock criticism to his eventual discovery of a music-crazed soul mate and their subsequent production of two little superfans. Along the way, Almond reflects on the delusional power of songs, the awkward mating habits of drooling fanatics, and why Depression Songs actually make us feel so much better. The book also includes: • sometimes drunken interviews with America’s finest songwriters • a recap of the author’s terrifying visit to Graceland while stoned • a vigorous and credibility-shattering endorsement of Styx’s Paradise Theater • recommendations you will often choose to ignore • a reluctant exegesis of the Toto song “Africa” • obnoxious lists sure to piss off rock critics But wait, there’s more. Readers will also be able to listen to a special free mix designed by the author, available online at www.stevenalmond.com, for the express purpose of eliciting your drool. For those about to rock—we salute you!

Disco Demolition

Disco Demolition
Author: Steve Dahl
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Disco music
ISBN: 9781940430751

In Disco Demolition, Dave Hoekstra sets the record straight about the night that epitomized the rock and disco culture clash.

Out of Our Heads

Out of Our Heads
Author: George Case
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2010
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780879309671

Out of Our Heads is the Rare Book That is Unafraid to celebrate rock'n' roll's druggy good times-before the uptight killjoys and self-righteous reformists came along and spoiled the party.

That Old-time Rock & Roll

That Old-time Rock & Roll
Author: Richard Aquila
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780252069192

From the huge success of the Chords' "Sh-Boom" to the arrival of the Beatles a decade later, rock 'n' roll influenced an entire generation of young Americans. Combining popular culture and social history with a sourcebook of lists and a biographical dictionary, That Old-Time Rock & Roll recreates the fun and excitement of rock's first decade and shows how the music reflected American life and thought in the 1950s and early 1960s. Richard Aquila provides an overview of the birth and growth of this pivotal genre and demonstrates early rock's links to both the youth culture and the dominant culture of the Eisenhower/Kennedy era. Year-by-year timelines and a photo essay place the music in historical perspective by illustrating the decade's top news stories, movies, TV shows, fads, and lifestyles. Complementing this topical summary is a concise biographical dictionary that details all the performers who made the charts between 1954 and 1963, along with the label and chart position of each hit. Both a history of the music and a history of the times, That Old-Time Rock & Roll is an outstanding source of information about the charter members of the baby-boom generation. In a new introduction, Aquila discusses how his long-time interest in rock 'n' roll came to fruition and surveys the progress of rock 'n' roll scholarship since his book's original publication.

Twilight of the Gods

Twilight of the Gods
Author: Steven Hyden
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2018-05-08
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0062657151

National Bestseller * Named one of Rolling Stone's Best Music Books of 2018 * One of Newsweek's 50 Best Books of 2018 * A Billboard Best of 2018 * A New York Times Book Review "New and Noteworthy" selection The author of the critically acclaimed Your Favorite Band is Killing Me offers an eye-opening exploration of the state of classic rock, its past and future, the impact it has had, and what its loss would mean to an industry, a culture, and a way of life. Since the late 1960s, a legendary cadre of artists—including the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Black Sabbath, and the Who—has revolutionized popular culture and the sounds of our lives. While their songs still get airtime and some of these bands continue to tour, its idols are leaving the stage permanently. Can classic rock remain relevant as these legends die off, or will this major musical subculture fade away as many have before, Steven Hyden asks. In this mix of personal memoir, criticism, and journalism, Hyden stands witness as classic rock reaches the precipice. Traveling to the eclectic places where geriatric rockers are still making music, he talks to the artists and fans who have aged with them, explores the ways that classic rock has changed the culture, investigates the rise and fall of classic rock radio, and turns to live bootlegs, tell-all rock biographies, and even the liner notes of rock’s greatest masterpieces to tell the story of what this music meant, and how it will be remembered, for fans like himself. Twilight of the Gods is also Hyden’s story. Celebrating his love of this incredible music that has taken him from adolescence to fatherhood, he ponders two essential questions: Is it time to give up on his childhood heroes, or can this music teach him about growing old with his hopes and dreams intact? And what can we all learn from rock gods and their music—are they ephemeral or eternal?