Customer Reviews

The Book of Rock

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a beautiful, beautiful book. Unlike most coffee table-type books, which usually have lengthy essays from historians and self-appointed pundits, this one is nothing but page after page of photos--one dazzling full-page photo for each featured band or musician, in alphabetical order, with a short description and quote superimposed upon each. The Book of Rock is NOT a history of rock or an encyclopedia of musicians. It gives very little information about each band (though the names of band members, albums and key songs are listed at the bottom of each page). Instead, the Book of Rock is a weighty pictorial journey through hundreds of shapers of rock music--in many cases, people who helped define generations and decades of music, from Guns n' Roses to John Lee Hooker, from the Grateful Dead to STP. As a pictorial, it's about as beautiful as it can get. The photos look like they're straight out of Rolling Stone (alternating between b&w and color, sharp and grainy), the layout is great. Pretty much a dream come true for any rock music fan.

**if anyone would like to send me this book for christmas, i will have no real objections

With all due respect to those reviewers who assigned 5 stars to this glossy book store bargain-bin item, look at it again. Closely. The pictures of each artist/group, while eye-catching, take up three-quarters of the mostly single-page entries, which then go on to provide minimal text around a quotation.

And, especially for the benefit of you readers who grew up in, and continue to reside in North America, as with "The Great Rock Discography" by Martin C. Strong, author Philip Dodd {also based in London) chooses to toss in numerous performers who are virtually unknown on this side of the Atlantic to the exclusion of some of the biggest names in the history of the genre, such as Big Joe Turner, Jackie Wilson, The Supremes, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Bobby Darin, The Four Seasons, The Platters and, perhaps most incredibly of all, one Fats Domino. All were among the 43 inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame (opened in 1986) in the first five years of its existence.

Many more such greats are also omitted in favour of the likes of Anthrax, The Bangles, Blur, The Pink Fairies, etc., which, in all fairness, may have some limited appeal to a select number of Rock fans in various parts of Europe. But if you're looking at the title and think this provides pictures and information on all the greats .... think again.

But still there are omissions. Most of them are very important artists (Fats Domino) that left their mark long ago (as another reviewer has noted), and some maybe weren't considered because by the time of the new edition weren't still considered "worthy" to be mentioned in the book, for example John Mayer. I have to unfortunately concur with some of the reviewers that most of the leftovers are American, while some of the included are known mostly only in England. There are three problems with the selection of represented artists: first, the definition of "Rock"; second, the subjectivity of the selection; and third, the 500 limit (one wonders if the publishers were the ones that decided on this number). One has to wonder which of the three reasons stated above was the reason for leaving out artists like The Dave Matthews Band ("not-rock" ?), The Wallflowers, Neil Diamond, Bread, Gary Puckett, The Monkees, Bread, The Righteuos Brothers, James Taylor, The Grass Roots, etc, etc (subjectivity? 500 limit?). I know, I know... some of the ones mentioned before may not have the "respectability" of others, or maybe they are rather "Pop-ish", but certainly some of the artists included could also be considered in a similar way (Abba?). Then there are artists that are represented as part of a band (or bands) and also as solo artists, which I think is fine, except that it leaves behind the likes of George Harrison and Phil Collins. I guess the author has the right, after all, to include whichever musicians he deemed worthy, but at times it seems like he's trying to impress by showing bands so obscure that one has to honestly ask why are they here and if their careers' contributions should receive such an "honor", or even if there is such a thing as "contribution" from their careers.

The good part? The photos are, in some cases, very unusual and surprising, the quotes are intriguing (although in the majority of the cases rather negative or self-deprecating) and the text is to the point and not pompous at all. This is one of those books to leave around and once in a while return to it to discover something new as in a zoology-book-kind-of-way manner. It's certainly entertaining, but it needs a revision with a new edition. After all, what do critics know anyway?

This book is packed with photo's of rock stars and bands. You get a separate artist or band,on each page, for the most part. Also, on each page, you get a "qoute" from one of the rock stars being featured on each page. This is a thick book. If you like to see pictures of rock stars and bands, along with "qoutes" from the stars, then you'll love this book. THIS BOOK IS VERY EASY TO READ, BECAUSE IT IS MOSTLY PHOTOS. However the qoutes are interesting to read also.

Note: This book covers rock stars and bands only. At the beginning it tells you the criteria that had to be met to be classified as a "Rock". It also tries to define the word "Rock". So, don't expect alot of photos or "Quotes" from "Pop Stars" or "Hip-Hop" Stars. However, there are some Pop Stars, and Hip-Hop Stars, that they consider to be "crossover" stars, such as ABBA, ABC, and others.

The book is in alpabetical order beginning with ABBA, & ABC and then proceeds on to Frank Zappa.

This is an excellent book to have in any rock music lover's library, and in that context I recommend it. Thanks!!!

it has tori amos in it!!!

The Book of Rock has a unique quality as it captures the rock era absolutely perfectly. Philip Dodd is a master of telling you how it is (or was), and he has struck a perfect balance with regard to content. In my eyes the author will go down as legend alongside the stars that it portrays!

From One happy reader!!

This is a great large simple book on most of the major music artists both solo and bands Important to point out this is the extremely lose, general basically anything other than classic music term for rock and is not just talking about bands classified under the title rock in music stores such as Bon Jovi, AC /DC and the like. Everything from soft rock, hard rock, pop to hip hop is covered in here.

There are basically a couple of hundred words on each artist together with a large colour picture. This is what differentiates this book from its competitors, the large photograph of every artist covered. If you are a huge fan of any particular band or artist you probably will not learn anything new in here on them as it is just a simple summary of their career, where they became huge and where they crashed in some cases. It is important to note that this is information is written from a UK point of view but most is pretty similar to Australia, New Zealand or North America. Most artists are in here, both major successful ones and ones who had one or two hits, in fact I've never even heard of some of them. Some are missing though such as "Weird Al" Yankovic, Kylie Minogue, Leann Rimes, Ugly Kid Joe to name a few but you get that with any of these type of encyclopaedias. For this type of book this is the best laid out and simple to read. It is in alphabetical order but has no index or contents page.