Customer Reviews

A Brief History of Rock and Roll

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The first thing that any potential purchaser of this book should know is that the author is apparently from Canada or Great Britain. While nothing in the book directly states this, phrasing such as "attending university" (instead of "college") and spelling color with a "u" (colour) tells me he is not a native of the U.S.A. Does this matter? Maybe or maybe not. What it does mean is that this is an outsiders version of the history of a music genre that was created wholly in this country and so some of the authors views may be slanted a bit. The good news is that some parts of the book are very informative. For instance, if you thought Elvis breezed into Sun Records and Sam Phillips heard him and made him an instant star, then you are in for a shock. The bad news is that other areas and artists of the time are not so well documented. A lot of print is expended on Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent (who were very influential in England) while the Everly Brothers and Pat Boone are barely mentioned. Also, the structure of the book bounces around in time to an extent that it can be rather confusing in terms of how events relate to each other. Overall, I'm glad I read this book, but I have to tell you that when I finished it I was a little depressed. We all know the fate of most of the early rock and roll stars and it's all brought to bear in the closing pages. All in all, a worthwhile read as long as you're prepared for what you're getting.

Although the book was a good overall introduction to early rock n roll, it badly needs a proofreader. I've never seen so many glaring mistakes in a history book. Here's a sample - the wrong birth date for Elvis (p.86), Wynonie Harris was white (p.105), the Rolling Stones single "Little Mother's Helper" (p.130). There are many more, just read the book and they'll leap off the page at you. In fact, let's compare notes.