Customer Reviews

The Pied Pipers of Rock 'N' Roll: Radio Deejays of the 50s and 60s

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This review is coming from someone who has consumed nearly every book, article, liner notes etc. about rock 'n' roll circa 1948-1970, so hopefully my criticsm is based on a solid foundation of knowledge. With that said, let me state unequivocally, this book is as close to unreadable as any I've ever picked up.

To start with, Wes Smith can not write, either intelligently or entertainingly. This work is amateurish, sanctimonious and flippant. He did negligible research and apparently found he did not not have enough material to compile a book 15 pages long, double spaced, and to compensate he filled each page with so much insipid wordplay between the two quotes he managed to procure that reading it may cause a loss of IQ.

Even someone with only a passing knowledge of the subject can see he clearly has no concept of the times and continually attempts to bluff his way past that lack of basic understanding. Furthermore, his knowledge of rock 'n' roll history is so slight it would not be surprising to find out his record collection consisted solely of a water-stained copy of a Martin Denny album. For example, in referencing the first rock 'n' roll show staged by Alan Freed in 1952 he calls the Dominoes (the most popular group of the day, led by Clyde McPhatter, perhaps the most dynamic vocalist of the 50's) among the "rather dim headliners". He obviously has no idea who they even ARE! Hardly the credentials necessary for writing about this subject. Perhaps his most glaring self-inflicted wound is when he refers to the Crew-Cuts, who were among the most notorious white pop cover acts of the time, by saying "their record... 'Sh-Boom' became a rock 'n' roll classic". Their version of "Sh-Boom" is NOT rock 'n' roll, NOT a classic and is perhaps the most despised record by rock 'n' roll enthusiasts in history. He clearly wouldn't know the difference between it and the Chords original (which IS a classic) if he listened to them both a thousand times.

He goes on to make dozens of factual errors regarding songs (Elvis Presley's first Sun recording, "That's All Right Mama" was not a "Number One country hit", as he states, nor a hit of any kind in fact) and of singers themselves (Chuck Willis did not die in a car crash, nor was he ever in a crash, he died of bleeding ulcers). Maybe worst of all he cites Sam Cooke's first secular record, "You Send Me" as the "first record to top both the Pop and R&B charts". In reality a full 17 OTHERS (!!!) had done so before Cooke, including the three previous #1 hits on the charts. This information is not exactly hard to find yet Smith is such an incompetent reporter he can not open a Billboard book to check?

He constantly misspells song titles (adding an extra "e" to "Be Bop A Lula", an extra "p" to "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" and refers to John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen" as "Boogie Children"), names (adding an "e" to the end of LaVern, as in Baker, and an extra "m" in Big Mama Thornton), and he claims legendary guitar instrumentalist Duane Eddy was a singer (he never uttered a vocal on record). Those examples only scrape the surface I'm afraid.

Truthfully it seems that Smith never left his Chicago Tribune cubicle (where he was employed - apparently he held incriminating photos of the Trib's editors) as he wrote this on his lunch breaks. At one point, in attempting to link rock 'n' roll with movies, he actually says "James Dean came out in black leather with a motorcycle and a knife in 'Rebel Without A Cause'". For the record, Dean wore a red windbreaker and drove a Mercury in the film - only one of the most indelible images in film history. These repeated and blatant factual errors are utterly incomprehensible and yet they pop up on virtually every page throughout the book. Are basic FACTS not a qualification for writing where he comes from?

Now there ARE some good stories to be found amongst the ruins, but they all have quotation marks around them, meaning they came directly from the sources themselves. Smith's contributions were simply to reprint them. He actually does the disc jockeys he writes about a disservice because he is incapable of framing their stories in the proper context, or adding any valuable insight into what made these men so vital in advancing the popularity of rock 'n' roll in those early days. After getting through it I feel better that I got this book used, as no additional proceeds went to the now hopefully out of work author. This is a rinky dink effort in every way, evidenced by the fact all but one of the pictures in the book came from the Chicago Tribune's files to which he had easy access, most showing the subjects in their later years from the 70's or 80's long after the focus of this book. Even the book's jacket has the appearance of a cheap product that bookstores put on "drastically reduced price" tables outside the store, hoping that shoplifters walk off with as many copies as they can carry.

This is a subject that has an abundance of interesting stories and fascinating tales waiting to be told. Smith reveals little of them. For well researched and written books about early rock 'n' roll DJs get "Have Mercy" by Wolfman Jack and Byron Laursen, "Big Beat Heat" about Alan Freed by John A. Jackson or "Sound Of The City" by Charlie Gillett and leave this gathering dust.

The one star I'm forced to give this by Amazon's rating policy is one star more than it deserves.

I am a deejay myself and this book is the best on the subject I've ever found, a real pleasure to read and full of hilarious stories. The sections on the great DJ's at WLAC - Hoss Allen, Gene Nobles & John R - make it a true gem. Some of it is sloppy, true (see the sour schoolmarm review) but let's face it, the subject matter is sloppy, too. This is not a dry, academic treatise, folks - it's about ROCK AND ROLL and the spirit of these guys shines through in these pages like nowhwere else! This is a spirit that has all but been snuffed out by the likes of Clear Channel and Top 40; if you want to see who was integrating the races before the Civil Rights movement you can read all about them in this book. In the 1950's being a Southern White Liberal was a dangerous thing; to promote Rock and Roll was almost suicidal. Although they were all players in payola (which as Alan Freed observed is called lobbying in DC) they were real heroes to a lot of folks, including myself. I love this book.

The best book on early rock 'n' roll radio, detailing the rise of the music and its mass medium within the heated cultural politics of the time; the basis for the documentary ROCK 'N' ROLL INVADERS, which is now available on DVD and is also excellent. Buy both -- they complement each other.

Smith did solid research in interviewing as many of the surviving disc jockeys as possible. He also does not flinch from the racial problems (despite what you have NOT read in other rock 'n' roll histories) were a major part of the rise of rock 'n' roll.