Customer Reviews

Rock and Roll Year By Year

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is probably the best book of its type to date. But it is not without it's problems. The first is that both of its authors are British. Hence it skews to the right of the Atlantic. Not that I don't feel myself, that British Rock has produced some of the best acts of all time, but for instance there are more entries on and photos of Gary Glitter than Alice Cooper. Gary Glitter? This is just one example. Some one in a review here mentioned the happy inclusion of Yes. If you look through the entries for that band you'll find at least Two mistakes saying that Fragile was their third album, (it was the fourth) and that Owner of a Lonely Heart is from Big Generator (it wasn't). This may seem like nitpicking but these are just the equivalent of what might be found on one page. It makes one wonder how many more of the presented "facts" are not trustworthy? You expect more from music critics on the voting board of the Rock & roll Hall of Fame. In the end though it's a valiant effort they undertook, and I'm glad I bought the book. It could/should have been a five star book though.

I just got this book and let me just say that the words inside are some of the finest ever put between two covers. It's all so informative. So much so that one may think that it is perhaps, too informative, but I doubt it. It's perfect. You'll find some of the most obscure and some of the most well-known facts, on the same page. Incredible.

The main thing I like about this book, is that it's much different from these types of timeline books. Rather than saying "this happened, then this happened", it does that and provides much more information by giving background stories of many of the artists, and also providing a lot about the impact the person or band had. Also, it's great how the devotes entire pages to show the significance of some important events in rock history. This does a lot to show why some of the greatest bands of all time are considered some of the greatest band of all time. So after reading this, you'll never wonder why again. The bold type really helps out too, if you're looking for someone imparticular. Also if you're a Beatles fan, the only thing you're not likely to find out is how many times they went to the bathroom each week. So, in short this is the rock n' roll book I've seen and I highly recommend it. Anything not in here probably isn't worth knowing.

It was like your highschool yearbook. . . racing through the pages to find your first musical love. If you didn't find it, you didn't look in the right place. They covered it ALL. Geezers and kids alike will spend hours reading up on their favourite groups. Couldn't remeber that group whose song was big during your first date? Just look up the year/month/day. Truly an amazing feat of research.

I fell in love with this book from the very first time that i put my eyes on this page of amazon, but, on that time it had a limited edition and it was sould out. I`ve waited more than 3 months for him to arrive but then it was impossible... One day, by hazard i found it on Fnac in Portugal, it was the only one of it`s kind so i bought it imediately and must tell you that it is really music to your ears to read this amazing book. It is the best book i`ve ever seen about music and i have more than five encyclopedias about the subject so believe it when i say that this book really entertains you with the good and consistent information, the beautiful pictures about the artists, the design, the uk and us charts and much more... From Elvis to Abba, from Eminen to Norah Jones, from Sinead O`Connor to Alanis, from Celine to Mariah, from The Who to Nirvana, from Notorious BIG to Massive Attack, from The Ronnettes to Take That, from Brenda Lee and Janis Joplin to Britney Spears and Christina it really has it all !!!

I knew what I was getting before I purchased this online. Easy and fun book to read. Item was shipped quickly, too.

It's big, it's heavy, full-colored, with a good quality paper, great pictures and complete informaton. It couldn't be better.

Neighbors come in and pick it up off our coffee table...family members sit in the corner and peruse the pages for hours...Tony Perkins on Good Morning America loves it!

The perfect gift for anyone. A lot of fun.

ANY ROCK & ROLL HISTORY IS NEAR AND DEAR TO MY HEART THAT REFERENCES "YES", PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST UNDERRATED BANDS OF ALL TIME. LISTEN TO THE VIRTUOSO MUSICIANSHIP AND CREATIVITY ON THEIR "TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS" FROM 1974 OR "CLOSE THE THE EDGE" FROM 1972. HOW THESE ALBUMS WERE OVERLOOKED IN ROLLING STONE'S (MAGAZINE) RECENT ISSUE LISTING THEIR TOP 500 ALBUMS OF ALL TIME IS BEYOND ME. ALSO, BE CAREFUL READING THIS BOOK IN BED....IF YOU BEGIN TO FALL ASLEEP, THE BOOK WILL KNOCK YOU OUT IF IT HITS YOU IN THE HEAD. THIS GIVES LITERAL MEANING TO THE TERM "HEAVY READING". ANYWAY, PLEASE ENJOY.

This book is a "wow"! I've never seen such a huge volume of information categorized year by year in such detail. What is impressive about this book is how it is able to bridge the gaps between the generations and make them seemingly come togther (Beatles reference!) to make Rock 'n Roll seem like a continuing saga. I dislike most 90s music (and 00s music), seeing it as crass, rude, commerical, lacking heart, overly vulgar and shocking. I hate the fact that Eminem has to share a spot with other great artists from the past, but maybe that's the whole point of rock 'n roll. Our parents didn't like our music and THEIR parents didn't like their music and so on. You can see the controversy brewing in rock from the time it began. But rock is more than just controversy. Artists and genres of all stripes get the billing here. Some see rock as chart oriented, so there's a chronological listing of each #1 for the US and the UK charts, but also gives ample coverage to artists who mainly stayed off the charts but were nonetheless hugely influential. Rock is inherently chaotic but what I love about this book is it brings order out of chaos. From todays preteens and teens to 20somethings and 30something GenXers to Baby Boomers and even graying 60-something beat generationers will all want to spent hours leafing through this fun and informative book. Rock on!

This is a great book if you wanted to know anything about rock and roll from the 50's to 2002.