Customer Reviews

The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock

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On the surface, Snider's work is a collection of album reviews - and a great listener's guide to progressive rock at that, amassing some 250-300 reviews of classic prog rock records. They're neither cursory nor hagiographic, and for the most part he's right on the mark with each album. But taken as a whole, he offers the history of the genre's "classic" era, with loads of facts and insights running throughout his commentary. For the new listener, it's a goldmine of discovery. For the hardcore fan, it's an affirmation of what made prog rock such good listening.

To write a complete history of prog rock would be nigh on impossible but with The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock Charles Snider has practically succeeded.
Using a year by year timeline to review not only all the major releases but also some fairly obscure, mostly European, releases Charles successfully unfolds the story of progs development, evolution and decline.
Although an American Charles has succeeded in understanding this predominatly British musical phenomenon and its impact on popular culture.
This book is for both afficiandos and beginners and will wet the appetite of anyone interested in listening some some of the best, and worst, music of the past 40 years.

Excellently well researched, knowledgeable and serious book - far superiour to many scholastic monographs (which are just hording minor facts without real understanding). A true "progressive rock encyclopeadia" of a kind which covers almost everything - from inevitable founders of the genre (ELP, Yes, King Crimson etc) to less known Italian bands (PFM, Osanna,Balletto di Bronzo...), French (Gong, Magma...), Krautrock and - even (I couldn't believe my eyes!) - Greek "Socrates"Phos and Finnish "Wigwam".
It's not just a collection of LPs reviews: Charles Snider gives a sharp analysis of each year in progressive rock history through the prism of several most essential LPs (which were the cornerstones of the genre). But: it provides you with brief and basic essay of the state of the society in general and the music, plus covers the developments in various countries. Let's take 1976, for example: Gong ("Shamal"), Rush ("2112"), Genesis ("Trick of the Tail"), Nektar ("Recycled"), PFM ("Chocolate Kings"), Van Der Graaf, Nova, Camel, Gentle Giant, Hoelderlin, Novalis, Jethro Tull...
I would say that the book covered (finally!) the huge gap left by the "Great Rock Discography" - well, many bands didn't make into the charts, but left deep impact on the musical culture.
As bonuses you'll get decent discography, plus recommended further reading, plus index of the artists, etc, etc.
It is an enjoyable and pleasant reading too - I did it already twice, and now studying the book for third. It's like a time machine: taking back to the days when the music was forged, when Levi's, Wrangler and Lee were the only true jeans (and the rest either didn't exist, or were pantalons or trousers), when long hair, beard & Nehru jacket were a must...
Of course, my most humble suggestion is to add a few names - Jane, Frumpy, Sandrose, Analogy, Toad, Julian's Treatment, De De Lind, Biglietto per l'Inferno, Ekseption... Saint-Preux is a must, while great musicians from behind the Iron Curtain really deserve a word or two - Cheslaw Niemen, SBB, Omega, Locomotiv GT. On the other hand, it might be not a bad idea to pay hommage to the unknown soldiers of prog-rock ("Ford Theatre", for example).
In any case, get Archie Patterson "Eurock" as a companion to this book, you wouldn't regret it -Eurock: European Rock & the Second Culture
I hope to see an expanded edition of "The Strawberry Bricks".
P.S. Special thanks for "Rare Bird"
P.P.S. I would have given SIX STARS to the book, and Amazon should do the same - I am afraid, I have to spend more money...

If you are one of us twisted sorts that listened to progressive rock in the late sixties or seventies, or are still listening to it and loving it, you will find this book a great reference. I spent days reading through the timeline while highlighting groups and recordings that I have not yet heard. On the other hand, if you only listen to background music, or if you cried when Michael Jackson died, don't waste your money on this book.

This book is the key to unlock a whole world of information, containig everything you always wanted to know about the most interesting decade in popular music. Brilliantly written, it will make an excelent present to anyone who is giving his/her first steps into the amazing universe of prog music.

Excellent reference guide to this music genre. Easy to read and comprehensive. Highly recommended.

First, I'm a fan of many types of progressive rock. Yes, some of it is pretentious, some of it is dense and incomprehensible, and some of it just isn't all that great. Taken as a whole, however, i find the genre interesting and listenable. Much of my favorite music comes from progressive rock.

Given the reviews this book has garnered, I was looking forward to a fabulous read about all the bands I love and some bands I have not heard, or even heard of. I've slogged through a goodly portion of the book so far, and intend to complete it, but it hasn't been the great experience I had hoped it would be.

My disappointment is not in the intent or in the approach. The structure is basically a series of album reviews (Albums! Remember those?) in chronological order of the release date. This offers, in addition to the author's impressions of the music itself, an overall view of what was happening in the prog world as time went by. The reviews are inevitably colored by the author's tastes, of course, and that's not a problem for me. I learned long ago that the only sensible way to read music reviews and understand what they mean about music i've not heard is to first understand what the reviewer has to say about music that i do know (both music that i like and music that i don't). Then i am in a position to extrapolate what his comments about the unknown may mean to me. Even then, I know that the kind of extrapolation I mention can be risky--but with the number of samples from every artist under the sun available on the internet, it only takes a small effort to validate or repudiate any assumptions i might make. This is much more satisfactory than the days when my only option was to take the risk and buy an album or two based on someone else's written opinion, hoping that it was music i'd want to listen to more than once.

The problem that i have with this book is that the writing itself is often unclear. In most cases the author gets his point across eventually, but there are places where i had to read a passage two or three times in an effort to understand what he really meant. In some cases, even repeated readings left me confused. There are also instances where the author doesn't seem to know what he's saying--he describes "Isle of Everywhere" as the "penultimate example of what Gong did at their best", but then goes off in another direction and never tells us about the ultimate example. Why does he tell me about the second-best example and not about the best? Consider also the use of non-words--for example, "orientated" and my favorite, "ex-patriot" for someone who is no longer a resident or citizen of a particular country.

The book so far has left me with the same impression that many people seem to have of prog-rock itself--that any substance is obscured by pomp and flash. With a real editor this book might be a lot better than it is.