Unknown Legends of Rock 'n' Roll (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The dawn of the cult rock artist is often thought of as the mid-1960s-the era in which the full-length album began to be utilized as..." (more)
Key Phrases: unknown legends, early psychedelia, psychedelic unknowns, Unknown Legends of Rock, New York, Rolling Stones (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One man's unjustly neglected genius is the next man's appropriately unheeded fraud. Differentiating between the prodigies and the posers is one of the great joys of fans of any art form, including pop music. And this task is made easier with this book, a paean to some of rock & roll's quirkiest artists. All Music Guide coeditor Richie Unterberger ranks among the most prolific rock critics of recent times, and he exhibits a depth of knowledge and a clear commitment to his subjects throughout this 400-page-plus study. He tracked down former members of such long-forgotten groups as Rising Storm, Savage Rose, and the Deviants for interviews. All seem to respond with unmistakable enthusiasm as they recall creating idiosyncratic music decades back. Heaven knows, a guy like Joe Docko doesn't get many opportunities to discuss his mid-'60s Mystic Tides 45s. This brings up the book's greatest strength: the light Unterberger shines on some truly secluded artists. Yes, you may have heard of Syd Barrett and Nick Drake, but even serious rock & roll aficionados may be at a loss when it comes to Duffy Power and the Misunderstood. A 12-song CD comes with the book, making it all the better an investment for music fans who want to explore strange terrain. --Steven Stolder

From Booklist

Connoisseurs of obscure rock should like this sprawling book, which is organized both chronologically (roughly) and thematically (haphazardly). A section entitled "Overlooked Originals" leads off, being followed by "Out of the Garage," "Psychedelic Unknowns," "Punk Pioneers," and so forth. Within each section, the array of specific acts is engagingly eccentric. In "From the Continent," for instance, Unterberger includes the inscrutable German band Can, the Frank Zappa^-inspired Plastic People of the Universe, and French folkie-punk-chanteuse-rocker Francoise Hardy--performers who are utterly unrelated except that they all hail from Europe. Unterberger doesn't claim comprehensiveness, as how could he when his subjects are supposed to be "unknown" ? To his credit, most of these acts really are unknown in America, though some are legends. As a historian, Unterberger is a bit on the light side; for example, he calls Moby Grape's first album "a critical favorite" when it is more famous as an overhyped commercial flop. A fun, moderately informative volume of rock miscellanea. Mike Tribby

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Product Details

• Paperback: 422 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books (May 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879305347
• ISBN-13: 978-0879305345
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #314,368 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating reading, August 22, 1998

By	Bryan Moore (Jonesboro, AR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book yesterday and haven't been able to put it down since. My jury is not all the way in on this (I have to give it four stars to make room for Greil Marcus' MYSTERY TRAIN and, perhaps, Lester Bangs' PSYCHOTIC REACTIONS AND CARBURETOR DUNG), but I'm clearly hooked on it for the short haul. I'm not sure I've read a book like this before. There is plenty of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll here (especially the latter two), interesting tales of quirky, sometimes insane, behavior, as well as some strong arguments for why these people deserve more attention. It's easy to praise the merits of, say, the Beatles or the Clash, but Unterberger successfully engages me in (what is for most of us) musical terra incognito. I've only heard of about 1/3 of the artists Unterberger covers (I wouldn't say that Nick Drake, Syd Barrett, and Sandy Denny are exactly "unknowns"), but he makes me want to try and track down the records of some of these people (e.g., Skip Spence, Aisha Kandisha's Jarring Effects, etc.). This book reminds me--a little--of Nash's BLOOD LETTERS AND BAD MEN (for some reason--I guess I'm thinking of the Joe Meek piece) as well as Kenneth Anger's HOLLYWOOD BABYLON (b/c so many of the artists discussed come to bad ends via alcohol, drugs, insanity, etc.). The CD (45 minutes long) is interesting, but my jury is nowhere near decided on IT. At around $20, this book is a very good deal. It's not for everyone, but if you think you MIGHT be interested in it, you probably will. Here in a few days I might kick myself for not giving it five stars.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book changed my music collection forever, August 1, 2002

By	Roscoe C. Pernwickle "Charlatan" (Morgan Hill, CA USA) - See all my reviews

A friend gave me this book as he knew I was interested in this sort of thing, and I thank him every so often for doing so. As a musician and a music fanatic, I must say Rithchie Unterberger's book really opened my eyes to some incredible stuff I had never dreamed existed.
I must give my profound gratitude to Mr. Unterberger again (I emailed him a couple years back) for introducing me to some criminally underrated music groups that are now among my favorites. To name a few: The Music Machine, John's Children, United States of America and Savage Republic. I remember diligently tracking these groups down after reading this book and buying their albums even though I had only heard one or no songs of theirs at all. Mr. Unterberger's writing style seemed to speak to me exclusivley, and precisley communicated to me EXACTLY what the music sounded like in his words. When I bought the albums, I wasnt very surprised by how good they were on the first listen, as I already "heard" the music based soley on his descriptions alone. That proves how good this book really is. I am a rock fan in general, from new-wave to psych to mainstream alt-rock to aggro-japanese-noise-core, and this book gave me a profound new respect for the sixties. Being a child of the eighties, I did not have the luxury of hanging out at the Factory and/or Haight Ashbury in their '60s beatle-boot heydays. So ostensibly, the only way I could have found out about these wonderful groups is through a book such as this (god knows even NPR would not play most of this stuff during their interludes). Hats off to Ritchie Unterberger for his scholarly knowldege of the TRULY great groups of the sixties.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Time to Move from Unknown to Known!, December 5, 2001

By	doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Unterberger is a critic who really does have a deep knowledge of rock history, especially in terms of little-known artists who have had an unexpected influence on others. Don't be too concerned with who exactly is in this book, because in a world where there's ten thousand unknown bands for every successful rock star, it would be impossible to cover any representative number of "unknowns" in one book. So Unterberger has written about artists that he's familiar with, and he's especially keen on those that were noticed by other open-minded musicians, and have actually influenced the course of rock history in unexpected ways. A few surprise twists are bands that famous people were in during their developmental days, most notably Marc Bolan (T. Rex) in the unheralded psychedelic band John's Children. Also featured in the book is much needed information on artists that most astute rock fans probably have heard of, but for which there is precious little information available, such as Love and Nick Drake. So while it's clearly impossible to cover everybody, Unterberger has done a real service to the artists he includes here. This book has turned me into a real fan of both Love (a tremendous band that all serious fans of rock history should be aware of), plus the intriguing Middle Eastern troupe Aisha Kandisha's Jarring Effects. I have also found myself very interested in Savage Rose, the Music Machine, and the Deviants, but I wish I could track down some of their stuff. For that reason (among others) the CD that comes with this book is a great bonus.