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Peter Blecha

Sonic Boom! The History of Northwest Rock: From Louie Louie to Smells Like Teen Spirit Paperback – March 1, 2009

by Peter Blecha (Author)

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In this epic exploration of the Pacific Northwest's esteemed garage rock traditions, Peter Blecha, Seattle's "rock 'n' roll archaeologist," skillfully weaves together the untold tales behind the rise of the region's early dance halls, recording studios, record labels, radio stations, and 1950s rockabilly, RandB, and doo-wop groups. The result is a compelling saga about an isolated region of America that, against all odds, managed to win global acclaim by stubbornly making music merely to satisfy its own provincial pop needs. Illuminating the creative continuum that arcs between the earliest rockin' pioneers and more recent demigods, Sonic Boom! reveals how one backwater music scene could produce such disparate mega-talents as the Ventures, Jimi Hendrix, Heart, Robert Cray, Queensryche, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Nirvana, and of course the legendary garage stompers, the Sonics. The culmination of over two decades of research, Sonic Boom! benefits from the 500-plus exclusive interviews that Blecha conducted with trailblazing DJs, sound engineers, label founders, and the leading luminaries of Northwest rock, including such hitmakers as the Kingsmen, the Ventures, the Frantics, the Sonics, the Wailers, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Dave Lewis, Ron Holden, Merrilee Rush, Larry Coryell, Heart, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam.

Print length

322 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Backbeat
Publication date

March 1, 2009
Dimensions

6.04 x 0.75 x 8.58 inches
ISBN-10

0879309466
ISBN-13

978-0879309466
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Peter Blecha
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Paperback
28 offers from $1.48

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...an excellent and informative look at the birth of a music scene...Blecha knows his regional music history...an easy and enticing read." PopSyndicate.com

"...an often surprising and entirely enlightening exploration of Northwest rock history... thanks to Blecha, the rollicking musical past of this corner of the country won't quietly disappear... the stories are skillfully compiled and thankfully told..." Seattle Sound

"This is a great read, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of Northwest rock and roll." Jet City Blues

"Sonic Boom reclaims our region s dominance in rock annals and cements Blecha s reputation as its foremost historian." Seattle Metropolitan

"Sonic Boom will remain as the source book for anyone interested in the rock of the Pacific Northwest." Expressmilwaukee.com

"Blecha strikes a winning balance through a mixture of scrupulous research and genuine passion for his subject." Blurt

Sonic Boom "was written exactly the way a book, or a song should be written ...it was hard putting it down, and I practically dog-eared every page for reference points." Jerseybeat.com

"The Northwest musical influence on the entire rock culture has been overlooked for way too long. This is a great book for anybody who loves Rock 'n' Roll and its hidden history." Allan Handelman, Rock Talk radio

"Blecha lovingly limns the history of rock music in Seattle and the northwestern U.S. ...and the predominant celebratory tone can be infectious." Booklist

"...plain and simple, a highly enjoyable read... I say it stands up with Charles Cross's Hendrix bio as NW canon...." Tom Dyer, President, Argosy University "

Blecha s angle is different. He pens the story from behind the scenes of the early radio stations, recording studios and record labels." Puget Sound Business Journal

"Finally...this puts it all in perspective for those who thought Oregon and Washington were little more than places with a lot of rain." curledup.com

"Seattle s unofficial curator of rock n roll charts the evolution of Northwest rock specifically the era book-ended by those two unmistakable riffs as told by the musicians, fans, promoters, scenesters, and label heads who lived it." Gibson.com

"The deep rock 'n' roll history of the Northwest has finally been fully chronicled so grab your favorite flannel shirt and find the nearest Starbucks to sit down in and soak up the Sonic Boom." CMJ:

--Various

"The deep rock 'n' roll history of the Northwest has finally been fully chronicled so grab your favorite flannel shirt and find the nearest Starbucks to sit down in and soak up the Sonic Boom." CMJ: --cmj

"The Northwest musical influence on the entire rock culture has been overlooked for way too long. This is a great book for anybody who loves Rock 'n' Roll and its hidden history." Allan Handelman, Rock Talk radio "Blecha lovingly limns the history of rock music in Seattle and the northwestern U.S. ...and the predominant celebratory tone can be infectious." Booklist "...plain and simple, a highly enjoyable read... I say it stands up with Charles Cross's Hendrix bio as NW canon...." Tom Dyer, President, Argosy University " Blecha s angle is different. He pens the story from behind the scenes of the early radio stations, recording studios and record labels." Puget Sound Business Journal "Finally...this puts it all in perspective for those who thought Oregon and Washington were little more than places with a lot of rain." curledup.com "Seattle s unofficial curator of rock n roll charts the evolution of Northwest rock specifically the era book-ended by those two unmistakable riffs as told by the musicians, fans, promoters, scenesters, and label heads who lived it." Gibson.com "The deep rock 'n' roll history of the Northwest has finally been fully chronicled so grab your favorite flannel shirt and find the nearest Starbucks to sit down in and soak up the Sonic Boom." CMJ: --Various

About the Author

Peter Blecha is Seattle's unofficial “curator of rock 'n' roll ” a title conferred upon him by the Seattle Weekly in honor of the numerous magazine essays, radio shows, independent gallery exhibits, and books for which Blecha has been responsible. The exhibits he developed as the senior curator for Seattle's world-famous music museum, the Experience Music Project, have met with great critical acclaim.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Backbeat (March 1, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 322 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0879309466
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0879309466
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.13 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.04 x 0.75 x 8.58 inches

Customer Reviews:
27 ratings

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Peter Blecha

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Peter Blecha is: a Staff Historian and Contributing Editor with HistoryLink.org; the Director of the Northwest Music Archives; and an award-winning author of ten books. A longtime member of the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild, and former longtime Senior Curator at Seattle’s EMP music museum (today’s MoPop), Blecha has been acknowledged over the decades as: “the premier expert in his chosen field of research” (Seattle Weekly, 1988); “Seattle’s best-known collector” (Scram Magazine, 2006); the “Indiana Jones of Rock ‘n’ Roll” (The Rocket, 2000); and a writer who “deserves a place in Northwest music history for his important role in preserving its history and promoting its legacy” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2005).

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

27 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Up The Stairs

Fabulous Fun

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 16, 2011

Verified Purchase

I'm giving this book five stars because it rocks, I couldn't put it down, and it answered so many questions that I've had since the early '60s until present day. I found this book to be fabulous, though it does have some faults. Sonic Boom is extensively researched and presented in an easy-to-read, engaging style that hooked me from the beginning.

Sonic Boom is written very well, and it has some fantastic passages that are meaningful to people who grew up in the Puget Sound. Two of the criticisms that I've read about Sonic Boom deal with it's lack of coverage outside the Puget Sound, and it's intense coverage of the late '50's and all of the '60s. This is a fair criticism, as Portland, and Oregon in general, gets slighted. After reading this book, one could easily ascertain that Portland had two bands in the early '60s, the Kingsmen and Paul Revere and the Raiders. Obviously, this wasn't true. The era criticism has less validity, though certainly some merit. While Blecha didn't spend a fair share of time on the 80s-2000, it's also true that for the most part, that period isn't all that interesting, and it has been covered extensively, exhaustively, in main stream press rags since 1988. Also, the metal scene in Seattle, Queensrcyhe included, is a big so what. I'm okay with the way Blecha covered the various eras. I think he hit the important eras well, and while he could have given us more about Nirvana and Pearl Jam, I'm okay that he didn't.

Pat O'Day was a legend beyond belief when I was a teenager growing up in the Puget Sound. Lou Guzzo was also a well known journalist and patriarch during these times. I used to want to be Pat O'Day. He was a childhood hero, so I had difficulty accepting the negative role Blecha painted of him. However, after reading about O'Day's methods, I can see that while he was great on the radio, he is probably more responsible for restraining the growth of Northwest rock and roll than he was for promoting it. In fact, it would be fair to say that O'Day did only what he needed to do to put a buck in his pocket. A problem that is as American as apple pie. Lou Guzzo! I used to wonder why I didn't like that guy. Now I have a better understanding.

I guess if I could have had some input into the writing of Sonic Boom, I would have asked for more extensive interviews from actual musicians. Hearing it from members of The Wailers, The Sonics, Merrilee Rush, etc would have been great. Also, Chris Novaselic lives here! I had to wonder why we didn't get any input from him. It seems that since Nirvana is the second biggest thing to ever come out of the Seattle area, with Hendrix being the first, we could have had some local input into the dialogue. Perhaps there is a reason why that didn't happen. Nonetheless, I still love this book. And I think it is important to remember that the book, as written, is of a reasonable length, 304 pages, and to have filled it with too much information would have altered its readability.

Buy this book. It is well worth the current price being asked, and it is full of Northwest music history. I'm going to buy it for friends and relatives for birthday presents. They need to know, so do you.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

William R. Downing Jr.

Seatle rock and roll in SONIC BOOM

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 28, 2013

Verified Purchase

Since I grew up with Northwest rock falling out of my radio every day in the 1960's,this book is like a trip in the 'way back machine'. Pat O'Day and Dick Curtiss and others had a tremendous influence on getting the absolutely unique Northwest Sound out to the rest of the World and the book takes you deep into the Seattle music scene and tells how the machinery worked (did you know Ray Charles played here a lot?) did you know that Paul Reveres guitar players showed Jimi Hendrix how to play guitar behind his head?.
No matter what your rock music tastes are, reading this and then Youtubing some of the music will give a good foundation in how NW rock fed and watered the coming rock music styles.
Like Grunge or garage rock? The SONICS' is for you. Check into Paul Revere and the Raiders and see how their sound went from fresh and unique to crankled out pabblum thanks to Dick Clark beating all the Northwest out of them. this book is a true revalation for rock documentarians and well worth the investment.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Dutch1

Fascinating read.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 1, 2013

Verified Purchase

I must qualify the headline by stating that I am originally from the Pacific Northwest, and I played lead guitar in a rock band in the 60's, which is the decade that is covered in most detail in this book, due to the shear volume (no pun intended) of bands forming during those days. But, even if you didn't live in the Northwest, or weren't even alive in the 60's, it may surprise you how much the Northwest music scene influenced Rock 'n' Roll nationally. Even George Harrison of The Beatles was influenced early on by what he heard coming out of the Northwest corner of the USA. The rock revolution started with that seminal garageband song Louie Louie, and picked up speed from there. If you like Rock music, are fascinated by it's history, and behind-the-scenes accounts, then this book is a must read as it leads you from the mid-50's right into the new millenium.

2 people found this helpful

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James Henshaw

And everyone thought that all that '60s rock came out of California.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 27, 2020

Verified Purchase

If your interested in the history of rock n roll music you should get this book. The pacific nw was a hot bed for bands in the late '50s tand all through the '60s. It's a good read and I highly recommend it.

One person found this helpful

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John Auker

fast

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 11, 2019

Verified Purchase

As described except for a powerful smell of perfume

Helpful

Nick

Christmas present for my Dad

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 12, 2013

Verified Purchase

My dad loves music and since he grew up in the 50's and 60's in Oregon I thought this would be a good present for him. He was a huge fan of all the bands during the "garage band" era of Pacific Northwest music. He would alway talk about going the the Grange Halls and Dance Halls to see Paul Bearer and the Hearsmen, The Raiders, The Wailers, and of course The Kingsmen. His eyes lit up after he realized what the book was about. Can't wait to read it after he is done.

2 people found this helpful

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THOMAS C. BIAGI

Sonic Boom

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 12, 2014

Verified Purchase

Back in the mid 50's I knew something was happening in the North West. The Wailer's were one
of my favorite bands at that time, saw them play in San Francisco. This book gives you more background
on other bands, some of which I've discovered much latter, during the late 60's when the music scene
was flourishing, many North West musicians filled in with the bands blossoming at that time. I'm sure
that the obsticals that faced young musicians there were breaking down all over the country.

One person found this helpful

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Plb

The single best book on this era

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 14, 2016

Verified Purchase

The single best book on this era. Researched, interviewed and analyzed! A solid must-read. Many anecdotes told for the first time!
This is a perennial reference as well as a great read.

2 people found this helpful

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