The Top 30 Rock Books I Own: #8 The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll

Title: The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll
Author: Various, Edited by Jim Miller
Year Originally Published: 1976
Edition I Own: Rolling Stone Press, First Edition, 1980. The book was originally published in '76, but revised and (only parts?) rewritten in '80. It has since gone through more permutations, but I don't keep up with 'em.

What They Say: My edition is out of print, hence no reviews to be found on the Internet. But I did find editor Jim Miller's comments on the book, in an excerpt from his book Flowers in the Dustbin:

As the original editor of The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll. I structured that volume by inviting prominent critics to write essays on a pantheon of distinguished musicians: within this framework, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson and Otis Redding and Buddy Holly and the Beach Boys got equal billing with the Rolling Stones and the Doors. Like the subsequent institution of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Rolling Stone Illustrated History made it seem as if the music revolved around an admirable group of natural geniuses. To some extent, of course, it has: without Elvis Presley and the Beatles, there might not be a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

(BT interjects: As I get older and the rock 'n' roll map shows even more unexplored frontiers, I worry about thoughts like the above that are canonical in nature. But Miller addresses that in the next paragraph ...)

Still, a survey only of heroic musicians cannot help but leave a misleading impression of what rock and roll is, and of how it has evolved. By breaking apart a familiar and essentially romantic narrative, and exploiting the latest memoirs and research to look again more closely at a handful of events, one can see the story of rock's global triumph more clearly for what it is: an enduring puzzle that has yet to be properly appreciated, much less explained.

Tuomala's Attempt At A Take: I bought this at Magers & Quinn used in the mid-nineties. Always a favorite to read on free periods in my high school's library, this book also served as the primary source material for my final speech ("The History of Rock 'n' Roll") in spring 1982 speech class. I'm sure the speech was horrible and I would laugh at my youthful stupidity if I heard it today. Though I remember it being one of only two in that class that I gave where I wasn't cringing with total nervousness.

My edition's heavy metal chapter was written by Lester Bangs and here is where we find the MC5 and the Stooges ... in your face, punks! This chapter also has great photo captions no doubt written by Bangs also. He also wrote the sections on garage rock, bubblegum, and the Doors. There is other fine writing by Dave Marsh, Greil Marcus, Robert Christgau, Peter Guralnick, etc. Nik Cohn's chapter on Phil Spector is remarkable.

I still pick up the book and read chapters now and then. It's interesting in how it attempts to define twenty-five years (at the time) of rock 'n' roll. When I was sixteen, I felt this was something I needed and probably did in order to get some perspective. At this date, the concept seems either noble or naive. Or both.