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Title: The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Revised and Updated for the 21st Century) by Holly George-Warren, Patricia Romanowski, Jon Pareles ISBN: 0-7432-0120-5 Publisher: Fireside Pub. Date: 30 October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.58 (12 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Not encyclopedic enough. But once...
Comment: I remember a book from 1993 or so that RS put out called THE ROLLING STONE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF R & R, or something similar. That book was the most valuable resource to anyone buying music period. Unfortunately, this (revised?=simplified=cheap-o) edition misses a lot of minor artists. This can be expected by any book bearing the Rolling Stone moniker; the magazine has pretty much irrelevant since grunge died, hasn't it.
The most glaring omission, however, is the lack of individual album reviews. The previous book included every album by almost every artist you could think of and gave each CD a 1/2-to-5-star review. The ensuing banter not only covered each artist's overall history and stylistic meanderings, but went from album to album, giving criticism.
All I want is another book like that, but updated to cover the last decade. That book would be worth $100. Can you do that, RS, or are you totally useless to me now? I guess you should keep putting Britney Spears naked on your magazine covers and stop trying to find new interesting music. Then you make my decision easy.
Rating: 2
Summary: FAR from complete.
Comment: I got this book for Christmas last year. Good resource for a lot of bands and musicians. So what's wrong?
Where's Pantera?
Where's Dream Theater?
Those are the only two I can think of offhand. There is way, WAY too much vital stuff missing.
Rating: 3
Summary: Abritrary, capricious, infuriating but indispensible
Comment: Why include a nothing group like the Classics IV and not include the group they imitated who had more hits (the Hilltoppers)? Why exclude one-hit wonders, but include Bobby "Boris" Pickett (Monster Mash)? Why include Sam Phillips, but exclude Leonard Chess who may be even more important? How can they include the Flamingoes, the Penguins, the Moonglows and leave out the Harptones? And two of the worst ommissions: the Duprees and the Skyliners! Amazing!
I don't like the fact that they included Phil Spector as a performer and then wrote a lengthy article about him as a producer. If his reason for being in the book is that he sang with the Teddy Bears (another one-hit wonder), then he shouldn't be in for that. If he is in because he was a seminal producer, then Lou Adler and John Hammond should be in. How can you leave out Alan Freed and Murray the K? What happened to Lieber & Stoller? Eddie Holland?
Of course, there are wonderful articles that are gems such as the one on the Airplane, Mamas & Papas and others. There is a wealth of information that one would be hard pressed to find elsewhere, but the inconsistencies are astonishing. The real problem lies, I think, in that this should be a larger book, or a CD-ROM. Further, the discography listings that precede each article should have the correct number of stars assigned. Obviously, this may not be possible (or even desirable)for every album, but this information already exists in the RS database. A couple of more editions and they may just get it right.
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Title: The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll : The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music by Rolling Stone Magazine ISBN: 0679737286 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 10 November, 1992 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: The Great Rock Discography by John Peel, Martin C. Strong ISBN: 1841953121 Publisher: Canongate Books Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (3rd Edition) by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine ISBN: 087930653X Publisher: Backbeat Books Pub. Date: 16 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The History of Rock & Roll by David Shirley ISBN: 0531158462 Publisher: Orchard Books Pub. Date: October, 1997 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn ISBN: 0823076903 Publisher: Watson-Guptill Pubns Pub. Date: 01 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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