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Title: Urban Spacemen and Wayfaring Strangers: Overlooked Innovators and Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Rock by Richie Unterberger, Paul Kantner ISBN: 0-87930-616-5 Publisher: Backbeat Books Pub. Date: 30 October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A little more interesting than Unterberger's previous work.
Comment: I had found "The Unknown Legends Of Rock'n'Roll" an interesting source of reference, but one which revealed relatively little that cannot be found in the writings of some eccentric critics or in books such as "the MOJO Collection".
This book is somewhat different instructure from Unterberger's previous work in that it is focused on many fewer artists and allows each one much more space. This really does benefit the book because the reader can know each artist mentioned much more than in "The Unknown Legends Of Rock'n'Roll". One gains a true understanding of each artist, the people who formed them, their ideals and the music they made in a way one does not with "The Unknown Legends Of Rock'n'Roll".
Moreover, Unterberger tries to explain the fact that there are so many undiscovered gems from the 1960s in terms of the culture of the decade. On the whole, he is fairly successful, even though he is careful to avoid claiming that the bands discussed were better than such acts as the Beatles, Rolling Stones or Velvet Underground. He is very successful, though, in explaining what has attracted certain groups of people to the undiscovered music of the 1960s, and tries to avoid the very common critical viewpoint that only those sixties bands who were predecessors of punk and new wave (Velvets, Stooges, MC5, Beefheart and the garage bands) are important today.
Some of the artists did actually have a major hit or fair success on album charts, unlike "The Unknown Legends Of Rock'n'Roll", where there are very severe qualifications for inclusion. Such artists are re-evaluated in terms of other work that did not succeed of the charts. Distribution was not as regular in the sixties as it is today so that many bands could have had a hit locally that never became a hit nationally. This was particularly true of some "blue and brown eyes soul" groups such as Thee Midniters and The Rationals, the latter of which could never break out of their hometown in the era before the "Detroit sound" of the Stooges, MC5 and Alice Cooper became established.
As mentioned earlier, the artists mentioned receive a good description and one is able to track what the members of each groups discussed were doing (or collaborators in the case of artists like Tim Buckley) and to the way in which they evolved throughout their careers. This is, I feel, a better way of doing thins than the brief profiles of "The Unknown Legends of Rock'n'Roll", and gets into one's mind more easily. At the same time, it is no more revealing for some who reads incessantly about music than "The Unknown Legends of Rock'n'Roll", and the artists do not require as much to be written about them as the artists in "The Unknown Legends of Rock'n'Roll" (Unterberger admits this).
On the whole, this is worthy reading and rather better presented than "The Unknown Legends of Rock'n'Roll".
Rating: 5
Summary: a superb book!
Comment: unterberger is probably my favorite music writer, his tastes most closely resemble my own. he's right when he says that there were many, many great groups in the 60's that DIDN'T make it. there were (in my estimation) very very few truly bad bands in the 60's and early 70's- most groups had something going for them. if you like this era, you should also try mr. unterberger's other book on obscure rock greats. this book profiles interesting to sublime performers like the bonzo dog band, tim buckley, and fred neil, to name just three. hopefully unterberger will continue to produce books on musical figures from this halcyon period.
Rating: 5
Summary: John's Review
Comment: Richie has pulled it off once again! On the heels of his "Unknown Legends of Rock N' Roll" he's created an essential publication for any fan of 60s rock n' roll history. From obscure groups like the Poets and Rationals to more well-known artists like the Beau Brummels and Bobby Fuller he provides the reader with a reading laced with personal interviews that highlight the ups and downs of the music business in the 1960s. A 6 track CD is included which features a fantastic live performance of the Electric Prunes' "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night", which without the studio-produced effects of the hit single make it almost a different tune. In fact, maybe a better one. Here's hoping Richie is starting on another similar venture because this stuff is down right addictive.
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Title: Unknown Legends of Rock 'n' Roll by Richie Unterberger ISBN: 0879305347 Publisher: Backbeat Books Pub. Date: 1998 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Eight Miles High: Folk-Rock's Flight from Haight-Ashbury to Woodstock by Richie Unterberger ISBN: 0879307439 Publisher: Backbeat Books Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Turn! Turn! Turn!: The '60s Folk-Rock Revolution by Richie Unterberger, Mark Brend ISBN: 087930703X Publisher: Backbeat Books Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Got a Revolution! : The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane by Jeff Tamarkin, Jann Wenner, Paul Kantner ISBN: 0671034030 Publisher: Atria Books Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: The Psychedelic Rock Files by Jerry Lucky ISBN: 1896522971 Publisher: Apogee Books Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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