Unlike all previous versions of rock rsquo;nrsquo; roll history; this book omits almost every iconic performer and ignores the storied events and turning points that everyone knows. Instead; in a daring stroke; Greil Marcus selects ten songs recorded between 1956 and 2008; then proceeds to dramatize how each embodies rock rsquo;nrsquo; roll as a thing in itself; in the story it tells; inhabits; and acts outmdash;a new language; something new under the sun.ldquo;Transmissionrdquo; by Joy Division. ldquo;All I Could Do Was Cryrdquo; by Etta James and then Beyonceacute;. ldquo;To Know Him Is to Love Him;rdquo; first by the Teddy Bears and almost half a century later by Amy Winehouse. In Marcusrsquo;s hands these and other songs tell the story of the music; which is; at bottom; the story of the desire for freedom in all its unruly and liberating glory. Slipping the constraints of chronology; Marcus braids together past and present; holding up to the light the ways that these striking songs fall through time and circumstance; gaining momentum and meaning; astonishing us by upending our presumptions and prejudices. This book; by a founder of contemporary rock criticismmdash;and its most gifted and incisive practitionermdash;is destined to become an enduring classic.
#2002183 in eBooks 2014-07-14 2014-07-14File Name: B00MMOJ7CO
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Not what I expectedBy Louie SitesThe book is well written. However; I was expecting more of a tutorial than a collection of essays. My fault for not taking more notice before I ordeered it.
