Rockin' Down the Highway: The Cars and People That Made Rock Roll - Hardcover

Grushkin, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0760322929 ISBN 13: 9780760322925

Publisher: Voyageur Pr, 2006

Synopsis

In the world of music, a car is inspiration, a symbol of freedom and style, and often a way to hit the road and get to the gig. From Robert Johnson’s “Terraplane Blues” to rapper Xzibit’s hit MTV show, “Pimp My Ride,” from pink Cadillacs and L’il Deuce Coupes and Roadrunners, cars have been a constant theme in rock-n-roll. Perhaps it’s because references to cars in American song are so pervasive that no one has ever attempted the daunting task of exploring the connection . . . until now.

 

In this beautifully produced volume, best-selling music writer Paul Grushkin draws on renowned photographers, lauded poster artists, and top private archives to present a thematic illustrated examination of the remarkable 50-plus-year synergy between rock music and motoring, from early R&B to surf to metal to punk to hip-hop. The result is astounding. Dozens of acclaimed photographers (including Steve Coonan, Jim Marshall, Henry Diltz, Glen E. Friedman, and Pamela Springsteen), illustrators (Stanley Mouse, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Darrell Mayabb, and Coop, among them), and poster artists (including Mark Arminski, Stainboy, and Kathleen Judge) have participated. Rockers like Elvis Presley, Eric Clapton, the Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, Snoop Dogg, and Billy F Gibbons are just a few of the hundreds of artists whose associations with automobiles are celebrated here. The book is replete with anecdotes and commentary from famous musicians, as well as “ordinary” rock-n-rollers who’ve loved rock and cars equally with a passion.

About this title

About the Author

PAUL GRUSHKIN is the author of The Art of Rock, the standard work in the field of rock posters, and its bestselling followup, Art of Modern Rock. He is the author of several other books in the field of rock history and memorabilia, including Grateful Dead: The Official Book of the Deadheads and Treasures of the Hard Rock Café. A former archivist for promoter Bill Graham, he has more than two decades’ experience at the forefront of rock merchandising, having mounted campaigns for top acts and created his own Phantom clothing line.

From the Back Cover

FINALLY, THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED, BOOK-LENGTH HISTORY OF THE LONG AND WINDING INTERPLAY BETWEEN ROCK & ROLL AND THE AUTOMOBILE. ROCKIN DOWN THE HIGHWAY FEATURES:

More than 1,000 evocative images, including many never before seen in print

The roles that hot rods, muscle cars, motorsports, tuner cars, and tour buses have played in rock & roll

Posters from today s top artists in the genre, including seven artworks created exclusively for the book

Imagery from many of rock s most acclaimed photographers

Rock s most iconic figures, as well as its mere mortals

FOR MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS, ROCK & ROLL AND CARS HAVE BEEN INEXTRICABLY LINKED IN SONG, IN THE LIVES OF ARTISTS AND THEIR FANS, AND EVEN SONICALLY. FINALLY, THAT LONG RICH INTERPLAY IS GIVEN THE IN-DEPTH EXAMINATION IT DESERVES.

From the Inside Flap

FINALLY, THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED, BOOK-LENGTH HISTORY OF THE LONG AND WINDING INTERPLAY BETWEEN ROCK & ROLL AND THE AUTOMOBILE.

With the help of more than 1,000 evocative images, including many not previously seen in print, prominent rock historian Paul Grushkin presents an expansive celebration of the unholy marriage of rock & roll and internal combustion. Postwar America witnessed a swelling youth movement, which in turn proved a wild and loose breeding ground for the inseparable, simultaneous developments of rock & roll and car culture. This loud music and these loud cars were utterly unprecedented. To adults, they signified danger; to kids, they represented intoxicating freedom. Inevitably, the two got it on and never looked back.

With an appreciation for all genres of popular music to since emerge R&B, rockabilly, surf, soul, psychedelia, punk, funk, folk, hip-hop, and more Grushkin riffs on the associations that dozens upon dozens of historic and contemporary artists, both iconic and merely mortal, have had with cars for more than a half-century, through both their songs and everyday lives. Likewise, with an understanding of what it means to be an unrepentant gearhead a devotee of hot rods, customs, muscle cars, motorsports, tuner cars, bone stockers, and even the obligatory limos and tour buses the author also turns the table to show how leading figures from the automotive realm have played a persistent part in the world of popular music for more than fifty years.

The result is massive and mind-bendingly illustrated, thanks to scores of car-related musical ephemera (45s, album art, promotional posters, etc.), imagery from many of rock s leading photographers (Joel Bernstein, Jay Blakesberg, Danny Clinch, Henry Diltz, Glen E. Friedman, Lynn Goldsmith, Jim Marshall, Charles Peterson, Neal Preston, Pamela Springsteen, to name a few), acclaimed photographers from the car world (including Steve Coonan and David Perry), and some of today s top rock-poster artists, including Mark Arminski, Coop, Eleanor Grosch, Gary Houston, Kathleen Judge, Stainboy, and Alison Zawacki, all of whom have created exclusive art for the book.

The relationship between rock and cars has been long and rich Rockin Down the Highway is the long-overdue and glorious tribute.

Jacket illustration by Darrell Mayabb

Jacket design by Brent Rector/FUEL Creative Group

Edition details

• Publisher: Voyageur Pr
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0760322929
• ISBN 13: 9780760322925
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 234