The Sound and the Fury: 40 Years of Classic Rock Journalism: A Rock's Backpages Reader - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1582342822 ISBN 13: 9781582342825

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2003

Synopsis

Longtime music writer and editor Barney Hoskyns decided to build an archive of articles by his favorite rock writers - like Al Aronowitz, Jon Savage, Greil Marcus, Will Self, Lenny Kaye, Mary Harron, and Nick Hornby. Thus was born the website Rock's Backpages (www.rocksbackpages.com), home to thousands of brilliant reviews and rants, interviews and overviews, that helped define music journalism over the last four decades. The Sound and the Fury is the best of this remarkable collection. With contemporary and retrospective articles on the Beatles, Otis Redding, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, ABBA, Madonna, Ice Cube, Nirvana, Morrissey, and many, many more.

About this title

About the Author

Barney Hoskyns is the cofounder and editorial director of the online rock-journalism library Rock’s Backpages, and author of several books including Hotel California: the True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and their Many Friends (2005), Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits (2009), Small Town Talk: Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and friends in the Wild Years of Woodstock (2016), and Never Enough: A Way through Addiction (2017). A former U.S. correspondent for MOJO, Hoskyns has contributed to Vogue, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, GQ, and Uncut.

Reviews

In 2001, longtime rock'n'roll aficionado and writer Hoskyns, dismayed at what he perceived as the overly tame "service industry" of popular-music writing, founded Rock's Backpages (at rocksbackpages.com), an online archive of articles by his favorite rock journalists, which he collects here in this lively anthology. From the site's thousands of profiles, essays and reviews, he has assembled a wide-ranging pool of work by the writers "who got me closest to what rock'n'roll was really about: the irresistible combo of sound and spectacle; of music, performance, image, attitude and ritual." Grouped thematically, the 30 pieces consider a variety of musical genres and employ an assortment of writing styles; they range from Al Aronowitz's account of the Beatles' arrival in America and Jon Savage's encounter with Nirvana to Will Self's face-off with Morrissey and John Mendelssohn's exploration of L.A. gangtsa rap. Each article sports an illuminating introduction by its author, in which he (the contributors are mostly British and mostly male) recalls the story behind the story, offering a few retrospective insights into the heart and soul of the business. The anthology is especially likely to appeal to aspiring rock journalists and music fans who, like Hoskyns, miss the days when music writing was raw, irreverent and vital.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This collection of rock criticism begins with Al Aronowitz's charming 1964 piece on the Beatles' invasion of the U.S and ends 400-plus pages later with Nick Hornby's wry 1997 meditation on ABBA. In between, editor Hoskyns wedges 28 other features, reviews, puff pieces, profiles, and highly subjective reflections, each one focusing on a different act, star, or phenomenon (e.g., the Monterey Pops!, Lollapalooza, and the creepy connections between the Beach Boys and the Manson Family). Best in the book are pieces providing snapshots of now-gone scenes, such as Michael Lydon's impressionistic 1967 article on the Monterey Pops! written while still coming off his high, and those that peer beneath a performer's persona, such as Steve Turner's 1974 analysis of how David Bowie and his manager consciously made him a cult figure and then a superstar. Worst are the few pieces that are more like average, idolizing Rolling Stone gush. The biggest flaw in this quite inclusive anthology, however, is the absence of anything by seminal rock critic Lester Bangs. Jack Helbig
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1582342822
• ISBN 13: 9781582342825
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 480
• Editor: Barney Hoskyns