Rock Lives : Profiles and Interviews. This item is unavailable.Rock Lives : Profiles and Interviews

In interview format, this collection provides biographical information on over fifty international rock musicians, discussing their origins, their attitudes about fellow musicians, and their feelings about their work

Eminently browsable, Rock Lives captures the legends of rock and roll from traditional Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson to the explicitly erotic Prince. Through these 59 portraits, White ( Catch a Fire ) defines the influences that shaped the best-known practitioners of the uniquely American, "triumphantly incendiary" art form. The sketches, grouped into three roughly chronological categories, "Pioneers," "Pilgrims" and "Progeny," show White to be more than a mere purveyor of information. His opinions and attitudes are in evidence throughout. On Stevie Wonder: "No singer has ever offered such uniform, unearthly escape to integrity." In a question to Pete Townshend: "I've always believed that rock and roll . . . was a reaction to Hiroshima and the Holocaust." The interviews catch the stars generally relaxed and willing to talk about their lives and music, in which White argues convincingly, the division between life--or at least lifestyle--and art has become indistinct. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

White has a marvelous ear: not only for "an art form so triumphantly incendiary" as rock music, but for the rhythms in the lives and conversation of those who make that music. In these essays, many of which come from White's work over the last 20 years with Crawdaddy and Rolling Stone , the author has accomplished the neat feat of updating the information without losing the sound of the singer's voice or the taste of the time. Divided into three sections, "Pioneers," "Pilgrims," and "Progeny," some 60 essays capture the fervid deviltry of Jerry Lee Lewis, the hesitant eloquence of Eric Clapton, and Stevie Nicks in a different pose from airhead angel. White writes with passion and intelligence, and never gets in the way of his subjects: no one can make Jimmy Page intelligible, or Michael Jackson real. Some of this material appeared in different form in his Rock Stars (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1984). Recommended for virtually all collections Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/90. --GraceAnne A. DeCandido, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.