ROCK ODYSSEY: A Musician's Chronicle of the Sixties

by Ian Whitcomb ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 14, 1983

British writer/performer Whitcomb (After the Ball, Tin Pan Alley) offers a long, rambling ""journey through the key years of the pop sixties and the arcane alleys of my imagination""--mixing familiar rock-history with the story of his own 1960s experiences as music-fan and minor recording-star. Much of this, especially in the early chapters, is heavy on distinctly English perspectives and material: young Ian's love of American music, his distress at early-1960s British ""pop pap."" On vacation from Trinity College in 1963, he visited California, discovered the Beach Boys and surf music: ""the end of the Age of Innocence in pop music themes."" He also learned about Woody Guthrie and Phil Spector, whose career he rehashes at length. (""Like a flying shlemiel, he was to give this whole seedy little world a grandiose sweep."") And he wasn't impressed with his first taste of Bob Dylan: wasn't he ""a bit of a throwback to God knows when?"" Nor, for that matter, back in England, did Ian love the brand-new Beatles (""their R&B wasn't the real thing""), preferring the Rolling Stones and others of the ""British Invaders."" Then, with his group Bluesville, Jagger-imitator Ian finally got recorded himself, with a novelty hit called ""You Turn Me On."" So, for a while, the chunks of music-opinion/history alternate with Ian's tales of touring, recording, and meeting some of his idols (chats with Jagger and Brian Epstein). The star-career is short-lived, however: ""our material is too jolly. . .for the new mood"" in druggy America. And the book's final chapters return primarily to free-form essays on the later Beatles (they had ""lifted pop from being pap for shop girls or dead-end kids""), the Leafy/LSD/Jefferson Airplane phenomenon, Cream (""the first supergroup""), Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison--with whom Ian had a seedy coffee-shop breakfast one morning. (""And yet beyond the boy hustler appearance, I could sense good breeding. . ."") Recycled history, so-so critiques, occasionally amusing I-was-a-rock-star tales--all jumbled together in an arch, lively, half-absorbing yak for nostalgic fans.

Pub Date: Oct. 14, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION