WHERE ARE YOU NOW, BO DIDDLEY? The Stars Who Made Us Rock and Where They Are Now

by Edward Kiersh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 19, 1986

These essay-interviews on 47 rock-and-roll stars of the 60's capture moods ranging from nostalgia to bitterness and from contentment to pathos. They form an entertaining history of the era's music, an oddly fitting companion to Kiersh's earlier Where Have You Gone, Vince DiMaggio? Each interview includes a photograph by Stephen Wallis. In snappy journalistic style, the author approaches his subjects straight on, providing the basic details of their histories and letting them tell the crucial moments in their own words. He reserves his irony for the exceptionally disdainful. His eye for the odd, the extravagant, and the scandalous is appropriate. Where are they? Dave Clark, Robbie Robertson, and Mickey Dolenz have gone on to success in the entertainment industry. Arlo Guthrie, Donovan, and John Sebastian are still trying to create and sell new music. David Crosby's interview is strange and sad. Alice Cooper's tale is bizarre. Certain reprises emerge: financial mismanagement, the vapid grind of revival shows, the later joys of raising children. The general feeling is not one of tragedy, but of reassessment, starting over. There is even outright happiness: Petula Clark, Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops. The pieces, ordered more or less randomly, do suffer from a sameness in approach. They are ordered and crafted so similarly that they become predictable, reiterating the same themes in the same way. Nonetheless, the interviews provide a lively account of the 60's music world.

Pub Date: Sept. 19, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1986

Categories: NONFICTION