A long time observer of the pop music scene Lydon (Rock Folk, 1971) here looks at ""the wedding of music and electricity"" from the post-war Chicago blues scene to the ear.splitting sounds of Bo Didley and Chuck Berry. Lydon does several things at once in this chatty, personal book of rock journalism: he gives you at-home and on-stage portraits of million dollar artists like Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and the Beatles. He talks about the business side of rock; about the producers who marketed the wild black sound, sneaked it on the air-waves and bequeathed it to white suburban kids. And throughout he argues and thumps for the new musical values and definitions necessitated by electricity, ""canning,"" multi-track recording sessions, and the amplification and distortion of sound made possible by the studio. It's both a funky and serious book and one which should appeal equally to those interested in rock's cult personalities and in the evolution of pop music as industry and technology.