cover image Rock & Roll… and the Beat Goes On

Rock & Roll… and the Beat Goes On

Bruce Morrow, Rich Maloof, , with Rich Maloof. . Imagine, $35 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-9823064-3-7

Following up on Doo Wop: The Music, the Times, the Era , this retrospective celebrates the rock scene of the 1960s and early 1970s. Legendary deejay Morrow and Maloof, former editor-in-chief of Guitar , note the eruption of drugs, radicalism and freakery into rock during the 1960s, but politely spare us the juicy details we expect from a man with the kind of all-access pass Morrow had. Morrow makes prim reference to the Doors’ “controversy-courting frontman” Jim Morrison and to Ozzie Osbourne’s reputation “as a very strange person.” Morrow does highlight the Beatles’ first performance at Shea Stadium in 1965—which he himself emceed. The screams of 55,000 fans were so loud that Ed Sullivan nervously turned to Morrow and asked, “Is this going to be dangerous?” The authors include sidebar appreciations of individual bands and illuminate, through their photographic documentation, the apocalyptic changes in, among other things, men’s hair styles during the 1960s. Descriptions of pop culture symbols—the 1965 Mustang; Batman TV series; The Graduate —help put perspective on the music of the era. The authors cover everything, from the British Invasion (Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, etc.) to Motown (including the Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas), ending with the Doobie Brothers, Allman Brothers, Steely Dan and Pink Floyd. (Nov.)