Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977

James Miller

ISBN 10: 0684865602 / ISBN 13: 9780684865607

Published by Touchstone, 2000

Abnutzung / Risse - leicht; Gebrochener Buchrücken / Seiten oder Softcover umgeknickt. The Barnes & Noble Review David Lee Roth said that the beauty of rock and roll is that "they're no rules and no schools. You just make it up as you go along." Certainly, the history of the plugged-in genre seems more like a mad romp than a logical development. James Miller sets out here to capture the evolution of early R&R as an industry and as a force in American life. Without descending into diatribe or veering towards critical theory, this former Michel Foucault biographer writes about the metamorphosis of casual basement jamming into a sometimes devious multi-million dollar business. Strewn along the way are epiphanies of music history: Bob Dylan turning the Beatles onto marijuana at their first meeting in 1964; Berry Gordy producing his first big hit by instructing Jackie Wilson to imitate Elvis Presley; the less-than-endearing first appearance of the Sex Pistols on British TV. Both literate and unpretentious, Miller catches the frantic surrealism of the rock scene. As Jerry Garcia said, "By comparison, real life is very dull." Jules Herbert. Seller Inventory # 7ae0d10b-624b-4063-afd0-3ee7ea5e14c9

Synopsis:

A prizewinning historian and journalist who has covered the pop music scene for more than three decades, James Miller brings a powerful and challenging intellectual perspective to his recounting of some key turning points in the history of rock. Arguing that the music underwent its full creative evolution in little more than twenty-five years, he traces its roots from the jump blues of the forties to the disc jockeys who broadcast the music in the early fifties. He shows how impresarios such as Alan Freed and movie directors such as Richard Brooks (of Blackboard Jungle) joined black music to white fantasies of romance and rebellion, and then mass-marketed the product to teenagers. He describes how rock matured as a form of music, from Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley to the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Marvin Gaye, defining a decade of rebellious ferment. At the same time, he candidly recounts how trendsetting rock acts from Jim Morrison and the Doors in the late sixties to the Sex Pistols in the late seventies became ever more crude, outrageous, and ugly -- "as if to mark," writes Miller, "the triumph of the psychopathic adolescent."
Richly anecdotal and always provocative, Flowers in the Dustbin tells the story of rock and roll as it has never been told before.

About the Author: James Miller has been wood carving since he was 11. He has won numerous awards for his work. James is currently attending the Vesterheim's Folk Art School apprentice for instructor training.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and...
Publisher: Touchstone
Publication Date: 2000
Binding: Softcover
Condition: Fine