The History of Rock 'n' Roll in Ten Songs
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  • The Arts
  • Popular music
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Our price:
$28.00
Categories
  • The Arts
  • Popular music
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The History of Rock 'n' Roll in Ten Songs

By Greil Marcus
en

One of our finest critics gives us an altogether original history of rock ‘n’ roll Unlike all previous versions of rock ‘n’ roll history, this book omits almost every iconic performer and ignores the storied events and turning points that everyone knows. Instead, in a daring stroke, Greil Marcus selects ten songs recorded between 1956 and 2008, then proceeds to dramatize how each embodies rock ‘n’ roll as a thing in itself, in the story it tells, inhabits, and acts out-a new language, something new under the sun. “Transmission” by Joy Division. “All I Could Do Was Cry” by Etta James and then Beyonce. “To Know Him Is to Love Him,” first by the Teddy Bears and almost half a century later by Amy Winehouse. In Marcus’s hands these and other songs tell the story of the music, which is, at bottom, the story of the desire for freedom in all its unruly and liberating glory. Slipping the constraints of chronology, Marcus braids together past and present, holding up to the light the ways that these striking songs fall through time and circumstance, gaining momentum and meaning, astonishing us by upending our presumptions and prejudices. This book, by a founder of contemporary rock criticism-and its most gifted and incisive practitioner-is destined to become an enduring classic.

PUBLISHER :
yale university press
PUBLICATION DATE :
September 2, 2014
ISBN-10 :
0300187378
ISBN-13:
9780300187373
LANGUAGE :
English
FORMAT :
Hardback
PAGES :
320 Pages
PUBLISHER :
yale university press
PUBLICATION DATE :
September 2, 2014
ISBN-10 :
0300187378
ISBN-13:
9780300187373
LANGUAGE :
English
FORMAT :
Hardback
PAGES :
320 Pages
Our price:
$28.00

The History of Rock 'n' Roll in Ten Songs

By Greil Marcus
en
One of our finest critics gives us an altogether original history of rock 'n' roll Unlike all previous versions of rock 'n' roll history, this book omits almost every iconic performer and ignores the storied events and turning points that everyone knows. Instead, in a daring stroke, Greil Marcus selects ten songs recorded between 1956 and 2008, then proceeds to dramatize how each embodies rock 'n' roll as a thing in itself, in the story it tells, inhabits, and acts out-a new language, something new under the sun. "Transmission" by Joy Division. "All I Could Do Was Cry" by Etta James and then Beyonce. "To Know Him Is to Love Him," first by the Teddy Bears and almost half a century later by Amy Winehouse. In Marcus's hands these and other songs tell the story of the music, which is, at bottom, the story of the desire for freedom in all its unruly and liberating glory. Slipping the constraints of chronology, Marcus braids together past and present, holding up to the light the ways that these striking songs fall through time and circumstance, gaining momentum and meaning, astonishing us by upending our presumptions and prejudices. This book, by a founder of contemporary rock criticism-and its most gifted and incisive practitioner-is destined to become an enduring classic.
PUBLISHER :
yale university press
PUBLICATION DATE :
September 2, 2014
ISBN-10 :
0300187378
ISBN-13:
9780300187373
LANGUAGE :
English
FORMAT :
Hardback
PAGES :
320 Pages