Who's Who in Rock Music

by William York

Book Overview

An extensive biographical dictionary of rock musicians contains more than 12,000 entries offering essential information concerning virtually every rock group and musician ever to perform on an album,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684173433
• ISBN13: 9780684173436
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 413 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Worth it for the serious listener

A few years ago, I paid out $6.50 for this 1982 coffee-table paperback. It's been invaluable, now that so many "lost" albums are being released on CD, particularly because so many such reissues don't have the liner notes from the original album. Sure, I've found a couple dozen errors -- leaving out band members or even entire groups, or mangling the history. And the album listings are often incomplete, or don't list the correct year of release. Of course, it's also not much use for beyond 1981 or so. But I haven't found a better general guide. You glean all sorts of wonderful stuff by just skimming. I mean, who knew that the studio musician Teddy Jack Eddy was really Gary Busey? And now I want the album recorded by jam supergroup Free Creek. (Though I might settle for the one album made by Giants.) The real jewels are from the late 1960s: I'd never heard of bands like Rotary Connection or Savage Rose or Stray Dog. And references go back further, mentioning more than a few influential players from blues, jazz, & country. What sucks is that, now that we've got this Internet thing, this book isn't out there, getting revised every year or two, forming the central point for a massive database of rock & pop music. But if you're a serious fan of slightly older modern music, & want some help in tying together the pieces, or maybe helping you look for reviv4ed classics or old vinyl, this ought to be on your shelf.