In Their Own Words

Arts & Photography

Pollock, Bruce

Music

Macmillan Pub. Co.

They may not have invented rock &amp; roll, but they were the ones who bought it, adopted it, adapted it, and embraced it. They were the baby boom's first wave, the bumper crop of circa 1945 to 1952, who invested their fondest hopes, deepest dreams, and most poignant identity crises in rock &amp; roll, using the songs as a backdrop to their chosen succession of subcultures. It was an exotic and vocal crowd that stretched from Presley's Memphis to Dylan's MacDougal Street, from Monterey to Woodstock, and for a while it felt like a way to beat the odds and the system. But now that the system has grown up around all but the hardest-bitten boomers, has rock &amp; roll let its generation down? Or is it the other way around? Or are change and disillusionment just another part of the message? In this freewheeling account of rock &amp; roll's place in our national subconsciousness, prizewinning music journalist and novelist Bruce Pollock assembles a personal soundtrack album to the unmade movie musical biography of the baby boom. Pollock's unconventional recollections, ruminations, and digressions are laced with exclusive quotes from more than two dozen of rock's most fascinating characters, from Bo Diddley to Bruce Springsteen, and informed by his unique slant on more than 2,000 of the best - and best known - rock &amp; roll songs. Who in this generation will ever forget years like 1958, when "That'll Be the Day" and "Teenager in Love" and "Yakety Yak" let the average privileged white kid imagine becoming as fearless as the rough-edged figures who made the records... 1964, when Phil Ochs wrote about churches burning in Mississippi, and the Beatles arrived in New York with their portfolio of innocent love songs... 1967, when LSD was legal, Cher was still with Sonny, and Joplin and Hendrix signed with the major labels... 1972, when Roxy Music and David Bowie and Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" made sexual redefinition the flavor of the year... 1975, when baby boomers, experiencing their second childhood, fell under the spell of Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby," and Springsteen hit the covers of Time and Newsweek... 1977, when the Ramones and the Sex Pistols set out to create a new generational Year Zero with their righteous three-chord attack... 1981, when Big Brother turned out to be MTV, stuffing the collective memory bank with indelible video images... 1985, when Madonna melded the teasing fifties with the feminist eighties in "Like a Virgin"... 1990, when confrontational urban rappers and alienated suburban metalheads seemed to be carrying rock's protest tradition beyond the baby boomers' reach once and for all. Hipper Than Our Kids is a fan's notes on nearly forty years of rock &amp; roll, a sprawling generational saga of its enduring myths, and a whimsical send-up of those who cashed in, those who sold out, and those who twisted and hustled and lip-synched their way into the basements and restaurants and elevators of our lives.

Hipper Than Our Kids: A Rock and Roll Journal of the Baby Boom Generation

Schirmer Trade Books

The Rock Song Index is not intended to record information about every rock song ever  written. No, Bruce Pollock's purpose here is to edit that unwieldy number down to the worthiest works, for a book you can use and peruse without straining your muscles or your eyes. It's a wonderfully useful list, especially for those who can never remember who sang "Along Comes Mary" or when Hank Williams did "Your Cheatin' Heart." The book is organized alphabetically by singer (with notable songs, albums, recorded labels, and songwriters), and in the back is the cross-reference that makes the volume work: there are listings by song title with  the artist and year for each. The Rock Song Index is a masterful production for the rock generation as their ages wax and their memories wane.

The Rock Song Index: Essential Information on the 7,500 Most Important Songs of Rock and Roll

Schirmer Reference

The face of rock &amp; roll: Images of a generation (Holt paperback)

The face of rock & roll: Images of a generation (Holt paperback)

HOLT. RINEHART AND WINSTON

Black and white photos. Dust jacket design by Joel Avirom.

When Rock Was Young: A Nostalgic Review of the Top 40 Era

unread paperback book which tells the story of when rock was young.

When Rock Was Young: A Nostalgic Review of the Top Forty Era

Henry Holt Co.

Traces the history of the sixties in America through its popular music and includes interviews with musicians about their experiences

When the Music Mattered: Rock in the 1960s

Drawing on the experiences and wisdom of more than one hundred artists in the fields of rock, jazz, and hip-hop music, this informative study captures the world of the professional musician as seen through the eyes of such notables as Bruce Springsteen, Carole King, Keith Richards, Paul Simon, Kool Mo Dee, and Harry Connick, Jr., among others. Original.

Working Musicians: Defining Moments from the Road, the Studio, and the Stage

Harper Paperbacks

An eighteen-year-old film buff hitchhikes to San Francisco during the summer of 1965 with his friend Minsky and true love Max.

Me, Minsky & Max

Houghton/Mifflin

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor &amp; Francis, an informa company.

Rock Song Index: The 7500 Most Important Songs for the Rock and Roll Era

Routledge

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Books by Pollock, Bruce