Ron Peters's Reviews > Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock

This book is great fun, covering the early history of rock and roll from Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock (1954) to the death of Jimmy Hendrix (1970), with a short appendix bringing things up to 1972. I’d like to make a YouTube playlist from this material; I could amuse myself for days! Though not essential, including photos would have been a nice touch.

Nik Cohn was an early originator of rock journalism, setting the tone and pace of writing for those that came later. He’s British, so readers also get a look at the evolution of British music, including skiffle and other things North Americans don’t hear much about. I had to look up the meaning of some British slang along the way, but not too much. E.g., “Scouse (/skaʊs/; formally known as Liverpool English or Merseyside English) is an accent and dialect of English associated with Liverpool and the surrounding county of Merseyside.”

I don’t always agree with his assessments but I happily recommend this to anyone with an interest in Rock history; it is a perfect first book to read on the subject.