“Rock's Golden Year” by David Hepworth
Blurb: The Sixties ended a year late – on New Year's Eve 1970, when Paul McCartney initiated proceedings to wind up The Beatles. Music would never be the same again.
The next day would see the dawning of a new era. 1971 saw the release of more monumental albums than any year before or since and the establishment of a pantheon of stars to dominate the next forty years – Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Rod Stewart, the solo Beatles and more.
January that year fired the gun on an unrepeatable surge of creativity, technological innovation, blissful ignorance, naked ambition and outrageous good fortune. By December rock had exploded into the mainstream.
Notes: Had been a little daunted as the person that leant me this was very enthusiastic about it. Rock isn't really my genre and 1971 is a bit before my time. However it was an engaging and entertaining read. Part social history on UK society coming to terms with the end of the 60's, part history of the evolution of the music business (from singles to albums sales), and part mini biographies of a lot of the artists involved. Definitely recommend this book.
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Blurb: One Sunday morning, a mysterious silent figure is found sleeping in a church in an unnamed American town. The congregants call this amnesiac 'Pew' and seek to uncover who they are: their age; their gender, their race, their intentions. Are they an orphan, or something worse? What terrible trouble is Pew running from? And why won't they speak?
Progress: page 41 of 224
Notes: Odd but intriguing so far. Narrated first person from inside Pew's head. As a reader you have no idea what is going on or anything about Pew. However it is quite compelling and makes me want to learn more. Just hoping there is no nasty surprise.
https://granta.com/pew/
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I am currently reading Pies and Prejudice; In search of the North by Stuart Maconie
Blurb: A Northerner in exile, Stuart Maconie goes on a journey in search of the North, attempting to discover where the cliches end and the truth begins. He travels from Wigan Pier to Blackpool Tower and Newcastle's Bigg Market to the Lake District to find his own Northern Soul, encountering along the way an exotic cast of chippy Scousers, pie-eating woollybacks, topless Geordies, mad-for-it Mancs, Yorkshire nationalists and brothers in southern exile.
Progress: page 76 of 354
Notes: Amusing; like a Northern Bill Bryson on a trip around the UK. As it's 13 years old quite a few of the pop culture references seem a bit dated already but doesn't detract from the humour :)
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#100DaysToOffload – Day 36
Another book from my “to-read” shelf enjoyed.
A pleasant and quick read, at only 128 pages long, hopefully quite like this post! Enjoyed this book a lot. Here's the wiki page for it if you're curious.
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I am taking in the 100 Days to Offload blogging challenge set by Kev Quirk. Whilst lockdown is on do 100 blog posts to help you offload and to read what everyone else is up to.
#100DaysToOffload – Day 32
Finished this book a few days ago. It's the first David Sedaris book I've read though I knew his name from NPR's This American Life which I used to listen to while walking the dog. Sadly the dog is much older now so the walks are far too short for an episode of This American Life these days.
Wasn't sure what to expect of this book as I didn't even know if it was fiction or non-fiction or whatever. Ended up being a series of anecdotes of his childhood and family life and moved on to stories from when he was a young man. It's entertaining and funny but side-splittingly funny. More amusing than anything else. It was a pleasant read and not disappointed I read it but definitely won't be getting a place on my shelf for favourite books. Apropos of nothing I saw David Sedaris now lives in the English county of West Sussex so can't be that far from me (as I'm right by the East/West Sussex border).
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