History of Rock 'n' Roll in Ten Songs

Starred review from August 18, 2014
In his typically provocative and far-reaching style, music critic Marcus (Mystery Train) ingeniously retells the tale of rock and roll as the undulating movement of one song through the decades, speaking anew in different settings; it’s a “continuum of associations, a drama of direct and spectral connections between songs and performers.” Selecting 10 songs recorded between 1956 and 2008, he ranges gracefully over various performances of the same song, probing deeply into the nuances of each singer’s style as well as the ways that the recorded version of the song reflects its time. Thus, for example, Marcus follows the career of Barrett Strong’s 1963 Motown hit, “Money (That’s What I Want),” and Strong’s harsh and violent rendition to The Beatles’ 1964 version in which John Lennon is “appalled, hateful, and ravenous all at once, and so powerfully the music seems to fall away from him, letting him claim every molecule in the air.” Marcus cannily shifts to a song that deals squarely with the power of money, Tom Gray’s “Money Changes Everything,” and traces the ways the power of the song shifts and transforms in Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 version (she turns it from a “man’s lament into a woman’s manifesto”); her 2005 version (the “only language it speaks is mourning, pain, desperation, and defeat”); and Gray’s 2007 version, which dried up quickly. Marcus brilliantly illustrates what many rock music fans suspected all along but what many rock critics have failed to say: rock ’n’ roll is a universal language that transcends time and space and reveals all mysteries and truths.

Starred review from June 15, 2014
Another allusive, entertaining inquiry by veteran musicologist Marcus (The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years, 2011, etc.).The opening is an accidental tour de force: a list that runs on for a full six pages of the inductees to date into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, one that, though full of lacunae, is still wildly suggestive of just how influential and deep-rooted the sound is in our culture. He takes Neil Young's observation that "rock & roll is reckless abandon" and runs with it, looking into 10 songs that are particularly emblematic. Even though any other 10, 100 or 1,000 songs might have done just as well, one cannot fault Marcus' taste. It is just right, on the reckless abandon front, that his survey should begin with the Flamin' Groovies jittery, diamondlike anthem "Shake Some Action," released to the world in 1976 and heard, if not widely, by at least the right people. "I never heard Young's words translated with more urgency, with more joy," Marcus avers, than in the goofily named Groovies' ("a name so stupid it can't transcend its own irony") song. Yet there are other candidates for best paean to reckless abandon, or perhaps best inspirer thereof, including the prolegomenon to all other songs about filthy lucre and lolly, Barrett Strong's "Money"; the lovely but portentous Buddy Holly ballad "Crying, Waiting, Hoping"; and the Teddy Bears' 1958 hit "To Know Him Is to Love Him," which, though tender, became something hauntingly lost in the hands of Amy Winehouse. It's no accident that the originals of many of these tunes lay at the heart of the early Beatles' repertoire, nor that Phil Spector played his part in the uproarious proceedings, nor that from every measure of music, thousands of tangled storylines flow-many of which Marcus follows wherever they will lead, to our edification.Essayistic, occasionally disconnected, but Marcus does what he does best: makes us feel smarter about what we're putting into our ears.

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September 1, 2014

While Marcus (The Doors; Lipstick Traces) holds near-unrivalled credentials as a rock and cultural critic, this title overreaches, beginning with the definitive article "the" in the title. The author argues that instead of understanding rock's history as a chronological narrative, we should view it as a series of associations, in which songs take on their own meanings across different periods and performers. This is an unconvincing thesis, but it does allow Marcus to delve into the background of each piece he analyzes, which plays to his strengths as a writer. Chapters on "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" (by Buddy Holly) and "Guitar Drag" (by Christian Marclay) are particularly notable in tracing how the songs have existed within different musical and social contexts. Marcus is erudite but remains accessible, and his selected compositions are available mostly online as accompaniment. Consider this book a qualified success, then, despite the failure of its overall intention. VERDICT Students of rock history and popular music fans in general will come across rewarding material here.--Chris Martin, North Dakota State Univ. Libs., Fargo

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2014
For veteran rock journalist Marcus (Mystery Train, 1975), the appeal of rock 'n' roll is its unique ability to constantly reinvent itself; how a pop song, which originates as novelty, a disposable art form, can take on a life of its own and generate meaning and significance well beyond its originators' intent. Marcus here examines 10 songsfrom the Flamin' Groovies' Shake Some Action to Joy Division's Transmission to Barrett Strong's Money (That's What I Want) to Phil Spector and the Teddy Bears' (and, later, Amy Winehouse's) To Know Him Is to Love Himand shows how they came to be, their influences and their impact, using each as a launching pad for his typically idiosyncratic exploration into culture, history, and myth. Rock 'n' roll may be more than anything a continuum of associations, a drama of direct and spectral connections between songs and performers, he writes. Self-consciously pretentious, Marcus allows himself to get carried away in the manner only he can. In an aside, Marcus imagines a scenario where the bluesman Robert Johnson lives to be 101, appearing on NPR's Fresh Air in the 2000s. Marcus' column Real Life Rock Top Ten can be found in the pages of The Believer.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)