Rock Dreams

 

'...pathos, ecstasy, rage, struggle, victory, loss, love, lust and everything that has made rock worth the dream.' Crawdaddy

 

Published in 1974. Text by Nick Cohn and pictures by Guy Pellaert. In any Top Ten of Rock books ever published. I've posted some of the cleaner stuff...

 

1. Bo Diddley

 

'Here rode Bo Diddley, gunslinger and mean roadrunner, with his two feared accomplices, Jerome and the Duchess.'

 

2. Johnny Cash

 

'Shot a man in Reno. Just to watch him die.'

 

3. Gene  Vincent

 

'After he hurt his leg Gene Vincent always performed in pain and the possibility of collapse, and he stood on stage without moving, leaning forward, with his bad leg half bent in front of him. Sometimes he seemed quite desperate, and he would shudder and strain and shake himself like a maimed black leather animal castrated by captivity'

 

 

4. Sam Cooke

 

Sam Cooke, shot dead in a motel, was black but he dressed up white, sang Soul but wrote Teendreams, wagged his ass but gently...

 

5. Bob Dylan

 

'Soon his fame spread and he toured, grew rich and was worshipped. Messianic he need only point his finger and the temples trembled before him.'

 

 

6. The Kinks

 

'What are we living for. Two-room apartment. Second floor.'

 

7. James Brown

 

'Soul Brother Number One, with his private aeroplanes, in his silken robes, moving in a cloud of perfume and wealth; without rest, he travelled back and forth throughout his nation, like a sultan, like a healer, and everywhere he moved, he dealt out largesse for the afflicted, joy for the sorrowing, rage for the faint of heart.'

 

8. Velvet Underground

 

'Shadow behind the shoulder; black slouch hat in a dark doorway; stilettos in the alley; a whimper by the window, and needles in the bathroom.'

 

9. Ruben & the Jets

 

'Into the Valley of Death with Zappa; like horsemen of the apocalypse, the Mothers of Invention and GTOs an Wild Man Fischer, and the other acts in his three ringed circus, roared on through the night, spreading plague and consternation wherever they passed.'

 

10. Diana Ross

 

'No cause for alarm, even now after all these years, great ladies of the manor came back and cruised the streets, and gazed into tenements, and floated off down alleys, just to check that nothing had changed...'