Encyclopedia of Classic Rock

As a self confessed classic rock geek, I happily yanked this off the shelf at my local library. Was disappointed right off to see typos and sentences that don't make any sense (describing Rod Argent: "keyboards tuned to minor keys" What? You don't tune pianos to minor, you play in minor..) He makes another comment about guitars that indicates his lack of knowledge of guitars, and it's "session player" not "sessions player". So David has never held an instrument in his grimy paws. Also, music with odd time signatures does not automatically imply jazz fusion. (A Strauss waltz is in 3/4, lots of popular music is in 5/4, 7/8, etc.) And the guy replacing Carl Palmer in Emerson Lake and Palmer was Cozy Powell, a Drum legend, rolling in his grave right now. Inexcusable in the age of Google, David Luhrssen. However, speaking of progressive rock, I honestly appreciated David acknowledging some of the talent of Emerson Lake & Palmer, instead of just bashing them. Rock writers will never understand prog rock but thankfully David seemed more fair than most, even if Yes got only a half page. The lesser known info on many of the bands was entertaining, so David put in some hours and dug deep. Topical, fun, must read for the hardcore rock historians like me. Sheds a different light on the old favorites.

The only problem with The Encyclopedia of Classic Rock is that it’s not long enough for the large subject it undertakes. The authors make a good effort to include artists from beyond the US-UK axis—and they succeed when it comes to German bands. While other European as well as Asian and Latin American bands are included, the book could have gone deeper (and longer) into those areas. Most of the important US-UK bands from the 1965-1975 period covered by the encyclopedia are included, but several significant groups, especially Yes and Strawbs, beg for longer essays. The Encyclopedia is a good book—it just needs more pages.