Unknown Legends of Rock'N Roll: Psychedelic Unknowns, Mad Geniuses, Punk Pioneers, Lo-Fi Mavericks & More

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Rarely do I sit down and find myself sucked into a book, but over the past couple of days exactly that has happened. It's such an easy book to read with roughly five pages on each of the 60 or so musicians. Obviously with such short chapters you're not going to get complete biographies of the people Richie Unterberger talks about, but he has managed to select artists that each fit into some kind of category, so each artist is talked about in some kind of context with the four or five surrounding.Chapters include 'Overlooked originators', Garage Bands, 'Mad geniuses & eccentric recluses', Krautrock, Folk, Punk, Post-punk, Lo-Fi and a few more.Artists mentioned range from Syd Barrett (early Pink Floyd), Love, Can, X-Ray Spex and Nick Drake to The Great Society, The Hampton Grease Band, The Plastic People of the Universe and Swamp Dogg. So not all are necessarily "unknown"s, but the majority will not be known to the average music listener.Despite Richie's clear knowledge of practically everything related to rock (senior editor of 'All music's guide to rock' and appears in documentaries about people like Jandek), some of the parts to the book do leave you thinking he should have written a bit more about it, especially if you have some kind of prior knowledge of the artist/band. For example, the Krautrock section does supply you with a nice nugget of information, but it barely scratches the surface or the scene.However, his intention for the book seems to be more angled as an introduction to the music and that the onus is then on you to go and find more if you like what's been said, and then after every part recommended albums and reading are listed.It's a well written book with lots of interview quotes and a wealth of knowledge behind it, but don't buy this book thinking it's going to give you full blown accounts into the life and times of the musicians, it sets the scene and acts as more of a taster.

Simply great book, one of my favourites, excellent guidance/reference/inspiration. One of the best ever written - must have together with mammoth works of Vernon Joynson ( Fuzz Acid and Flowers Revisited , Tapestry of Delights: Revisited ), and equal to  Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid and Psychedelic Folk  - although the subject is not my cup of tea) and with the same sharp analysis and deep insight as the masterpiece of  Songs of the Greek Underworld: The Rebetika Tradition  - although the subject is totally exotic)."Unknown Legends" is a rare pleasure to read. I would argue about the choice of the names, but that's the writer's choice, and not mine.What is totally unacceptable and sub-standard (when compared to the rest of knowledgeable and well research work) is the sub-chapter on the music from behind the Iron Curtain.The roots of the weird and ugly situation behind the Iron Curtain grew really deep and complicated: there was a state policy (and a Ministry of Culture) in the USSR, and the same model was implemented in other countries of Warsaw bloc after WWII. Before the war the Soviet totalitarian regime shared same tastes (aesthetically) as Nazis Germany: the state patronized operas and folk (not hippie/acid rock, but "people's music" with fanny costumes, unpleasant voices and silly melodies). The only difference was that Uncle Joe (Stalin) tolerated jazz (as the music of political allies - minorities oppressed by capitalist society), while Adolf despised it as "degenerative art".However, after the death of Stalin, liberal reformer Kruschev crushed jazz too - as ideologically hostile propaganda of the Western way of life. So, in the 60s pop (and rock) was simply forbidden, although there were few combos allowed to perform sweet and soft tunes (sunshine pop/surf-alike), but they should have been registered under the Ministry of Culture, they had to wear uniforms (no long hairs), there must be a brass section in each band, and the repertoire had to be approved by the local censor (99% of Western composers were banned), plus the songs should have been written only by the members of the Union of composers. The ignorance of Soviet critics was au par with the attitude of British and US press: if many Western critics (who trashed, for example, Led Zeppelin and Uriah Heep) proved that there was no need to understand what you were writing about, the Soviets went even further - there was no need to have even rudimental acquaintance with the music. So what's the point to refer to Alexandre Tsfasman (and not Tsafsman), who was born in 1909, and whatever he could say about The Beatles is totally irrelevant.Some bands (as I said) were allowed - Bielorussian "Pesniary" had cult status even before David Toukhmanov*, and they even represented Soviet culture in the USA (strange enough, but some of the top brass in the Communist party had enough brains to realize that multi-tons "mastodonnas" of folk music won't make it into Billboard charts).Poland, at the same time more or less, had excellent skiffle of "No To Co", dynamic "Skaldowie" and melodic "Czerwone gitary". Eastern Germany had its own icons - "Puhdys" and "Karat" for starters (Nina Hagen, fortunately for her, defected to the West).Western pop-music was incorporated into Soviet economy: while grim-faced gerontocrats were foaming about ideological servants of capitalism, the cynical grandchildren of Party elite indulged themselves in wild sex, rock music and drugs (the fish started to rot from its head); state-owned record plants (there was at least one in each of the socialist republics) - all under monster label "Melodia" were pressing compilation LPs featuring British and US hits. The Soviets at least mentioned the names of songwriters, when in DDR it was simlply "Collection Nr 7 of music for young people". Nation-wide chain of recording studios (they were under the same ministry as laundromates, tailors, repairs etc) were busy bootlegging latest albums - you had to place an order for some Soviet crap, pay for it, and get a tape with, let's say, "Deep Purple in Rock". Bulgaria was supplying excellent bootleg compilations with latest hits (it was supposed that lesser brothers of Soviet elephant couldn't sneak in Western propaganda). There was black market too - pretty risky business (one could be sent to a camp for trading in rock LPs); illegal flexidisks (so called "on the bones" - X-ray films were used), and the arrival of tape recorders gave birth to "tape samizdat". In fact, to be an underground rock musician was not so innocent game - Alexey Romanov of Voskeseniye/Resurrection was imprisoned, and the list of other martyrs is almost endless.Came perestroyka, and the regime started flirting with rock music - mellow acoustic acid-folkie Bob Grebenschchikov of "Aquarium" was picked up from the gutter and granted the status which he didn't deserve. "Aquarium" had cult status, but it was too tame and sophisticated (not radical at all) for the Soviets. Other people listened to anarchist rebels "DDT", hard-pop of "Kino", or the Soviet response to Billy Idol/Iggy Pop - Konstantin Kinchev & "Alica", or romantic "Nautilus Pompilius".However, Alxandre Gradsky came first - singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, he had operatic voice, and several times sang in the Bolshoi (in Rimsky-Korsakov "Golden Cockerel") - sorry, but similar achievements of Western rockers are unknown to me.Hungary had its heroes too - rock monsters Locomotiv GT, Omega, Scorpio (among others) should be known to any serious music fan.Apart from "Plastic People" Czechoslovakia had more talented "Blue Effect" of Vaclav Nektar and Vladimir Misik (to mention just one of the few).Poland: the only genius composer of XX century Czeslaw Niemen, who recorded 3 English-language albums for CBS in the 70s ( Enigmatic . One tune from "Katharsis" has more depth and tragedy than the whole album of "Pink Floyd". Place next to him SBB, Budka Suflera...In brief, for the sake of the readers this chapter should be completely reworked