Bob Stanley knows whereof he speaks. The breadth and depth of his knowledge is plain, as is his enthusiasm for pop music in all its forms. Of course, he doesn’t like everything he hears, but he’s largely unhampered by prejudice and gives bands like Sweet, for example, the credit they deserve rather than sneerily dismissing them as many Rock Fans (with capital letters, of course) do. It’s a fascinating history, with some good analysis of well-known artists and a fine array of less well known stuff which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed investigating.
Obviously, no-reader will agree with all Stanley’s judgements. I found his rather airy dismissal of much of Joni Mitchell’s work strange, and his failure even to mention the groundbreaking I Can See For Miles by The Who quite shocking – but then he also cites with approval Loudon Wainwright III’s first album which I bought at the time and got him to sign when I saw him live on his first UK tour, so I can forgive the odd lapse elsewhere.
More seriously, although it’s a long book, its sheer scale of ambition means that no-one gets real, in-depth treatment and quite often I felt I wanted a good deal more about styles or artists than was on offer here. It’s probably unfair to criticise the book for this because it’s not really what it sets out to do, but that nagging sense of wanting to know more did haunt me rather often.
That said, it’s a fascinating, enjoyable read which I can recommend to any pop music fan.
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