ROCK'N'ROLL BABYLON: 50 Years of Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll
Gary Herman
Plexus, $29.99, pbk
THE SWINGING SIXTIES: When New Zealand Changed Forever
Graham Hutchins
HarperCollins, $49.99, pbk
Two books published in late 2008 on the social world of popular music do much to remind the reader of the opening up of attitudes towards music, particularly from the 1960s.
This was a period when sex and drugs seemed to be at the heart of the pop music industry, something that often brought hardship and tragedy for many associated with and connected to this domain, and so often branded and remembered in a somewhat contradictory way as a flamboyant era inherently linked with peace and love.
But while any survivors from this period certainly do have reason to celebrate their longevity, the topics depicted in the book observe this era in terms of the social behaviour that did much to destroy the lives of many, yet at the same time produced a legacy that has literally gone down in history as a period of immense discovery and musical creativity.
The book is laced with images of the rock business, something that helps the reader contextualise the music industry and many who work in it. The book's 16 chapters take the reader on a journey of social discovery into the world of the rock musician.
With chapter themes such as rebels without a cause, road fever, blinded by the light, black rage, sex and drugs, and celebrity courtroom, the purpose of the book is quite obvious - the wild, salacious and extravagant lives of rock musicians who "are prey to all the vices that a society obsessed with money and power has cultivated for centuries".
This is a book with a general audience in mind. Anyone with an interest in popular music of any style will be fascinated by the sometimes lurid lives of many performers and those connected with them.
So often reminisced as an era of radical change, peace and love, the darker side of rock'n'roll's alluring connections is brought to life in a fascinating book that helps celebrate some of the incredible music that was so often partly the result of this behaviour in the first place.
Packed with 40 sections in a book of 256 pages, the themes range from prosperity to disasters, and religion to race relations. Other topics include Beatlemania, smoking, fashion, cars, sex, New Zealand music, education and protest.
The swinging '60s, it seems, was an era of radical change at "a time of distinct divergence from the traditional certitudes of Kiwi society".
Graham Hutchins has written a book that will interest many people. For anyone who remembers the '60s, the book will have a nostalgic element, where the reader can reminisce over the age of Ten Guitars and the Vietnam War, lament over the Wahine, or recall the test match when Sid Going really got going.
The chapter on the youth revolution is particularly potent. It recollects, as its subtitle expresses, dropping out, communes and the mixed blessing of mixed flatting.
Starting off as an era of conservative materialism, the '60s soon turned into an era of musical giants (including The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan), drug abuse mixed with creative genius, hippies, the pill and the miniskirt.
The historical construction of eras is often neatly packaged into distinct periods, events and cultural movements. While rugby, racing and beer continued to dominate the lives of many during the 1960s, Hutchins graphically portrays an era that substantially weakened this mantra.
The US moon landing in 1969 seemed to have signalled symbolically a momentous achievement for the human race but it also helped close an era that is remembered for being radically different, exciting and adventurous.
The only problem with The Swinging Sixties is that each of its sections is far too short. The reader becomes engrossed and is left wanting more. But Hutchins does a remarkable job of summarising in detail a plethora of events in the '60s.
Laced with black-and-white pictures that help contextualise the people and events, this book makes great reading on a decade that earned a fitting label - "swinging".
- Professor Henry Johnson is head of the Department of Music at the University of Otago.
