Uncommon people
Subtitle: the rise and fall of the rock stars
By: David Hepworth
Edition: First U.S. edition.
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 305
ISBN-13: 9781250124128
Copyright date: 2017
Subjects: Rock music; Rock musicians; Biography; History and criticism
Description: "The age of the rock star, like the age of the cowboy, has passed. Like the cowboy, the idea of the rock star lives on in our imaginations. What did we see in them? Swagger. Recklessness. Sexual charisma. Damn-the-torpedoes self-belief. A certain way of carrying themselves. Good hair. Interesting shoes. Talent we wished we had. What did we want of them? To be larger than life but also like us. To live out their songs. To stay young forever. No wonder many didn't stay the course. In Uncommon People, David Hepworth zeroes in on defining moments and turning points in the lives of forty rock stars from 1955 to 1995, taking us on a journey to burst a hundred myths and create a hundred more. As this tribe of uniquely motivated nobodies went about turning themselves into the ultimate somebodies, they also shaped us, our real lives and our fantasies. Uncommon People isn't just their story. It's ours as well."--Dust jacket flap.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages [283]-285) and index.
Table of contents: title: September 14, 1955, Rampart Street, New Orleans, Louisiana : Enter the first rock star; title: September 26, 1956, from Memphis to Tupelo : The first rock idol; title: July 6, 1957, Woolton Village Fete, Liverpool, England : The first rock fans form a band; title: May 22, 1958, London Airport, England : A bad boy flies in; title: February 3, 1959, Clear Lake, Iowa : A good boy flies out; title: July 1, 1960, London, England : Enter the guitar hero; title: September 25, 1961, Gerde's Folk City, New York City : A boy invents himself; title: September 28, 1962, Sefton Street, Liverpool, England : The man who fit in; title: May 1, 1963, London, England : The man who didn't fit in; title: December 23, 1964, Los Angeles airport : The rock star as tragic genius; title: September 26, 1965, Aarhus, Denmark : The rock band as perpetual drama; title: October 1, 1966, Central London Polytechnic, England : A new sheriff in town; title: June 18, 1967, Monterey, California : The first female rock star; title: May 15, 1968, New York City : The view from Olympus; title: August 9, 1969, Birmingham, England : The devil's business; title: June 24, 1970, New York City : Rock god embraces the occult; title: May 16, 1971, New York City : The comeback; title: July 26, 1972, Madison Square Garden, New York City : Rock goes high society; title: July 3, 1973, Hammersmith, London, England : A "rock star" retires; title: August 6, 1974, 914 Studios, Blauvelt, New York : Rock in a complicated world; title: July 18, 1975, the Lyceum, London, England : The best rock isn't always rock; title: July 4, 1976, Tampa, Florida : The X-factor; title: August 16, 1977, Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee : Death is good for business; title: December 9, 1978, London, England : A raspberry on top of the charts; title: August 4, 1979, Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, England : Twilight of the gods; title: December 8, 1980, New York City : Death by fan; title: August 13, 1981, Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Middlesex, England : Sex, violence, and television; title: March 19, 1982, Leesburg, Florida : Road fever; title: September 31, 1983, the Continental Hyatt House, Hollywood, California : The absurdity of rock stars; title: January 27, 1984, the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California : A superstar on fire; title: July 13, 1985, Wembley Stadium, London, England : From dumper to sainthood; title: July 16, 1986, Madison Square Garden, New York City : Rock royalty up close; title: August 1, 1987, Greyhound bus station, Hollywood and Vine, Los Angeles, California : Looking the part; title: September 9, 1988, Sotheby's, London, England : Elton John clears out his closet; title: March 21, 1989, United States of America : Clean and sober; title: May 29, 1990, Toronto SkyDome, Toronto, Ontario, Canada : Rock star as celeb; title: November 24, 1991, Kensington, London, England : The party's over; title: May 7, 1992, Tokyo, Japan : Man overboard; title: June 7, 1993, Minneapolis, Minnesota : Career suicide; title: April 5, 1994, Seattle, Washington : The last rock star; title: August 9, 1995, Mountain View, California : Revenge of the nerds