DESTINATION GROOVY!!!
Book Review of:
‘1967: THE COMPLETE ROCK MUSIC
HISTORY OF THE SUMMER OF LOVE’
by HARVEY KUBERNIK
(Sterling)
ISBN 978-1-4549-2052-6 Hardcover. 264 pages
For those of a certain right-wing bent, this is the year that saw moral laxity, free-love promiscuity, drugs and student riots. To some, it’s the year that Rock lost its way as sharp tight Mod beat-groups grow their hair, and start wearing bells and kaftans. To others it’s the pinnacle of Rock evolution that runs a direct line all the way from Sun studios to
‘Sgt Pepper’, the final flourish before it all fragments into country-Rock, Prog, jazz-fusion, garage, Psychedelia, Heavy Metal, Glitter and Glam… before Punk presses the Reset button and returns it all to factory settings. 1967 is the lurch from singles into albums, from overground into underground, from Purple Hearts to LSD. The complacent American music industry, slammed off its axis and still reeling from the British invasion, suddenly has to find ways of dealing with the Mothers Of Invention, the Dionysian Lizard King and the mesmerising beauty of Grace Slick’s Up Against The Wall Motherfuckers!!!. Fifty years ago today it’s the most written-about, analysed and anthologised year since forever. So what can this visually colourful large-format tome do that the others don’t? I have my own system for determining the depth of research, which is to search up Electric Prunes in the index… and no, they’re not there, but wait – phew, they are included in the essential playlist. While the trippy month-by-month chapters are art-rich with lavish photo-spreads, posters, quote sidebars and atmospheric memorabilia. Destination: Groovy!
Published in:
‘R’N’R’ Vol.2 No.64 July-August
(UK – July 2017)
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| HARVEY KUBERNIK |
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