The Accidental Evolution Of Rock'n'roll: A Misguided Tour Through Popular Music

Why accidental? Rock music, as Chuck Eddy sees it, goes straight downhill the minute it aspires to art (or even intelligence). Its monuments tend to be one-offs, afterthoughts, B-sides--in short, accidents. As the author puts it: "Rock seems to work best when greedy kids on the make, ones who don't mind looking like they're on the make, contemptible bastards who'll serve up any tossed-off perfunctory garbage their audience will swallow, inadvertently let their humanness leak out." This is probably the most realistic book of rock aesthetics you'll ever encounter. Also the most unsystematic, and the funniest, right down to the photo captions. (Personal favorite: "Eldra DeBarge and Bo Diddley: plaid to the (herring?) bone." It's better with the picture in front of you, though.)