The weather would lead us to believe it had well kicked off already, but this Friday marks the official start of summer.
Some people love the heat, while others suffer in a swelter, waiting anxiously for that first fall leaf to drop.
Whatever side you’re on, Rock Music Menu is here to make sure it’s bearable at the very least.
Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be spotlighting items to indulge in this summer, beginning with the indispensable reading for anyone who fancies themselves to be a music lover.
From the history of the first alternative rock music festival, to the impactful celebrity encounters had by a rap icon, to the best albumcovers of the glossy ’80s, there are page-turners for everyone: hot, cold or indifferent.
Pop the umbrella in the sand or turn the AC up to 11. Here’s the first part of the Summer Essentials series for 2025.
• “Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival” by Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour
In a landscape full of music festivals for every type of genre, in every destination imaginable, it’s important to remember how groundbreaking Lollapalooza was.
The definitive oral history of ’90s alt-rock festival told by the musicians, roadies, and industry insiders who lived it is all within “Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival.”
From the authors of the best-selling “Nothin’ but a Good Time,” about the rule of ’80s hair metal, comes hundreds of new interviews with artists, tour founders, festival organizers, promoters, publicists, sideshow freaks, stage crews, record label execs, reporters, roadies and more.
It chronicles the tour’s pioneering 1991-1997 run, and, in the process, alternative rock’s rise, as well as the reverberations that led to a seismic shift in the music industry and the culture at large.
The book features original interviews with some of the biggest names in music, including Perry Farrell and Jane’s Addiction, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Sonic Youth, Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, Ice-T, Rage Against the Machine, Green Day, Patti Smith, Alice in Chains, Metallica and many more.
Conceived by Farrell as a farewell tour for Jane’s Addiction, Lollapalooza’s inaugural outing across the U.S. in the summer of 1991 helped to unite an ideology and aesthetic that not only stood out in popular music but also seeped into fashion, film, television, literature, food and politics.
Throughout the decade, the fest offered a vast and diverse ensemble of bands, breaking barriers of genre and uniting alternativerock, heavy metal, punk, hip-hop, industrial, goth, avant-garde, spoken word, electronic dance music and other styles under one big tent, and setting the template for the modern American music festival.
• “501 Essential Albums of the m’80s: The Music Fan’s Definitive Guide” by Gary Graff
Break out the parachute pants, Swatch watch, and hairspray, and dig into a nostalgic musical trip through the ‘80s most influential albums across all genres.
“501 Essential Albums of the ’80s” sees Gary Graff leading a cast of fellow music journalists in presenting the art to the music of one of the most pivotal decades in the history of the song.
It was the decade that gave us some of the most monstrous-selling albums ever and introduced listeners to incoming genres like indie rock and hip-hop.
Featuring lively descriptions of the releases and nearly 600 images, the hefty, 448-page volume curates 501 albums spanning genres and subgenres like pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, metal, country, college and indie rock, as well as soundtracks and compilations.
It also includes year-by-year organization, rundowns of every LP featured, album art for each selection, the label, release date, and producers for each.
From Madonna to Michael, Prince to The Police, Bruce to Black Flag, Men at Work to Motley Crue, whatever your tastes, this is the ultimate visual retrospective of the decade’s music.
• “Fearless Vampire Killers: The Bad Brains Photographs” by Glen E. Friedman
This collection includes Glen E. Friedman’s most iconic images of influential American punk rock band Bad Brains, as well as many never-before-seen photographs, and end sheet art by Shepard Fairey.
“Fearless Vampire Killers: The Bad Brains Photographs” features almost every single Friedman photograph of the group taken in 1981 and 1982, when the band was at its most fiery musical heights.
Along with an introduction by the photographer, there’s a preface by Bad Brains frontman HR, and an afterword by Rage Against the Machine singer Zack de la Rocha.
• “To Hell with Poverty! A Class Act: Inside the Gang of Four” by Jon King
“To Hell with Poverty! A Class Act: Inside the Gang of Four” documents Jon King’s story from a South London slum and impoverished working-class background to international success as core musician, lyricist, writer, and producer in the legendary post-punk/funk band Gang of Four.
The reader is taken on an episodic and kaleidoscopic journey full of adventures from childhood to the end of Gang of Four’s“golden period” in 1984.
Thrown off the hit British TV show “Top of the Pops,” beaten by police at an anti-Nazi rally, being at the heart of the U.K. post-punk movement in the ’70s, fraternizing with Hells Angels and other “undesirables,” supported by bands like R.E.M. and playing with the likes of the Police and Talking Heads, King’s times with the group are rich with stories.
• “INTERFICIAL ARTelligence: The Moments that Met Me” by Chuck D
Chuck D, the musical icon from Public Enemy and Prophets of Rage, details and illustrates his encounters with some of society’s most influential musicians, entertainers, politicians, athletes and public figures.
The seminal moments in the rapper’s life include an editorial meeting with John F. Kennedy Jr., presenting an award to David Bowie, being recruited by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay to act in a film, and eating chips and guac with Quincy Jones.
It also hits on D’s being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Harry Belafonte, lobbying on Capitol Hill with Anita Baker, and collaborations with Prince, Sheryl Crow, Janet Jackson and John Mellencamp, to name a few.
His illustrations and commentary also include his cross-pollinations with music industry titans like Berry Gordy and Ahmet Ertegun, Madonna, the Notorious B.I.G., the Rolling Stones, Ice Cube and many more.
• “Gliders Over Hollywood: Airships, Airplay, And the Art of Rock Promotion” by Paul Rappaport
“Gliders Over Hollywood” tells the exhilarating true story of a blue-collar kid nicknamed “Rap” who grew up in thrall to rock ‘n’ roll, then found himself right in the middle of many of his heroes’ lives as he became the most renowned rock promotion man in the country.
Rappaport enjoyed a storied 33-year career at Columbia Records, where he was instrumental in the careers of everyone from Dylan to Springsteen, Pink Floyd to The Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello to Billy Joel and Judas Priest to Alice in Chains.
The music business from the late ’60s through the ’90s was an exciting time and also a time of new and creative ideas on how to market this groundbreaking cultural phenomenon.
Eccentric characters were everywhere, and often the managers, promoters, disc jockeys, and record company staff were just as biga show as the performers themselves.
From creating the Pink Floyd airship to sword-fighting with Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden and receiving a guitar lesson from Keith Richards, “Gliders Over Hollywood” is packed with extraordinary adventures with some of the biggest names in rock.
• “Decade of Dissent: How 1960s Bob Dylan Changed the World” by Sean Egan
During the ’60s, Bob Dylan stood head and shoulders above all others in terms of cultural influence.
In telling the story of his first calendar decade as a recording artist, “Decade of Dissent” provides an up close and fascinating view into an important decade in a peerless career.
Dylan’s ’60s recordings constitute a dizzying run that includes such landmark LPs as “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” “Highway 61 Revisited,” “Blonde on Blonde,” and such classic songs as “Blowin’ In the Wind,” “The Times They Are A-Changin,’’ “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” and “All Along The Watchtower.”
They set the template for his genius and encompass the bulk of his greatest work and career arc.
The material saw Dylan effortlessly and repeatedly instigate revolution, by turns reinvigorating folk music, turning protest songs mainstream, and bringing the genre’s intellectualism and social conscience of folk to rock and pop.
Through each of his new identities, Dylan’s lyrics established him as the poet laureate of the counterculture as he was engaged in a personal voyage that saw him first embrace the blandishments of fame and then emphatically reject them.
His journey during this era, from ambitious nobody to icon back to willing background figure, makes for one of the most extraordinary narratives in music.
Drawing on exclusive interviews and full of fresh insights, “Decade of Dissent” brings to life the singer/songwriter and his scene at the point when he was making music that was not merely aesthetically brilliant but sociologically earthshaking.
Vinyl of the Week will return in July.
To contact music columnist Michael Christopher, send an email to rockmusicmenu@gmail.com. Also, check out his website at thechroniclesofmc.com.
Source: Berkshire mont
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