Rock Concert (Grove Press) by Marc Myers

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Rock Concert - An Oral History by Marc Myers

Live performances—and plenty of them—have gone a long way to boost rock ’n’ roll’s popularity over the decades. There are also an increasing number of books about rock stars past and present, but few to none have viewed rock’s burgeoning appeal exclusively through the lens of live performance. Rock Concert by music journalist and historian Marc Myers aims to fill that void and does so with considerable insight and aplomb.

As the cover blurb says, Myers has created “an oral history as told by the artists, backstage insiders, and fans who were there.” The individual testimonies, of which there are hundreds, stretch all the way back to 1950 and the R&B clubs in Los Angeles’ Black neighborhoods to DJ Alan “Payola” Freed’s rock extravaganzas in Cleveland and New York, spanning the late ‘60s era of the Monterey Pop Festival, the ephemeral Woodstock and the deadly Altamont, to 1985’s Live Aid and slightly beyond. There is no Bonnaroo, no Lalapalooza, no Summerfest, no Coachella Valley Music Festival, but that is history still in the making.

In addition to the aforementioned stagehand and music insider testimony, the musicians themselves speak about the joys and sorrows of live performances. Country Joe McDonald, the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, Todd Rundgren, Sly and the Family Stone’s Cynthia Robinson, folkie Peter Yarrow, and even Wisconsin’s own Steve Miller have something to say about their experiences, all of which add insight to Myers “warts’n’ all” approach to rock history.

Music fans of any age and genre will find a lot of insightful information here. Whether it makes you long for rock ’n’ roll’s good old days—including Woodstock’s now historic mudslide—will depend on your own experiences and the memories Myers’ text arouses.