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Books | Texas History

Uncommon People:
The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars

By David Hepworth

(New York: Henry Holt, 2017)
Pages 320. Illustrated.
ISBN: 978-1-250-12412-8. $30.00.

Review by Dr. Kirk Bane


February 5 , 2018

In 2016, music history scholar David Hepworth published Never a Dull Moment: 1971 The Year that Rock Exploded (Henry Holt), a splendid exploration of that landmark year in rock-and-roll history. Critics lauded Hepworth's study. Kirkus Reviews, for example, called it "an exuberant tour through a pivotal year in the development of popular music and culture." The Daily Telegraph praised Never a Dull Moment as "clever and entertaining…[Hepworth's] style is pithy and his eye for anecdotal detail sharp."

Hepworth has returned with the fantastic Uncommon People, an insightful, opinionated, and engaging examination of rock-and-roll performers and their significance, covering the years 1955-1995. Little Richard, he contends, was the first rock star; Kurt Cobain the last. Indeed, Hepworth argues that "the age of the rock star, like the age of the cowboy, has passed." The author adeptly assesses many of the giants of rock, including Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, the Who, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Guns N' Roses, Prince, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Hepworth also considers two iconic rockers from the Lone Star State: Lubbock-born Buddy Holly and Port Arthur native Janis Joplin.

Hepworth provides brilliant descriptions of his subjects. Consider four examples:

On Jerry Lee Lewis: "The only drawback-and here Jerry Lee could be said to have laid down a marker for the ages-was that all that talent was at the mercy of a man with the appetites of a Viking raider, the manners of a Confederate skirmisher, and the tractability of a mule. Jerry Lee's problem was that he actually was the obnoxious redneck hoodlum his rock-and-roll peers only pretended to be."

On John Lennon: "It had always been John's group, so if anyone was going to bring it to a close it would be him. He felt his involvement with Yoko, both romantic and artistic, was changing him; if this new, expanded, improved version of Lennon could no longer fit into the mold of the Beatles, then he would have no problem cracking the mold. There never has been and there probably never will be a band whose gossamer internal balance can survive the introduction of one member's husband or wife."

On the "lubricious" Jim Morrison: "Before he left the West Coast to fly to New York for a major publicity blitz off the back of the success of 'Light My Fire' in 1967, Morrison visited the celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring, handed him a clipping of a photograph of a statue of Alexander the Great, and announced that that was what he wanted to look like. Morrison was not handicapped by modesty."

On Robert Plant and Jimmy Page: "The two key figures in the Led Zeppelin tableau were Plant and Page. Their poses were the ones young men essayed in front of their bedroom mirrors. There they stood, Plant with his cascade of curls, his shirt slashed to the navel, the microphone and its cord flexed across his chest like the foil of a chevalier, everything indicating in the direction of the apex of the hard rock singer's golden triangle, his crotch; off to one side was Page, with his dark mane, his instrument dangled halfway down those impossibly thin legs, the acme of slovenly grandeur. Poses are vital in rock. They are not some optional extra."

Why did fans idolize rock stars? In other words, "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." Moreover, Hepworth continues, "what did we want of them? To be larger than life but also like us. To live out their songs. To stay young forever."

Wonderfully written and wise, Uncommon People will appeal to students of pop culture, especially those interested in rock history. "Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!"

Dr. Kirk Bane,
Book Review Editor,
Central Texas Studies

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Reviews by Dr. Kirk Bane

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