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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!"
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