Rock 'Til You Drop:The Decline from Rebellion to Nostalgia
A polemic against corporate rock bands, magazines, and festivals, and anyone or anything else who commodifies rebellion
As the Rolling Stones and The Who drag themselves through yet more world tours and middle-aged punk rockers plot nostalgic reunions, this lively and controversial book charts the decline of a generation that started out as self-anointed world-changers and ended up as a ‘colostomy rock’ parody.
Reviews
A book with every promise of doing to the literary world what the sex pistols did to the music scene in the late 1970s.
This entertaining polemic has plenty of targets: corporate rock bands like the Rolling Stones; corporate rock magazines like, well, Rolling Stone; MTV; do-gooder rock festivals; and just about anyone or anything else who commodifies teenage rebellion and dyspepsia for immense personal gain.
A splendidly ill-tempered assault on the music industry, nostalgic boomers and rock stars who refuse to die ... a fine piece of punk journalism, and a barrel of laughs for like-minded readers.
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The definitive word on the senescent Rolling Stones.
New York Times -
An incendiary tome primed to go off in the faces of the wheezing rock icons of yesteryear ... An impassioned, yet brilliantly humorous broadside against the rock industry ... He writes with a bravery that teeters on the suicidal.
Evening Standard -
The fun part is that while you’ll agree with its argument when it comes to groups you despise, you’ll want to throw it out of the window when it addresses one of your personal heroes.
New York Review of Books