Uncommon People notes the rise and fall of rock stars. The book focuses on rock stars from 1955-1995 and includes yearly playlists. It talks about the first Rockstar – Little Richard. The first Rock Idol – Elvis Presley. The Bad Boy – Jerry Lee Lewis. The Good Boy – Buddy Holly. Also included are bios on Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, Kurt Cobain, Elton John and Michael Jackson – to name a few. Each of the artists/rockstars has a story about their life and career and was a lot of fun to read about these “uncommon” people who became Rock Stars and have solidified such a place in Pop Culture.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
Named one of the best music books of 2017 by The Wall Street Journal
An elegy to the age of the Rock Star, featuring Chuck Berry, Elvis, Madonna, Bowie, Prince, and more, uncommon people whose lives were transformed by rock and who, in turn, shaped our culture
Recklessness, thy name is rock.
The age of the rock star, like the age of the cowboy, has passed. Like the cowboy, the idea of the rock star lives on in our imaginations. 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. What did we want of them? To be larger than life but also like us. To live out their songs. To stay young forever. No wonder many didn’t stay the course.
In Uncommon People, David Hepworth zeroes in on defining moments and turning points in the lives of forty rock stars from 1955 to 1995, taking us on a journey to burst a hundred myths and create a hundred more.
As this tribe of uniquely motivated nobodies went about turning themselves into the ultimate somebodies, they also shaped us, our real lives and our fantasies. Uncommon People isn’t just their story. It’s ours as well.