Seventies Rock: The Decade of Creative Chaos

The 1970's have been hyped up, fawned over, blown out of proportion and generally misunderstood by most authors. Frank Moriarty has written a very well researched and concise book about the rock music of this decade. Each chapter explores each year of the Seventies. Mr. Moriarty is careful to balance out descriptions of big name artists such as Led Zeppelin or the Who with lesser known artists like Jo Jo Gunne. I remember buying their 1972 single "Run Run Run" when I was in 8th grade.Some may quibble over the artists he leaves out or the amount of space devoted to different artists, but there are only so many you can fit in one book! At the very least, he tries to mention many artists, especially those who have not been adequately explored in other books. Another interesting aspect of his book is that he explores in depth the latter years of groups like Procul Harem who are normally written off as a one shot group from the 60s with "Whiter Shade of Pale". It is nice to read a book free from glaring errors about the music. Many books I have read about pop music contain glaring errors about who recorded what and what year it came out. Mr. Moriarty took great care to avoid these mistakes. It was interesting to read his descriptions of some of the posthumus Jimi Hendrix albums that were released. Mr. Moriarty obviously is a fan of Hendrix but never lets that get in the way of an intelligent discussion of his music. Also in the book, he manages to touch on other styles of music like soul and mentions Stevie Wonder among others. Even if you are not into all of the styles & artists he mentions, which was the case with me, I still found the book very interesting. In a way, the book gave me a better insight into the music that I personally like from that era (mostly R & B, Doobie Bros, Steely Dan, George Benson) and how it fits into the greater musical landscape of the decade.This is also one of the first books about rock music, particularly that of the 1970's, which doesn't dwell on the tabloid details of the artists' lives. Of course, he has to mention the deaths of Hendrix and others but does so with dignity. He also tends to focus on artist's strengths (like Peter Frampton) without going into long discussions of Frampton's failures like "Sgt Pepper" or "I'm In You" which we have heard enough about. This is not to say that he ignores artists' failures or weaknesses, but is concise in both his praise and criticism. It is nice to find a book about the 1970's which doesn't mention Abba! He reseveres only a few sentences for the Top 40/Light Rock Music which he obviously didn't care for. Even though I still like some of that music, I took no offense at his criticisms and could understand them in the context of his subject matter.The next time you mention 1970's music to a friend and they begin rhapsodizing over "Grease", "Saturday Night Fever" or Barry White or any of the annoying hits like "Seasons in the Sun" or "Billy Don't