A History of Rock Music

A History of Rock Music
a book written by Piero Scaruffi

These are corrections to my book, "A History of Rock Music 1951-2000" (To purchase it, click here). Thanks to all the readers who are sending in these corrections!

Chapter 1.1 ( Background: The 20th Century):

Robert Johnson cut his first record in 1936, not 1938
John Cage "had already" and not "has already"
electronic engineers Harry Olsen and Hebert Belar "built", not "create"
John Cage's work is Imaginary Landscape N.1, not "Landascape"
In the paragraph "While most of" the German word "Aesthetik" is mispelled
Les Baxter's exotica album is Ritual Of The Savage (1951), not Moon

Chapter 1.2 (Rock'n'Roll):

In the paragraph "In 1952 a white singer" change "1952 is also the year in which Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" tv program" with 1952 is also the year in which Bob Horn's "Bandstand" tv program (which in 1956 would become Dick Clark's "American Bandstand")
In the paragraph "Musicians were allowed" remove RCA from Other Worlds Other Sounds (RCA, 1958).
Bill Haley was 30, not 40

Chapter 1.3 (Before the Flood 1957-1962):

"opened the Whiskey a Go Go"... Add: 'in Paris"

Chapter 1.4 (Trouble in Paradise):

Remove "Elektra" from Bob Gibson's At The Gate Of Horn (Elektra, 1961)

Chapter 1.5 (The Flood-76)

A propos the Kinks, replace Till The End Of The Day with See My Friends (It is this song that introduced Indian music into rock'n'roll).

Chapter 1.7 (Counter-culture)

Zappa period: replace "the title-track of Jean-Luc Ponty's King Kong" with "the 19-minute Music For Electric Violin And Low Budget Orchestra, off Jean-Luc Ponty's King Kong
Remove "Elektra" from Buckley's Goodbye And Hello (Elektra, 1967)
The innovative album by Jesse Colin Young is Young Blood (1965), not Soul of A City Boy (1964)

Chapter 2.1 (Psychedelia)

Remove: 1966 was the "summer of love".

Chapter 2.2 (The Age of revivals)

Reduce Santana's rating to (1) and replace Lotus with Caravansarai (1972)
Do not undeerline Graham Persons, but do underline International Submarine Band (1).

Chapter 2.3 (Solo careers)

There are two corrections for Larry Fischer: "immortalized" (not "immortialized") and 1969 (not 1970)
One correction for Eric Burdon: "coined" (not "coinved")

Chapter 2.4 (Electronics and Rock)

Bo Hansson is from Sweden, not Norway

Chapter 2.5 (Progressive-rock)

Genesis: reduce the rating to (2)
Blues Project should NOT be underlined

Chapter 2.6 (Canterbury)

The correct titles of Soft Machine's albums are Volume Two (1969) and Three (1970). And the track The Moon In June needs "the". The last sentence in parenthesis of the Soft Machine paragraph must be rewritten (out of parenthesis) as: for example with the four-movement suite Virtually (1971), on their fourth album, and the futuristic 1983 (1972), on their sixth album.
The correct title of Robert Wyatt's album is The End Of An Ear ("the" is missing). And 'outpouring" is mispelled.
A comma should be a period in Henry Cow's paragraph (after "expressionistic cabaret and rock music")

Chapter 2.7 (Kosmische Musik)

A comma should be a period after "Mirage (1977), one of the earliest albums of ambient music."

Chapter 2.8 (Hard-rock)

In the paragraph on Bachman-Turner Overdrive, southern is mispelled.
Hampton Grease Band: replace "Pink Floyd's Ummagumma" with Frank Zappa's Absolutely Free

Chapter 2.9 (Avantgarde)

Second line: 1960s, not 1970s
A few dates to correct for Terry Riley: In C (1964) and Persian Surgery Dervishes (1972)

Chapter 3.1 (Psychedelic Madness)

Barrett's album needs a "The": The Madcap Laughs
Remove label from Merrell Fankhauser's Message To The Universe (1986)
Mispelled "devoted" in "Lost Aaraaff... was deveoted"

Chapter 3.2 (Re-alignment )

"Gram" and not "Gran"
In the paragraph "As the last vestiges" there is a double "such as"
In the paragraph "The effect on the conservative" after "certified platinum" add: "(one million copies sold)".
In the paragraph "Among fiercely independent", the word "emmpathic" needs to be changed to "emphatic".

Chapter 3.3 (Singer Songwriters)

Chapter 3.4 (Decadence

Remove the second "in London" from "In London, Malcom McLaren opened a boutique in London"
In the sentence "Finally, unbeknownst" after "CBGB's" add "in New York"
The rating of AC/DC should be (2)

Chapter 3.5 (Sound)

Aksak and not Aqsaq

Chapter 3.6 (Auteurs)

Add the rating (111) to Diamanda Galas

Chapter 3.7 (Disco-music)

Chapter 3.8 (Decadence 1969-76)

Add the rating (111) to Diamanda Galas
Add the rating (1) to Laurie Anderson
Add the rating (13) to Harold Budd

Appendix of part 3

Add the albums of Diamanda Galas, Laurie Anderson, Harold Budd

Chapter 4.1 (New Wave):

For Tom Verlaine, remove Flashlight (1987) and add (first in the list) Tom Verlaine (1979),
Robert Quine, not Richard

Chapter 4.2 (Punk-rock):

Chapter 4.3 (Blank Generation):

Sex Pistols: God Save the Queen is 1977 not 1976
Vibrators: Pure Mania is 1977 not 1976
For the Mnemonists, replace Some Attributes (1980) with the monumental Mnemonist Orchestra (1979),
Pere Ubu: The Tenement Year and not Tenement of the Year

Chapter 4.4 (British Graffiti):

Tom Petty's album is titled "Full Moon Fever", not "Full Moon Forever"

Chapter 4.5 (British Graffiti):

U2: Change the text Bono Vox (Paul Hewson) and guitarist The Edge (Dave Evans), The most successful band of their era, with Led by Bono Vox (Paul Hewson) and guitarist The Edge (Dave Evans),

Chapter 4.6 ( Dance music for punks):

The Stick Men are not from Washington, but from Philadelphia.

Chapter 4.8 ( Industrial Music):

Boredom's Soul Discharge is 1989, not 1990

Chapter 4.9 (Hardcore):

Change the rating for Husker Du from (23) to (113)
Gun Club's frontman is Jeffrey (not Jerry) Lee Pierce

Chapter 4.10 (College pop):

Remove the entire section on Jim Steinman

Chapter 4.12 (Neo-progressive):

The title of this chapter should be "Neo-progressive"
White Heaven's Out is 1991 not 1986

Chapter 4.13 ( Minimal Rock):

Change the title of the chapter into "Noise Rock"

Chapter 4.14 ( Psychedelic Revival):

Change the rating for Blacktop to (1). Add "guitarist" after Gories and add "guitarist" after "Comeback's". Change "pop" with "beserk". So the sentence should read: Blacktop (1), the creature of former Gories' guitarist Collins and former '68 Comeback's guitarist Darin Lee Wood, went beserk on

Chapter 4.15 ( Heavy Metal):

Diamond Head's Lightning to the Nations is 1980, not 1981

Chapter 4.16 (Songwriters of the 1980s):

The year is wrong in Lucinda Williams (1988)

Appendix of part 4

Move Husker Du's Zen Arcade to the 9/10 albums

Chapter 4.17 (Roots-rock of the 1980s):

Afghan Whigs, not Wigs

Chapter 4.19 ( The New Age and World-music ):

The line "and Roland introduced the first keyboard enabled with MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), a system to connect musical instruments to computers." must be replaced with "and Sequential Circuits introduces the "Prophet 600", the first keyboard enabled with MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), a system to connect music instruments to computers."

Chapter 4.21 (Extreme Hardcore):

Chapter 4.23 (Punk Crossover):

Fugazi missing this text at the end: "changed forever the context of hardcore music."

Chapter 5.1 (Noisier than rock):

Chapter 5.2 ( Progressive sounds ):

Insert (1) as the rating for Scissor Girls

Chapter 5.3 ( Post-psychedelia ):

Change "Steven Smith" with "Guitarists Steven Smith and Glenn Donaldson"

Chapter 5.4 (Surf and garage):

Chapter 5.6 ( Lo-fi Singer-songwriters ):

Jewel: change "Pieces of Two" into "Pieces of You" (typo)
Bjork: change the rating to (2)
Azalia Snail's rating is (12) not (3)

Chapter 5.7 ( The second coming of Industrial music):

Babyland: they are from Los Angeles, not San Francisco

Chapter 5.9 (Dance Music):

Apoptygma Berzerk, not Bezerk

Chapter 5.10 (Riot girls):

Red Aunts should have a (1) rating

Chapter 5.16 (From grindcore to stoner-rock):

Chapter 5.17 (From grindcore to stoner-rock):

Chapter 5.11 (Brit-pop):

Add the rating of (1) to the Delgados
Replace Her Handwriting (1996) with Broken By Whispers (1999) for the Trembling Blue Stars.
Replace the sentence on Ooioo with Ooioo, the side-project of Boredoms's drummer Yoshimi P-We and a few of her female friends that began as an exercise in hyper-deconstruction of kitsch, juxtaposed all sorts of musical debris in the suites of Feather Float (1999) and Taiga, vaguely reminiscent of the aesthetic ambitions of progressive and psychedelic music but insanely playful.

Chapter 5.12 (Alt-pop):

Jellyfish: change "Split" into "Spilt" (typo)
Ladybug Transistor: Gary Olson is the vocalist, not the guitarist

Chapter 5.13 (Grunge):

Alice In Chains: Layne Staley is the vocalist, Jerry Cantrell the guitarist
Failure were from Los Angeles, not Minneapolis

Chapter 5.14 (Rap):

Chapter 5.15 (Roots rock):

Chapter 5.16 (Hardcore):

Less Than Jake are from Florida, not Wisconsin

Chapter 5.17 (Gothic Rock):

Mortiis' real name is Haavard Elefsen

Chapter 5.19 (Drum'n'bass):

Chapter 5.21 (Post-rock):

In the paragraph on Solex, change "ware" with "were" (typo)
The rating for Him is (1) not (7)

Chapter 5.22 ( Ambient and glitch music):

The album by Eden is titled Gateway To The Mysteries, not Mystery

Appendix of part 5

Alphabetical index

Add International Submarine Band 2.2

Appendixes