I really liked this one. I liked the way the author selected one day of the rock stars life to tell about a defining moment or just something really important that happened to them. I grew up listening to all of these stars and I found this book very interesting.

Enjoyable trip down rock music history, but I was not convinced by the author's arguments on why rock ended in 1994. That seems like a lot of music that has been discounted.

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.

As a lover of music, I knew I had to read this book the second I saw it. Uncommon People tells the tale of "the rockstar", a phenomenon that no longer exists. I loved learning about the forty rockstars he chose to highlight and had fun listening to some of their various tunes when I wasn't reading. I received this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

David Hepworth's Uncommon People is a solid review of the creation (and eventual deterioration) of the concept of "rock star" using examples from Buddy Holly to Kurt Cobain - perhaps the last of the real rock stars. Depending on your knowledge of rock and roll (and perhaps age), some of the stories may be familiar but there's always a bit more depth to the story than most people (other than the true rock and roll aficionados) will know. Hepworth's premise - that changing times, including the rise of 24 hour news cycles, social media and of MP3s - demystified rock stars, changed even the stars' attitude about what it meant to be a rock star and altered the way in which people embrace music and the people who make it. Interesting read, depressing at times with the realities of the impact of the drug culture within music, and well structured. Thanks to NetGalley for providing a free e-ARC in an exchange for an honest review. .

Published by Henry Holt and Co. on November 21, 2017

David Hepworth argues that the era of the rock star has passed. Uncommon People chronicles their rise and fall, from 1955 to 1994. After talking about what makes someone a rock star and what we expect from a rock star, Hepworth explains that he wants to profile individual rock stars: who they were before they achieved rock fame, how that happened, and what it did to them. He does that by selecting and discussing an important day in rock history and using that day to provide a window into the star’s life. Targeting a single day is presumably a strategy to keep the book from becoming unwieldy.

Hepworth’s method is to talk about that significant event, and then to provide some background about the rock star in question. He often discusses other significant events in that year, or trends that began in that year. At the end of each chapter, he provides a playlist of 10 songs or albums from that year.

Many excellent and influential rock musicians are left out of the book, presumably because they don’t meet Hepworth’s loose definition of a rock star, which includes glamour, authenticity, late nights, recklessness (at least in image), swagger, sexual charisma, self-assuredness, good hair, and a bunch of other qualities that Hepworth scatters through his introduction. In the end, a rock star is whatever you want a rock star to be, and you know one when you see one.

Readers can quibble with his choices. My quibble is that the Beatles, individually or collectively, are given four entries, but Neil Young receives only some passing mentions. What, he doesn’t have good hair? And Eric Clapton gets mentioned over and over but doesn’t deserve his own chapter?

Readers can also quibble about whether all of his chosen rock stars perform rock music, which might or might not be fundamental to the definition of a rock star. I think of Madonna as a pop star, of Bob Marley as a reggae star, of Bob Dylan as a folk-rock star, and of Kurt Cobain as a punk-rock star, yet they all get chapters. Readers might disagree with Hepworth’s choices, but that’s part of the fun of reading a book like this.

Uncommon People provides a bunch of interesting, gossipy information. Aging rock fans will probably have heard many of the stories before, but it’s fun to hear them again, and anyone who isn’t a rock historian will probably learn something new by reading the book. Some of the significant events seem to have been chosen because Hepworth happened to be there, but I suppose that’s inevitable when a book is written by a rock journalist.

Will you learn anything particularly insightful about the phenomenon of rock stardom or the commonalities that link rock stars together? Probably not. They are what they are, and once again, you know one when you see one.

The profiled rock stars and their significant days are:

1955 - Little Richard (creates the “clean” version of Tutti Frutti which, in its original version, was pretty far from clean); 1956 - Elvis (drives from Memphis to Tupelo and realizes just how much his life had changed); 1957 - Paul McCartney and John Lennon (meet for the first time); 1958 - Jerry Lee Lewis (unsuccessfully explains his 13-year-old wife to the London press); 1959 - Buddy Holly (dies in a plane crash, creating the first full-length rock star story).

1960 - Brian Rankin, a/k/a Lee Marvin (the Shadows release the guitar-hero single “Apache”); 1961 - Bob Dylan (earns his first review by performing at Gerde’s Folk City); 1962 - Ringo Starr (replaces Pete Best as the Beatles’ drummer); 1963 - Rolling Stones (a new manager kicks Ian Stewart out of the group and thus fashions the band’s lasting image); 1964 - Brian Wilson (melts down and stops touring with the Beach Boys).

1965 - Roger Daltrey (punches Keith Moon in a dressing room in Denmark as The Who makes chaos a trademark of rock bands); 1966 - Jimi Hendrix (plays in London with Eric Clapton and Cream); 1967 - Janis Joplin (plays at Monterey and redefines the rock star image); 1968 - The Beatles (begin their ending as John gets with Yoko and Paul gets with Linda); 1969 - Black Sabbath (changes the band’s name from Earth).

1970 - Jim Morrison (reinforces the role of the crotch in rock and roll); 1971 - Lou Reed (makes a comeback); 1972 - Rolling Stones (bring the concept of “big” to concert tours); 1973 - David Bowie (retires after inventing the rock star as an art project); 1974 - Bruce Springsteen (writes “Born to Run” and creates a legacy).

1975 - Bob Marley (records a live concert that Hepworth attended); 1976 - Stevie Nicks (is worshipped by fans at a Fleetwood Mac concert in Tampa); 1977 - Elvis (dies); 1978 - Ian Dury (records “Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick”); 1979 - Led Zepplin (plays a weekend concert over two weekends and proves that Robert Plant and Jimmy Page have turned into dinosaurs).

1980 - John Lennon (dies); 1981 - Duran Duran (give birth to the intersection of sex and music videos); 1982 - Ozzie Osborne (sleeps on the bus while his guitarist crashes a stolen plane, although the chapter is mostly about the use of cocaine by rock and Hollywood stars); 1983 - This is Spinal Tap (spoofs but captures the sad reality of rock star wannabes); 1984 - Michael Jackson (sets fire to his hair).

1985 - Bob Geldof (makes rock noble by creating Band Aid, which spawned Live Aid and cemented U2 as rock stars); 1986 - Bob Dylan (makes a comeback, although the chapter is mostly about the interview that Dylan gave to Hepworth); 1987 - Axl Rose (makes the “Welcome to the Jungle” video emblematic of the sensationalist ethic of hard rock); 1988 - Elton John (auctions his old stuff so he can acquire new stuff); 1989 - Bonnie Raitt (goes to rehab while confronting middle age, as do Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, and about half the rock world).

1990 - Madonna (touches herself on stage in Toronto); 1991 - Freddie Mercury (dies of AIDS); 1992 - Red Hot Chili Peppers (appear naked on the cover of Rolling Stone without guitarist John Fruscuiante, who went a bit bonkers); 1993 - Prince (changes his name to a symbol); 1994 - Kurt Cobain (dies, bringing the rock star era to an end).

One can argue that rock stars didn’t end with Cobain. If Madonna is a rock star, why isn’t Beyoncé? If Bob Marley was a rock star, why isn't Jay Z? Hepworth suggests that pop stars in the digital age are the product of marketing and have less purity than those in the 40 years that the book covers. Maybe that’s true, although whether that should disqualify recent artists from being regarded as rock stars is less clear.

More to the point, books have to end, even if music doesn’t. The 40 years covered by Uncommon People produced some great music, and the book captures some great moments.

RECOMMENDED

This is a must read for any rock music fan, or really, any fans of music from the past 70 years. The structure of the book - covering a year a chapter - was the selling point, and made the book very easy to pick up and read if only at bits at a time. While I had hoped that the book would cover a different star per year, I did end up enjoying revisiting some of the old favorites (Dylan, Lennon, etc).

This is very engaging book that encapsulates what it's like to be a rock star into 40 easily digestible mini portraits ranging from Little Richard to Kurt Cobain. I found myself devouring each portrait and eagerly moving on to the next one.

Interesting book but I was put off by the wording the author used in the little bit about the artist Little Richard. It talks about his first homosexual experience was with a local man well he was still a child/early teen so in my opinion it was not a first sexual experience it was he was molested/raped as an early teen. That positive twist on it soured me for the rest of the book I did enjoy the little bits of the book but that wording just ruined the book for me.

If you like rock & roll, this is an interesting book. It's based on the idea that rock went from the mid-1950's until about the mid-1990's, and then the info/24 hour news age began taking over and things began going digital. Including music. David Hepworth makes the statement in his book that the era of the rock star thrived and ended during that period. He goes on to explain his idea, giving examples of the real "rock stars" with a brief bio about his selections. He's got some great stories about some of the big name rockers that lived life fast and hard and also tells why he feels that era is over. Thanks for reading. An advance copy was provided by NetGalley for an unbiased review.

A must read for all rock & rollers from the 50s through the early 90s! Well researched & well written with little known facts of your favorite rockers! From Little Richard to Prince!

This book is based on the premise that the age of the true Rock Star that existed through the fifties and into the nineties is over. Before electronic social media, invasive 24/7 news reporting, and the age of making computerized music, we had our true rock heroes. We're talking about Elvis, The Beatles, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Guns n' Roses, Queen, Motley Crue, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Nirvana...you get the idea. These are recording artists that made albums and we followed them through their ups and downs, bought their LPs (good and bad) and bought them all over again when they were reissued on CDs. They were and are rock icons. We also bought all the magazines for their photos and interviews, hanging on every word. If you grew up in the sixties and seventies, you will particularly enjoy this book, and bask in the warm glow that this nostalgic look back brings. For, nothing takes you back through life like the soundtrack that was playing behind it.

The book goes in chronological order from the 1950s through the 90s, each chapter focusing on a musical artist. The fun part is how it's a bit of a mystery who the artist is, as author David Hepworth lays the groundwork to introduce each artist. Working in the music industry for decades, he has interviewed many major artists and describes how he is also a major fan and is in fact secretly shuddering in awe as he interviews each with a cool veneer. At the end of each chapter, Hepworth lists the major albums that were out at the time, which really puts the year in context (especially if you've lived through them and the music yourself).

As the book nears its end, a paragraph really tugged at my heart and mind. He spoke about how if you can go see a Springsteen or a McCartney now, even if they can't hit all the notes anymore...harness the chance to experience a dying breed...a true legendary rock star for the ages.

Fascinating tales of the rise and fall of rock stars. Details from each year beginning in 1955 through the 90's. Major moments in the rock era are delineated in terrific detail and all set in context. Great read.

Good overview of the idea of the "Rock Star" and how this title has evolved since the 50's. Each chapter is devoted to a different artist, so you can skip over the ones that don't interest you. All in all an enjoyable read.

I loved this book. So much information about various stars. I could not stop reading it. Prince, Bowie, Springsteen, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, too many to name. This will be a go to book for any fan of music. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

Interesting and fun read that moves quickly. Highly recommended for fans of music.