Lillian Roxon (1932–1973)

A really lousy reference work, full of mistakes and appalling choices (excludes James Brown, Otis Redding, all Motown groups, Sam Cooke, Jerry Lee Lewis; includes Abba, America, Paul Anka, The Association, Bread... need I go on?), but, well, a snapshot of its time and whitebread culture, and useful for album listings.

Date August 15, 2007. I have to only rate this with 3 stars because of the datedness of the content; however, if one can disregard the 35+ yr. age of this book it deserves 4 or 5 stars. This remains the standard by which all future rock encylcopedia's are measured against, and they fall at the least minimally short. FYI, in the mid to late 1980s I looked seriously and carefully at many books to replace my very worn copy of Roxon, and I found them all wanting in some way.

A previous commenter show more said this book excluded James Brown and Sam Cooke, WRONG! His comments must concern some abridged or revised edition of Roxon's original text. My c. 1971, Gossett and Dunlap, Tempo Books edition, included Sam Cooke and James Brown (and Arthur Brown), and with a copyright of 1971 that makes it a bit early for a discussion of ABBA. show less

This one wasn't very interesting at the time and would probably be even less so now!