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Before the internet, before ROLLING STONE, before Dylan Lewis's masterful hosting of RECOVERY, there was BOMP! Music nerd Greg Shaw founded the first free music press in the mid sixties in the form of hand-printed A4 zine MOJO NAVIGATOR, which was distributed around San Francisco, the epicentre of everything at the time.

These underground zines morphed into BOMP! - a ‘proper' colour magazine that was still independent as hell. This amazing book catalogues every issue and the birth of rock criticism as we know it, in turn tracing the evolution from 60s psychedelia to 70s glam, punk, new wave and garage rock.

There is the first ever interview with the Doors, in which they discuss the different strains of LSD available at the time. Five pages about the Ramones trying to find good Chinese food in London. And epic, sprawling rants on the colossal significance of the New York Dolls.

Writing like this came before everything was rehashed and cynical, when music actually meant everything. It's an exciting read, passionate and wild.

By Max Olijnyk / Read

Iowa City PL

I recommend this book for anyone interested in the counter-counter-culture, the true under-ground of Rock as it existed from the ’50s through the ’70s. And, yes, Lester Bangs’ "James Taylor Marked for Death" is reprinted, possibly the most important polemic in all of Rock criticism. - Charlie / ICPL

Rich's R'n'R Rants & Raves

After reading this great book, I realized that Bomp has been a part of my life for over 3 decades now – considerably longer than most people that I know! Greg Shaw was a true believer in r’n’r and despite any faults that he might have had, he did his best to bring his visions to the world through his writings and his records. Of course, he was helped by many people along the way, especially his ex-wife, Suzy Shaw, who continues the business to this day.

This book is a collaboration of excerpts from the zines, writings from Greg and other contributors and anecdotes from people involved, including many remembrances from Suzy.

Some of the most interesting segments for me comes at the beginning, with pieces from Greg’s original zine, Mojo Navigator, that he created with collaborator David Harris. I have never seen these and found the pieces written in the mid-60’s to be fascinating bits of r’n’r writing. There is the Grateful Dead talking about Big Brother’s “new singer” (Janis), Big Brother talking about 1st single ("Blindman" & "All is Loneliness"), club gigs in Chicago where no one knew them (maybe their first out of town gig), first recordings, and recording studios, a very long Country Joe & the Fish interview – apparently they were a local fave that never really reached the acclaim of their counterparts - and a cool Doors interview from just after the first record came out but before “Light My Fire” hit, talking about clubs, dances, ballrooms, etc – and drugs, which seemed to be the part that excited Jim the most. Mojo Navigator dissolved and Greg & Suzy left San Francisco, relocated to LA and moved on.

By the 70’s Shaw started Who Put the Bomp zine, along with the Bomp! label. Tales abound about these days and a number of articles are reproduced. Some of the reproductions are a little small and grainy, making it difficult for me to read with my lousy eyes. But, there are tons of super writings - the zine published the legendary “groin thunder” Lester Bangs amphetamine fueled lengthy (and ultra cool) Troggs rant. There are great articles on the Standells, the Runaways, the burgeoning punk scene, a cool bit about the early '70's “New New York” scene, which at the time meant Blue Oyster Cult and the Dolls!

A couple articles on Sky & the Seeds are included, which is especially appropriate as Greg got Sky to come to Shaw’s Cavern Club and sit in with just about every band that appeared there – sometimes whether they wanted him to or not! This is how many of the local scenesters appeared on the 80’s Sky record and how Redd Kross hooked up with him.

A British punk special is something I specifically remember from my pre-LA days, when I was reading any r’n’r zine I could get my hands on. Of course, Greg took up the flag for the new punk bands and there are plenty of articles on Blondie, the Ramones, the local LA bands (several of whom recorded for Bomp) and plenty more.

Also included are the lay outs for the last, “lost” issue #22, which they thought had disappeared. It’s a shame that this never saw the light of day before now.

My favorites sections are definitely Suzy’s recollections and behind the scenes commentaries. She understands and appreciates the importance of the business that she & Greg ran, but she doesn’t try to deify Greg – she brings up as many of his infuriating traits as his endearing ones. But, she is never mean, she is funny and factual and for someone who has been involved peripherally with Bomp at times (mostly through friends), the tales are revelatory at times, bring back memories other times and often just make me laugh!

One of Greg’s most annoying traits for Suzy was his avoidance of all aspects of the business side of the music business. But if not for this “fault”, he might not have helped Lee Joseph start up Dionysus Records in LA, which helped start my “career”, such as it was. While I never recorded for Bomp specifically, I did appear on a compilation or two, as well. Greg always encouraged bands and I will always appreciate his help.

For anyone who is interested in the evolution of r’n’r writing, fanzines and independent labels, this is a terrific read! - Rich's R'n'R Rants & Raves

Record Collector

American indie pioneer

Greg Shaw was a charismatic Brian Jones/Keith Relf lookalike who became a legend of American indie rock. He helped launch San Francisco fanzine Mojo Navigator in 1966, mainly because he knew how to operate a mimeograph – the forerunner of the photocopier. But his musical tastes were less hippie, more garage-rock, as he proved with his next fanzine, Who Put The Bomp!. Launched in 1970, it attracted writers such as Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus, and was an early champion of the New York Dolls, Stooges, Blondie and English punk. Bomp! spawned an LA record shop and a label of the same name, home to Stiv Bators, Iggy Pop, Devo and Plimsouls. As a label, Bomp! became a much-revered stalwart of the US indie scene, even though Shaw’s penchant for power-pop meant that some of the records were more written about than bought.

Along the way the energetic Shaw also edited Phonograph magazine, wrote prolifically, and was an executive with Sire, where he discovered and managed The Flaming Groovies. He died in 2004 and his story is told with self-deprecating good humour by his long-suffering partner Suzy Shaw and Mick Farren, who helps to put it all into context. But what gives the book its piquant flavour are the many facsimile pages from Mojo Navigator and Bomp!, plus great photos. A true time-capsule of the American indie scene in the 60s and 70s, which can be found at www.ammobooks.com.

ISBN 0978607686, 304 pages

Reviewed by Alan Lewis

Record Collector

Terrascopic Rumbles

Something else that has me hitting the superlatives button has got to be ‘Bomp’ (“Saving the world one record at a time”), a hardback supertome that details the pioneering publishing work of the sadly missed Greg Shaw. Edited by Greg’s widow Suzy and our old friend Mick Farren, the reader is taken on a culturally rich, seat of your pants ride through beautiful reproductions of the once renowned (and rarely seen, I might add) ‘Mojo Navigator’ and the more pro layouts found in ‘(Who Put The) Bomp’. This is combined with essential and insightful preambles by Suzy, Mick and Greg (the principles) with secondary pieces from the pens of Brendan Mullen, Peter Case, Lester Bangs, Alan Betrock, ‘The Ig’ and Lenny Kaye! Add to this a truckload of evocative photos (like when “ a Weirdo” met members of The Germs on page 246 for example) and Bomp #22, reproduced on its original paste-up boards, which if you’re a zine-o-phile will know, was never actually issued. Wow. This comes as a glorious and fitting epitaph to one of the founding fathers of the underground music press. Without Greg’s endeavours over the years, I’d guess that this opening splurge on music publications would be considerably smaller or even non-existant. Bomp (the book) is a veritable treasure trove of left-field rock ‘n’ roll history which clearly avoids the chemical tang of coffee-table lit. Check out the publishers on www.ammobooks.com asap! - Terrascope

Harp Magazine

After Greg Shaw died in 2004, his former wife Suzy Shaw decided it was time to resume work on a project that had been back-burnered for two decades: to assemble a book chronicling her ex-husband’s journalistic legacy and resurrecting crucial early writings of some of rock writing’s greatest voices—among them, Lester Bangs, whose notorious Troggs screed “James Taylor Marked For Death” originally consumed a whopping 24 pages of Shaw’s seminal publication Who Put the Bomp.

WPTB was one of the premier rock fanzines of the ’70s, aesthetic sibling to the likes of Crawdaddy!, Fusion and CREEM, and an oasis for kick-out-the-jams-minded fanboys and collectors who had little truck with corporate-hyped swill. Early issues featured the Bangs classic, stories on the Seeds, Flamin’ Groovies and the rockabilly revival, and all manner of left-field minutiae (take the 26-point test to learn if you are a “rock and roll trufan”[sic]; point #13 inquires if “you squeezed Robert Plant’s lemon”). When punk and new wave dawned, Shaw eagerly dived right in, doing cover stories on the UK punk explosion (“England’s Screaming” blared the headline, over an image of a leering Johnny Rotten), power pop, the Ramones, etc., and foreshortening the mag’s name to just Bomp!. Regardless of the coverage—Shaw’s late-’60s pre-WPTB zine Mojo-Navigator Rock & Roll News included—there was never any whiff of complacency. This was rock criticism as activism.

For the Bomp! book, Suzy Shaw and author/Deviants frontman Mick Farren have deftly anthologized the Greg Shaw oeuvre, culling the best features as direct reproductions so one can see exactly what the magazine’s pages looked like, right down to the typos, the quirky layouts and the close-ups of Joey Ramone’s ripped jeans. The editors have also penned fresh essays and added unpublished photos to contextualize Shaw and his magazine as both evolved with the times.

In 1974 Shaw also launched Bomp! Records, and along the way he had a hand in the careers of Stiv Bators, Flamin’ Groovies, Plimsouls, Warlocks, Black Keys and others. But whether he was writing about music or releasing it, his overriding manifesto was saving the world one record at a time. As he told me in 1984 when I interviewed him for my own zine, “I don’t find much essential difference in producing a magazine or producing an album. It’s our shared opinions, expressed through records or writing, that it boils down to.”

By Fred Mills

Mojo

Moli

Rock 'n' Roll Salvation

By Wendy Case/MOLI

Immortalizing California's legendary Bomp! label and rag

I knew I'd get a kick out of AMMO press's new tome, Bomp! Saving the World One Record at a Time. But the truth is, I haven't been able to put it down since the UPS guy had me sign for it.

A scrapbook on the evolution of the oldest continuously operating indie label in the United States and the rock magazine that preceded it, Bomp! gives me the same thrill I used to get pouring over my sixth grade yearbook back in the '70s. But instead of pining for Jonathan Mansberger from fourth period study hall, I gush hopelessly over Joey Ramone, Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop, Sky Saxon and the myriad punk, rock, pop, and new wave bands that changed my life forever.

Bomp! founder Greg Shaw was an anomaly when he founded his first magazine, Mojo Navigator, in '60s San Francisco. Instead of casting out the early heroes of rock (Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent, Elvis), he began construction on a traceable road map — visual, aural, and intellectual — that connected them, and us, to the future. With the help of wife and Bomp! co-founder Suzy Shaw (who co-authored this book with rock journalist/former Deviants frontman Mick Farren), Greg revolutionized rock journalism and initiated the format that everyone recognizes today as "indie rock."

Suzy still runs the label (which relocated to Burbank in the '70s), along with partner Patrick Boissel. And though Greg succumbed to kidney failure in 2004, his legacy — which includes everyone from the Germs and the Romantics to the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Black Keys — is a legacy of love. The man loved rock 'n' roll. The book, basically a compendium of clippings from Mojo Navigator and its successor Who Put The Bomp, along with pictures and artifacts from Bomp! Records and its many subsidiary labels, is a fitting tribute to his passion and enthusiasm. In its pages you'll find early writings by fellow rock devotees Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus, the first-ever fanzine interview with the Doors, the original advertisement for Runaways auditions (hosted by Bomp! and Kim Fowley), and heaps of other fun stuff.

You can order a copy for yourself (along with an unrivaled catalog of music both old and new) from Bomp!'s online store. Also be sure to drop into the label's brand new MOLI profile and say "Hi" to Patrick and Suzy. They're awesome. - Wendy Case / Moli

Victim Of Time

by Todd Killings

If you're looking for one of the most satisfying cultural curiosities that's surfaced recently in the publishing realm, it's no doubt that the Bomp book: Saving The World One Record At a Time is the guaranteed lock of the year. Whether it's for your own selfish indulgence or as a holiday gift for the rock'n roller who has everything, it's as impressive and gratifying as any other book you hold dear in your library, and deserves to be in every home that considers itself complete. In its lavish hardcover exterior and page after page of original Mojo Navigator, Who Put The Bomp, and Bomp! reprints and anecdotes from Suzy Shaw and Mick Farren, it's a truly incredible homage to the man that had the vision to wrap all of his festering fanaticism into what became one of the most important underground voices in rock'n roll history, Mr. Greg Shaw himself.

From the earliest evidence of his obsession, which can be read in reprinted pages from Greg's Mojo Navigator (turning in the first interviews with The Doors, Country Joe & The Fish and the Grateful Dead), it's an epic journey of a true behind-the-scenes pioneer of music journalism, multiplied by an unwavering enthusiasm that was unmatched in the earliest days of so-called "rock criticism." Interestingly enough, in the early 1960s, still years before Crawdaddy and Rolling Stone were started, adult magazines such as Escapade and Cavalier were the only nationally-circulated publications to feature independent rock journalism within their seedy pages, merely as a way to fill up the blank space between the pictorial layouts and blase' fiction that were the typical fare of these randy periodicals. As Greg's passion and drive for creating an alternative universe reinstated itself during the late 60s when imitators started to pop up along side Mojo Navigator, his life mission was firmly established, and the groundwork for the independent music community network we all know and love today, was forged.

As Mojo Navigator fanzine changed into Who Put the Bomp in the early 70s, it was Greg Shaw who trail-blazed the true rock'n roll path to salvation by rounding up the founding fathers of what would become the golden age of rock journalism (Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer, 'Metal' Mike Saunders, among others), and let them loose in the unhinged and wide-open period of post-60s, pre-punk free-form writing that changed the way we all look at music today. Most of the top-notch epic articles (Bangs on The Troggs is timeless) are reprinted in their full glory, along with an abundance of rare snippets (you even get to read the unpublished 22nd issue of Bomp! still on the pasteboard) and cover images of long gone back issues. All tied together with Suzy Shaw's insider commentary interspersed throughout, it lends an endearing tone to the whole experience, which fills more than just the void of not having copies of these original issues.

As the times changed and Bomp! emerged in the streamlined format that it was best known for in the late 1970s, the Shaws found an even more solid niche and expanded the publication into it's logical and evolutionary second phase, which was the formation of Bomp! Records in 1974. Possibly the first to successfully take an underground rock'n roll publication into the next level of the process by actually producing the medium they were covering may seem to be an obvious move now, but in the formative years of independent music fandom, and well before 'punk culture' deemed it an affordable possibility, this was literally a groundbreaking step that would inspire the next generations more than they could have possibly imagined. Tracing everyone from Touch and Go and Subterranean Pop in the very early 1980s, to Flipside and Forced Exposure a few years later, the 'fanzine, turned record label' phenomenon finally had its clear and undeniable progenitor in Bomp!

This essential book includes tons of unpublished photos, along with titillating hook-up details (Suzy and The Stooges' James Williamson??), and dirty laundry aired in an effort to clear up old rumors surrounding the financial and business sides of the Bomp! operation, which refreshingly humanizes their iconic stature in the seedy world of rock'n roll. If you've ever wished you could just flip through the pages of a few of their vintage issues, this is the chance you've been waiting for, and it's well worth the price of admission. Check out some page images HERE and buy your copy today to ensure delivery before the holidays, and to quench your insatiable appetite for more musical minutiae that you sorely can't live without. - Victim Of Time

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