“The point of a music revolution is not to replace today’s pop stars with a new slate; it is to kick out the jams! Riot in the streets! Do it now! Etc. It’s all about direct engagement, and the result of all that activity should be a better time for all, a party that will keep everyone coming back to do it some more. This is what rock & roll at its best can provide – leading to the idea that perhaps rock & roll itself should be seen not as a genre, not as a mere noun or even a verb, but also as a process.”
Greg Shaw
Prophetic words from a man that embodied rock and roll, with all of its contradictions and complexities, pure and simple. I have actually quoted these words on this very blog before and it always gives me solace to read them in this day and age of niches and genres and sub-genres. That it was uttered by Greg Shaw, a poster boy for independent rock and roll if there ever was one makes it that much more poignant.
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Greg Shaw’s passion for rock and roll was legendary, especially when held against the examples of this day’s processed cheese, American Idol crap that attempts to pass for music. Co-creator and creator of the seminal Mojo Navigator Rock & Roll News and Who Put the Bomp magazines, chronicler of both 60’s rock and roll bands like the Doors and Grateful Dead in addition to garage rock originals like the Seeds and the Standells as well as the punk rock heyday of the Ramones, Sex Pistols and Iggy Pop. Arguably the inventor of the genre called Power-Pop which Greg described as a “hybrid style with the power and guts of punk, but drawing on a pop song tradition with wide popular appeal.” The man responsible for probably one of the greatest, true independent record labels in Bomp! Owner of the legendary Bomp Records store and mail order company (still ably run by Suzy Shaw for all these years) in LA, promoter and instigator of the original garage-rock revival through his Voxx record label and Cavern Club rock club. Compiler of obscure ‘60s garage bands in his voluminous Pebbles series and numerous other cool compilations, the man lived and breathed rock and roll to an extent few can comprehend and now you can get a sense of that passion with the publication of the brand new book Bomp! Saving The World One Record At A Time by Suzy Shaw and Mick Farren.
Bomp! is an incredible read because it brings out the passion that rock and roll can instill in, not only Greg Shaw but his ex-wife and long time business partner Suzy Shaw and writers like the legendary Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus. Featuring priceless original reproductions from the pages of both Mojo Navigator (which predated Rolling Stone by a year) to Who Put The Bomp and interspersed with essays from those who worked closely with Shaw, the enthusiasm contained in these pages is infectious. While some may bemoan the era covered by the majority of this book as rock’s “Golden Age” I would have to beg to differ. In some ways, this age of blogs, podcasts and MySpace are breathing much needed fresh air into rock and roll and allowing widely dispersed groups of music fans the opportunity to share in, discover and converse about the music that turns their crank, much the way fanzines functioned in Greg’s day.
Read the complete review vy Mark Boudreau here
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