Revisionist history of rock and roll written in light of punk rock, the death of Elvis, and record industry developments after the 1970s. As such, it reviews the bands, music, media, culture, economics, and the critical literature of five decades of rock music. An excerpt was featured in The Penguin Book of Rock & Roll Writing (Viking). THE GUARDIAN/Simon Napier-Bell: "An unforgettable read." VILLAGE VOICE/Robert Christgau: "Carducci is here to tell you that aesthetic rarefication isn't a highbrow preserve." THE IDLER/James Parker: "Like Walt Whitman, this book contains multitudes. a vein of theory so intense it verges on the theological and a prose style that effectively mingles the fumes of genuine imaginative combustion with some quite shockingly precise terms of reference. It is the Moby Dick of rock-crit -- nothing else I've read comes close.

" FALL 05: LIFE AGAINST DEMENTIA - Essays, Reviews, Interviews 1975 - 2005, by Joe Carducci. A collection of pieces, many previously unpublished, on music, film, books, and politics. (ISBN 0-9627612-2-2).