Brooks on Books: Classic Rock Stories by Tim Morse

This 1998 book is a compact, breezy volume--just over 200 pages--that reads fast but satisfies if you're looking for a pick-it-up-every-now-and-then deal or maybe a plow-through-it-fast-without-much-effort deal.

Here's the concept: Morse gathers a bunch of quotes from the songwriters and musicians who created a host of the most famous classic rock songs of all time--and they ARE by and large famous, as there aren't too many rarities discussed here--and lets them speak for themselves. None is longer than a page or so, and most are a mere paragraph or two. He doesn't supplement them with anything but some brief facts such as year of release and album of origin. In his acknowledgements, Morse thanks someone for helping to set up interviews, but he doesn't provide specific details for any of the stories, just a big list of sources at the end. For all we know, he grabbed all this stuff from secondary sources like the magazines and books he cites.

OK, so it's not a scholarly work or anything, but it's a fun read for anyone who grow up on heavy doses of classic rock. Some of the insights are humorous, a few are poignant, and some are actually insightful. Then there are the "No kidding, Sherlock," comments, like Jimi Hendrix on his "Hey, Joe": "It's about a cat, he shoots his old lady because he catched her doin' wrong, she's messin' with everybody else." I think we got that, Jimi!

Then there's Elton John's "Take Me to the Pilot." John himself says, "I have no idea what that's about, and neither does he!" And the "he," lyricist Bernie Taupin, adds, If anyone can tell me what the song is about--that would be great!"

You could quibble with the organization of the book, perhaps--Morse divides the songs into sections such as "Love and Lust," (self-explanatory, "Cocaine," (about substances in general providing impetus for songs) and "A Quick One" (songs that seem to write themselves). And Morse, whose previous book was about the songs of Yes, is clearly a fan of prog rock, including way more Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, than the man on the street might demand. Some of the song choices feel odd, too--does Rod Stewart's "You're In My Heart" really belong in the same book as "My Generation" and "Tumbling Dice"?

Morse pads the book a little with his personal ranking of the 25 best rock albums of all time and a sort of update on what the "dinosaurs" covered in the book were doing in 1998. It's a little indulgent, but so what? It's his book. I would like to read a book like this with more depth and some precise sourcing, but again, this is Morse's book, and he did it his way. It's an enjoyable read if you find it at a used book store for a few bucks.