Chicago breakdown

by Mike Rowe

Book by Rowe, Mike

Genres: Music

226 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1973

About the author

Mike Rowe is a blues scholar.

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Marty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding recap of the history of Chicago Blues. The book provides a thoughtful and well-reasoned examination of the rise and fall of the genre. The culprits for Chicago Blues’ demise stretch well beyond the hackneyed cliche that Rock music killed it. The author’s reasoning is far more nuanced and compelling and rings truer than the “sound bite” explanation that Elvis or The Beatles brought the curtain down on this quintessential American musical art form. The book is a must read for any serious admirer of the Blues.

[Mark Potts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential for any bluesologist.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Discussion of the musicians, songs and labels that lead the delta blues insurgency campaign against Chicago's city blues, after everyone involved had gone electric.

By way of tangent: like most blues writers this author lays a lot of the blame for the current state of the music industry on artists like Chuck Berry and early Elvis. Time was when the entire focus of the music industry was on music made for adults, by adults. Those artists changed all of that. As a result we have musicians forced into arrested development to stay relevant, read profitable, in the teenage demographic. It's no coincidence that if you were born in the early 80's you discovered classic rock in high school and were done with the vast majority of it by the time you left college. And that's not to say anything of all the boy bands and crap like that.