Sonic Cool

by Joe Harrington

In the tradition of Nick Tosches, Tom Wolfe and Lester Bangs comes an epic and riveting history of rock and roll that reads like a novel. Sonic Cool presents the saga of rock and roll as the closest thing we have to genuine "myth" in the modern world, and it is the first book about rock to be written in the spirit of rock. Immense, fierce, opinionated and hilarious, Joe Harrington masterfully presents rock as a movement of near-religious proportions, against a backdrop of social factors and important events such as the invention of the guitar, the jukebox, LSD, the 12-inch phonograph record, the '70s recession, the Reagan Revolution, and the Internet. This is the history of rock as it's never been told, as the legend of a massive cultural movement, one that had meaning, but ultimately failed because it sold its soul. Radically egalitarian in its assessments - towering figures such as Lennon, Dylan and Cobain stand along side lesser-known but equally influential artists like the MC5, the Misfits and Joy Division - Sonic Cool is gripping reading for anyone who ever believed in the music. Includes a 16-page black-and-white photo insert.

PRAISE:
“…Harrington writes in an omniscient voice that requires a serious suspension of disbelief, though we have about as much reason to trust him as we do to listen to a burning bush without questioning whether it isn’t really those funny mushrooms talking.”
—Jim DeRogatis, author of Let it Blurt : The Life and Times of Lester Bangs

“[Harrington] has written the Rock version of A People’s History of the United States, taking the musical aristocracy down a notch or two, giving voice and credit to hundreds of artists and bands who lived and died under the radar.”
—Rain Taxi

“In the final chapter, titled ‘Post-Everything,’ Harrington builds to a head of steam worthy of Bill Hicks, cataloguing all the myriad ways that the revolution has been turned into just another McDonald’s hamburger.”
—Blastitude.com

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published December 1, 2002

Reviews

[Simon Harvey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful book. Badly written, badly reasoned. The photo captions, which witlessly attempt to rip off Carducci's captions in Rock and the Pop Narcotic, are the cringe-inducing icing on the bad book cake.

[Nicholas Koster]

Only took me eight years. (Hello again, Goodreads. Long time no see.)

[Ciara · Rating 1 out of 5]

i hated this book. i would have given it zero stars if that could have dragged down its rating a little bit more. this is another ridiculously thick book printed on that hateful, thick, photo-quality paper for no reason other than to chap my ass. so the book weighed, i don't know, ninety-eight pounds or so. this is the kind of book that makes me seriously question my finish-every-book policy. i'm not even sure why i started reading it. i think i was hoping for a book full of salacious details about how different rock stars meet their proverbial makers. i read a book like that in the summer of 2005 (can't recall the name--i didn't start keeping detailed records on books i read until the beginning of 2006) & found it quite entertaining. this book, however, was a pile of puke. this joe harrington dude wants to be lester bangs but it even more untalented. it's really tragic sometimes, the people who get books deals while people who are capable of original opinions & coherent thoughts languish in obscurity. i mostly hated this book for the same reason i dislike most music books, & this reason also makes me wonder why i read music books at all, because they all share this fatal flaw: the author focuses mainly on the kind of music he himself likes best, while throwing around bogus, insulting opinions aboutmusic he dislikes, largely unsupported by any kind of actual fact or nugget of interest. skip this book.

[Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the first 75% of this book are negligible and misinformed, it's the last two chapters, about the 80's and the direction of music in the 21st century that make it a worthwhile read.
Without this tome I would never have discovered bands like The Hellacopters and Flaming Sideburns.
For that I am grateful.

[Shawn Buckle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hands down, the best music history book I've ever read. It's chronological retelling of rock n roll's origin credits the blues and honky tonk country. Harrington is able to talk history like a fervent fan who genuinely digs music.

[Bruce Kirby · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thinking person's guide to the history of rock n'roll, this book definitely has an edge to it. A sometimes cranky but honest guide to what was the most popular form of music over the last 50-60 years from a musical and anthropological point of view.