Frame traces the development and history of Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Genesis, The Police, and more with his hand-drawn rock trees.
Rock band geneologies is one of the culturally defining characteristics of record store employees. I was one. This book is priceless. Over the years I've added additional charts Frame published in rock magazines to this book. It's all good.
I love lists and family trees and this is just a joy, I have the original and it has fold out pages and I love Peter handwriting too. Lots of detail and info .
Pete Frame rules. He draws rock family trees, by hand, the old-fashioned way, and does painstaking research (showing his roots in music journalism). If you are in to who-was-in-what-band-with-whom-before-whatever-other-band, his books are worth just about whatever you have to pay for them (as, sadly, many are falling out of print).
I first discovered him in high school, via a loaned copy of this very volume, and leart much of the basics about the 1976-1977 UK punk scene by memorizing the trees on that fold-out page. What band was Midge Ure in before joining Ultravox? What was the name of the band Glen Matlock was in with Sid Vicious? What was Siouxsie & the Banshees' original line-up? It was all there, baby. Trace the various incarnations of Genesis, Fleetwood Mac (back to their blues days without McVie, Buckingham, or Nicks), the New York art scene (think Talking Heads and New York Dolls), Black Sabbath... all the greats are there, with a bit of Frame's wry commentary thrown in with all of the data.
If only I could take over for Mr Frame once/if he retires, but that's like saying, "I want to be Eric Clapton once he retires." There can be only one.
This is actually a reread for me. Not exactly a book you read from cover to cover, though. It contains family trees which start with a band and then follow each of its members into subsequent projects. I really discovered alot of obscure yet good music by checking out some of these bands. Worth repeated study.