Night Beat: Shadow History of Rock and Roll Book

Mikal Gilmore, who is the younger brother of the executed murderer Gary Gilmore, has already written a compelling account of his family's generational history of violence called Shot in the Heart. In Night Beat he returns, with some evident relief, to the comparatively safe haven of his day job. Gilmore has been writer on rock music since Bob Dylan's first "comeback" tour in 1974. As a staffer on Rolling Stone for more than 20 years he has seen it all, heard it all and met most of them. This collection of journalism and other writings embraces just about everything from The Beatles to the Jesus and Mary Chain, from Frank Sinatra to Tupac Shakur. Along the way Gilmore identifies his own personal iconic Touchstones--Dylan, Lou Reed, John Lydon--and gives a pretty comprehensive overview of anything else of importance in popular music over the last quarter of a century. But while this is Gilmore at work, he can never escape his troubled family history and the book also touchingly reveals the reason why music has been so important to him. "Every time Presley performed on nationwide TV was an occasion for a family gathering. The few times my family collected for any purpose other than to fight". These were, he movingly recalls, "among our few occasions of real joy". --Nick WroeRead More