Country: The Twisted Roots Of Rock 'n' Roll
by Nick Tosches

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Book Reviews of Country: The Twisted Roots Of Rock 'n' Roll

Book Review: American culture through the lens of popular music.
Summary: 5 Stars

This was Nick Tosches first full length book, and has a number of themes that have run through his writings over the last 20 years. The raw vitality of popular music, whether country or blues, the social conditions and folk traditions it came from, and the veneer of respectability slapped on it as it became a bigger business.

Some of the assertions seem kind of anachronistic after 20 years, like his disdain for Johnny Cash, who has rehabilitated himself from the saccharine born-again phase he was in during the '70s (there is a mind-blowingly-bad page from a Johnny Cash Christian comic book reproduced in the book).

But the good stories are enthralling. Tosches can trace the origins of an obscure Sun records B-side back to medieval England and make it seem like a drunken rumble.

This is a fine companion book to Greil Marcus' new Invisible Empire book about Dylan's basement tapes. It covers much of the same ground in a way that is to me even more compelling.

Entertainment Books

• Nonfiction