Urban Spacemen and Wayfaring Strangers: Overlooked Innovators and Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Rock

Great service by seller. Arrived on time in excellent condition as promised. Great book on history of obscure rock groups and personalities. Highly recommended.

Each related book is just a great and enjoyable read. Can't wait to start the next one. Great teaser to bring you into further researching and listening to the various artists.

Great

it's worth buying just for the chapter on Fred Neil. thoughtful and intelligent, i'm really glad to have it in my collection.

Written by one of the music critics behind Rough Guide and Allmusic, Richie Unterberger, Urban Spacemen and Wayfaring Strangers investigates 19 "overlooked innovators and eccentric visionaries of '60s rock". When first looking at the list of 19, I only recognised a few - the Pretty Things, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, the Electric Prunes and Tim Buckley - but even those I only knew by reputation, or based on a song or two. The other 15 were basically new to me. But by the time I had finished reading about all of them, I had a strong desire to hear their songs and learn more, which was a very satisfying feeling.Each music act gets a chapter of their own that gives a bit of history, something about what made them unique, a bit of context to their contributions to the genre, and some rationale behind why their careers sputtered. He also sometimes gets anecdotal about the recording of their albums, blow-by-blow reporting of concerts, or detailed descriptions of their songs (or entire albums of songs), but for the most part he sticks to business. The best thing about each chapter is a section at the end describing their albums and highlighting standout tracks. As a result, I've been able to go to YouTube and work my way through these suggestions, spending many a memorable night exploring "new" music, sometimes with groovy accompanying video of the era (for example, there's some dynamite footage of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown from 1968 that I never imagined existed).Another great chapter was on Mimi & Richard Fariña, two contemporaries of Bob Dylan & Joan Baez (Mimi Baez was Joan's sister) I wasn't aware of whose lives intertwined in the early 1960s before Bob's fame overtook everyone's. In fact, someone has even written a book about those four called Positively 4th Street! Nice.There's also an amusing section on non-musicians Giorgio Gomelsky and Shel Talmy that's quite enlightening.One bad point of the book - since it was published in 2001, it has become a bit dated in the sense that some of the key players (like Fred Neil, and Mimi Fariña) have already passed away, so more recent events are not covered. But that's a quibble, given how much their early years were covered (which raises another quibble - in his long intro, Unterberger gets precious about the music of 1964-1969, claiming that there is no great interest in following periods... a-heh, a-heh).But wait, there's more! The book also comes with a CD with six songs, one each from six of the musical acts featured in the book! While I'm not sure why 13 of the acts aren't represented here, but it's still nice to hear songs from Richard & Mimi Fariña, the Fugs, the Electric Prunes (a live version of their one hit, "I had too much to dream (last night)"), Thee Midniters, The Bobby Fuller Four, and The Poets.

This could be considered a follow up to "Unknown Legends of Rock 'n 'Roll" but this volume is more devoted to the British and American performers of the 1960's that stayed around the fringes of success. And the only reason I rated this a 4 is that I wished it had been 400 plus pages like "Unknown..." Again, Unterberger has that approach where he seeks out the artist(s). In many cases, because alot of 60's bands are discussed, he got viewpoints from 2 - 3 members, which broadens the story. There aren't quite as many black and white photos in this book but the chapters are longer. Only about 20 artists are profiled but these names may ring bigger bells... The Beau Brummels, The Electric Prunes and the Pretty Things... to name a few.This parallels Unterberger's previous book, in that he looks at these innovative groups at the height of their potential, yet because of choices made, accident, death, politics, lack of promotion, distribution or sheer arrogance, one or two hits was all the world heard. Most of these people at that time still kept making music - it was just never heard beyond a certain area.To help with hearing these sounds now, Unterberger has at the end of each chapter "Recommended Recordings", which are mini reviews in themselves as he lists records and/or CDs that are readily available or may be very hard to get.A compact disc is found at the back of the book with notes devoted especially to the tracks. This, however, is not as expansive as the disc found in "Unknown..."In the chapter about Arthur Brown (Crazy World of) I was surprised that his work with The Alan Parson's Project went unmentioned. His vocal on "Tales of Mystery and Imagination Edgar Allen Poe", specifically, "The Tell-Tale Heart" is very dramatic in showing off his dynamics and range.Yet that chapter is one of the more personable ones in the book, as the author describes meeting Arthur Brown at the train station, learning of the death of Screaming Lord Sutch, and having a small tea together. There is alot more to music than the Top 40 or Hot 100 - no matter what year it is. This book relates that struggle for many artists of the 1960's; that having the talent to create sometimes meant more than having that hit. Sometimes having that hit was the beginning of the end of the bands's careers. Ritchie Unterberger approaches each artist with sincerity and this is felt in reading about what happens or didn't happen. Also to add perspective, he tells what the artists are doing now in music - or not in music. Again, this is an enjoyable reference book he has created and a serious rock music library should not be without it.

Delivered safely ahead of schedule, securely packaged

I bought it for my grandson who is fanatical about music. he thinks its great. He is interested in obscure groups and artists from the sixties on.