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Reading lists

Books to read if you love David Bowie

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Extracts

Uncommon People by David Hepworth

The Inside Story of the World’s Most Famous Recording Studio (with a foreword by Paul McCartney)

Abbey Road

With a foreword by Paul McCartney 
 
'It's semi-devotional -- a really special place' Florence Welch 
'There are certain things that are mythical. Abbey Road is mythical' Nile Rodgers 
 
Many people will recognise the famous zebra crossing. Some visitors may have graffitied their name on its hallowed outer walls. Others might even have managed to penetrate the iron gates. But what draws in these thousands of fans here, year after year? What is it that really happens behind the doors of the most celebrated recording studio in the world? 
 
It may have begun life as an affluent suburban house, but it soon became a creative hub renowned around the world as a place where great music, ground-breaking sounds and unforgettable tunes were forged - nothing less than a witness to, and a key participant in, the history of popular music itself. 
 
What has been going on there for over ninety years has called for skills that are musical, creative, technical, mechanical, interpersonal, logistical, managerial, chemical and, romantics might be tempted add, close to magic. 
 
This is for the people who believe in the magic.

Engrossing...A stirring narrative that mirrors pop's twists and turns from its earliest days to the present

A hugely enjoyable read for anyone who has ever bought a record, told with Hepworth's characteristic dry humour, beautifully illustrated and with a foreword by Paul McCartney...Engrossing, extansively researched

Hepworth captures the feeling of immediacy and excitement that exemplified the storied St John's Wood studio...An appropriately pacy chronicle of rapid cultural/technological evolution

The story of recorded music itself. Great details leap from every page

Hepworth, one of the most authoritative music journalists and historians, brings the studio in suburban London to life

David Hepworth has been writing, broadcasting and speaking about music and media since the seventies. He was involved in the launch and editing of magazines such as Smash Hits, Q, Mojo and The Word, among many others. 
 
He was one of the presenters of the BBC rock music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test and one of the anchors of the corporation's coverage of Live Aid in 1985. He has won the Editor of the Year and Writer of the Year awards from the Professional Publishers Association and the Mark Boxer award from the British Society of Magazine Editors. 
 
He lives in London, dividing his time between writing for a variety of newspaper and magazines, speaking at events, broadcasting work, podcasting at www.wordpodcast.co.uk and blogging at www.whatsheonaboutnow.blogspot.co.uk. 
 
He says Chuck Berry's 'You Never Can Tell' is the best record ever made. 'This is not an opinion,' he says. 'It's a matter of fact.'

How a Few Skinny Brits with Bad Teeth Rocked America

Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There

From the bestselling music author, this is the tale of how a few skinny Brits with bad teeth rocked America...

David Hepworth's books go against one of the core rules of rock &amp; roll. You are supposed to get worse the more you release. He doesn't seem to get that. This latest may be his best. Where's the tradition in that?

Hepworth's ability to mock subjects he has a clear affection for and cast well-worn anecdotes in a fresh light makes his history of rock'n'roll's special relationship a zippy delight

Another tremendously enjoyable read, full of good stories, expertly told: in other words, satisfaction guaranteed

David Hepworth has been writing, broadcasting and speaking about music and media since the seventies. He was involved in the launch and editing of magazines such as Smash Hits, Q, Mojo and The Word, among many others. 
 
He was one of the presenters of the BBC rock music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test and one of the anchors of the corporation’s coverage of Live Aid in 1985. He has won the Editor of the Year and Writer of the Year awards from the Professional Publishers Association and the Mark Boxer award from the British Society of Magazine Editors. 
 
He lives in London, dividing his time between writing for a variety of newspaper and magazines, speaking at events, broadcasting work, podcasting at www.wordpodcast.co.uk and blogging at www.whatsheonaboutnow.blogspot.co.uk. 
 
He says Chuck Berry’s ‘You Never Can Tell’ is the best record ever made. ‘This is not an opinion,’ he says. ‘It’s a matter of fact.’

The Beatles landing in New York in February 1964 was the opening shot in a cultural revolution nobody predicted. Suddenly the youth of the richest, most powerful nation on earth was trying to emulate the music, manners and the modes of a rainy island that had recently fallen on hard times. 
 
The resulting fusion of American can-do and British fuck-you didn’t just lead to rock and roll’s most resonant music. It ushered in a golden era when a generation of kids born in ration card Britain, who had grown up with their nose pressed against the window of America’s plenty, were invited to wallow in their big neighbour’s largesse. 
 
It deals with a time when everything that was being done - from the Beatles playing Shea Stadium to the Rolling Stones at Altamont, from the Who performing their rock opera at the Metropolitan Opera House to David Bowie touching down in the USA for the first time with a couple of gowns in his luggage - was being done for the very first time. 
 
Rock and roll would never be quite so exciting again.

The only quiz book you need

Rock & Roll A Level

No one knows more obscure and entertaining facts about music as legendary music journalist David Hepworth.

The perfect gift for any music lover . . . 
 
'Hepworth has more insider knowledge and knows more rock anecdotes than any man alive' The Herald 
'Unmissable for music enthusiasts' Woman &amp; Home 
 
The Rock and Roll A Level is here to rescue the pop quiz from the grip of bores who know the chart position of everything and the value of nothing. 
 
It's for the people who like pop music because it tells them so much about real life, the people who learned about America from the songs of Chuck Berry, about Europe from the albums of David Bowie and about all manner of things from the songs of Steely Dan. 
 
It's the first quiz book where the answers are as interesting as the questions. 
 
It's the first quiz book where general knowledge matters as much as an adolescence spent reading the NME or Smash Hits. 
 
It's a proper education.

David Hepworth lives in London and has been writing, broadcasting and speaking about music and media since the seventies. He was involved in the launch and editing of magazines such as Smash Hits, Q, Mojo and The Word, among many others. He has won the Editor of the Year and Writer of the Year awards from the Professional Publishers Association and the Mark Boxer award from the British Society of Magazine Editors. 
 
He says Chuck Berry's 'You Never Can Tell' is the best record ever made. 'This is not an opinion,' he says. 'It's a matter of fact.'

The perfect gift for any music lover . . . 
 
The Rock and Roll A Level is here to rescue the pop quiz from the grip of bores who know the chart position of everything and the value of nothing. 
It's for the people who like pop music because it tells them so much about real life. 
It's the first quiz book where the answers are as interesting as the questions. 
It's the first quiz book where general knowledge matters as much as an adolescence spent reading the NME or Smash Hits. 
It's a proper education.

How the LP Saved Our Lives

A Fabulous Creation

The unparalleled David Hepworth celebrates the reign - and the return - of the LP (from 'Sgt Pepper' to 'Thriller'), how vinyl changed the music, the music industry and the way we listen.

Hepworth's knowledge and understanding of rock history is prodigious...he throws terrific little facts around like confetti...And his pungently sarcastic asides are priceless... Hugely entertaining.

When reviewers say a book feels twice as long as it actually is, they are not usually being complimentary. In the case of David Hepworth’s paean to the age of vinyl, A Fabulous Creation, I really have come to praise him. It’s years since I came across a chronicle of the pop life containing so many arresting anecdotes that I found myself going back over pages to savour every line, every insight.

Full of sharp critical assessments and droll digressions ... warm and wonderfully readable.

Well researched and passionately written.

This book is a joy from the opening track to the closing cut.

A joyous and nostalgic celebration of the golden age of the LP

An enlightening spin through the golden age of the album ... complex and poignant

Hepworth has more insider knowledge and knows more rock anecdotes than any man alive

An enthusiast’s account of the golden age of vinyl

_________ 
 
‘Hepworth’s knowledge and understanding of rock history is prodigious … [a] hugely entertaining study of the LP’s golden age’ The Times 
_________ 
 
The era of the LP began in 1967, with ‘Sgt Pepper’; The Beatles didn’t just collect together a bunch of songs, they Made An Album. Henceforth, everybody else wanted to Make An Album. 
 
The end came only fifteen years later, coinciding with the release of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. By then the Walkman had taken music out of the home and into the streets and the record business had begun trying to reverse-engineer the creative process in order to make big money. Nobody would play music or listen to it in quite the same way ever again. 
 
It was a short but transformative time. Musicians became ‘artists’ and we, the people, patrons of the arts. The LP itself had been a mark of sophistication, a measure of wealth, an instrument of education, a poster saying things you dare not say yourself, a means of attracting the opposite sex, and, for many, the single most desirable object in their lives. 
 
This is the story of that time; it takes us from recording studios where musicians were doing things that had never been done before to the sparsely furnished apartments where their efforts would be received like visitations from a higher power. This is the story of how LPs saved our lives.

The Beatles Were Underrated And Other Sweeping Statements About Pop

Nothing is Real

In this wide-ranging collection of essays, Hepworth shows how it is possible to take music seriously and, at the same time, not drain the life out of it - from the legacy of the Beatles to the dramatic decline of the record shop.

Pop music’s a simple pleasure. Is it catchy? Can you dance to it? Do you fancy the singer? 
 
But what’s fascinating about pop is our relationship with it. David Hepworth is interested in the human side of pop. He’s interested in how people make the stuff and, more importantly, what it means to us. 
 
In this collection of essays written throughout his career, Hepworth shows how it is possible to take music seriously and, at the same time, not drain the life out of it. From the legacy of the Beatles to the dramatic decline of the record shop via the bewildering nomenclature of musical genres; with characteristic insight and humour Hepworth asks some essential questions about music and, indeed, life: is it all about the drummer; are band managers misunderstood; and is it appropriate to play ‘Angels’ at funerals? 
 
As Pope John Paul II said ‘of all the unimportant things, football is the most important’. David Hepworth believes the same to be true of music and this selection of his best writing, covering the music of last fifty years, shows you precisely why.

The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars 1955-1994

Uncommon People

The definitive and most entertaining book on the cult of the rockstar over the last 40 years from one of Britain's leading music writers

Marvellous . . . The age of the rock star is over, and Hepworth’s never-less-than fascinating book is a more than fitting farewell

David Hepworth is such a clever writer . . . Uncommon People is a gorgeous read, celebratory and bittersweet, both pep rally and memorial, throbbing with insight and incident

This book is a kind of elegy for a glorious but passing phase in entertainment history . . . brim[s] with insight, humour and a certain genial astringency

[A] wonderful portrait of rock stardom . . . Hepworth’s writing is sublime

The effect is that of faded, evocative, partisan Polaroids scattered from the memory of one obsessive music fan . . . Uncommon People emerges as part of the drive to capture, analyse and archive key moments in musical history that might otherwise vanish from popular memory before we know it

Hepworth’s celebration of the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll will strike an emotive chord with those of us whose best times have been spent in the company of black vinyl or a live band, minus people filming on a mobile phone . . . The best compliment I can give it is that it feels like one of those evenings when you sit with your friends and talk about the music you love. Uncommon People leaves you with the same companionable glow –

As heard on BBC 6 Music with Shaun Keveny, BBC Radio 5 Live and Talk Radio with Eamonn Holmes 
 
The age of the rock star, like the age of the cowboy, has passed. Like the cowboy, the idea of the rock star lives on in our imaginations. 
 
What did we see in them? Swagger. Recklessness. Sexual charisma. Damn-the-torpedoes self-belief. A certain way of carrying themselves. Good hair. Interesting shoes. Talent we wished we had. 
 
What did we want of them? To be larger than life but also like us. To live out their songs. To stay young forever. No wonder many didn’t stay the course. 
 
In Uncommon People, David Hepworth zeroes in on defining moments and turning points in the lives of forty rock stars from 1955 to 1995, taking us on a journey to burst a hundred myths and create a hundred more. 
 
As this tribe of uniquely motivated nobodies went about turning themselves into the ultimate somebodies, they also shaped us, our real lives and our fantasies. Uncommon People isn’t just their story. It’s ours as well.

Rock's Golden Year

1971 - Never a Dull Moment

The story of the year that rock music exploded, featuring almost every star who defined the decade

David Hepworth's argument is simple: 1971 was "the most febrile and creative time in the entire history of popular music". It's an enormous assertion but he makes his point with infectious enthusiasm . . . Whether you agree is beside the point. This is a compelling love letter to a year of timeless music.

A clever and entertaining book . . . Hepworth proves a refreshingly independent thinker. His style is pithy and his eye for anecdotal detail sharp . . . a thoroughly provoking delight

This is no ‘my generation is cooler than yours’ nostalgia trip. Just as movements in art, jazz or TV undeniably had Golden Ages then so too with the long-playing record and its seismic effect on subsequent generations. David Hepworth’s forensic sweep of this astonishing twelve months is thoroughly absorbing and appropriately rollicking, expertly guiding us through one miraculous year in all its breathless tumble of creation.

A good mix of entertainment, insight and odd facts. Hepworth’s thesis is largely convincing

An engaging and thought-provoking read. It’s a dry-eyed but deeply felt love note to the date when rock was still busy inventing itself. Hepworth points out more than once that at the time he had no idea how lucky he hwas. He knows now – and so do we

Soon every post-war year will have its own tombstone book, but this is already one of the best

Near the beginning, Hepworth argues that 1971 saw the pop era giving way to rock. Even so, his own approach is much more like the best pop: never taking itself too seriously, essentially out to entertain — but also an awful lot smarter than its absence of solemnity might lead you to think.

Fond, funny, beautifully written and fizzing with sharp and sweeping theories that instantly feel like facts.

Scientifically unprovable but entertaining, illuminating and lipsmacking . . . a mighty fine and convincing read

There's a bit of a fashion at the moment for books focussing on a particular year and David Hepworth's 1971 is one of the best

Anyone who misses Word magazine like an old friend, has just found the perfect read.

Hepworth lifts the lid on the unrepeatable year when rock's lunatics finally took over the asylum.

Chris Adams author of  The Grail Guitar -The Search for Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze Telecaster

Full of fascinating detail and obviously a labour of love, a must for anyone who can remember the Seventies or who was there.

Rosalind Miles, author of The Women's History of the World

David Hepworth has been writing about, broadcasting about and speaking about music since the 70s. He was involved in the launch and/or editing of magazines like Smash Hits, Q, Mojo and The Word among many others. 
 
He was one of the presenters of the BBC rock music programme Whistle Test and one of the anchors of the Corporation’s coverage of Live Aid in 1985. He has won the Editor of the Year and Writer of the Year awards from the Professional Publishers Association and the Mark Boxer Award from the British Society of Magazine Editors. 
 
He is a director of the independent company Development Hell and divides his time between writing for a variety of magazines and newspapers, speaking at events, broadcasting work and blogging. He lives in London. 
 
‘I was born in 1950,’ he says, ‘which means that in terms of music I have the winning ticket in the lottery of life’.

*THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER* 
As seen on Apple TV - 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything 
 
The Sixties ended a year late - on New Year's Eve 1970, when Paul McCartney initiated proceedings to wind up The Beatles. Music would never be the same again. 
 
The next day would see the dawning of a new era. 1971 saw the release of more monumental albums than any year before or since and the establishment of a pantheon of stars to dominate the next forty years - Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Rod Stewart, the solo Beatles and more. 
 
January that year fired the gun on an unrepeatable surge of creativity, technological innovation, blissful ignorance, naked ambition and outrageous good fortune. By December rock had exploded into the mainstream. 
How did it happen? This book tells you how. 
 
It's the story of 1971, rock's golden year.

David Hepworth

Hepworth is a genuinely great writer, with a winning turn of phrase

Reads like a series of rich, fast-paced and immensely funny short stories

Offers solid insights into the compulsions and drives that keep bands reforming

Another triumph... Part whizz-bang storytelling, part social history, part forensic examination of an understudied phenomenon, the book is destined to become the go-to text on a subject we never thought we'd have to survey

Why rock stars never retire

When Paul McCartney closed Live Aid in July 1985 we thought he was rock's Grand Old Man. He was forty-three years old. 
 
As the forty years since have shown he - and many others of his generation - were just getting started. 
 
This was the time when live performance took over from records. The big names of the 60s and 70s exploited the age of spectacle that Live Aid had ushered in to enjoy the longest lap of honour in the history of humanity, continuing to go strong long after everyone else had retired. 
 
Hence this is a story without precedent, a story in which Elton John plays a royal funeral, Mick Jagger gets a knighthood, Bob Dylan picks up the Nobel Prize, the Beatles become, if anything, bigger than the Beatles and it's beginning to look as though all of the above will, thanks to the march of technology, be playing Las Vegas for ever.

David Hepworth

Books by David Hepworth

Articles featuring David Hepworth

Books to read if you love David Bowie

Uncommon People by David Hepworth

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