Nik Cohn

A celebration of the language and primal essence of rock'n'roll provides a fascinating history of a turbulent era, from the rise of Bill Haley to the death of Jimi Hendrix, that dispels rumors, tells scandalous stories, and details the music. Reprint.

The Golden Age of Rock

Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom

Life and Death and New Orleans Rap

Triksta

"The history of Broadway has been written before, but never better. . . . The verbal energy that pours off these pages is enough to transform the hell of...Times Square into a rough-hewn heaven, neon lit and open all night. . . . The only thing wrong with this book is it isn't longer." —Newsweek Nik Cohn ushers readers along the street he calls "The Heart of the World." producing a book that is a resplendent pageant of New York's high—and low—life. Among the characters we meet are a golden-tongued cab driver who calls himself a "collector of farces"; a pickpocket with the terrifying gift of impersonating his marks; a heartbreakingly beautiful Dominican transvestite named Lush Life; strippers; pseudo-prophets; and a disgraced political veteran of the days when the graft was still honest. Conducted by a writer with the manic energy of a sideshow barker and the full-blooded lyricism of a raucous poet, this is a bebop odyssey along the Great White Way that reaches in implication far beyond the streets of New York to document the ever-evolving mixtures that make up America itself. "A lovely, bracing book, full to bursting with juicy, tasty, rancid life. While making its bawdy way through crowded spaces . . . it also travels through modern times . . . wondrous." —USA TODAY

The Heart of the World

Anarchie au Royaume-Uni. Mon équipée sauvage dans l'autre Angleterre

Bee Gees

Ben Richards

Paul Nicholas

Arlene Phillips

Norman Wexler

Nan Knighton

Robert Stigwood

Joanne Farrell

Paramount/RSO Picture (Firm)

London Palladium (Theatre)

Saturday Night Fever is one of those movies that comes along and seems to change the cultural temperature in a flash. After the movie's release in 1977, disco ruled the dance floors, and a blow-dried member of a TV-sitcom ensemble became the hottest star in the country. For all that, the story is conventional: a 19-year-old Italian-American from Brooklyn, Tony Manero (John Travolta), works in a humble paint store and lives with his family. After dark, he becomes the polyester-clad stallion of the local nightclub; Tony's brother, a priest, observes that when Tony hits the dance floor, the crowd parts like the Red Sea before Moses. Director John Badham captures the electric connection between music and dance, and also the desperation that lies beneath Tony's ambitions to break out of his limited world. The soundtrack, which spawned a massively successful album, is dominated by the disco classics of the Bee Gees, including "Staying Alive" (Travolta's theme during the strutting opening) and "Night Fever." The Oscar-nominated Travolta, plucked from the cast of Welcome Back, Kotter, for his first starring role, is incandescent and unbelievably confident, and his dancing is terrific. Oh, and the white suit rules. (Note: Saturday Night Fever was cut from its original R-rated version after its initial release in order to obtain a PG rating. The PG version is 11 minutes shorter and is missing parts of scenes and some street talk. Both versions are available on video.).

The Original Movie Sound Track (CD).

Saturday Night Fever

A Novel

Arfur: Teenage Pinball Queen

On raconte l'histoire d'un garçon nommé Lawrence, du sixième arrondissement, qui s'était rendu dans un club du quatrième arrondissement. Les quatrième et sixième arrondissements sont en bons termes, pas les quatrième et septième Aussi, quand Lawrence entra dans le club, des blacks lui demandèrent de quel quartier il venait. Lawrence leva les mains en l'air, quatre doigts tendus sur l'une, deux sur l'autre. Mais il dansait, il faisait sombre, et les blacks ne purent voir que le pouce de la main aux quatre doigts levés était replié. Ils comprirent " septième arrondissement ". Alors ils lui mirent une balle dans la tête, une autre dans la poitrine, et une dans le ventre. Aux yeux des soljas, l'incident était regrettable, mais pas tragique. Peu d'entre eux voyaient à long terme ; ils vivaient au jour le jour. Ils " balançaient des cailloux " (dealaient du crack), braquaient des stations-service et des supérettes, purgeaient leur peine à la Prison du Comté d'Orléans. Tôt ou tard, ils se feraient très probablement buter.

Soljas

There will always be an England, no doubt, but what sort of England will it be? Cohn takes a long wild ride through a country he calls the Republic - a nation within a nation, populated by the many millions who have either fallen out of the Britannic mainstream, or chosen to jump. He meets the rising stars of a new culture, and also the casualties. Their collected stories, both weird and wonderful, combine to form a tapestry quite unlike any notion of England that has ever existed before. It is a land made up, among others, of outlaws and insurgents, rampaging natives, second-generation immigrants, visionaries, born-agains, football fans, fetishists, gays, New Age travellers, anarchists, DJs, street-fighters, graffiti artists Rastas, Odinists, Elvis impersonators, fire-swallowers and even the Antichrist. Loud and angry, and charged with furious energy, their voices define a world cut loose from tradition and all certainty. Gone bananas, in fact. Nik Cohn's republic may not be the only England out there. But it's the most vivid.

Adventures in Other England

Yes We Have No

There will always be an England, no doubt, but what sort of England will it be? Cohn takes a long wild ride through a country he calls the Republic - a nation within a nation, populated by the many millions who have either fallen out of the Britannic mainstream, or chosen to jump. He meets the rising stars of a new culture, and also the casualties. Their collected stories, both weird and wonderful, combine to form a tapestry quite unlike any notion of England that has ever existed before. It is a land made up, among others, of outlaws and insurgents, rampaging natives, second-generation immigrants, visionaries, born-agains, football fans, fetishists, New Age travellers, anarchists, DJs, street-fighters, graffiti artists, Rastas, Odinists, Elvis impersonators, fire-swallowers and even the Antichrist. Loud and angry, and charged with furious energy, their voices define a world cut loose from tradition and all certainty. Gone bananas, in fact. Nik Cohn's republic may not be the only England out there. But it's the most vivid.

Greil Marcus

L'âge d'or du rock

Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom was the first book to celebrate that language, the primal essence of rock 'n' roll. But it was much more than that. Written in 1968 and revised in 1972, it was a cogent yet unruly history of the era, from Bill Haley to Jimi Hendrix. And while telling outrageous tales, vividly describing the music, and cutting through the hype, Nik Cohn unknowingly engendered a new form: rock criticism.

Jon Bradshaw

Introduction by Nick Cohn. In this classic book, Jon Bradshaw follows six full-time gamblers who never lose, including three legendary poker players Johnny Moss, Pug Pearson and Titanic Thompson; tennis player Bobby Riggs; pool player Minnesota Fats and backgammon player Tim Holland. His evocation of ambience and his dramatic description of the games themselves are fascinating, but Bradshaw also deftly probes their minds and hearts as he attempts to define what makes some men winners and most men losers.

How Six Master Gamblers Defy the Odds - and Always Win

Fast Company

Guy Peellaert

Overzicht in collages van bekende figuren uit de rock-muziek, vanaf Elvis Presley to en met The Who.

Nik Cohn

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