"Chances are, unless you are a hardcore rock aficionado, you've never heard of most of the 'unknown legends' that make up the cast of Richie Unterberger's characters...And yet, for seekers with a taste for the mongrel, each performer in this rogue's gallery is intuitively connected to the instinct for art which helps define our humane sociopathy, beyond the commerce and formats and definitions with which we design our musical personalities. They'll renew your faith in the idiosyncratic as a way of life, performance as psychodrama, career as parable, the unbeaten path to the doorway and the knock that never comes. Until that day when they wake up and find they've become legend." -- from the foreword by Lenny Kaye, guitarist from the Patti Smith Group; producer for Soul Asylum, Kristin Hersh, Suzanne Vega; compiler and annotator of the first and best 1960s garage rock anthology, Nuggets
"Unknown Legends of Rock'n'Roll made me pull out albums that I hadn't thought of in ages, and made me want to add a whole bunch more to my record shelves. Too many rock books stress their subjects' idiosyncrasies and malfunctions to such an extent that you wonder how they ever made a record. Richie Unterberger always keeps the artists' work in the forefront." -- Ira Kaplan, singer/guitarist, Yo La Tengo
"I learned quite a bit about bands of which I was a fanatic and even more about others which I had never heard before. Richie Unterberger has done his best to demonstrate that the best and most anachronistic music often outlives the most trendy or commercial. Great book...It made for two great days of van reading and travel denial." -- Steve Wynn, singer/guitarist, Dream Syndicate
"Author Richie Unterberger, co-editor of the All Music Guide to Rock and former Option editor, tells the stories of rockabilly acts, garage bands, psychedelic groups, punk rockers, post-punkers, and others in this comprehensive and engaging book...Clearly, Unterberger has done his research." -- Billboard
"If you agree that 'unrefined,' 'raw' and 'weird' often describe some of the most exciting rock'n'roll, you're sure to revel in Richie Unterberger's Unknown Legends of Rock'n'Roll ...Unterberger succeeds in making you crave to hear the recordings of these fascinating musicians." -- CMJ New Music Monthly
"As a writer he makes a good mountie, sniffing out clues and doggedly tracking down his man...Failure invariably makes for a good story, and Unterberger has got plenty to tell." -- The Wire
"Thorough research yielding fascinating mini-biographies of hipster heroes." -- Los Angeles New Times
"Unknown Legends of Rock'n'Roll may be a first in rock journalism, combining smart, concise writing with revealing biographies of 60 performers that truly are "unknkown" in a mainstream sense. [He] may have his share of enthusiasm for his subjects, but it never blinds him to the point of overlooking their flaws and/or invoking the well-worn "should-have-been-as-big-as-the-Beatles" cliches of writings on obscurities...Unterberger never writes under the pretense that his own tastes and/or views of rock history are somehow superior to others'. Basically, the author's main operating premise here seems to be to introduce the reader to some of his favorite unknowns, offering detailed descriptions and brief historical backgrounds as evidence." -- Ugly Things
"An extraordinarily accomplished, exhilirating yet absorbing journey into the sweaty underam of rock's hairshirt, a lace where few have even considered mining for gemstones before and one which is rich indeed in anecdote and intrigue. Richie has successfully avoided the trap of writing in an obsessional manner, and it's to his eternal credit that he concentrates where possible on the artist's work rather than his or her often idiosyncratic lifestyle...there [is] enough in this book to keep even the most maverick of rock aficionados absorbed for many a long hour...this book is about as good as it gets, and better than even I'd dared to hope for." -- Phil McMullen, editor, Ptolemaic Terrascope
"Differentiating between the prodigies and the posers is one of the great joys of fans of any art form, including pop music. And this task is made easier with this book, a paean to some of rock & roll's quirkiest artists. All Music Guide co-editor Richie Unterberger ranks among the most prolific rock critics of recent times, and he exhibits a depth of knowledge and a clear commitment to his subjects throughout this 400-page-plus study." -- Steven Stolder, Rock and Folk Music Editor, Amazon.com
"Incisive appreciations of scores of cult artists." -- MOJO
"For those who have only
recently
strayed from the rock mainstream, the book may well be a revelation."
--
Washington DC
City Paper
"Unterberger uncovers the
kind
of tiny details that imbue his subjects with life and sound." -- San
Francisco
Weekly
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