The Great Rock Discography: Complete Discographies Listing Every Track Recorded by More Than 1200 Artists (Essential Rock Discography)

The problem with all books of this kind is that more often than not they contain a fair few inaccuracies and therefore cannot be relied upon entirely. This book also suffers in this way and there are quite a few instancies where b sides are listed incorrectly, or songs are listed as cover versions when they were in fact band originals. An example of this being where Strong claims that The Cars covered The Buddy Holly songs 'Think It Over' and 'Maybe Baby' on their 'Shake It Up' album. In fact, both tracks were written by Ric Ocasek. All this aside however, to compile a work of this size in itself is a great achievement and the book, apart from being a useful reference tool, is also a cracking read. I actually like the fact that Strong is prepared to state his own opinions and regardless whether I agree with them or not the authors comments show him to be a true music fanatic and good on him for that I say! So, in summing up, don't accept every word in this book as the definitive truth but buy it anyway as it's sure to take you on a voyage of discovery and can be a very useful tool if you suddenly discover new artists and want to find out about their past releases.

Not bad, but misses a whole lotta stuff. (0/4 people found this helpful)

Martin's done a pretty good job with layout and design and he does apologise for missing stuff out, but he does miss out a lot! There's no Long Ryders, CamperVanBeethoven ect., but there's others, one example a band called Orson, who I've never 'eard of. Maybe they're in another volume. Well done though.

Not what it was (13/14 people found this helpful)

A quick gander at my music collection reveals numerous artists I found through previous versions of this book. It was rightly entitled "Great Rock Discography" thanks to exhaustive track listings, expansive comments and the author's personal scores for albums. This "Essential Rock Discography" is the eighth edition and it retains his distinctive approach whilst making improvements to the overall appearance of the book.

All this is good, but the word "Essential" belies a hatchet job. Over 400 entries have been hacked from the previous edition to create a purer "rock" category. It seems that all remaining Jazz and Blues artists and much of Rap, Dance, Folk and Country have been excised, even if the artist concerned was also a rock musician. Rock and Roll stems from Blues and Country and many artists are influenced by genres outside of rock. So, for me, a more inclusive approach would be appropriate. Pre-Beatles Rock is very poorly represented here and greater emphasis has been placed on keeping things "contemporary" which is not necessarily of great import for music collectors. I fear the only reasoning behind this is the intention to increase the frequency of new editions to generate more income.

Why remove entries for many of the architects of the music we know today? Quite apart from the great blues artists we have also lost Bo Diddley, Dick Dale, Woody Guthrie, the Last Poets, Hank Williams and Duane Eddy all of whom are likely to be more significant than the latest NME-hyped band. And more recent innovators like Aphex Twin, DJ Shadow and Talk Talk are also given the axe. The author seems to have taken a particular dislike to 90's Brits (Cast, Catatonia, Elastica, Lush, Mansun, Ride, Space), to folk rock (Robyn Hitchcock, Fred Neil, Strawbs, Loudon Wainwright III), to progressive rock (Camel, Caravan, Gong, Lindisfarne, Soft Machine) and to pub rock (Brinsley Schwarz, Dr. Feelgood, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Graham Parker) despite its importance to British punk. We must also bid farewell to megasellers Asia, Chicago, Phil Collins, Tom Jones, the Dave Matthews Band, George Michael and Styx. Whether one likes them or not, they have been a big deal for many record-buyers.

But the most notable victims are the women. Dozens of significant artists have been exiled including Joan Armatrading, Enya, K.D. Lang, Kirsty MacColl, Alison Moyet, Ms. Dynamite, Stevie Nicks, Sinead O'Connor, Linda Rondstadt, Dusty Springfield and the Shangri-La's. The net effect of all this is to create something akin to the stereotypical white male 40-something CD collection with all the more obvious and British music press-approved artists. Worthy, yes, but also rather sterile.

That said, I don't know of any work in this field which does such a comprehensive job with each artist and would recommend it to those who did not buy a previous edition. If only Canongate could get a team of like-minded amateur discographers to work together and take the pressure off Mr Strong. What we have here is still in a class of its own but it's not what it was.

Absolutely excellent (6/8 people found this helpful)

This book is absolutelt excellent, while it does have a few problems (some inaccuracies and an annoying tendancy to put everything in capitals) it covers most bands you wamt to know about. The ratings are generally pretty good and are a useful guide to a bands best work even if you dont totally agree with them.

great book, but slightly one-sided (5/7 people found this helpful)

There is no doubt this book is supreme when it comes to details. However, i have found inacurate information and badly spelt song titles.
The accuracy of information is mindblowing, from the details of each single(label, chart postion etc) to the complete listing of albums, Lp's and Ep's. Martin Strong does however limit this book to his own preferences and so degrades the title (Rock Discography) to "Martins Rock Discography". Simply, he leaves out multiple chart acts that have had no. 1's and includes obscure acts that have barley scraped it into the charts. Overall it is a good read and packed with information but not a "complete" discography.

The Great Rock Discography: Complete Discographies Listing Every Track Recorded by More Than 1200 Artists (Essential Rock Discography)

Martin C. Strong

Reader Reviews:

'A Useful Tool...But Not The Gospel' (3/4 people found this helpful)

Not bad, but misses a whole lotta stuff. (0/4 people found this helpful)

Not what it was (13/14 people found this helpful)

Absolutely excellent (6/8 people found this helpful)

great book, but slightly one-sided (5/7 people found this helpful)

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