Never a Dull Moment: 1971—The Year That Rock Exploded
Written by David Hepworth
Narrated by David Hepworth
4/5
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About this audiobook
David Hepworth
David Hepworth is a music journalist, writer, and publishing industry analyst who has launched several successful British magazines. He presented the definitive BBC rock music program Whistle Test and anchored the coverage of Live Aid in '85. He has won Editor 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 the radio columnist for the Guardian and a media correspondent for the newspaper, and the author of Never a Dull Moment.
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Reviews for Never a Dull Moment
80 ratings15 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a fun book, and Hepworth digs lightly into the life and times of each month of 1971, letting us know what was new on TV, how much gas cost, what the fashions were, etc.
He also talks a lot about (surprise surprise) the artists and the music of each month and makes a good case for it being a banner year for music. And, of course, it was. Bowie put out two albums. Lennon's Imagine came out. As did Carole King's Tapestry. And a ton more.
But to be honest, I think you could also make the same case for 1973, 1975-77, and likely 1979 at the very least, if not every damn year of the 70s. It was a great decade for music.
Like I said, a fun book, with lots of interesting anecdotes and mini-biographies. If I have one complaint, it's that the author, who also narrated this audio book, sounds constantly like he's pronouncing The Who's Baba O'Riley song as "Barbra O'Riley".
Which is just weird. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a great book looking at the music in 1971. Hepworth does a wonderful job talking about the major players from the year.The decision to structure this book by the month provides it with the scaffolding needed to discuss such diverse artists. This book discusses The Rolling Stones, T. Rex, The Who, and David Bowie among others. Standing behind everyone in the not so distant background are the various members of the Beatles, who appear at different points of the book because of how intertwined they were in the music industry. Without the month by month structure, the book would have felt very scattershot.A book like this needs to provide some juicy, unknown details. Hepworth doesn’t just focus on the music. He also talks about their lives, like how some of the stars had to deal with crazy fans while trying to raise families at the same time. But the work dwarfs everything else, another issue Hepworth talks about when discussing the mansions these new stars were buying. The paramount concern for people like Neil Young was that the house have the ability to house a recording studio. Hepworth obviously did some deep research, because I felt like I knew the bands by the end of the book. This is a great book for the music fan in your life.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5(For an Early Reviewer copy)David Hepworth makes a bold claim, right on the front cover. Even before starting, I had my doubts about music converging in one year to breakout and release a torrent of great music and genres that would continue for decades. In reality, the music scene is small, and artists tend to listen to great music, which helps to propagate award winning, multi-platinum material. What Hepworth shows us, in amazing detail, linking people and events by strands, is a domino effect in history (like James Burke's "Connections"). Happening in a studio on the other side of the world, amid cables, amps, guitars, sheet music and people, ripples to the other side, then echoes on for months. Our ears were blessed every day with the music that came out in the early "70s, we rejoiced in it with free radio, until the decades lapsed. Hepworth reminds us to dig out the old vinyl or tapes, and listen again.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I knew this wouldn't be a keeper, but I could get hold of a library copy? 'Never a dull moment' is perhaps a stretch, for both the year and the book - unless like the author you 'were born in 1950. For a music fan that's the winning ticket in the lottery of life'. I would like to have been born a good thirty years earlier, but only to go see Queen, who had only just recruited John Deacon to play bass in this year, so - meh. The 'month by month journey through the past' covers bands and artists from Bruce Springsteen and Slade, Carole King and the Carpenters, Nick Drake (no idea, but he died young, not even making the 27 Club) and Led Zep, the Stones, Jim Morrison, Marc Bolan and Cat Stevens, George Harrison, Roxy Music, the Beach Boys and - yes, of course - David Bowie. Again and again and again. A good mix of US and UK artists, though, when I was expecting a purely British experience. The author also wanders off on tangents to recall Tower Records, Mick Jagger's wedding, the generation clash between 'serious people who fought in the war and pranksters with long hair who just wanted to enjoy things', Glastonbury (see previous), the Concert for Bangladesh, and the first 'reality TV' show, The American Family. Subjective in his nostalgia, Hepworth doesn't hide how unimpressed he is by Marvin Gaye or how much he lerrrrvs Rod Stewart, which is fair enough, but saying that Yoko broke up the Beatles is a bit cliched. On top of the playlist for each month, there is also a suggested listening list of the year's top 100 albums, so interesting, amusing in parts, and instructive - but to get the full flavour, you probably had to be there.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I'm not sure I agree that 1971 is "the year that rock exploded", but the author makes a good argument. The book is well written, with an engaging style that's easy and fun to read. Each chapter covers one month in 1971, ending with a list of songs and/or albums the author feels were pivotal to the future of rock music.One area where this book excels is in giving us an inside view of the music industry, with the interplay between the major artists and the major labels of the time. We see how musicians had to fight the status quo in order to make the kind of music they wanted. The downside is that Hepworth presents this information as if it's unique to the year, but this same trend continues today, with labels demanding more of the same regardless of what musicians or bands wants to create. Often the albums that explode on the charts are not at all what labels expect, as Hepworth shows with Carole King's Tapestry. While this is a continuing trend, Hepworth definitely makes a case for 1971 being the year the rebellion began.Hepworth does little to explore the politics and social changes surrounding and influencing the music of 1971. The social climate had as much to do with rock's rise as it had to do with mainstream society's resistance. I would have liked a better sense of setting to help substantiate Hepworth's claim of 1971 as the pivotal year in rock. I think it's worth mentioning that, while the content covers both the US and the UK, this book has a very British feel. The author is British, and I'm not sure he fully grasps the social climate of the US back in the early '70s. This might explain the glaring absence of discussion on the issue.Along with stories of musicians and the albums they were making, we're given insight into how record labels and radio had to adapt to the explosion of rock music into mainstream society. As a focused exploration on rock's evolution, this is an interesting read well worth the time.*I was provided with an advance copy by the publisher, via LibraryThing.*
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5David Hepworth’s theses is that 1971 was the most important year in the history of rock/pop music. It was the year of innovations in how albums were made. It was a year of great albums made that still endure today, like ‘Tapestry’, ‘Led Zeppelin IV’, ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’, ‘Sticky Fingers’, ‘Blue’, ‘Pearl’, ‘Madman Across the Water’, ‘Harvest’, and, of course, ‘American Pie’. It was, actually, the year that albums became more important than 45 rpm singles. It was the year the Beatles were no more. The technology of making music and recording it changed. Arena rock started, as opposed to playing in clubs and halls. Each chapter is one month in the year 1971. He doesn’t just tell us what was released by who; he goes deeper into the rock scene, covering things like Mick Jagger’s wedding, various rock stars battles with drugs and alcohol, and what producers and managers were doing. Some of the people he covers really never went anywhere. Being British, it’s seen through a British lens, but there is plenty about the American scene.Was 1971 the most important year in rock history? I don’t know. I was surprised to find that ‘Blue’ and ‘Tapestry’ came out in ’71; they were such a seminal part of my teens (I could sing every word of both those albums) that I would have sworn they came out earlier. Likewise, I would have sworn Elton John, Rod Stewart, and Van Morrison became really big before that point. But he’s got the dates correct; that music was just so important to me that it colors my memories of the era. It’s an interesting book- I read it in two evenings- but oddly unstirring. Hepworth is a reporter, not an ad man, and he gives us just the facts, ma’am. But the facts showed me what was below the surface of the music I came of age to.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In the forward to David Hepworth’s book about rock and roll in the year 1971, he notes “…you raise a skeptical eyebrow and say that for you too the music of the year when you were twenty-one, or eighteen or sixteen or whenever you felt most alive, still speaks to you in a way that no other year does…There’s an important difference in the case of me and 1971. The difference is this. I’m right.”Okay, we’ve got that out of the way – the admission that the author has a prejudice for the year. Meaning, that a basic thesis of this book – that 1971 was the year “rock exploded” (the subtitle of the book) – is definitely jaded by the author’s preconceptions. Unfortunately, that prejudice clouds the book. It feels as if Hepworth works too hard to make his case. And in the process, he occasionally throws in a few kitchen sinks.However, with that caveat out of the way, this book is enjoyable and full of interesting stories about an important (not the most important – but definitely important) year in rock and roll. Hepworth has definitely identified some pivotal moments in rock and roll including the emergence of the singer/songwriter, the transition to arena rock and festivals, and the evolution of the album as the primary mode of music delivery (including album-oriented radio.) And he tells some good stories about performers such as David Bowie, the Who, the Stones, Cat Stevens, and Carole King (to name just a very few), as well as some of the less well known. He also gets into some of the historical rock moments such as John and Yoko’s appearance on Dick Cavett, the Concert for Bangladesh, and the origin of England’s Glastonbury Festival.Had he stopped there, it would have been good. But the temptation is too great, and in some instances he goes beyond rock and roll to talk about the changing times. The world was in significant transition, and those transitions are important, but they do not make the case for 1971 being the most important year in rock, nor do they provide support to the material that is being presented.Which gets to my major problem with this book – the lack of a coherent thread throughout the narrative. This feels more like a collection of articles and essays than a book with an overall thesis and arch. If this is, indeed, a way of repurposing previous articles, then everyone would have been better served by leaving the articles intact and not trying to “fold” them together this way. On the other hand, if this is Hepworth’s approach to writing a book, then he still needs work on making the transition from journalist to book author. In spite of this, I enjoyed the book. The disjointedness and the author’s occasional focus on events that may have been more important to him than to others is distracting. But my suggestion is to read the book for the stories, don’t worry about an overall arch, and ignore the conceit that 1971 was the most important year ever.It may not have been the most important, but it was weird, transitional, and a lot of fun.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The basic premise of David Hepworth’s book is that 1971 was rock music’s finest year, yielding a harvest of albums that, in addition to their immediate appeal, had the most far-reaching impact on the genre. I was just eight years old in 1971 so while I am familiar now with most of the acts, albums and individual songs that Hepworth cites, I can’t recall their impact at the time.He certainly puts forward a compelling argument, backed up by his extensive knowledge of the field from his twin careers as rock journalist and publisher, and I was certainly amazed to see just how many classic albums did come out in that year. I might have been inclined to put forward my own claim in this vein for 1975 (the year of ‘Physical Graffiti’, ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ‘Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy’) but that is neither here nor there.He works his way through the year, one month per chapter, and pays close attention to the political, social and cultural context. The pre-dominant theme looming over the rock world as the year began was the legal action set in motion on 31 December 1970 by Paul McCartney formally and finally to dissolve The Beatles. The termination of The Beatles momentarily left a void, but there were plenty of acts eager to try to fill it. Slade, as yet unestablished, criss-crossed the country playing more than one hundred and fifty gigs at what now seems an unedifying selection of unfashionable and small venues, before recording their first album and starting their string of hits that would elevate them to the front rank of chart success. David Bowie released two albums in 1971 (‘The Man Who Sold the World’ and ‘Hunky Dory’) and managed his first successful trip to America. Mick Jagger’s wedding to Bianca may have plumbed new depths of tawdry celebrity spectacle, but the Rolling Stones, ensconced in the French chateau leased by Keith Richard as his tax exile bolthole, went on to record Sticky Fingers which was to relaunch their career and establish them as a major album-oriented act. Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin showed that heavy rock was still in vogue, both releasing masterful albums (‘Masters of Reality’ and ‘IV’ respectively), though it was also the heyday of the singer songwriter, with James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Carole King all recording albums (‘Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon’, ‘Blue’ and ‘Tapestry’ respectively) in the same studio complex at the same time. Having been one of the most successful singles bands in the 1960s, The Who release ‘Who’s Next’ which Hepworth suggests might be the album of a bumper year.Hepworth doesn’t, however, merely list who released which album or score success with which new single. He develops cohesive themes that resound throughout the book, and draws valid and illuminating comparisons with current music trends. It is notable how many artists and bands enjoying considerable success in 1971 are still at the top of their game in 2016. All in all, very enjoyable and informative.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Never A Dull Moment 1971 The Year That Rock Exploded by David Hepworth is a great read. I was a very young teenager and 1971 was such an influential year for music. Still being a music fan all these years later it's great to read the insights on the music I love. The greatest music artists ever made 1971 so influential. Artists like Led Zeppelin, the Who, Davis Bowie, Rolling Stones, Carole King and Rod Stewart. The greatest group of all time the Beatles ended in 1971. Led Zeppelins classic Stairway to Heaven was released in 1971. Hepworth breaks the chapters down by month and highlights the musical influence with cool details and insight into bands that formed in that year. The author's premise is that 1971 was so influential in music history that so much of the music that came out that year is still relevant today. Any music lover would certainly enjoy this book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Being 50 years old, people may assume I prefer to listen to ‘classic’ rock. Actually, I would much rather stand and hear a local band playing songs they wrote themselves than sit in a stadium and hear a band from my youth play those same old songs yet again. Luckily for me, I’m also a voracious reader; otherwise, I might have missed out on this thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening book! I loved the way the author gave me a whole view of music making. Song writers were featured, band members, producers, engineers, and more. There were even some interesting snippets of information on the making of record covers. I learned a lot! There were some ‘inside’ stories about bands and they were tastefully written. There were a few delightful ‘gotcha’ moments in which, after reading several paragraphs about some obscure-to-me young people getting together and playing this or that, the story sums up with the formation of a band, one that turns out to be very well known to me. The author skillfully wove the music in and around the events important to the times. As a child, when I was crooning, “It’s Too Late” along with the radio, was I a part of a larger movement of women who would live a very different life than our mothers? Yes. Was Carole King’s music something that inspired and urged that metamorphosis to happen? That’s a question I never even knew to ask before!In ‘Never a Dull Moment’, the author makes some very good points regarding the impact of the music of the past. He seems lukewarm at times about the future of music. I’ve come to agree that 1971 was a pivotal year in music, but I don’t at all think we’ve stopped expanding musically. Given that this book was written specifically to explore the music of a bygone year, it makes sense that Mr. Hepworth stuck to the point. But I resonated most to those stories in the book that I imagined being events that might affect music far beyond 1971. David Bowie goes ‘here’ and does ‘this’ and years later ‘that’ affects ‘these’ people. I loved those sorts of moments! Knowing more about how bands and musicians like The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, and The Doobie Brothers brought cutting-edge music to the world gives me fuller appreciation of the frontier-expanding musical offerings of current bands like Russian Circles, Pretty Please, and Agalloch.Music can hold a moment perfectly in time, yet music itself never stands still. David Hepworth’s book does a fine job of illustrating that point.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Never a Dull Moment, influential music journalist David Hepworth postulates that 1971 was the seminal for rock music – the Beatles disbanding in 1970 marked the end of an era, yet influential bands (the Who, Rolling Stones Led Zeppelin, Marvin Gaye) were producing arguably their best work their best music while other stalwarts (Carole King, David Bowie) were just beginning their careers.Hepworth makes an entertaining and informative argument. Like many books by journalists more accustomed to writing article-length pieces, Never a Dull Moment assumes that the reader is already somewhat familiar with the subject matter and can at times be rambling and muddy, but when it hits its stride – as it does early on when discussing Carole King’s Tapestry, it shines. Hepworth's strength is in providing inside stories and describing the background details and supporting cast, and circumstances surrounding each musician– the meetings and relationships that influenced each album release. Overall, the book felt much talking with good friends over a few too many drinks - unpretentious, memorable, and fun. Never a Dull Moment is conversational, interesting, and grounded in a true love for the music of 1971. Recommended for music and history fans of all ages.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whether you buy the author's thesis that 1971 was the most seminal year in rock-n-roll history or not, you will come away from Never a Dull Moment with a better understanding of how this year bridged the transition of rock music from a singles business to album-focused business and had some of the biggest stars release their most influential albums.Author David Hepworth, who was 21 during "the year that rock exploded," notes that he is not an impartial critic. This was the music that he grew up with and influenced him. While some of the anecdotes and cultural history don't always strengthen the book, they do give a good sense of what was happening that year, which was two before I was born. The analysis of the acts, their influence, and their albums is fantastic, and often takes a contrarian view to the established acclaim. For instance, I was surprised by his view of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On as less of a concept album than I always thought of it. The pieces on David Bowie, at the beginning of his career here, were interesting to me in light of his recent death.Where I was most on board with Hepworth was in his analysis of how 1971 is when rock artists started looking backwards by playing greatest hits and releasing back catalog material. I also enjoyed how the recent break up the Beatles had reverberations throughout the industry, not just with the Fab Four, now newly solo.For those interested in rock history, Never a Dull Moment is worth picking up. I'm expecting someone my age to write a similar book about 1991-92 in forty years, as that time seemed to have a similar impact of my peers as 1971 had on Hepworth.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excellent anecdotal history of the artists/music that made 1971 a seminal year in history. Having graduated from high school that year, this time was an especially formative one in terms of determining my life-long musical tastes. I liked that the author jumps around to gather the moments like Carole King's, David Bowie's, Rod Stewart's and Joni Mitchell's that define that year in music. I also appreciated when Hepworth inserts his own personal history into the story as these help give the book depth. I missed having a table of contents and could have used a bit more depth (or even dirt) in some of the stories, but appreciated having the musical history placed in the greater context of what was happening concurrently in other realms. Overall a wonderful reminder of some of what I remember about that amazing year.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Couldn't tell you how many times I've uttered these words: "I don't know much about music; but I know what I like." Perhaps you have, too? I don't know a back beat from a riff. However, I DO crystal-clear remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when first hearing Elvis Presley sing "Jailhouse Rock" -- it was cookin' from someone's car radio as I was pedaling my tricycle in front of my home, and I knew I'd never heard anything like THAT before. Seven years on, and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" became the first music purchase of my life. Another seven years found me attempting vainly to be "Baba O'Riley"'s Roger Daltrey -- when I wasn't pining after Grace Slick. I've just-this-moment finished David Hepworth's "Never A Dull Moment: 1971, The Year That Rock Exploded." Usually, I prefer to digest a book for a while before writing about it, and sharing it with y'all through the courtesy of LTER. But the immediacy of 1971 that Mr Hepworth captures with his book compels me to scribble right away, just as 1971 felt, back in 1971. It WAS immediate; I was in a hurry; to discover ... what, exactly? Perhaps, with a thoroughly gray beard and bifocals now, I still don't exactly know, or realize, it all. But the music kept me grounded, all the while allowing my mind to roam free with imaginings and possibilities. Which is what this book is all about: How the music changed. How it influenced and changed the music industry and, in turn, simultaneously, the industry could influence the music. And how both contributed to the altering of the societies and cultures that we lived in back then, and live in now. In that respect, the book is as much sociological study (if not more so) than musical history. Mr Hepworth blends and weaves a wonderful narrative as a medieval minstrel might have done, skillfully mixing music and personalities, history and context (I'd forgotten that George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" cost me a truly princely $6.98 in the second week of 1971). Some I remembered within the pages, much I learned anew. To be perfectly truthful, I was not expecting a much from this book as I received. If you will allow me to borrow Mr Hepworth's words: "At this point, you raise a skpetical eyebrow and ay that for you too the music of the year when you were twenty-one or eighteen ... still speaks to you in a way that no other year does. That's natural. That;s just growing up.... "There's an important difference in the case of me and 1971. "The difference is this. I'm right." And he is right. Read this amazing journey of a book and discover just why he (and I) are; you'll find me hoarsely off-key'ing "Baba O'Riley" and looking for Grace Slick when you get back; we can grab a slice of American pie if you'd like.