Inspiring Older Readers

posted on 05 May 2020

1971- Never A Dull Moment: Rock’s Golden Year by David Hepworth

The device of writers focussing on a specific year and micro-analysing them from a specific perspective - cultural, political, sporting or some such – has become a very popular and successful format in recent years. If I just take a glance at my own bookshelves, a handful jump out at me: John Savage’s 1966, Mark Kurlansky's 1968, Simon Hall's 1956 for example.

I quite like these highly focussed bits of popular history for a couple of reasons. Reading big books which cover great slabs of history can make me feel a bit inadequate because they make me conscious of how much I don’t know and just how complex and inter-connected everything is. I often give up on them, usually promising myself that I’ll return to it at some later date. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Having just one year to deal with has the reassuring effect of making me feel that it’s a narrative I can hope to get my head around without completely overwhelming me.

I also like the fact that these studies usually come from people who are really invested in the dates in question. Either they were there and witnessed the events themselves or they’ve dedicated disproportionate amounts of time to studying the details. And, crucially, they tend to be opinionated and even (I suspect) deliberately controversial or provocative. And often you want to argue with their assessments.

David Hepworth’s 1971- Never A Dull Moment: Rock’s Golden Year is the latest one of the genre that I’ve picked up and read and quite a roller-coaster ride it is too. Hepworth has spent his whole life writing about his particular focus - popular music, specifically rock music. He’s a tried and tested music journalist who has done the rounds of nearly all the iconic magazines and music papers and in writing the book he wants to establish one key message:

“There are moments in all creative stories when the right sort of talent meets the right amount of opportunity …and then lays the result before an audience which is in an ideal state of readiness to ensure that things will happen in a way they have never happened before and will never happen again. 1971 was one of those moments.”

Or, as he puts it elsewhere:

“It’s the story of 1971, rock’s best year.”

Hepworth is competely bullish and uncompromising about his central thesis that rock music peaked in 1971, that the music created and released then effectively became the plant nursery for whatever has grown up since. And although he argues his point with the sort of cynical, hard-bitten voice you might expect from someone who long ago lost any innocent sense of wonder towards the galaxy of rock stars that were making music in 1971, he’s essentially still a fan whose musical coming of age was in….you’ve guessed it………..1971.

So don’t come to this book expecting anything that could claim to be ‘objective’. It isn’t and it isn’t really meant to be. It’s Hepworth indulging his own likes and dislikes, writing from a very specific position – I might characterise it as ‘real music lovers liked albums by serious people so forget about all that mob who just bought those nasty things called pop singles.’ But if you’re prepared to accept this (which I was), it’s a pretty good read.

Bob Stanley, reviewing the book for The Guardian puts it this way:

 “His lack of objectivity doesn’t make the book any less of a treat to read, as Hepworth marries his innocent teenage joy with four decades as a pop critic – frequently an acerbic one.”

Oddly enough for a seasoned rock critic, Hepworth stays pretty firmly fixed on the mainstream and less feted bands get the brush off with a casual passing message and some bands seem to get a pretty unfair kicking – TRex, for example.

Hepworth clearly has a love/hate relationship with the musicians at the heart of this book – he admires their talent and what they created and loathes the way they became such cossetted prima donnas. I can’t help feeling that this is rather like criticising a tiger for eating whoever dares to ride on its back.

If you are old enough for any of the music here to have meant anything to you, you’re going to love the book – if not, you might just be a bit mystified over all the fuss.

Now available in paperback as well as hardback, you won’t find it hard to find affordable copies.

 

Terry Potter

May 2020