The Golden Age of Rock Instrumentals

By Steven Otfinoski

Instrumental recordings without vocals flourished from 1955 to 1966. This book discusses such defining characteristics of the period as sax-driven combos, twangy guitars, and explosive dance crazes.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0756752450
• ISBN13: 9780756752453
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Diane Pub Co
• Length: 213 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.6" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Golden Is Golden

This is an excellent source book, especially for anyone who remembers this great period of musical magic. Almost every genre of instrumental music is included. Highly recommended. Only one flaw in my opinion. It didn't contain "Drums Fell Off The Cliff" by Ronnie Kae, which was on Bandbox records. A minor detail, I know. I guess I'm being too picky. Buy it---you won't be disappointed.

Instro!

This book is the only book so far that gives a good and seperate account of intrumental hits, mostly in the 50's and 60's. The book is nicely devided into different styles of instrumentals (or instro's) that usually also fall into a certain time frame. As a close follower of books on soul I have always missed writings on the back-up bands that were in the studio with the great singers like Sam Cooke. He recorded a lot of albums with Plas Johnson, Earl Palmer and Rene Hall but they are never really mentioned in detail in books on him. This little book however is even dedicated to them. It seems the writer was the biggest fan of surf instrumentals (most notably the Surfaris). When I bought the book I initially thought it would only be on surf, but it's a lot wider. It is also a very funny book, the author has used humor in his writing, especially for the really quircky songs. For the interested in 50's and 60's rock and roll, r & B, country and soul this book is well worth getting

Very Entertaining and Insightful

This book is the only book so far that gives a good and seperate account of intrumental hits, mostly in the 50's and 60's. The book is nicely devided into different styles of instrumentals (or instro's) that usually also fall into a certain time frame. As a close follower of books on soul I have always missed writings on the back-up bands that were in the studio with the great singers like Sam Cooke. He recorded a lot of albums with Plas Johnson, Earl Palmer and Rene Hall but they are never really mentioned in detail in books on him. This little book however is even dedicated to them. It seems the writer was the biggest fan of surf instrumentals (most notably the Surfaris). When I bought the book I initially thought it would only be on surf, but it's a lot wider. It is also a very funny book, the author has used humor in his writing, especially for the really quircky songs. For the interested in 50's and 60's rock and roll, r & B, country and soul this book is well worth getting.

Exciting Account of an Exciting Time in Pop Music

It's always a bit dicey for music writers to put into words what they like about a record, and in most cases, the writer will fall back on the lyrics to get his or her point across. Otfinoski can't do that, though, because he tackles an often-overlooked genre of popular music--the rock instrumental. Somehow, he covers just about every angle in an underappreciated area of pop music, and he wisely restricts his survey to a ten-year period, roughly 1955 - 65, covering everyone from the Tornadoes ("Telstar") and the Ventures ("Walk--Don't Run") to Booker T and the MGs and the Ramsey Lewis Trio. Not much is left out, though it would be nice to see some of the artists from the 70s and 80s expanded upon in the next edition, though to be fair, that would force Otfinoski to alter his book's title. There's not much to dislike here, though some of the more technical musical terms are occasionally misapplied, and if the reader doesn't have a lot of the songs listed, he or she may be less interested. Still, most buyers of this book will have an appreciation for the golden age of instrumentals, and will have Otfinoski's book to refer to as they sift through their old 45s.