Pick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music

The 1970s were a chaotic decade characterized by drug delirium, groovy fashion, religious cults, mega corporations, glitzy glam, hard rock, and global unrest. John Corbett's book, Pick Up the Pieces, takes readers back to this thrilling era through a playful exploration of its music, including rock, disco, pop, soul, jazz, folk, and funk. The book offers a panoramic view of the era's music and culture through seventy-eight essays, and is also a coming-of-age story, tracking the author's absorption in music as he grows from age seven to seventeen. Corbett includes little-known insights on musicians from Pink Floyd, Joni Mitchell, James Brown, and Fleetwood Mac to the Residents, Devo, Gal Costa, and Julius Hemphill, and takes readers through a curated playlist that is both entertaining and informative.

Format: Hardback
Length: 400 pages
Publication date: 22 March 2019
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Unless you lived through the 1970s, it seems impossible to understand it at all. Drug delirium, groovy fashion, religious cults, mega corporations, glitzy glam, hard rock, global unrest—from our 2018 perspective, the seventies are often remembered as a bizarre blur of bohemianism and disco. With Pick Up the Pieces, John Corbett transports us back in time to this thrillingly tumultuous era through a playful exploration of its music. Song by song, album by album, he draws our imaginations back into one of the wildest decades in history.

Rock. Disco. Pop. Soul. Jazz. Folk. Funk. The music scene of the 1970s was as varied as it was exhilarating, but the decades diversity of sound has never been captured in one book before now. Pick Up the Pieces gives a panoramic view of the eras music and culture through seventy-eight essays that allow readers to dip in and out of the decade at random or immerse themselves completely in Corbetts chronological journey. An inviting mix of skilled music criticism and cultural observation, Pick Up the Pieces is also a coming-of-age story, tracking the authors absorption in music as he grows from age seven to seventeen. Along with entertaining personal observations and stories, Corbett includes little-known insights on musicians from Pink Floyd, Joni Mitchell, James Brown, and Fleetwood Mac to the Residents, Devo, Gal Costa, and Julius Hemphill. A master DJ on the page, Corbett takes us through the curated playlist that is Pick Up the Pieces with captivating melody of language and powerful enthusiasm for the era. This funny, energetic book will have readers longing nostalgically for a decade long past.

Weight: 804g
Dimension: 163 x 236 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226604732