Roadkill on the three-chord highway : art and trash in American popular music / Colin Escott.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Escott, Colin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Singers--United States--Biography.

Singers.

United States.

Popular music--United States--History and criticism.

Popular music.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

ix, 229 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2002.

Summary:

Roadkill on the Three-Chord Highway is a new collection of Colin Escott's wonderful biographies of the legends of rock, rockabilly, and country. Escott is world renowned for telling the stories of not only the major stars, but also the Tex Nobodies that populate the back alleys of American music. For every struggling singer or songwriter who breaks through, there are hundreds more who labor in the shadows, victims of bad luck, bad timing, or themselves. It's the real stories, not the publicists' confections, that concern Colin Escott. We hear Perry Como's story in his own words: It wasn't all smooth. We learn about the astonishing twists and turns in Roy Orbison's life and the stories behind the songs we know so well. And we go down with Vernon Oxford, the last great honky tonk singer, who came to Nashville just a little too late. These are stories for anyone who loves what Escott calls "little songs from great sorrows." They will fascinate even the most casual fan of popular music, and they're told here in sympathetic, engaging, and illuminating prose.

Contents:

Roy Orbison

Perry Como

Patti Page

Jim Reeves

Mitch Torok

Ned Miller

Skeets McDonald

Wynn Stewart

Wanda Jackson

The Collins Kids

Sonny Burgess

Ed Bruce

Onie Wheeler

Vernon Oxford.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0415937825

0415937833

OCLC:

50198471