For all of those aging rock and rollers, rock aficionados or trivia enthusiasts, Jeremy Simmonds has written an eclectic, fascinating book. The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches is a chronologic, descriptive guide to rock musicians who died from 1965 through 2006. Every type of music falling under the rubric of rock is included like grunge, heavy metal, punk, rhythm and blues, etc. A short introduction to those rockers who died before 1965 appears at the beginning of the book.
The main entries begin with the death of Alan Freed on January 20, 1965 and end with the Christmas day 2006 passing of James Brown, the soul and funk singer whose estate has just begun to be auctioned. Each column provides a short biography of the artist with a detailed account of their death. Black and white photographs are liberally dispersed throughout the text, and quirky facts are highlighted in boxes under the heading Dead Interesting! There is a cute picture of Sonny and Cher in stripes which could have been taken from their television show, a smiling Karen Carpenter and a glamorous Dusty Springfield playing an old record player. Icons indicating the types of death that range from accidental to eating disorders to natural causes to unsolved are useful. A nice touch is the Lest We Forget reminders of lesser known pop stars that appear at the close of each calendar year.
For those looking for the effects of rock on our culture, the Library has Glenn C. Altschuler's All Shook Up: How Rock 'N' Roll Changed America, Robert Palmer's Rock & Roll: An Unruly History and David P. Szatmary's Rockin' In Time: A Social History of Rock-And-Roll. Books with photographs depicting the rock eras include Charles T. Brown's The Rock And Roll Story, Penny Stalling's Rock 'N' Roll Confidential and Fred Woodward's Rolling Stone: Images of Rock & Roll .