Jeremy Simmonds

This is appropriately called encyclopedia.
It is full of detail and often photos of "dead rock stars" in their prime.
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I'd say it was unbiased and simply truthful.
Many R and B, country and early contributors to rock and roll, in addition to rock and roll as I know it
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The cover sums it up perfectly.
"An indispensable reference full of strange fact, lucky escapes and hundreds of photos of the good, the bad, and the silly"
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Give this one a try.
Best read (in my opinion) in small doses, since it's chock full of fact.

Oh!...and you probably need a little age under your belt to truly appreciate this work.… (mer)

Being a chronologically-arranged necrology of rock musicians, organized with major divisions for each year, and then each month. Very major figures get a longer spread. At the end of year, there's a grabbag of very short obituaries of lesser-knowns (supposedly) called "Lest We Forget". The world needed this book very badly, and it is basically done very well. There are inevitably a few problems with emphasis. There is far too much emphasis on reggae; most of them could have been relegated to the "Lest We Forgets" and there are very many major figures relegated to that catchall section. There are quite a few pop singers with full listings who have no measurable connection with rock (i.e., Matt Monro). Glad this was done, wish it could have been done perfectly.… (mer)