John Strausbaugh proves himself to be an excellent short-form historian. In his 2001 book, Rock Til You Drop, he provides the reader with fantastic short histories of The Rolling Stones, music and its relation to 60s counter-culture, Rolling Stone magazine, and punk rock.

As one could predict from the book’s cover, the first major piece of history that Strausbaugh delves into is the career of the The Rolling Stones. The point? They are the poster children (nay, geriatrics) for everything that Strausbaugh finds wrong with what he has branded “colostomy rock”.

Jagger himself never believed that he would be up on stage, still singing the hits and shaking his bum at the age of forty-two, much less that he would be doing so at the age of fifty as he did when I saw him on the ‘94 Voodoo Lounge tour. Strausbaugh believes that they should have packed it in after Exile On Main Street, if not before that.

And that is the main thesis of Strausbaugh’s work. Rock and roll is a young man’s game, and it is embarrassing for boomer rockers and rock fans to pretend otherwise. For example, after touring the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH, and attending the 2000 induction ceremony of said HOF, Strausbaugh makes this plea:

“You want to ‘honor’ the Moonglows, Jimi Hendrix, Cream? Buy the records. Play the records. Enjoy the records. Cherish the memories. Don’t make old musicians try to recreate their youth. Don’t hang up their old shirts in an ugly building on the waterfront in Cleveland.” - Pg 186-187.

Throughout the book, Strausbaugh provides plenty of history and context (something that is essential to rock and roll itself, he believes) while taking entertaining jabs at everything from the sadly aging musicians to the music itself. An example, while talking about 70s rock & pop:

“I was surprised to discover that this stuff still had the power to make me want to drill out my eyeteeth with a dull three-quarter-inch masonry bit to drown out the noise and pain of hearing it again, even after all those years.”

Rock Til You Drop’s weakest point is the chapter dubbed “Punk: Not the Death of Rock, Just the Decline of Western Civ”. Still an informative brief history of punk, it is clearly not as strong as the other chapters. However, Strausbaugh saves himself by openly admitting early on that he is probably too old to be commenting on the punk movement in the first place.

Another weak spot is the appendix, a collection of snippets from a May 2000 event called ‘Rock in New York’. The event had performances and dialogue that spanned a 40-year history in NYC’s rock scene. The appendix does relate to the book, but much like the tiny human organ with the same name, it may be somewhat interesting but it is rather unnecessary.

Though I am not completely sold on Strausbaugh’s argument, I think he’s compiled a fantastic collection of short histories from the 60s and 70s. Wholly informative and fun to read, Rock Til You Drop captures a perfect snapshot of the baby boomers’ rock experience. Or so I’d have to assume, considering I was nowhere close to being alive at the time.

You can find out more about Strausbaugh’s book here.