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    Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock
    Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock
    Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock
    Audiobook10 hours

    Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock

    Written by Steven Hyden

    Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The author of the critically acclaimed Your Favorite Band is Killing Me offers an eye-opening and frank assessment of the state of classic rock, assessing its past and future, the impact it has had, and what it’s loss would mean to an industry, a culture, and a way of life.

    Since the late 1960s, a legendary cadre of artists—including the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Black Sabbath, and the Who—has revolutionized popular culture and the sounds of our lives. While their songs still get airtime and some of these bands continue to tour, its idols are leaving the stage permanently. Can classic rock remain relevant as these legends die off, or will this major musical subculture fade away as many have before, Steven Hyden asks.

    In this mix of personal memoir, criticism, and journalism, Hyden stands witness as classic rock reaches the precipice. Traveling to the eclectic places where geriatric rockers are still making music, he talks to the artists and fans who have aged with them, explores the ways that classic rock has changed the culture, investigates the rise and fall of classic rock radio, and turns to live bootlegs, tell-all rock biographies, and even the liner notes of rock’s greatest masterpieces to tell the story of what this music meant, and how it will be remembered, for fans like himself.

    Twilight of the Gods is also Hyden’s story. Celebrating his love of this incredible music that has taken him from adolescence to fatherhood, he ponders two essential questions: Is it time to give up on his childhood heroes, or can this music teach him about growing old with his hopes and dreams intact? And what can we all learn from rock gods and their music—are they ephemeral or eternal?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMay 8, 2018
    ISBN9780062797810
    Author

    Steven Hyden

    Steven Hyden is the author of Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, Billboard, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Grantland, The A.V. Club, Slate and Salon. He is currently the cultural critic at UPROXX, and the host of the Celebration Rock podcast. He lives in Minnesota with his wife and two children.  

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    Reviews for Twilight of the Gods

    4/5

    54 ratings5 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The author covers a wide range of territory and while all books contain opinions, this one can be a bit strident. Has the author kept politics out of his writing it would have gotten a higher rating. While much of the book has a smarter than you vibe the ending comes around and while I don’t care for some of the music the author enjoys that doesn’t impact my rating. We are all different as it should be
    • 5/5
      Clever and entertaining, you will laugh or smile your way through it and be sad when it ends.
    • 4/5
      Well written, well researched. A great book for any fan of Rock or Classic Rock music. While I found myself not agreeing with Steven Hyden completely, I still enjoyed the read immensely. To be fair there is a large age difference between us so our perspectives are different. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      Most rock historians consider the years 1965 to 1974 as the "class rock" era, give or take a few years. Hyden claims that it lasted until the late 90's, presumably based on a combination of "classic rock" station playlists and his own tastes. His "journey" is exactly that: his. So the bands that he writes about reflect his own experiences, which for the most part start in the 90's since he was born in 1977. In that year I was 24 years old and living through disco hell, punk bands who could not play their instruments, and seeing two trends: arena rock aka corporate rock, and the emergence of more singer-songwriter artists, i.e. a transition away from white male bands made up of blokes who shared a common interest in groupies, drugs, and bad behavior. For me, those classic rock years were fading into the past, although some torch carriers such as Tom Petty and U2 were keeping the faith. Hyden writes pretty well about charlatans such as The Eagles and The Doors (or the incredible narcissism of Robbie Robertson); other bands that he idolized are ones that I had no interest in: Black Sabbath, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, etc., so these sections of the book I merely skimmed. Overall, there's no analysis here of why rock music lovers abandoned the type of rock that had dominated the 60's and 70's, in other words, the promise that the title of the book claimed. I mean, it's pretty self-evident that the classic rockers who are left aren't going to be around much longer, and one can only speculate on whether future generations will want to listen to the lyrics of those old songs that once seemed so revolutionary.The list of missing classic rock bands are too numerous to mention.
    • 4/5
      "Twilight of the God"s is a fairly comprehensive history and recap of the whole rock band era that the passage of time will soon be bringing to a close if author Steven Hyden is correct. I found Hyden's descriptions of the various bands, including an explanation of why he ranked them as either significant contributors to the genre or as mere side notes, to be interesting. But I was only ever a fan of a handful of the bands featured in the book, so I'm probably not the author's target audience. That said, I did learn a lot about the culture of the bands and what made them tick, even though I'm not left with the motivation to go back and listen to a lot of the music.If you are a fan of classic rock or "dad rock" (an interesting term the author explains in detail), however, this book should interest you. Steven Hyden has been a rock band fan his whole life, and it shows in his enthusiasm about the subject.