World Famous Comics: Bomp!: Saving the World One Record at a Time
Bomp!: Saving the World One Record at a Time
By: Suzy Shaw, Mick Farren Publisher: Ammo Books Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Format: Illustrated Label: Ammo Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 301 Publication Date: October 01, 2007
Product Description: From 1966 to 1978, "Bomp!" was the magazine of rock-and-roll commentary and criticism that provided a view from the garage of the most crucial era in rock history. This retrospective is composed of rare gems from the magazine, including early interviews with The Doors and The Grateful Dead.
A Story That's Long Overdue I can't wait to read this book. Without having seen it, I can safely give it a 5-Star rating, because Bomp! Magazine and Bomp! Records were 5-Star entities.
This is the Bomp! records who, through label signings and distribution deals, opened the doors for such great Punk and Power Pop artists as The Plimsouls, The B52s, Devo, The Romantics, Josie Cotton, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Shoes, 20/20, The Weirdos, Stiv Bators, Flamin' Groovies, The Pandoras, and the list goes on and on.
Bomp! Magazine stood in stark contrast to the mainstream '70s music press, by ignoring the biggest acts of the times in favor of articles on The Easybeats, The Flamin' Groovies, Downliners Sect, The Rattles, Dave Edmonds' Rockpile, The Standells, The Sonics, The British Invasion Sound, The Boston Sound, The Akron Sound. All the while, Greg repeated his battle cry, "It's ALL Coming back!". He was so right.
Before long Greg released The Flamin' Groovies' "You Tore Me Down", and Bomp! Records was launched. A reader asks Greg if he'll promote his band's homemade 45RPM. Overnight, there's a tidal wave of homemade 45s from all over hitting the Bomp! offices, and Bomp! sets up distribution for them. There is probably no Punk or Power Pop band of the late'70s to early '80s that doesn't owe its big break in whole or part to Greg Shaw.
Then there was the Bomp! record store, home of obscure underground 45s and cool '60s rock & roll. The Ramones came by, Blondie came by, Talking Heads, The Germs, The Dickies, The Dead Boys, Devo, and Cheap Trick came by.
Nikki & The Corvettes rehearsed in the back room at night. England's Eddie & The Hot Rods performed with Spencer Davis, on the back of a truck in the Bomp! parking lot. Yeah, Greg, "It ALL came back!
Like I said, I can't wait to read the book. However, I did get to live it. I worked for Greg and Suzy at Bomp!. It was the very center of the Punk/Power Pop universe. ~Dave C. (Bomp! Class of '77-'79)
A Rock and Roll Yearbook It's yearbook size and I want my copy signed by everyone. It's hardcover and yellow and looks like the 70's... BOMP was a GREAT music magazine, on par with CREEM in it's day and it's good to see that it has been canonized. I do have some minor complaints though: 1- Not a single issue is reprinted, but snippets of several, not all, issues. 2- The color section is not big enough. 3- No letter sections were included, and to be honest, it was one of my favorite things about the magazine. But these complaints don't even knock a star off my review. What is published within is golden the only people that want this book have the original issues anyway. It's got AMAZING pictures and you can listen the Weirdos while reading it.
Maybe Best Music Book Ever What a wonder. Greg Shaw is one of the most fascinating characters of pop/rock music history, and this book does such a great job of letting the reader get to know him. As a music journalist, fanzine publisher, and label owner, Shaw was a leading light in the genres of Psychedelic San Francisco, 60s garage, Power Pop (he is credited with naming that genre), Punk and New Wave. When some bands (DMZ, Barracudas, Vipers, Fleshtones, et al) in the 80s turned away from synths and looked back to the 60s for inspiration and went back to rocking out and freaking out, Greg Shaw was a force behind that movement. Shaw was also an irresponsible businessman who couldn't be bothered with the "little details," and this is where Suzy Shaw, his lifetime partner and co-editor of the book, stepped in to keep the more eartly aspects of their life (the running of the businesses) together while Greg chased his dreams and entertained his genius. We all know that Lester Bangs was every bit as rock and roll as the bands he wrote about, and Greg Shaw is right there with him. The Mojo Navigator and Bomp! were two of the best music magazines ever to see print, and this book contains page after page of reproductions of the original band profiles, record reviews, passionate editorials, cool photos, etc from the mags. You feel that you are living inside the world of Greg and Suzy Shaw, of the Bomp! record label and magazine, when you are reading the book; and, if you're like me, you feel like you are walking away from friends and comrades in The Cause when you finish it. If you care anything about real garage rock, Power Pop, New Wave, etc., or about music fanzines, or about the reality of running an independent record label, you will find this book as enthralling as I did.
Consider It Saved 'Bomp: Saving The World One Record At A Time' is much more than just the chronicle of a small, independent record label. It's also part cultural history, part sociological study, part "how to" (or "how not to") guide to running a record label, part scrapbook, part family album, and part rock journalism anthology. Between the pages of this marvelous book is nothing less than an alternate history of rock & roll as told by those who were helping to create and document it.
The book is a feast for the eyes with generous helpings of artwork, and memorabilia lovingly reproduced for your browsing pleasure. It also contains some of the best rock journalism of the past 40 years written by some of rock's best writers (Mick Farren, who co-authored the book with Bomp's Suzy Shaw, Greil Marcus, Lester Bangs, Lenny Kaye, Greg Shaw himself, and many, many more). There is both archival stuff - including the legendary lost and previously unpublished issue #22 of Greg Shaw's Bomp magazine - along with new essays which lend needed context to the entire project.
I've read stacks upon stacks of rock books throughout the years, not to mention countless piles of magazines, and periodicals as well, and I have never read a book about the music or the music business that I enjoyed more. We seem to be getting ever closer to a time when music will only exist as computer files. So it will be left to books, and blogs to chronicle the history of where the music came from, and what the culture that birthed it was like. 'Bomp: Saving The World One Record At A Time' tells that story better than any other I've read.
Should the day ever come when there are no records or CD's or cassettes, and maybe no rock 'n' roll (at least as it once was), if someone should ask you what it was all about and how it all came to pass, and how it sounded, even, hand them this book. You can hear the guitar riffs, and the organ runs, and the drumbeats, and the pounding bass notes with every turn of the page.
And I should add that as we are less than 2 weeks away from Christmas as I write this, it makes the perfect gift for anyone on your list who loves rock 'n' roll. And I mean REALLY loves it.
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