Introduction / by Jonathan Lethem and Kevin Dettmar
The freewheelin' Bob Dylan / Nat Hentoff
The changing same (R&B and new Black music) (excerpt) / Amiri Baraka
Learning from the Beatles / Richard Poirier
Goodbye surfing, hello God! / Jules Siegel
Master of mediocrity / Richard Goldstein
Outlaw blues / Paul Williams
The Memphis soul sound / Stanley Booth
Lillian Roxon's rock encyclopedia (excerpt) / Lillian Roxon
The best of acappella / Lenny Kaye
The aesthetics of rock (excerpt) / Richard Meltzer
Inside the cages of the zoo / Ellen Sander
The disco files (excerpt) / Vince Aletti
Valley of the New York Dolls / Paul Nelson
Where were you when Elvis died? / Lester Bangs
In defense of rock theory / Greg Shaw
Prince / Robert Christgau
The Cars' power steering / Jon Pareles
Janis Joplin / Ellen Willis
The Slits go native / Carola Dibbell
David Bowe eats his young / Debra Rae Cohen
Hellfire (excerpt) / Nick Tosches
Boys' night out : Aztec camera clicks / Ariel Swartley
The power and the glory / Nelson George
King Solomon : the throne in exile / Peter Guralnick
Sylvia's husband / Donna Gaines
The heart of rock & soul : the 1001 greatest singles ever made (excerpt) / Dave Marsh
Jim Morrison is dead and living in Hollywood / Eve Babitz
Route 666 (excerpt) / Gina Arnold
Houses of the holy / Ann Powers
Sam Cooke's Night Beat / Robert Palmer
One nation under a groove (excerpt) / Gerald Early
Bruce Springsteen : born to run / Ed Ward
Total systems failure / Camden Joy
Fargo Rock City (excerpt) / Chuck Klosterman
Seven years in the life / Geoffrey O'Brien
O.P.D. ; Deus Est Vivus : The Beatles and The Death Cults (excerpt) / Devin McKinney
Emo : where the girls aren't / Jessica Hopper
Live at the Apollo (excerpt) / Douglas Wolk
Ray Charles / David Hajdu
I is somebody else / Luc Sante
The final comeback of Axl Rose / John Jeremiah Smith
In praise of assholes / Greg Tate
Say you want a revolution... / Elijah Wald
The Runaways : wild thing / Evelyn McDonnell
Word : Jay Z's Decoded and the language of hip-hop / Kelefa Sanneh
Love and hope and sex and dreams : punk rock, disco, New York City & the triumph of the Rolling Stones' Some Girls / Anthony DeCurtis
After 30 years, I finally went to a Barry Manilow concert / Danyel Smith
Guitar drag / Greil Marcus
Sources and acknowledgments
