Rock dreams

Life is but a rock 'n' roll dream. Thirty years ago, artist Guy Peelaert teamed up with author Nik Cohn to create this fantasy tribute to Rock 'n' Roll and R&B. Through surreal texts and images, Cohn and Peelaert paint an imaginary world where the great gods of mid-century popular music appear in their own settings (the drifters under the boardwalk, Otis Redding on the dock of the bay, the beach boys on the beach). Here, rock music is a ""secret society, an enclosed teen fantasy"" treated with the same kind of passion and obsession famously generated by the most fanatic of lovesick, pimply adolescents. All of the founding heroes of rock, soul, and pop appear in Peelaert and Cohn's colorful hallucinations, including Buddy Holly, Elvis, Ray Charles, Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, and many more. Taschen's revival of this unique book comes at a time when rock is making a strong comeback and young musicians are taking inspiration from the very stars featured in rock dreams.