Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers [Revised & Expanded Ebook Edition]

"Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers: Overlooked Innovators & Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Roc"k documents twenty cult rockers from the 1960s. The book features extremely detailed investigation of the careers of greats like the Pretty Things, Arthur Brown, Richard & Mimi Faria, and Tim Buckley. Also featured are the Bonzo Dog Band, the Electric Prunes, Bobby Fuller, the Fugs, Kaleidoscope, Fred Neil, the Beau Brummels, Thee Midniters, Dino Valenti, Mike Brown of the Left Banke, and others, including producers Shel Talmy (the Who, the Kinks, Pentangle) and Giorgio Gomelsky (the Yardbirds, Julie Driscoll, the Soft Machine).

"Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers: Overlooked Innovators & Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Roc"k documents twenty cult rockers from the 1960s. The book features extremely detailed investigation of the careers of greats like the Pretty Things, Arthur Brown, Richard & Mimi Faria, and Tim Buckley. Also featured are the Bonzo Dog Band, the Electric Prunes, Bobby Fuller, the Fugs, Kaleidoscope, Fred Neil, the Beau Brummels, Thee Midniters, Dino Valenti, Mike Brown of the Left Banke, and others, including producers Shel Talmy (the Who, the Kinks, Pentangle) and Giorgio Gomelsky (the Yardbirds, Julie Driscoll, the Soft Machine). In all cases, the extensive chapters include first-hand interview material with the artists themselves and/or their close associates. Lost British Invaders, psychedelic pioneers, rock funnymen, blue-eyed soulsters, overlooked folk-rockers, behind-the-scenes producers -- all find a home as part of "Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers," with a foreword by Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane.The ebook version of "Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers" is significantly expanded, revised, and updated from the print version, adding 20,000 words of new material. The text is accompanied by illustrations and reviews of the most essential recordings by each artist. From reviews of "Urban Spacemen":"[He] brings to this volume a true fan's love of music combined with a writer's smarts and skills. He seamlessly combines researched material with new interviews...Not only did Unterberger choose well musically, but he found the momentum and heart of each of their stories." -- David Greenberger (essayist on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered"), Pulse! "These fascinating tales will make you want to rush out to the record store -- a hallmark of all great music writing." -- Jim DeRogatis, Chicago Sun-Times "In each fascinating case study the author tracks down one or more former group members and/or principals in the story, which gives his work both authority and freshness...his overall handling of the material is exemplary. "Urban Spacemen" forms a compelling mosaic of the hopes and dreams -- not to mention sharp business practices -- of the decade." -- Mike Barnes (author of the biography "Captain Beefheart"), The Wire

Richie Unterberger is the author of numerous rock history books. The first of these, Unknown Legends of Rock’n’Roll (Backbeat, 1998), profiles underappreciated cult rock artists of all styles and eras; the next, Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers: Overlooked Innovators & Eccentric Visionaries Of ’60s Rock (Backbeat, 2000; also available as revised/updated 2013 ebook edition), features in-depth surveys of 20 underrated greats of the era. His Turn! Turn! Turn!: The Folk-Rock Revolution (Backbeat Books, 2002) and its sequel Eight Miles High: Folk-Rock’s Flight from Haight-Ashbury to Woodstock (Backbeat Books, 2003) cover the history of the 1960s folk-rock movement. Both books have been updated, expanded, and combined into one ebook in Jingle Jangle Morning, published in 2014. Jingle Jangle Morning also adds a new 75,000-word mini-book with detailed descriptions of nearly 200 classic folk-rock tracks. His book The Unreleased Beatles: Music And Film won a 2007 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research in the “Best Discography” division of the “Best Research in Recorded Rock Music” category. His most recent books are White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day (Jawbone, 2009) and Won’t Get Fooled Again: The Who from Lifehouse to Quadrophenia (Jawbone, 2011). Unterberger is also author of The Rough Guide To Music USA, a guidebook to the evolution of regional popular music styles throughout America in the 20th century, and The Rough Guide To Jimi Hendrix. He is a frequent contributor to MOJO and Record Collector, and has written hundreds of liner notes for CD reissues. He's taught courses on rock music history at the College of Marin, the University of San Francisco, and City College of San Francisco. He lives in San Francisco. More information about the author, his books, and the music he documents can be found on his Web site at www.richieunterberger.com. E-mail can be sent to him at richie@richieunterberger.com.