SPILL BOOK REVIEW: MITCHELL COHEN – WAKE ME, SHAKE ME: NEW YORK CITY, THE ’60s & THE POP-ROCK YOUTHQUAKE

MITCHELL COHEN – WAKE ME, SHAKE ME: NEW YORK CITY, THE ’60s & THE POP-ROCK YOUTHQUAKE

TROUSER PRESS BOOKS

BOOK REVIEW BY AARON BADGLEY

Wake Me, Shake Me: New York City, The 60s & The Pop-Rock Youthquake is a very specific rock ‘n’ roll textbook. It is about a place and a time. Mitchell Cohen examines 1960s rock ‘n’ roll and New York City. Rock ‘n’ roll has a fascinating history, and much of the history is rooted outside of big cities. But New York and other urban metropolises caught the bug early and were ready. Alan Freed at the world-famous WINS in New York coined the phrase ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ or so it is thought. He even tried to copyright the term. But the music was around for a few years before that phrase was introduced. But as much as the music influenced the city, the city became one of the centres of rock ‘n’ roll as time rolled on.

Cohen is honest from the very beginning. Wake Me, Shake Me: New York City, The 60s & The Pop-Rock Youthquake is not definitive, nor is he trying to present a thorough history. He omits things, certainly favours others, and his style of writing can be opinionated. And is usually quite correct.

His coverage of New York prior to the invasion of The Beatles (which he is quite clear was the catalyst rock needed) is brief but helps put the book in context. From 16 Magazine to the doo-wop to the origins of the Dion, it sets the stage for what is to come. He even manages to comment on the rivalry between New York and Philadelphia.

But New York City is somewhat complex, and many different styles and sounds were part of this time period. You can go from Mitch Murray to Greenwich Village (Bob Dylan, while not from New York certainly made it his home for a time) to the Go-Go Club to the Brill Building to The Velvet Underground and The Factory. There is a lot to cover, and there is no way that one book can cover it all. Cohen doesn’t even try. But what he does do, very effectively, is set the stage and give a feel for what was going on and how each new step in music built on the last and influenced the next.

Cohen has done his research for this book. Very thorough research. He has interviewed several people who were there, and he looks at contemporaneous articles and music charts to set everything into a context. Cohen knows his subject and writes about it beautifully. He does a brilliant job of writing about a particular place and time. And like most eras, they can never be repeated, so for those of us who weren’t there, books like Wake Me, Shake Me: New York City, The 60s & The Pop-Rock Youthquake do give the reader a strong sense of what was happening and what it was like. There is a lot to love about this book, and I am glad Cohen put pen to paper.

ISBN-13:‎ 13979-8999048769

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