A LEADING Scottish music historian has published a remarkable new encyclopedia of pop and rock after 12 years of painstaking, full-time research.
But the 1,000-page book is only the first part of a stupendous two-part project by Martin C Strong.
The Great Rock Bible: Old Testament 1920-1976 contains detailed biographical entries on thousands of acts who released their first records during or before 1976, going all the way back to the earliest blues singers, who included Lucille Bogan, Alice Hunter and Ma Rainey.
The book opens with AC/DC and closes with ZZ Top. Inbetween are everyone from Bob Dylan, Deep Purple, Bruce Springsteen and Brian Eno to Peter Gabriel, Aretha Franklin, the Isley Brothers, Waylon Jennings and Thin Lizzy.
Scottish acts as diverse as Nazareth, Stone the Crows, Middle of the Road and Stealers Wheel are also included.
In addition, Strong has written detailed sections about dozens of specific genres, from progressive rock to skiffle, soul, RnB and giants, legends and pioneers in the jazz field.
Volume two of the work, which will take the story up to the present day, is expected to be published next year, with entries ranging from The Clash to REM and the Arctic Monkeys. As it stands, it is some 1,200 pages long.
The Great Rock Bible is the latest labour of love for Strong, 63, who has catalogued popular music in forensic detail in 19 books over 42 years. His Great Scots Musicography covered some 500 Scottish acts in rock, pop, folk, traditional, jazz and classical music, many of whom had lapsed into obscurity.
Strong’s many fans include Rebus author Ian Rankin, a hard-core music fan, who once said of a previous book by Strong, the Great Rock Discography: “This is a great book to dip into. You'll find essays and info on hundreds of your favourite groups, along with discographies and members' names. The author is a true anorak, and has written companion volumes focusing on psychedelic, punk and so on: It's all great fun.
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“You'll be reminded of albums you used to love, songs you snogged to at school discos, and singers whose faces you wanted to punch. I love music, especially rock, and this book would keep me happy on any desert island”.
The new volume is a successor to Strong's Complete Rock Discography series, and saw Strong reworking the idea completely so that it is more inclusive and contains a huge amount of new information.
Strong, who lives in Larbert, Stirlingshire, said: “I had put all my biographies and discographies, the result of many years’ work, onto a Great Rock Bible website.
“Unfortunately, the website crashed twice, and all the work on it was lost.
“I didn't want to build another website but equally I didn't want to forego all that work, so I decided to put it all into print - I just wanted to get it out there and let people see it.
“I wanted to make it the best rock book ever, or at least the most thoroughly researched. I’m content with it, and I hope that its readers will be, too.
“I think it’s an improvement on my previous books, not least because I’ve learned how to write better. The information in it has all been refreshed, updated and corrected”.
One feature of the new book is that most of the albums listed have received ratings from Strong himself. “I listened to more albums than I should have”, he says now. “Spotify was the greatest thing that ever happened to the books.
“I once did a book about film soundtracks and bought about £28,000 worth of records of soundtracks as research. Then when that book was finished I had to re-sell them all. I sold them at a loss.”
The Great Rock Bible: Old Testament 1920-1976 is available (£50) from Red Planet Music Books (https://redplanetmusicbooks.com/
* Check out a new Herald magazine series, On the Record: A look back at Scotland’s cult albums, starting tomorrow (Saturday) with Stealers Wheel's 1973 classic, Ferguslie Park.
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