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Articles

“The World's Best Rock Read”: Let It Rock 1972–75

Pages 449-463 | Published online: 11 Aug 2010
 

Abstract

This article is a case study of an influential British music publication of the 1970s. It traces the origins of the magazine in the nascent rock criticism of the era and discusses its ethos in terms of historical perspective, transatlantic links, and the dichotomy between pop and rock. The content of Let It Rock was broad, including soul, jazz, country, and folk. Many of its writers were new to music journalism and several went on to careers in rock writing or the music industry. As reflected in the letters pages, the readership also included some future music writers. Finally, the article discusses the legacy of Let It Rock as an inspiration for music publications of the 1980s and 1990s.

Notes

[1] The two references to Chuck Berry may have been linked to the final choice of title for the magazine: “Let It Rock” was a lesser-known Berry composition. It was also the name of a recently established clothes store in Kings Road, Chelsea, selling Teddy Boy and other gear, in tune with the nostalgia for the music and youth culture of the 1950s that was a feature of the early 1970s in Britain. In his first “My Top Ten” column, Gillett referred negatively to “something called the London Rock ‘n’ Roll Show” whose promoters had corralled “a flock of has-beens” (he mentions Billy Fury, the MC5, and Bill Haley) on stage in front of an audience packed into a soccer stadium. He added that this had been “enough to shake the faith of even this most devout rock ‘n’ roll fan” (Let It Rock 1: 48). Soon after the first issue went on sale (in which Gillett revealed that he had bought a deleted 1958 single, “Little Star” by the Elegants, “for the outrageous price of 75p at Let It Rock—no relation—in the King's Road”) the Hanover Books office received a telephone call from the shop's owner, Malcolm McLaren, to say that he had been receiving calls intended for the magazine.

[2] Not all the readers of the first issue were in tune with this ethos. In the next issue, the editorial referred to letters attacking the inclusion of “poufs like David Bowie” and “all the mouldy oldies.”

[3] This was not the only tension in the “broad church” of Let It Rock. In his report on the 1974 Critics Poll, Simon Frith noted “a schism between soul and rock people” (Let It Rock 26: 17).

[4] Rock File was an annual paperback book edited initially by Gillett, and then by CitationGillett and Frith. A selection of articles from the Rock File series was published in 1996 as The Beat Goes On.

[5] The paragraph in question was, “We can tell ourselves we are a counter-culture. And yet are we really so different from the culture against which we rebel? The truest expression of middle-class culture lies within the star system. It involves the selection of one person who is made to stand for all of our fantasies and all of our misplaced frustrations.”

[6] Another Dylan biographer, the London-based Robert Shelton, participated in the 1973 Critics Poll (Let It Rock 16: 16). The first edition of Michael Gray's magnum opus Song and Dance Man was reviewed by Phil Hardy in the December 1972 issue (Let It Rock 3: 55).

[7] In Andrew Blake's edited collection Living through Pop, Watson would make a virulent attack what he saw as the “populism” of Frith's academic writings on music.

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