La Historia de la Historia de la Musica Rock

OK, so the deal with this, that Pussy Galore had so much fun with, and I still do, is that between 1981 and 1983, two Spaniards by the name of Juan Manuel Prado and Jordi Sierra i Fabra began writing and publishing a Spanish language rock and roll magazine with a biographical/discographical slant.

In addition to other rock and roll books, including biographies of The Who, Pink Floyd and Rick Wakeman (!), Sierra i Fabra had some ten years earlier also written a reference work called La Historia de la Musica Pop, so we can assume a name for the new project came fairly easily for them.

Each magazine was made up of 20 ad-free glossy pages, and featured text by Sierra i Fabra, full-color photos, and an illustrated discography by someopne named Alex Mosley. The magazines were published weekly by Orbis, a British printing house who kept an office in Barcelona. Once the series was complete in its 100 issues, it was reissued in 6 hardbound volumes of about 200 pages each, and nothing of its like on rock 'n' roll had ever been seen in the Spanish language before.

Of course, Lillian Roxon's English language Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock had outlived its original editor and gone into its second or third edition by this time, so Prado's large encyclopedia might have remained of limited interest to an Anglo like myself . . .

Had it not been for the records. See, each of the magazines had been issued in conjunction with an LP, usually a Greatest Hits compilation^* manufactured by Polydor Italy, and while the books and the magazines de la Historia Rock never really made it stateside, the albums most assuredly did.

Anyone who spent any time at all in the cutout bins and in the import sections of record stores in the 80's is sure to have come across these records, and, really, they're not all that uncommon even now.

'Course, none of this really shares the joke, none of it really gets at the ironical reason Pussy Galore named their album what they did. In my telling thus far it all seems admirable. . . .

And it is. But dig the 100-entry series discography, and see if you don't crack a smile.

1.  The Rolling Stones 2.  Jimi Hendrix 3.  Jerry Lee Lewis 4.  David Bowie 5.  John Mayall 6.  The Beatles 7.  Genesis 8.  The Dave Clark Five 9.  The Small Faces 10.  Eric Clapton 11.  Joe Cocker 12.  Rod Stewart 13.  T Rex 14.  The Animals 15.  Procol Harum 16.  Manfred Mann 17.  Taste 18.  The Allman Brothers Band 19.  Bill Haley and The Comets 20.  Chuck Berry 21.  Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity 22.  The Pretty Things 23.  Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich 24.  Fats Domino 25.  The Nice 26.  Elvis Presley 27.  Lou Reed 28.  Chicago 29.  James Brown 30.  Santana 31.  Bob Dylan 32.  Blood, Sweat & Tears 33.  Janis Joplin 34.  Leonard Cohen 35.  Brian Poole & the Tremeloes / The Tornados 36.  John McLaughlin 37.  The Who 38.  The Velvet Underground 39.  Lulu / Tommy Steele 40.  Cat Stevens 41.  The Righteous Brothers 42.  The Hollies 43.  Roger Daltrey 44.  Elton John 45.  Them 46.  The Moody Blues 47.  The Kinks 48.  Roy Orbison 49.  Savoy Brown 50.  Ten Years After

51.  Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes 52.  Status Quo 53.  Slade 54.  Chick Corea 55.  Rainbow 56.  Fairport Convention 57.  Cream 58.  Bachman-Turner Overdrive 59.  Graham Parker 60.  The Walker Brothers 61.  Kansas 62.  Boston 63.  Jeff Beck 64.  Little Richard 65.  Melanie 66.  Jethro Tull 67.  Donovan 68.  Mahavishnu Orchestra 69.  The Three Degrees 70.  Labelle 71.  The O'Jays 72.  Poco 73.  Dave Mason 74.  The Byrds 75.  Billy Paul 76.  Argent 77.  Pacific Gas & Electric 78.  REO Speedwagon 79.  Aerosmith 80.  Johnny Winter 81.  Janis Ian 82.  Journey 83.  The Jacksons 84.  Bob James 85.  Fleetwood Mac 86.  Al Stewart 87.  Chicory Tip 88.  Gilbert O'Sullivan 89.  Johnny Nash 90.  The Clash 91.  Robin Trower 92.  The Everly Brothers 93.  The Beach Boys 94.  Los Teen Tops 95.  Bruce Springsteen 96.  Dan Fogelberg 97.  Rick Derringer 98.  Aphrodite's Child 99.  10cc 100.  Miguel Ríos

And I don't even think that Poco is part of the joke. We might have been guessing that the country rock thing wasn't going to age well by 1983 or so, but keep in mind Poco was once actually called a supergroup.

No, it's more the inclusions of Johnny Nash and Gilbert O'Sullivan that get me. Yeah, they got Dylan and The Beatles and The Kinks and The Stones, but looks like they left out Neil Young so they could find room for The Righteous Brothers. They skipped Yes to make sure Aphrodite's Child could fit.

And for some reason they gave Roger Daltrey a record after having already given one to The Who? What was it, the McVicar soundtrack?

Anyway, it's the juxtaposition, and who's put in at the expense of who else that's funny. Pussy Galore played that up big time on the back of their album, and I had some fun with it on one of my homemade CDs a few years back, as well. I'll publish both those 100-item lists soon.

^*But not always. The David Bowie album is a reissue of Another Face; the Amboy Dukes record is a repackaged Survival of the Fittest - Live. I think the REO Speedwagon LP is actually Hi Infidelity. (Return)

Thanks to these two pages:
Goldmine Magazine
Rate Your Music