![]() The centerpiece of their own covert operation was an unnamed high government source they call Deep Throat, with whom Woodward arranged secret meetings by positioning the potted palm on his balcony and through codes scribbled in his morning newspaper. The real drama, and there's plenty of it, lies in the private-eye tactics employed by Bernstein and Woodward (they refer to themselves in the third person, strictly on a last name basis). But Washingtonians who talked will be most surprised by the admission that their rumored contacts in the FBI and elsewhere never existed many who were telephoned for "confirmation" were revealing more than they realized. They've saved a few scoops for the occasion, the biggest being the name of their early inside source, the "sacrificial lamb" H**h Sl**n. The author’s chronicle of the year is loaded with gossipy anecdotes, adroit criticism, and earnest affection for the musicians, record executives, and technicians who defined it.Īn exuberant tour through a pivotal year in the development of popular music and culture.īernstein and Woodward, the two Washington Post journalists who broke the Big Story, tell how they did it by old fashioned seat-of-the-pants reporting - in other words, lots of intuition and a thick stack of phone numbers. Attempting to list the artists who dominated album charts, media, and collective consciousness of the year only proves the embarrassment of riches at Hepworth’s disposal: the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Led Zeppelin, Carly Simon, Marvin Gaye, the Who, Sly Stone, and Carole King, to name just a few. The author painstakingly recounts the album releases, Top of the Pops performances, and endless touring dates that defined the year. Hepworth tracks the changes that created this new environment, including a changing industry marketplace, new technological developments such as the synthesizer, and a rising generation of new listeners. ![]() In retrospect, it might seem easy to gloss over just how radical the musical landscape of 1971 was and how many disparate artists were releasing music and becoming superstars, which itself was a new phenomenon that was turning singers into de facto royalty-a fact epitomized by the wedding of Mick and Bianca Jagger. Album-oriented rock was replacing the single-driven pop machine, allowing a wider range of artists to express themselves in unique and creative ways. “You might say this was the last day of the pop era.” As a new era dawned, the potential for artists seemed limitless. The anecdote, recalled by Hepworth ( The Secret History of Entertainment, 2004) in the opening of his entertaining exploration of the year in music that was 1971, is a tidy reference to the changing moods in popular music and culture. On New Year’s Eve 1970, Paul McCartney issued a writ of dissolution for the Beatles in Britain’s High Court. ![]() The longtime music journalist and founder of Mojo and Q delivers a month-by-month breakdown of the year that changed pop music history.
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