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Rock Me on the Water: 1974-The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television and Politics Audiobook
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In this exceptional cultural history, Atlantic Senior Editor Ronald Brownstein—“one of America's best political journalists (The Economist)—tells the kaleidoscopic story of one monumental year that marked the city of Los Angeles’ creative peak, a glittering moment when popular culture was ahead of politics in predicting what America would become.
Los Angeles in 1974 exerted more influence over popular culture than any other city in America. Los Angeles that year, in fact, dominated popular culture more than it ever had before, or would again. Working in film, recording, and television studios around Sunset Boulevard, living in Brentwood and Beverly Hills or amid the flickering lights of the Hollywood Hills, a cluster of transformative talents produced an explosion in popular culture which reflected the demographic, social, and cultural realities of a changing America. At a time when Richard Nixon won two presidential elections with a message of backlash against the social changes unleashed by the sixties, popular culture was ahead of politics in predicting what America would become. The early 1970s in Los Angeles was the time and the place where conservatives definitively lost the battle to control popular culture.
Rock Me on the Water traces the confluence of movies, music, television, and politics in Los Angeles month by month through that transformative, magical year. Ronald Brownstein reveals how 1974 represented a confrontation between a massive younger generation intent on change, and a political order rooted in the status quo. Today, we are again witnessing a generational cultural divide. Brownstein shows how the voices resistant to change may win the political battle for a time, but they cannot hold back the future.
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“Documents the high-octane storybook world of Los Angeles in 1974…Well-rendered portraits of Jackson Browne, Linda Rondstadt, Joni Mitchell, David Geffen and other luminaries of the time are sublime. This is an extremely kinetic historical document…A must read!”
— Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author
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“A plus-one invite to the heady world of Hollywood…as well as a pointed demonstration of how culture can be made and unmade.”
— New York Times -
“Highly recommended.”
— CNN -
“An endlessly engaging cultural history.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) -
“Sweeping cultural history….enriched by interviews with the period’s luminaries…Shows how LA led the US into an era when the 1960s counterculture became mainstream.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Narrator Will Damron…raises the interest and entertainment levels significantly. Using pleasing tones, his spot-on phrasing and inflection rise to high artistic levels…[and] make this period a welcome memory lane to traverse.”
— AudioFile
Awards
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New York Times bestseller
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#1 Amazon bestseller
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A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice of the Week
Rock Me on the Water Listener Reviews
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Carl, 5/30/2021
About Ronald Brownstein
Ronald Brownstein, a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of presidential campaigns, is a senior editor at The Atlantic and a senior political analyst for CNN. He also served as the national political correspondent and national affairs columnist for the Los Angeles Times and covered he White House and national politics for the National Journal. His is the author of six previous books, most recently, The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America.
About Will Damron
Will Damron has won several Earphones Awards and been a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. He has had acting roles off-Broadway and on stage and screen throughout the country.