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Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock Audiobook
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Publisher Description
The author of the critically acclaimed Your Favorite Band is Killing Me offers an eye-opening and frank assessment of the state of classic rock, assessing its past and future, the impact it has had, and what it’s loss would mean to an industry, a culture, and a way of life.
Since the late 1960s, a legendary cadre of artists—including the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Black Sabbath, and the Who—has revolutionized popular culture and the sounds of our lives. While their songs still get airtime and some of these bands continue to tour, its idols are leaving the stage permanently. Can classic rock remain relevant as these legends die off, or will this major musical subculture fade away as many have before, Steven Hyden asks.
In this mix of personal memoir, criticism, and journalism, Hyden stands witness as classic rock reaches the precipice. Traveling to the eclectic places where geriatric rockers are still making music, he talks to the artists and fans who have aged with them, explores the ways that classic rock has changed the culture, investigates the rise and fall of classic rock radio, and turns to live bootlegs, tell-all rock biographies, and even the liner notes of rock’s greatest masterpieces to tell the story of what this music meant, and how it will be remembered, for fans like himself.
Twilight of the Gods is also Hyden’s story. Celebrating his love of this incredible music that has taken him from adolescence to fatherhood, he ponders two essential questions: Is it time to give up on his childhood heroes, or can this music teach him about growing old with his hopes and dreams intact? And what can we all learn from rock gods and their music—are they ephemeral or eternal?
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“Twilight of the Gods is a wise meditation on why classic rock stars keep trucking, both on the road and in our dreams. As Steven Hyden brilliantly (and hilariously) argues, rock stars play weird roles in our lives: sages, surrogate dads, imaginary drug buddies, bad examples. Hyden explores why the world remains fascinated by the jukebox heroes of yesteryear—and as with everything he writes, every page is an irresistible argument starter.”
— Rob Sheffield, author of Dreaming the Beatles
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“A wise meditation on why classic rock stars keep trucking, both on the road and in our dreams. Every page is an irresistible argument starter.”
— Rolling Stone -
“Warm and witty scholarship…a fleet-footed quest to understand the fascination—his and ours—with the boomer heroes who still hold an outsized place in the culture even as they’re once again dying like it’s 1969.”
— Washington Post -
"[An] engaging (even loving) deflation of boomer rock heroes and traditions.”
— Newsweek -
“Part memoir, part criticism, and part pondering both funny and fraught, Hyden’s insightful writing about the genre and its giants makes for compelling and freewheeling page-turning.”
— Houston Press -
“Hyden is an effortless writer, and he draws clever connections between artists and cultural phenomena spanning decades.”
— Pitchfork -
“In this poignant tribute to the experience of being rescued by rock and roll, Hyden manages to both celebrate and mourn the inherently ephemeral magic of his heroes: the original class of rock and roll stars. His impassioned but wry prose does his saviors justice.”
— Lizzy Goodman, author of Meet Me in the Bathroom
Awards
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A Newsweek Pick of Best Nonfiction for Summer Reading
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A New York Times Book Review Notable Book
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About Patrick Lawlor
Patrick Lawlor, an award-winning narrator, is also an accomplished stage actor, director, and combat choreographer. He has worked extensively off Broadway and has been an actor and stuntman in both film and television. He has been an Audie Award finalist multiple times and has garnered several AudioFile Earphones Awards, a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award, and many starred audio reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews.