Michael  Walker
An epic joyride through three history-making tours in 1973 that defined rock and roll superstardomâ€”the money, the access, the excessâ€”forevermore.,Â , The Whoâ€™s ,Quadrophenia,. Led Zeppelinâ€™s ,Houses of the Holy,. Alice Cooperâ€™s ,Billion Dollar Babies,. These three unprecedented toursâ€”and the albums that inspired themâ€”were the most ambitious of these artistsâ€™ careers, and they forever changed the landscape of rock and roll: the economics, the privileges, and the very essence of the concert experience. On these juggernauts, rock godsâ€”and their entouragesâ€”were born, along with unimaginable overindulgence and the legendary flameouts. Tour buses were traded for private jets, arenas replaced theaters, and performances transmogrified into over-the-top, operatic spectacles. As the sixties ended and the seventies began, an altogether more cynical era took hold: peace, love, and understanding gave way to sex, drugs, and rock and roll. , Â , But the decade didnâ€™t become the seventies, acclaimed journalist Michael Walker writes, until 1973, a historic and mind-bogglingly prolific year for rock and roll that saw the release of countless classic albums, from ,The, ,Dark Side of the Moon, to ,Goatâ€™s Head Soup;, ,Goodbye Yellow Brick Road;, ,Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.; ,and ,The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle,. Aerosmith, Queen, and Lynyrd Skynyrd released their debut albums. The Roxy and CBGB opened their doors. Every major act of the eraâ€”from Fleetwood Mac to Black Sabbathâ€”was on the road that summer, but of them all, Walker writes, it was The Who, Led Zeppelin, and Alice Cooper who emerged as the game changers. , Â , Walker revisits each of these three tours in memorable, all-access detail: he goes backstage, onto the jets, and into the limos, where every conceivable wish could be granted. He wedges himself into the sweaty throng of teenage fans (Walker himself was one of them) who suddenly were an economic force to be reckoned with, and he vividly describes how a decadeâ€™s worth of decadence was squeezed into twelve heart-pounding, backbreaking, and rule-defying months that redefined, for our modern times, the business of superstardom.,Praise for ,What You Want Is in the Limo,
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, â€œRequired reading . . . 1973 is a turning point in popular music â€” the border between hippie-ethos â€™60s rock â€™nâ€™ roll and conspicuous-consumption excess â€™70s rock.â€,â€”,New York Post,
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, â€œLoud and boisterous . . . Like a good vinyl-era single, itâ€™s over before it wears out its welcome. You may even want to flip it over and start again when youâ€™re finished.â€,â€”,Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
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, â€œYou donâ€™t have to love the music or personas of the three bands highlighted here . . . to appreciate the vital roles that all three played in creating the modern rock star. . . . [Walker] is convincing and entertaining in explaining why 1973 was a seminal year in rock.â€,â€”,The Daily Beast,
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, â€œ[Thereâ€™s] so much rock n' roll history packed inside.â€,â€”,GQ,
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, â€œVery well written . . . It gives an intellectual immersion into these bandsâ€™ lives.â€,â€”,Led-Zeppelin.org,
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, â€œ[Walker] argues for [1973] as a tipping point, when big toursâ€”and bigger moneyâ€”became a defining ethos in rock music.â€,â€”,NPR
Music,Nonfiction,History,Music,Rock N Roll,Culture,Pop Culture,Cultural,Biography,Biography Memoir
What You Want Is in the Limo: On the Road with Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, and the Who in 1973, the Year the Sixties Died and the Modern Rock Star Was Born