WASHINGTON ROCK AND ROLL: A SOCIAL HISTORY is an exhaustive study of the early years of rock and roll music in the nation’s capital. Serving as a research guide for both the casual fan and the dedicated musician, author Mark Opsasnick’s fast-paced social survey combines nightclub history with profiles of the area’s most beloved musicians and bands and provides a detailed portrait of one of the world’s greatest rock and roll scenes. The Cherry People, Razz, Link Wray, Roy Buchanan, and Nils Lofgren are just some of the many stars covered in the fact-filled pages of WASHINGTON ROCK AND ROLL: A SOCIAL HISTORY.

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In truth, there are no little stars. Some just shone brighter and longer than others. But they all were up there in the endless galaxy of singers and musicians whose grasp for the dream equaled their reach, if only for a passing moment. They were roman candles that lighted up the night skies full of larger, longer-lasting stars, but their music helped show us the way through the ‘50s and ‘60s, too. The afterglow is still there even now if you keep looking long enough.

They are only called little stars in this book because one of the earliest of the rock ‘n’ roll classics by a non-black, non-Southern-roots act was “Little Star,” sung by a New York City doo-wop group that never made the Billboard charts a second time. The Elegants and their contemporaries provided the inspiration for countless others to chase the American Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream until they caught it by its tail and, on reflection, inspired the title for Jerry Miller’s book.

The stories of a dozen or so of those music dreamers, the ones who were awakened much earlier than they had scheduled their wake-up calls, are at the heart of the book. So, in their way, are the millions who followed their paths across the sky with homemade telescopes.

Inside this book’s pages, you won’t need your telescope. It focuses right in on these selected dreamers and where their dreams took them, followed by the often hard realities of where their meteors crash-landed at the end of their sudden descents back to earth.

From the Introduction, where you meet the author on his way to the outskirts of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream, to the final chapter, where the loyal followers of the dreamers gather to soak up the nostalgia they can only find at post-natal concerts by lingering stars like Gary Lewis or the Four Tops. In between, you get to go backstage, literally and figuratively, into the lives and the visions of the one-time stars who streaked across your lives if you were living them in America thirty or forty years ago.

You will be dropping in on them at various points during the past fifteen years or so, at places where their fates are still finding their ways home. At the close of each of your stops, the author updates the individual sagas to the year 2000, for better or worse, in redemption or death or something in between.

The first stop on this journey through the aftermath of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream is at Doo-Wop Heaven, where you hear first-hand how the dream lives forever in the minds of unbreakable stars like Vito Picone of the Elegants, Nick Santos of the Capris, Jimmy Beaumont of the Skyliners, Charlie Thomas of the Drifters, as well as two long-time managers of our so-called “little stars,” Joe Rock and Arnie Kay, who not only have helped shape the constant comebacks of the dreams but have informed views on how and why the old music has outlived its actuarial probabilities in America.

From Doo-Wop Heaven it is on to long, nostalgic stops to visit one-time R ´n´ R luminaries Bobby Helms, The McCoys, Carl Dobkins Jr., Joe Dowell, the Lemon Pipers, Question Mark (of the Mysterians), Jinx Dawson (of Coven), and The Rivieras before heading back to the concerts where the Dream ages but stays alive.

Though some of the personal lives turned nightmarish and even deadly, the dream and music continue to play in the background of their stories like secret voices. Put your ear to the book and listen closely. You can hear them still.

In truth, there are no little stars. Some just shone brighter and longer than others. But they all were up there in the endless galaxy of singers and musicians whose grasp for the dream equaled their reach, if only for a passing moment. They were roman candles that lighted up the night skies full of larger, longer-lasting stars, but their music helped show us the way through the ‘50s and ‘60s, too. The afterglow is still there even now if you keep looking long enough.

They are only called little stars in this book because one of the earliest of the rock ‘n’ roll classics by a non-black, non-Southern-roots act was “Little Star,” sung by a New York City doo-wop group that never made the Billboard charts a second time. The Elegants and their contemporaries provided the inspiration for countless others to chase the American Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream until they caught it by its tail and, on reflection, inspired the title for Jerry Miller’s book.

The stories of a dozen or so of those music dreamers, the ones who were awakened much earlier than they had scheduled their wake-up calls, are at the heart of the book. So, in their way, are the millions who followed their paths across the sky with homemade telescopes.

Inside this book’s pages, you won’t need your telescope. It focuses right in on these selected dreamers and where their dreams took them, followed by the often hard realities of where their meteors crash-landed at the end of their sudden descents back to earth.

From the Introduction, where you meet the author on his way to the outskirts of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream, to the final chapter, where the loyal followers of the dreamers gather to soak up the nostalgia they can only find at post-natal concerts by lingering stars like Gary Lewis or the Four Tops. In between, you get to go backstage, literally and figuratively, into the lives and the visions of the one-time stars who streaked across your lives if you were living them in America thirty or forty years ago.

You will be dropping in on them at various points during the past fifteen years or so, at places where their fates are still finding their ways home. At the close of each of your stops, the author updates the individual sagas to the year 2000, for better or worse, in redemption or death or something in between.

The first stop on this journey through the aftermath of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream is at Doo-Wop Heaven, where you hear first-hand how the dream lives forever in the minds of unbreakable stars like Vito Picone of the Elegants, Nick Santos of the Capris, Jimmy Beaumont of the Skyliners, Charlie Thomas of the Drifters, as well as two long-time managers of our so-called “little stars,” Joe Rock and Arnie Kay, who not only have helped shape the constant comebacks of the dreams but have informed views on how and why the old music has outlived its actuarial probabilities in America.

From Doo-Wop Heaven it is on to long, nostalgic stops to visit one-time R ´n´ R luminaries Bobby Helms, The McCoys, Carl Dobkins Jr., Joe Dowell, the Lemon Pipers, Question Mark (of the Mysterians), Jinx Dawson (of Coven), and The Rivieras before heading back to the concerts where the Dream ages but stays alive.

Though some of the personal lives turned nightmarish and even deadly, the dream and music continue to play in the background of their stories like secret voices. Put your ear to the book and listen closely. You can hear them still.

Liverpool, England, October 1956. Schoolboy John Lennon and his best friend, Peter Shotton, decide to start a skiffle group as “a bit of a lark.” Four years later John, now accompanied by Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best, leaves Liverpool to start a series of near legendary gigs in Hamburg, Germany. His group now performing under their newly acquired name – THE BEATLES.

This is the story of those four years. The story of how one of thousands of amateur schoolboy skiffle bands evolved into the beginnings of the greatest band in popular history.It’s a story of hope, creativity and exploring musical boundaries. It’s also a story of tragedy, coincidence and at times just sheer luck.This is a story of beginnings, the story of John, Paul, George and Ringo - Before They Were Beatles.

Liverpool, England, October 1956. Schoolboy John Lennon and his best friend, Peter Shotton, decide to start a skiffle group as “a bit of a lark.” Four years later John, now accompanied by Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best, leaves Liverpool to start a series of near legendary gigs in Hamburg, Germany. His group now performing under their newly acquired name – THE BEATLES.

This is the story of those four years. The story of how one of thousands of amateur schoolboy skiffle bands evolved into the beginnings of the greatest band in popular history.It’s a story of hope, creativity and exploring musical boundaries. It’s also a story of tragedy, coincidence and at times just sheer luck.This is a story of beginnings, the story of John, Paul, George and Ringo - Before They Were Beatles.

Using four different approaches, or in this case chapter headings, I try to understand as well as to explain a series of interrelated incidents, events and voluntary actions leading to the creation of the identity of the stranger, a nickname consistently mentioned in a considerable number of rock songs, many of which have become major hit songs in the National Rock Hit Charts.

This is a unique book, since it ventures to establish the real existence of someone who has been mythicized by rock bands, and who is believed by many to be a fiction character.

Listen to radio interview with author Bryan J. Kinnaird

Sean Delaney explains "The KISS show is my show."

FORMAT: Softcover

Listen to radio interview with author Bryan J. Kinnaird

Sean Delaney explains "The KISS show is my show."

FORMAT: Hardcover

Listen to radio interview with author Bryan J. Kinnaird

Sean Delaney explains "The KISS show is my show."

FORMAT: E-Book

To summarize this story, it tells a story of an individual who started out in 1960 in rock ’n’ roll and took it all the way in his field, to the top, and became the most famous road manager in the United States of the time. I was in trade magazines, on TV shows and received fan mail. It got to the point where I had to deal with my fans and their mania wherever I went, like the rock stars I worked with. The only other road manager at the time that was in this category was Malcolm Evans, who worked for the Beatles. Paul Revere had told me I was even like a sixth Raider. Here I was, a kid from Olympia, and now in Hollywood living the fast lane with the after burner on, and the G forces pushing my skin back on my face. The jet pilots are not the only ones that do that. I lived it. From band boy, to roadie, to road manager, tour manger, and body guard. It tells the true-life story of groups starting out, and the excitement of making it all the way to the top. And I was the only one that went everywhere the band did, having the same experiences. The changes in the way we tour on the ground and in the air, changes in sound equipment, show productions, TV shows, touring, recording, business and instruments. It tells of the fun, the hard work, the excitement, the danger and the responsibility of touring. I would go up against anybody in history that thinks they saw a lot of rock ’n’ roll bands in that time. I literally saw thousands and thousands. No one else alive can tell this story but me, because of the unique position I was in at the time. After 18 years on the road working with top American and top British groups, and having the business almost kill me a few times, I definitely have a very unique one of a kind story to tell. I have played Madison Square Garden's, Yankee Stadium, Dick Clark Caravan Star Tours, USO Tours, College tours, promotional tours, and other Country tours. I have done it all. Keep in mind that out of the entire population of the United States, 25% are baby boomers. And they were teenyboppers at that time. Looking back, I have no regrets except for one: THE ROCK ’N’ ROLL EVOLUTION WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. I was right in the middle of it! There were no set standards or proven ways until we blazed a trail into the new world of Rock “n” Roll.


EBook coming soon in February 23, 2011