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The Spirit of '76
Publisher's Summary
From the author of the acclaimed 1970 chronicle Fire and Rain, an eye-opening look at yet another pivotal moment in American history - 1976, the year the spirit of rock & roll re-energized the country.
By the mid '70s, America was stuck in a post-Watergate malaise. Then came Jimmy Carter, "Rocky", the Ramones, Apple computers, and a slew of awards for a new late-night series called Saturday Night Live. Each of those milestones arrived in 1976 - and marked the moment the counterculture became the culture. Based on extensive research and interviews with some of the participants, Browne - a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and author of Fire and Rain and Dream Brother - vividly chronicles the year America went rock & roll in everything from politics to technology. The Spirit of '76 will make you think anew about an under-appreciated moment in the country - and will make you wonder if its optimistic, can-do spirit of reinvention and renewal will ever come again.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Stephen Snead
- 2018-07-17
narrator has no passion.
A lot of over hyped angst. I wondered if the writer was around in 76.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Philo
- 2018-12-11
The pretense is that pop culture is reality
The sad and nauseating reality behind THAT is that the two HAVE merged and entwined together in contemporary USA. Hence many of the delusional and self-destructive policies our leaders and masses pursue, walking in a frenzied popular dream. I thought it would be fun to revisit the time I was coming of age. But in fact, I wasn't enough of a TV junkie to care about what is here. There is a little bit of contemporary cultural history here beyond TV, but this piece of work lingers way too much on people who were, and whose art was, as I now see it, often vapid, shallow and just drugged up. The one thing I did realize from this quick little book is that much of the thought content of our 300 millions is just as delusional and empty as what is depicted here as if it mattered. And that is maybe USA's central and very mortal problem: we are living in a cartoon that has all the substance of a Rolling Stone article. I want to wash my ears out. Oh, and the narrator is in my opinion one of the best.
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