Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia

I posted on Bluesky about some of the music history books I've read over the years which reminded me of this one... the first one.

Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia came out in 1969 and was the first book of music I owned. I remember buying it in 1969 and having it in my room at the house in Harleysville. I just remember it as a red book and have no idea what happened to the original paper book cover. Sometime many year ago I lent it to my brother-in-law Joe to read and he probably still has it on his book shelf. I should see if it is still there or maybe his brother sold it at a flea market. I should see if it is still around. It would be fun to look through it one more time. I did look to see if there was an e-book copy available to borrow from the library but no luck there.

Lillian Roxon was an Australian journalist and author. She moved to the US in 1959 as a correspondent for an Australian newspaper. In the mid-1960's she became obsessed with pop music and began writing about artist and groups. She also was one of the first journalist to cover the rise of the hippie movement. She wrote the first encyclopedia of rock music in 1968-69 which was published in late 1969.

I really enjoyed having this book back in the day. I read it cover to cover and was always interested in what she had to say about any particular artist or group. She had very strong opinions. It was interesting to read about some groups I had never heard of at the time... or since. I was also very cool to read about so many first impressions of groups that would go on to be the core of classic rock.