
Twilight of the Gods
A Journey to the End of Classic Rock
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Narrated by:
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Patrick Lawlor
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By:
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Steven Hyden
About this listen
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 its 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, 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?
In this mix of personal memoir, criticism, and journalism, Steven 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?
©2018 Steven Hyden (P)2018 HarperAudioListeners also enjoyed...
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By: Lizzy Goodman
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Into the Void
- From Birth to Black Sabbath—And Beyond
- By: Geezer Butler
- Narrated by: Geezer Butler
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
With over 70 million records sold, Black Sabbath, dubbed by Rolling Stone “the Beatles of heavy metal,” helped create the genre itself, with their distinctive heavy riffs, tuned down guitars, and apocalyptic lyrics. Bassist and primary lyricist Geezer Butler played a gigantic part in the band’s renown, from suggesting the band name to using his fascination with horror, religion, and the occult to compose the lyrics and build the foundation of heavy metal as we know it. In Into the Void, Butler tells his side of the story.
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Geezer, The Only Member Of Sabbath You Can Trust.
- By monday night by satellite on 06-15-23
By: Geezer Butler
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Under the Big Black Sun
- A Personal History of L.A. Punk
- By: John Doe, Tom Desavia
- Narrated by: Exene Cervenka, Henry Rollins, full cast
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Under the Big Black Sun explores the nascent Los Angeles punk rock movement and its evolution to hardcore punk as it's never been told before. Authors John Doe and Tom DeSavia have woven together an enthralling story of the legendary West Coast scene from 1977 to 1982 by enlisting the voices of people who were there. The book shares chapter-length tales from the authors along with personal essays from famous (and infamous) players in the scene.
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A love song to the early punk days in LA.
- By Brenda on 07-09-16
By: John Doe, and others
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Life in the Fast Lane
- The Eagles’ Reckless Ride Down the Rock & Roll Highway
- By: Mick Wall
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
"Surely make you lose your mind . . ." So the Eagles warn us about the outrageous and ruthless lifestyle of the ambitious rock-n-roller. In fact, Don Henley could barely listen to the track "Life in the Fast Lane" when they were recording it. He was so high that it made him sick. The band that embodied the American dream with globe-straddling success, impossibly luxurious lives, and almost supernatural talent also descended into nightmare with betrayal, hate-filled hubris, the skeletons of perceived enemies, brutally discarded lovers and former band mates left unburied in the road behind them.
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Welcome Overview
- By Stephen on 11-09-23
By: Mick Wall
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Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me
- What Pop Music Rivalries Reveal About the Meaning of Life
- By: Steven Hyden
- Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Music opinions bring out passionate debate in people, and Steven Hyden knows that firsthand. Each chapter in Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me focuses on a pop music rivalry, from the classic to the very recent, and draws connections to the larger forces surrounding the pairing.
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Great title but not very good overall
- By Noam on 03-21-19
By: Steven Hyden
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When Giants Walked the Earth
- A Biography of Led Zeppelin
- By: Mick Wall
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
They were the last great band of the '60s and the first great band of the '70s. They rose, somewhat unpromisingly, from the ashes of the Yardbirds to become one of the biggest-selling rock bands of all time - and eventually paid the price for it, with disaster, drug addiction, and death.
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Very annoying but tolerable for serious fans.
- By M. Allen on 08-14-19
By: Mick Wall
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The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.
- A Biography
- By: Peter Ames Carlin
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the spring of 1980, an unexpected group of musical eccentrics came together to play their very first performance at a college party in Athens, Georgia. Within a few short years, they had taken over the world–with smash records like Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster and Green. Raw, outrageous, and expressive, R.E.M.’s distinctive musical flair was unmatched, and a string of mega-successes solidified them as generational spokesmen.
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Can't Get There From Here
- By ifthenwhy on 02-21-25
political tripe
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a nice perspective
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I learned new things about even the artists and albums I've been obsessed with for decades. Hyden is a master storyteller. I will be listening to this again soon.
Fantastic book!
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Entertaining book about classic rock, except for the gratuitous woke BS at the end
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The author, Steven Hyden, seems to have read one too many issues of Rolling Stone. Listening to this is like listening to 8 hours of that magazine. He does have a flair for the vibe of that rag. The vibe? It goes like this: Take whatever artist is raking in the most money at the moment from the sales of their records and concerts, then assign someone to follow them around for — oh, about a week, and then write an article about why the fact that you, and everybody like you, are a fool for digging this artist, band, etc. “Rolling Stone” will tell you what is cool.
And in that way Steven Hyden, too, will try to do the same. The author gets credit for… for trying? I must give him some slack simply for being too damn young for the job - if not in Earth years, than certainly in years of some other kind. Steven. You weren’t there man!
The author gets everything right. He gets everything right because he parrots perfectly everything he was brainwashed to say and think about this music. But, ultimately, he gets everything completely wrong. Or rather, he simply doesn’t get it… period. In a word, he likes all the right stuff for all the wrong reasons.
The Longest "Rolling Stone" article that "Rolling Stone" never published
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Except for the forced political pandering in one chapter and at the end. Skip that chapter and the last ten minutes and you’ll be gold.
And I’m a fan of things being wrapped up and seeing how a whole comes together. Oh well. Courtney Barnett sucks and music is good or bad because it’s good or bad, not because of the sex or sexual preference or race of the person singing. Propping up terrible writers like Courtney Barnett only cheapens the rock brand, makes it less interesting to converts, and makes it impossible for the next Janis Joplin or Patti Smith to get noticed - or to get judged based on their merits, not their plumbing fixtures.
Sad!
Good stuff...for the most part
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Loved the introspection
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Excellent book
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Enjoyably mediocre
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If you love Classic Rock, you have to read this book
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