Introduction / by Jonathan Lethem and Kevin Dettmar --
The freewheelin' Bob Dylan / Nat Hentoff --
The changing same (R & B and new Black music) (excerpt) / Amiri Baraka --
Learning from the Beatles / Richard Poirier --
Goodbye surfing, hello God! / Jules Siegel --
Master of mediocrity / Richard Goldstein --
Outlaw blues / Paul Williams --
The Memphis soul sound / Stanley Booth --
Lillian Roxon's rock encyclopedia (excerpt) / Lillian Roxon --
The best of a cappella / Lenny Kaye --
The aesthetics of rock (excerpt) / Richard Meltzer --
Inside the cages of the zoo / Ellen Sander --
The disco files (excerpt) / Vince Aletti --
Valley of the New York Dolls / Paul Nelson --
Where were you when Elvis died? / Lester Bangs --
In defense of rock theory / Greg Shaw --
Prince / Robert Christgau --
The Cars' power steering / Jon Pareles --
Janis Joplin / Ellen Willis --
The Slits go native / Carola Dibbell --
David Bowe eats his young / Debra Rae Cohen --
Hellfire (excerpt) / Nick Tosches --
Boys' night out : Aztec camera clicks / Ariel Swartley --
The power and the glory / Nelson George --
King Solomon : the throne in exile / Peter Guralnick --
Sylvia's husband / Donna Gaines --
The heart of rock & soul : the 1001 greatest singles ever made (excerpt) / Dave Marsh --
The Ramones / Chuck Eddy --
Jim Morrison is dead and living in Hollywood / Eve Babitz --
Route 666 (excerpt) / Gina Arnold --
Houses of the holy / Ann Powers --
Sam Cooke's Night Beat / Robert Palmer --
One nation under a groove (excerpt) / Gerald Early --
Bruce Springsteen : born to run / Ed Ward --
Total systems failure / Camden Joy --
Fargo Rock City (excerpt) / Chuck Klosterman --
Seven years in the life / Geoffrey O'Brien --
O.P.D. ; Deus Est Vivus : The Beatles and The Death Cults (excerpt) / Devin McKinney --
Emo : where the girls aren't / Jessica Hopper --
Live at the Apollo (excerpt) / Douglas Wolk --
Ray Charles / David Hajdu --
I is somebody else / Luc Sante --
The final comeback of Axl Rose / John Jeremiah Smith --
In praise of assholes / Greg Tate --
Say you want a revolution ... / Elijah Wald --
The Runaways : wild thing / Evelyn McDonnell --
Word : Jay Z's Decoded and the language of hip-hop / Kelefa Sanneh --
Love and hope and sex and dreams : punk rock, disco, New York City & the triumph of the Rolling Stones' Some Girls / Anthony DeCurtis --
After 30 years, I finally went to a Barry Manilow concert / Danyel Smith --
Guitar drag / Greil Marcus --
Sources and acknowledgments --