Bootleg!: The Rise & Fall of the Secret Recording Industry

Bootleg!: The Rise & Fall of the Secret Recording Industry by Heylin, Clinton. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781844491513.

In the summer of 1969, Great White Wonder, a collection of unreleased Bob Dylan recordings appeared in Los Angeles. It was the first rock bootleg and it spawned an entire industry dedicated to making unofficial recordings available to true fans. bringing the story right up to date, Bootleg tells the whole fascinating saga, from its underground infancy through the CD protection gap era, when its quasi-legal status threatened the major labels monopoly, to the recent explosion of online trading of MP3 files. Clinton Heylin provides a highly readable account of all the legal accounts, the busts, the defeats, and victories in court, and of the personalities - many interviewed for the first time for this book. Bootleg is also a celebration of the music the bootleggers have put out, the stories behind the treasured bootlegs, and the legendary bootleg labels.