What You Want Is in the Limo: On the Road with Led Zeppelin Alice Cooper and the Who in 1973 the Year the Sixties Died and the Modern Rock Star Was Born

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An epic joyride through three history-making tours in 1973 that defined rock and roll superstardomthe money the access the excessforevermore. The Whos Quadrophenia. Led Zeppelins Houses of the Holy. Alice Coopers Billion Dollar Babies. These three unprecedented toursand the albums that inspired themwere the most ambitious of these artists careers and they forever changed the landscape of rock and roll: the economics the privileges and the very essence of the concert experience. On these juggernauts rock godsand their entourageswere born along with unimaginable overindulgence and the legendary flameouts. Tour buses were traded for private jets arenas replaced theaters and performances transmogrified into over-the-top operatic spectacles. As the sixties ended and the seventies began an altogether more cynical era took hold: peace love and understanding gave way to sex drugs and rock and roll. But the decade didnt become the seventies acclaimed journalist Michael Walker writes until 1973 a historic and mind-bogglingly prolific year for rock and roll that saw the release of countless classic albums from The Dark Side of the Moon to Goats Head Soup; Goodbye Yellow Brick Road; Greetings from Asbury Park N.J.; and The Wild the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Aerosmith Queen and Lynyrd Skynyrd released their debut albums. The Roxy and CBGB opened their doors. Every major act of the erafrom Fleetwood Mac to Black Sabbathwas on the road that summer but of them all Walker writes it was The Who Led Zeppelin and Alice Cooper who emerged as the game changers. Walker revisits each of these three tours in memorable all-access detail: he goes backstage onto the jets and into the limos where every conceivable wish could be granted. He wedges himself into the sweaty throng of teenage fans (Walker himself was one of them) who suddenly were an economic force to be reckoned with and he vividly describes how a decades worth of decadence was squeezed into twelve heart-pounding backbreaking and rule-defying months that redefined for our modern times the business of superstardom. Praise for What You Want Is in the Limo Required reading . . . 1973 is a turning point in popular music the border between hippie-ethos 60s rock n roll and conspicuous-consumption excess 70s rock.New York Post Loud and boisterous . . . Like a good vinyl-era single its over before it wears out its welcome. You may even want to flip it over and start again when youre finished.Fort Worth Star-Telegram You dont have to love the music or personas of the three bands highlighted here . . . to appreciate the vital roles that all three played in creating the modern rock star. . . . Walker is convincing and entertaining in explaining why 1973 was a seminal year in rock.The Daily Beast Theres so much rock n roll history packed inside.GQ Very well written . . . It gives an intellectual immersion into these bands lives.Led-Zeppelin.org Walker argues for 1973 as a tipping point when big toursand bigger moneybecame a defining ethos in rock music.NPR