Takin' Care of Business: A History of Working People's Rock 'n' Roll

George Case

May 2021 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by David de Vries

About this audiobook

By the early 1970s, practically everyone under a certain age liked rock music, but not everyone liked it for the same reasons. We typically associate the sounds of classic rock 'n' roll with youthful rebellion by juvenile delinquents, student demonstrators, idealistic hippies, or irreverent punks. But in this insightful and timely book, author George Case shows how an important strain of rock music from the late 1960s onward spoke to and represented an idealized self-portrait of a very different audience: the working-class "Average Joes" who didn't want to change the world as much as they wanted to protect their perceived place within it. To the extent that "working-class populism" describes an authentic political current, it's now beyond a doubt that certain musicians and certain of their songs helped define that current. By now, rock 'n' roll has cast a long shadow over hundreds of millions of people around the world not just over reckless kids, but over wage-earning parents and retired elders; not just over indignant youth challenging authority, but over indignant adults challenging their own definition of it. Not only have the politics of rock fans drifted surprisingly rightward since 1970; some rock, as Case argues, has helped reset the very boundaries of left and right themselves.

About the author

George Case is the author of several books on music and popular culture, including Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man, Calling Dr. Strangelove, and Here's To My Sweet Satan. Originally from the steel city of Sault Ste. Marie, he now lives in Ottawa, Canada.

David de Vries is a veteran stage actor and award-winning audiobook narrator. He can be seen in a number of feature films, including The Founder, The Accountant, Captain America: Civil War, and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. On television, his credits include House of Cards, Nashville, and Halt and Catch Fire.