ROCK DREAMS
You've heard the street rumblings. You've witnessed the testimony of the immaculately hip, who pride themselves on being one step ahead of the rank & file. You've seen magazine reproductions and newspaper raves. You own the album covers of Bowie's Diamond Dogs (debuted as last month's CREEMmate) and the Stones" latest, both the work of the master criminal who's responsible for all this commotion.
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ROCK DREAMS
BOOKS
Fantasies From the Tip of Your Skull
ROCK DREAMS By Guy Peellaert & Nik Cohn (DeHarmonie, Amsterdam)
You've heard the street rumblings. You've witnessed the testimony of the immaculately hip, who pride themselves on being one step ahead of the rank & file. You've seen magazine reproduc, tions and newspaper raves. You own the album covers of Bowie's Diamond Dogs (debuted as last month's CREEMmate) and the Stones" latest, both the work of the master criminal who's responsible for all this commotion. Yet none of this fully prepares you for Rock Dreamy, which is everything they say it is and as much more as you want to put into it.
Guy Peellaert, a Belgian artist who'd had some prior success with a French cartoon strip, spent the last three years translating his private rock & roll fantasies into a stunning public exhibition. His airbrush wizardry places the legends of rock in settings whose element of fantasy does not necessarily render them obscure; his dreams being triggered by experiences every rock kid shares. He'll often wash his portraits in variations on one base color, giving them a stark quality which only drives the images deeper.
So vou have Brian Wilson safe in his room, Dylan safe behind bullet-proof limousine glass, Diana Ross safe from her streetjungle past, Buddy Holly safe even as he boards that last plane. All of these images as safe as they are in your own similar fantasies. This isn't just another rock book, it's a major textbook on pop mythology. Nik Cohn, in his own right perhaps the best of all the pop chroniclers, contributes text which is brief, direct and often delightfully illuminating.
The only place Peellaert falters is in his vision of latter-day heroes: the Bolans, Bowies and Reeds. It's almost an admission that the artist, at 39, is no longer such a passionate part of the scenery he's rendering; so he presents plain, picture-book portraits on which a whole new set of rock dreamers car project their fantasies.
This is arguably the best book on rock & roll ever published, because it doesn't try to explain the phenomenon; Rock Dreams is nothing if not selfexplanatory. You only get an idea like this once in a lifetime, and Guy Peellaert has done justice to his. If you don't get a copy quick, you'll be the last on your" block to know. We've heard Popular Library will be making a U.S. version available soon.
Ben Edmonds
