Mystery Train

First published in 1975, this is a set of linked essays on American popular music and the stories the country tells about itself. Marcus writes at length on Elvis Presley, the blues singer Robert Johnson, the Band, Sly Stone, and Randy Newman, treating records and careers as evidence of restlessness, race, and myth. Shorter pieces and asides take in earlier figures such as Harmonica Frank. The method is cultural criticism rather than a chronological history of rock: songs, film, and folklore are read together. The book is interpretive non-fiction about musicians, not a novel or a discography.

Bound in grey screen-printed textured paper. Red image blocked slipcase.