Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers

“Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers: Overlooked Innovators & Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Roc”k documents twenty cult rockers from the 1960s. The book features extremely detailed investigation of the careers of greats like the Pretty Things, Arthur Brown, Richard & Mimi Faria, and Tim Buckley. Also featured are the Bonzo Dog Band, the Electric Prunes, Bobby Fuller, the Fugs, Kaleidoscope, Fred Neil, the Beau Brummels, Thee Midniters, Dino Valenti, Mike Brown of the Left Banke, and others, including producers Shel Talmy (the Who, the Kinks, Pentangle) and Giorgio Gomelsky (the Yardbirds, Julie Driscoll, the Soft Machine). In all cases, the extensive chapters include first-hand interview material with the artists themselves and/or their close associates. Lost British Invaders, psychedelic pioneers, rock funnymen, blue-eyed soulsters, overlooked folk-rockers, behind-the-scenes producers — all find a home as part of “Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers,” with a foreword by Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane.The ebook version of “Urban Spacemen & Wayfaring Strangers” is significantly expanded, revised, and updated from the print version, adding 20,000 words of new material. The text is accompanied by illustrations and reviews of the most essential recordings by each artist.

From reviews of “Urban Spacemen”:"[He] brings to this volume a true fan's love of music combined with a writer's smarts and skills. He seamlessly combines researched material with new interviews…Not only did Unterberger choose well musically, but he found the momentum and heart of each of their stories.” — David Greenberger

(essayist on National Public Radio's “All Things Considered”), Pulse!

“These fascinating tales will make you want to rush out to the record store — a hallmark of all great music writing.” — Jim DeRogatis, Chicago Sun-Times

«In each fascinating case study the author tracks down one or more former group members and/or principals in the story, which gives his work both authority and freshness…his overall handling of the material is exemplary. “Urban Spacemen” forms a compelling mosaic of the hopes and dreams — not to mention sharp business practices — of the decade.” — Mike Barnes (author of the biography “Captain Beefheart”), The Wire