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The book mainly concerns the history of a Rhode Island Band called The Mojo Hands. subtitle concept " A backstage look at the Golden Age of Garage Bands and the greatest undiscovered rock ' n ' roll band of them all" is derived in part from a semi-apologetic quote from Keith Richards about how any band has the chance on any night to go out and be "the best rock ' n ' roll band in the world". I guess I could further amend Keith's quote to say the best rock ' n ' roll band in the world is the one that is getthing you off at any given moment. Anyhow, these guys The Mojo Hands were kinda Stones clones, had a very charismatic frontman in the form of a guy named Petter Cappucilli, and lucked into a good chemistry of other musicians. But they never really had good management (resulting in, among other things, very few photos of any sort ever taken of them, but a few are included in this book), and after winning a battle of the bands the prize for which was supposedly a recording contract, managed to burn that bridge by refusing to let the Paul Butterfield Blues Band use thir gear at one point. So , although the group did do a recording session, and had 3 test pressings made of the results, no recordings have ever been issued, and these test pressings have been lost. However, they had a legion of fans, many of whom believed they would be the "next big thing", and one went as far as to help produce a reunion show, and wrote this book. That's a lot of words to get to the point where I say I really enjoyed the book, having lived through, played music in, and enjoyed bands of this era. I think anyone who was really caught up in the garage band era, whether a musician or a fan of another gang of local herose you thought might make it big (includes most people of a certain age), would fine this an enjoyable read. Blackledge includes some rock ' n ' roll history, both that which lead up to this era, and the contemporary stuff of the '60s, too. The book follows through to the reunion show, and a subsequent meeting of original members.I personally have attended a numbers of Wailers reunion shows (ever though I didn't grow up here in the NW, so never heard them until my first reunion shows), and have always been struck by the palpable feeling of nostalgia and, I guess, 'tribal' togethemess at those shows. It's clear that folks around Naragansett Bay have had at least one similar event. Dennis is pushing for this book to become a film, and feels it'd be "The Dark Side Of The Wonders". I enjoyed the Tom Hanks film tremendously, and would be happy to see this one, too. (We Go Now. by Dennis A. Blackledge 1998. Windholm Press. Box 236, Alexandria, VA 22313.- $19.95 S/H $5.00 mojoh1
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