Rock Dreams

Life is but a rock 'n' roll dream

Thirty years ago, artist Guy Peellaert teamed up with author Nik Cohn to create this fantasy tribute to rock 'n' roll and R&B. Through surreal texts and images, Peellaert and Cohn paint an imaginary world where the great gods of mid-century popular music appear in their own settings (the Drifters under the boardwalk, Otis Redding on the dock of the bay, the Beach boys on the beach). Here, rock music is a "secret society, an enclosed teen fantasy" treated with the same kind of passion and obsession famously generated by the most fanatic of lovesick, pimply adolescents.

All of the founding heroes of rock, soul, and pop appear in Peellaert and Cohn's colorful hallucinations, including Buddy Holly, Elvis, Ray Charles, Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, and many more.

TASCHEN's revival of this unique book comes at a time when rock is making a strong comeback and young musicians are taking inspiration from the very stars featured in Rock Dreams.

The authors:
Guy Peellaert studied art in Brussels and now lives in Paris; he exhibits in galleries and museums throughout Europe and the United States. The creator and painter of The Big Room: Portraits from the Golden Age, and the author of comic strips, he also produces set designs, video clips, and graphics for the cinema and television. Nik Cohn is a novelist and cultural observer whose works include The Heart of the World, Yes We Have No, and the short story that became the film Saturday Night Fever. Most recently, Peellaert and Cohn collaborated on the book 20th Century Dreams, published in 1999.