Status Quo On Track: The Frantic Four Years

Being a fan of Quo since Down Down (and well aware of Matchstick Men at the time of release), I snapped this up when I saw it available. My take on the line-ups of Status Quo up to date is that any band is like an office, people come and go and it evolves. It's still the same office, though the office might not be the same. The writer of this book would probably take great exception to that notion and it is very true that what was the accepted 'classic' Status Quo line-up was pretty much untouchable.That didn't stop them putting some filler tracks on even their best albums and the writer gives us his strong opinions on the deficiencies in some recordings and where Quo went wrong. I tend to think that once an album is released, if the group are happy with it at the time, then that's what they wanted us to hear. Either l like something or I don't.The songs are examined in a reasonable amount of detail. You get a chord count and some insight into the construction of the songs. There's some quotes from the group. I liked this detail. It was useful.BUT... the writer pulls apart a fair amount of classic line-up recordings and rubbishes the later line-up's later album work with obvious and undisguised relish, giving the poor excuse that he only mentions their later recordings to reflect their existence.I bet Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt would have loved to be in a room with him.... to give him a slap.They wouldn't have been fond of this book. It is mainly negative. I would ask him to give me my money back.The fact that the utterly twee Marguerita Time was recorded under the guise of a Francis Rossi solo track is ignored and never mentioned. What an omission.Would I buy it again if I was looking at it for the first time? Knowing what I know about it now, no.The writer comes across as utterly bigoted against Quo that isn't the Rossi / Parfitt / Lancaster / Coghlan line-up. This book does the band an enormous disservice. The problem with one writer doing a book like this is that strong opinions go unchecked and the book can turn into a diatribe against the group concerned. That's exactly what happened here. It has made me utterly wary of this series of books.AVOID.Is this the right room for an argument?

When this book is good, it's good. But when it's bad, it's utterly lousy.Firstly, the good points: this book does a great job of debunking the lazy myth of Quo as "three-chord wonders", going into great detail on the musical structure and chord count of each track and proving the band to be infinitely more complex than the old cliches that lazy, ignorant hacks have been mindlessly spouting for half a century.Now the bad points: the writer clearly only likes a very narrow subsection of the band's huge output, and his prose surrounding the majority he dislikes is utterly puerile, full of badly misjudged attempts at humour that repeatedly fall flat on their face, numerous snarky variations on "I've listened to it so you don't have to", and unnecessary comments on band members' physical appearances. Entire swathes of output are dismissed in single sentences without justification. Instead of repeatedly asking "Why?" some aspect of some record happened, learning a basic knowledge of the band's full history before writing a book about it would have answered many of his queries. This writer comes across clearly as one who most certainly does NOT know the entirety of his subject, yet has the misplaced confidence to put pen to paper as a self-appointed authority. He knows well the bits he's always liked, he's seemingly unenthusiastically researched some bits he doesn't like, and beyond Live Aid it's clear that the remaining 36 years of output (which most should fairly acknowledge range from outstanding to rotten, and most points in between) have had a cursory glance at absolute best. The post-Nuff years are not the primary focus of the book, to be fair, but why mention them at all if you're not going to give them a fair hearing?In summary: starts well, and provides valuable stats throughout, but swiftly turns into a difficult, infuriating read full of tiresome opinionated nonsense that I'm amazed any editor would send to print.

For people (mostly men) of a certain vintage (approx late 50’s + and balding), this book will strike a lot of chords - certainly more than 3 chords.As a long-standing fan of the FF era, this book perfectly illustrates the years of joy and ultimate frustration, I (and I suspect, many others) have experienced with the no. 1 band in the land.My love/hate feelings (mostly love) towards the Quo have been perfectly articulated in this, at times very funny, book.Well done Mr James - you’re a mind reader (or Mind Detector).

Liked the way the songs where explained chord by chord

This is an interesting read for anyone who's a Quo fan, especially long term fans. The author clearly knows his stuff and gives comprehensive reviews of all the albums from 1970 to 1984, plus a few lines on all the subsequent post 86 albums. While I don't agree with all of the opinions I still found it a great read. If you've been a fan since the 70s like me, this book is for you.

Was exactly what expected and ideal for any Quo fans