Bentz van den Berg adopts an appropriate idiom and chooses an unusual perspective for each essay. He allows his language to unfold until it becomes a musical instrument in its own right. Blessed with impeccable taste as well as profound knowledge, the author summons up well-known and obscure numbers to pass his revue: the satanic wails of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s ‘I Put a Spell on You’, the bitter-sweet irony in Bob Dylan’s ‘Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues’, Sam Cooke’s desperate gospel in ‘Were You There?’ His description of the guitar intro of Neil Young’s ‘Cortez the Killer’, a song about the destruction of Aztec culture, is characteristic: ‘From the moment the guitar takes off – and that’s immediately – it’s obvious that its destination is not in the realms of history but mythology – where the account of what happened once is rewritten and fictionalised until it attains the significance of a story about what always happens, everywhere.’

Peter Pontiac’s black-and-white illustrations are emblematic representations of classic rock’n’roll scenes: Phil Spector’s name written on a classic American car, the title of ‘The Thrill is Gone’ by Gibson player B.B. King in the style of the Gibson logo. Bentz van den Berg has written a book which is essential for all those who are passionate about music: fans will feel the shock of recognition; for others it will be the start of a voyage of discovery.