No Strings Attached

No Strings Attached: My Life Growing up with the Birth of Rock and Roll offers a nostalgic look at life growing up in the fifties and sixties. The narrative provides a bird's-eye view as seen through the eyes of a young devotee of music as it is changing from ballroom to bandstand and from pop to rock.Learn what song the FBI deemed "most dangerous record ever played."Consider who may have been the inspiration for the movie classic The Sandlot.Tune in to the Rock Anthem-that became the only song embraced by both pro-war and anti-war supporters-embraced by groups who either supported or condemned the Vietnam war.Find out what teen idol hit ranked number one as it ushered out the '50s and welcomed in the '60s.Which rock star refused to sign an autograph for a veteran on Veteran's Day?Experience with the author what it was like to first hear the earliest hits of our greatest rock legends and his impressions of the same encountering them five and six decades later.Relive appearances by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and twenty-nine-year-old Elton John as they thrill sold-out audiences, performing while in their prime.Travel to Fort Knox, Kentucky; Fort Gordon, Georgia; and Vietnam as the author recalls the music that our veterans were listening to when they served our nation as they participated in a very unpopular war. Learn how rock affected their service. Feel the respect and admiration our GIs extended to Bob Hope for his dedication to our servicemen serving in harm's way by someone who attended his Christmas Day performance in 1966.Dispensing firsthand stories told to him by many of the principals present in 1959, the author shares his expertise, telling the story that inspired Don McLean's epic lyrical poem "American Pie."The story will allow you to secure a look from a front-row position at the world's most prestigious sixties concert held at one of the most honored venues, the Surf Ballroom. "Jimmy Nowoc's ingenious autobiography, No Strings Attached: My Life Growing Up With the Birth of Rock 'N Roll (Page Publishing, 400 pp., $37.95), melds a lifelong love of music with his journey from Chicago to Clear Lake, Iowa, to Vietnam, Mexico, and back to Chicagoland, with points in between. Nowoc begins with his formative memories, then toggles his story back and forth through the years leading to the present day. Deeply rooted within the narrative is a reverence for Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bobber (J.P. Richardson), the three rock 'n roller artists who perished in a plane crash in an Iowa cornfield in February of 1959. Nowoc carries the reader on a journey that is nostalgic, emotional, and joyous. In 2010 Nowoc bought a guitar at a charity auction. Never tuned or played, it became a repository of hundreds of autographs from rock music greats. As names were added, Nowoc removed the strings to allow more space for entries, a state of affairs that gives us the book's book title. Nowoc includes lots of details in the book about his two-year tour of duty in the Vietnam War as a radio relay specialist with the Army's 25th Infantry Division. As he takes as through his post-war years, Nowoc writes about rock artists, groups, performances he attended, and songs, which, as I read them, helped me remember where I was, who I was with, and what was going on during those times. He also writes about popular toys, TV shows, films, and world events. There also are lists of each year's most popular artists and their songs-which alone is worth the price of admission. Nowoc also includes 54 pages of thumbnail biographies of the greatest rock and rollers. This in an intriguing, well-written life story. You gotta read this one if you at all love Rock 'n Roll." -Tom Werzyn