John Scanlan

WEST CUMBRIA: ON THE EDGE (2019)

Reviews

‘In these domestic travel writings, reminiscent of Jonathan Raban or Iain Sinclair, John Scanlan tours West Cumbria, framing its history in stark contrast to the “other Cumbria” of the Lake District. Without pretence to immutability, he finds West Cumbria to be dynamic, having always ‘pointed itself towards the future through industrial change and both in and out migration.’ — Cumbria Life magazine.

‘Does a remarkable job in capturing the essence of this region’ —Tidelines magazine

SEX PISTOLS: POISON IN THE MACHINE (2016)

Reviews

‘In addition to his impressive historical account, Scanlan threads a variety of analytical considerations into the book, thus endowing it with a sound intellectual basis. For instance, he investigates a broader disparity between reality and perception and delves into the indispensability of cultural memory. Of the former, he writes that “this gap between the reality and its representation – so at odds with the world we live in today, where the gap is non-existent – also added to the perception that the Sex Pistols had, by 1977 already entered the realms of myth”. The author does some important conceptual unpacking for cultural memory as well. He asserts that this memory is embodied by “the panoply of media artefacts, material objects and memoirs that feed into various forms of reanimation”. Examples the author provides of these are film documentaries, commemorative events, and exhibitions. In an embodiment of cultural memory and the reality/perception dichotomy, the author presents the reader with the idea that there were two Sex Pistols: manager Malcolm McLaren’s and frontman John Lydon’s. These two groups were an idea and a musical entity, respectively.’ — Zach Thomas, Rock Music Studies, Vol. 5:3, 2018

‘Sex Pistols: Poison in the Machine dares to be different. Why? It is not another regurgitation of the history of the Pistols. It aims to place the reader back in the 1960s & 70s and explore the Sex Pistols phenomenon as it was experienced in the era that spawned it one of scant information, sparse news outlets and very little access to the music. It reminds the reader how different the world of today is, where Pistols footage, audio and even the Grundy show can be accessed in an instant on the internet. Back in the day, if you didnt see it yourself, you didn't see it. Importantly, the book helps define how the myth, controversy and enigma of the Sex Pistols was given oxygen by, ironically, this very vacuum.’ — Phil Singleton, SexPistols.net

‘It’s a fast read, with clean writing and little editorializing . . . He uses quotes and rare photos to give the reader a sense of the time and place, which is as important to the Sex Pistols as the people involved in their rise . . . Great book for fans of the band who need a little more ammo in the face of trite dismissals, or punk history buffs alike – Poison in the Machine is a fascinating read’ — Dying Scene

‘Ambitious but flawed retelling of the Pistols’ story as manager’s doomed art project. Even in 1978 Nick Kent observed the Sex Pistols’ story is so familiar “it almost groans when set to print” …Scanlan, who wrote 2015’s excellent Easy Riders, Rolling Stones: On The Road in America, From Delta Blues To 70s Rock, breaks from the intellectual slumming that often smothers the band, repositioning the Pistols as Malcolm McLaren’s anarchic art project that misfired when they kick-started the UK’s punk revolution and made a “classic album”.’ — Kris Needs, Record Collector

EASY RIDERS, ROLLING STONES (2015)

Reviews

‘The road has long been one of the most evocative cultural motifs in popular music. In Easy Riders, Rolling Stones John Scanlan provides a fascinating account of the emerging relationship between music and movement, from its origins in the pre-war Mississippi Delta to its deafening denouement in the rock shows of the 1970s.’ — Matthew Gandy, Professor of Geography, University College London

‘John Scanlans fascinating study explores the theme of being on the road in 20th-century American popular music, from the itinerant blues guitarists of the Mississippi Delta travelling Highway 61 in the 1920s, to the mostly English, blues-inspired rock groups of the 1960s and 70s, such as the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin . . . A wonderfully evocative musical odyssey.’ — Guardian

‘John Scanlan delivers a beautifully rich and finely researched account of how Americas endless highway has influenced and manifested itself in key artists work . . . Scanlan draws from known documentation but displays an innate feel for his subject as he throws up insightful theories about the more direct times before social media, when artists could be covered at close range by chroniclers of the time . . . Its rare to find a tome which makes you ponder then punch the air in agreement but this highly recommended work is as much an endangered species as its subjects.’ — Kris Needs, Record Collector

‘Beginning with early blues artist Charley Patton, [Easy Riders] explains how a mythology can quickly build up around itinerant musicians who never stay in one place too long . . . a fascinating read for anyone whos ever wanted to head out on the highway.’ — Classic Rock magazine

‘Despite the vast nature of his subject matter, Scanlan manages a concise, well-structured and presented picture of the musics evolution, placing it within a social and cultural context that owes as much to history as those with a reverence for the past and its preservation. Touching on the heavy hitters and lesser known performers in equal measure, Scanlan paints a holistic picture that serves as a sampler platter of sorts for a variety of artists, offering an inroad to those who may seem somewhat inaccessible. With his clear, sharp prose and decidedly British and openly reverential take on his subject matter, he presents a well-argued thesis and exploration of some seventy-five years of popular music rooted in the American South and eventually filtered through a British lens and back into a relevant form years after its initial appearance. No easy task, but one Scanlan manages with aplomb . . . Easy Riders, Rolling Stones proves a fascinating look at a bygone era from an outside perspective.’ — PopMatters

‘The many facets of the road are delineated in John Scanlan’s absorbing new book, from the Faustian pacts made by the old bluesmen at the crossroads, to the importance of the road to the aura of excess that grew up around bands such as Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. When we talk about the road, of course, we mean the great highways of America not the M6 and Scanlan suggests that for both generations, the road provided a space that allowed music to become a vehicle for journeys that would inform the kind of experience that leads to self-discovery.’ — Choice Magazine, Paperback Book of the Month

MEMORY: ENCOUNTERS WITH THE STRANGE AND THE FAMILIAR (2013)

Reviews

‘Scanlan argues that the digital revolution and . . . the surfeit of available past experience [it produces] threatens to overwhelm the present. The distinction between past and present, between memory and forgetting becomes blurred and undermines any possible sense of tangible reality. We no longer live lives tightly tethered to a particular time and place, but skim along the surfeit of experience, dipping in where and when we please. Scanlan is ambivalent about this new way of living. He sees the potential for playful engagement with the world, but worries about a deepening culture of forgetfulness. Memory: Encounters with the Strange and the Familiar is a useful entry point into the growing scholarship on history and collective memory. For historians of medicine, such work poses a challenge to connect historical accounts of the reductive focus on individual memory as recall in the neurosciences to these broader sociocultural meanings of memory’ — Bulletin of the History of Medicine

VAN HALEN: EXUBERANT CALIFORNIA, ZEN ROCK’N’ROLL (2012)

Reviews and accolades

A Los Angeles Times Recommended Summer Read, 2012

'Through its ten chapters . . . Scanlan takes you through the journey of Van Halen, via various in-depth musings of a social and historical persuasion that, the author suggests, uncover more potent truths than their regularly touted musical inspirations. It's an engaging way of reading up on the ins and outs of "California Zen", romanticism, and the evolving 60s-80s Hollywood music scene . . . a refreshing history lesson [by] a very articulate and knowledgeable writer. (7/10) – Classic Rock magazine

'Making unlikely connections between Van Halen and movements as seemingly remote as the Beats and Bebop, Scanlan convincingly makes the case that the relationship between Roth and Eddie Van Halen reveals something of the essence of California . . . it is a tale concerned with the "art of artlessness", and the importance that living in the now had always assumed in the culture of California.' – Dagens Næringsliv's D2 Magazine

'Diamond Dave as a Zen master? Eddie Van Halen as musical monk? That's the case John Scanlan makes – tongue only partly in cheek – in this learned but lively take on Van Halen's rise to the pinnacle of rock stardom, improvising all the way. Philosophy you can dance to.' – Barnes and Noble review

'excellent . . . an enlightening read that significantly adds to the scholarship on Sunset Strip musical history' – LA Letters, KCET (Southern California Public TV)

ON GARBAGE (2005)

Reviews and appreciations

‘[a] reverence for and fascination with humankind marks Scanlan as an essayist of the first order [...] Like a wide-eyed miner up from the underworld, what he tenders in On Garbage looks like gold' -- Thomas Lynch, The Times

'I'm reading John Scanlan's On Garbage, [because] it addresses reasons why we find rubbish, which is a by-product of ourselves, so abhorrent.' -- Michael Landy, Artist-in-Residence, Royal Academy of the Arts, in The Independent, 2009.

'The designed object, in all its freshness, attempts to freeze time in order to capture a state of perfection; its shadow, waste, commits the unforgivable crime and reminds us of decay, and with this the passage of time. This is why John Scanlan, in his brilliant book, On Garbage, says that "garbage is also the broken knowledge that lies in the wake of (and the way of) progress."' -- Jeremy Till, Professor of Architecture, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts

‘Scanlan’s discursive romp in the field of garbage, muck-raking in the intellectual landfills is rather diverting . . . The story of rubbish, as Scanlan persuasively argues, is the story of culture.’ -- Steven Poole, The Guardian

' ... an important essay on the philosophy and sociology of waste [ ... ] Scanlan argues that waste was at the heart of modernity. In post-Enlightenment Europe 'improvement' was conceived of as the detaching, or displacing, of the valueless from the valuable; waste therefore became an inescapable by-product of progress.' -- Timothy Cooper, Department of History, University of Exeter

‘Highly different, intellectually intriguing and happily stimulating stuff -- The Herald (Glasgow)