Melissa Duke Mooney - The ABCs of Rock

Illustrations and art notes text copyright 2010 by Print Mafia
All other text 2010 by Melissa Duke Mooney

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Tricycle Press, an imprint of Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.randomhouse.com/kids

Tricycle Press and the Tricycle Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mooney, Melissa Duke.
The ABCs of rock / Melissa Duke Mooney and Print Mafia.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Rock musiciansBiographyJuvenile literature. I. Print Mafia. II. Title.
ML3929.M65 2009
781.660922dc22
[B]
2008053139

eISBN: 978-0-375-98695-6

Design by Toni Tajima
Typeset in Boycott, Helvetica Neue, Flyswim, Stamp Gothic
The illustrations in this book were created digitally.

v3.1

Special thanks to Annissa Mason and Skip Rudsenske for their tireless efforts in bringing this book to fruition and to Marc Geiger for his valuable help in securing licenses. You guys rock!

by Print Mafia co-creators Jim Madison and Connie Collingsworth

AC/DC: This band is one of our favorites and probably the first hard rock band that Connie ever listened to, courtesy of riding around in the back of her older sisters Pontiac Trans Am in the midseventies. She loved the bands eight-track album covers and the crunch of Angus guitar. The AC/DC logo and lightning bolt are as iconic as they come.

David Bowie: This image pays tribute to our favorite Bowie song, Space Oddity. The song is an atmospheric journey through time, space, and rock mythology.

The Clash: It was difficult to compete with all of The Clashs amazing artwork. They are the very definition of punk. We attempted to create what could have been a seven-inch vinyl cover for The Only Band That Matters.

Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan has had such an incredible, multi-decade-spanning career that it was difficult to pin down what era or look to go with. We finally chose his transition out of the folk acoustic era and his decision to go electric in the midsixties.

Elvis Costello: Melissa was a big fan of Elvis Costello so the choice for E was obvious. To us, Elvis Costello embodies the look and sound of new wave/punk. We wanted to create our version of an early eighties Elvis Costello album cover or T-shirt.

Fleetwood Mac: We could have chosen the more popular Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac but felt that the Rumours album cover already said it all. Connie has been a huge Fleetwood Mac fan since her teenage years and wanted to try to capture the spirit of Tusk, an album that, to us, sounds wild, out of control, and experimental.

Go-Gos: The Go-Gos roots are in LAs early eighties punk scene. If you listen to the male-dominated bands coming out of there at that time, Hollywood seems to be a hard, gritty, violent place. The Go-Gos were able to embody punks ethic and musical integrity, but their sound was a mixture of punk and pure pop gold. Like the bright-eyed, Lichtenstein blonde of our image, their music hints at a carefree, fun-in-the-sun lifestyle that can be found just on the other side of the Hollywood sign.