The Great Rock Music Quiz Book

Author: Verus Ferreira
Published by: Story Mirror
Pages: 204; Price: Rs 225

Which music video features Coldplay as puppets? What was Pink Floyd’s debut album called and when was it released? Who designed the Aerosmith logo?

These and many other interesting questions on the most loved and iconic rock supergroups ever, are found in the pages of Verus Ferreira’s second book The Great Rock Music Quiz Book.

This book is for the rock aficionado. For all those who have played air guitar and/or struggled hard to try and copy licks and riffs from their favourite songs, it’s time you challenged yourself on how much you really know of your favourite songs and the men who wrote them.

You may have head banged to these songs, watched some of these artists live (just like Ferreira did) when they visited Indian shores, with their loud and heavy melodies, the garish, over-the-top dressing with leather and long hair as a necessity, the outrageous and sometimes short lives of these master performers, have been admired by many and have their own stories to tell. Who has not felt the soul-searing anthems of the Scorpions, the galloping rhythms of Iron Maiden’s When The Wild Wind Blows or the screechy vocals of Axl Rose of G N’Roses on Paradise City? The book propels you to discover more on such bands what their music.

Ferreira has over 26 years of experience in entertainment journalism with the Indian media and has contributed for various publications. He has also dabbled into photography and many photos in this book, including the eye catching book cover photo of the legendary guitarist Slash (Saul Hudson for those who didn’t know) of G N’Roses, are shot by Ferreira at Slash’s concert in Mumbai. Bollywood’s top composer Lesle Lewis, with whom Ferreira has had a long friendship, has given his stamp of approval with a lovely Foreword.

The book lists 16 bands from the Golden Era of Rock including Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Queen, amongst others. Having culled these legends from rock’s glorious days, he has gleaned little-known nuggets of information that draw you closer into the band’s aura. Each chapter starts with a brief on the band, followed by the quiz questions that take you on a journey into the green room of the bands in question. You get more familiar with the origins, early history, idiosyncrasies of the band members amongst other information, but you are eager to know more when it comes to the answers.

Like I was almost stumped for the answer on the song lyrics: “Freedom came my way one day and I started out of town” in the Eric Clapton chapter which was I Shot The Sheriff, despite it being on the tip of my tongue.

Some names that could have been included like Van Halen, Whitesnake or AC/DC which were also some of the musically influential rock bands of the times, are absent, but then this is a book that the author states (in his Introduction) are the bands that he grew up listening to and influenced him, so rightly he has cued in on Coldplay, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Eagles, U2, Bon Jovi, The Rolling Stones and Def Leppard.

Ferreira has also written some offbeat chapters like Gospel Rock, In Memory Of, Quotes From The Rockers, Code Of Conduct (at Live Concerts) and the fun side with rock stars in Rock Goes Mickey, which make for fascinating reading. As the book is structured in a quiz format (as was his earlier book The Great Music Quiz Book which was a general music quiz book), this book can be used in a party game, given as a gift or just dipped into for a short, delightful spell of fun with a bunch of friends.

Available on Amazon, Flipkart and at leading bookstores across the country