Bootleg! The Rise And Fall Of The Secret Recording Industry

An absorbing account of the record industry's worst nightmare.

In the summer of 1969, Great White Wonder, a collection of unreleased Bob Dylan recordings appeared in Los Angeles. It was the first rock bootleg and it spawned an entire industry dedicated to making unofficial recordings available to true fans.

Bootleg! tells the whole fascinating saga, from its underground infancy through the CD 'protection gap' era, when its legal status threatened the major labels' monopoly, to the explosion of trading via Napster and Gnutella on MP-3 files.

Clinton Heylin provides a highly readable account of the busts, the defeats and victories in court; the personalities – many interviewed for the first time for this book.

This classic history has now been updated and revised to include today's digital era and the emergence of a whole new bootleg culture.