Time Has Come Today (ePub)

People who take up a life of rock and roll either make music, collect it, write about it, sell it or get into the record business. Harold Bronson has done all of those things. In Time Has Come Today: Rock and Roll Diaries 1967 – 2007, he recounts the fascinating adventure of his musical life.

Before he co-founded Rhino Records – America's leading reissue label – and put decades of rock and roll history back into musical circulation, Bronson was just another devoted fan growing up in California in the 1960s. But with boundless enthusiasm, a discerning ear and a near-photographic memory, he channeled his passion into writing for the UCLA Daily Bruin and then Rolling Stone. After meeting and interviewing many of the era's greats, he launched the Rhino label from the back room of the L.A. record store he managed, working behind the scenes with many of those same artists to bring their old (sometimes new) music to the public.

Time Has Come Today is a 40-year memoir in diary form that documents Bronson's progress from student musician and journalist to label executive, where his fandom, wit and creative imagination augmented and altered the course of many great careers.

Time Has Come Today contains concert accounts, historical events and meetings with many noted hitmakers with fascinating details that have never before been made public. This unique, behind-the-scenes document is packed with dates and details and loaded with many boldface names.

• Lunches with Peter Noone, Terri Nunn, Wally Amos, Henny Youngman, Andrew Loog Oldham
• A limo ride with all four Monkees
• In the studio with Black Sabbath and others
• Home visits with George Carlin, Howard Kaylan of the Turtles, Mike Nesmith of the Monkees, Stephen Bishop
• Posting bail for Arthur Lee of Love
• Parties with Gene Simmons, Alice Cooper and many more
• Conversations with the Bee Gees, the Doors, Knack, ELO, George Clinton, Mickie Most, Hunter S. Thompson, John Sebastian, Rod Argent, Bon Scott, Janis Ian, Edgar Winter, Chambers Brothers, Suzi Quatro, Sha Na Na, Mike Chapman, Nicky Hopkins, Badfinger and members of Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, Left Banke, Procol Harum and Focus
• Business meetings with Ben & Jerry, the editors of Mad magazine and Randy California of Spirit
• A wild in-store appearance by Kim Fowley

Praise for Time Has Come Today:

"Bronson's early love of the British Invasion filled him with dreams of becoming part of the music world. He achieved that goal as co-founder of the greatest American reissue label ever. In diary-like fashion, he tells us about his journey with much the same innocence, passion and humor that he brought to Rhino."

—Robert Hilburn, author of Johnny Cash:The Life

"I couldn't put it down." —The Lefsetz Letter

"Eminently readable." —Shindig! magazine

"What's in Time Has Come Today? About a hundred parties I wish I had attended, another hundred concerts I wish I'd seen and a couple hundred conversations I wish I'd held. Second best thing? Read his book."

—author/journalist Joel Selvin

"A nice book." —Peter Noone