Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There cover art

Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There

How a Few Skinny Brits with Bad Teeth Rocked America

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Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There

By: David Hepworth
Narrated by: David Hepworth
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The Beatles landing in New York in February 1964 was the opening shot in a cultural revolution nobody predicted. Suddenly the youth of the richest, most powerful nation on earth was trying to emulate the music, manners and the modes of a rainy island that had recently fallen on hard times.

The resulting fusion of American can-do and British fuck-you didn't just lead to rock and roll's most resonant music. It ushered in a golden era when a generation of kids born in ration card Britain, who had grown up with their nose pressed against the window of America's plenty, were invited to wallow in their big neighbour's largesse.

It deals with a time when everything that was being done - from the Beatles playing Shea Stadium to the Rolling Stones at Altamont, from the Who performing their rock opera at the Metropolitan Opera House to David Bowie touching down in the USA for the first time with a couple of gowns in his luggage - was being done for the very first time.

Rock and roll would never be quite so exciting again.

©2020 David Hepworth (P)2020 Penguin Audio Entertainment & Celebrities History & Criticism Music Celebrity Opera Thought-Provoking

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A well written and well read book by the author. Which is rare. I have other books by him. It is basically a romp of UK rock and pop acts bursting on the USA and their experiences and his views on how it changed them and the country they invaded. It has some very interesting facts, but you need to be of a certain age to know all the bands. I jumped past a few I did not know. He does tend to go on at times and is very opinionated. But it is his book! As others have mentioned he does get excited and tends to shout. But that is part of its charm. It spans 1960's to 1980's. At the end of the book is a list of his 25 recommended albums. which is an interesting listen in itself. Worth a credit in my opinion

Very Good Book But with Caviats

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Really enjoyed the story of the British music invasion of America read by the author

Excellent

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You always know that David Hepworth will deliver a entertaining informative listen while managing to find a new angle on a supposedly well know subject. Next one please and soon

Hepworth does it again.

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This is a comprehensive history of British Pop music and its impact on the US public.
Very well written and narrated.
Insightful and interesting.

Hepworth nails it again

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Another brilliant book from David Hepworth, charting the British invasion of American popular music, from the 60s, into the 70s and again in the 80s with synth pop. All told in his characteristically droll way, it's a joy from start to finish.

Fantastic!

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Thoroughly enjoyed this and will be listening to the albums listed at the end that I don’t know already.

Informative, enjoyable and wonderfully nostalgic

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Think you know about the sixties, and the Beatles and the Stones etc taking over the USA? Forget it and listen to this! Another large slice of info about popular music from Mr Hepworth……you can only marvel at his insight…….

So much insight

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This is a book for all US and English, and wider British, and perhaps even wider music and social history fans. David Mr Hepworth’s books are so well written and read (by the Author) they are accessible, fact-filled, full of ‘I was there anecdotes’ and hypotheses (not thrust down one’s throat) that they never fail to hit the target. This one is know different. Focussed on a particular period of just after the US rock and roll invasion of the British Isles, the reciprocal ‘counter-attack’, and even the counter-counter (such as U2) and the welcoming of black music - more than in numerous parts of the US - to the UK.
Chiefly though, quite rightly, this is about the English Dave Clark 5, the Beatles, and Herman’s Hermits. And then the enduring invaders, such as the Stones and the Who, as well as the secondary wave, such as Elton John, and those fell at the first hurdle. You may well have read about all these artists separately, but seen as a whole is also an interesting perspective in its own right. An excellent ‘listen, I’ll definitely be returning. Stuart

Another Hepworth chart topper

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I purchased this after enjoying '1971'; which I've subsequently played again after I got through 'Overpaid, Oversexed...'.

Again, it's a thoroughly enjoyable canter through music's 'Golden Age' with the usual Hepworth enthusiasm for the subject. As always, it's as much about the social history of the time as the bands that heavily influenced the period, which focuses very much on the '64-77' period. The early 80s MTV inspired era is given less comment.

In summary, DH is great and knowledgable company, especially for winter/lockdown walks and I'm moving straight on to 'A Fabulous Creation'.

Hepworth is always good company

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As usual, David's new book is beautifully paced, funny and occasionally incisive. While he may not tell you any information you haven't heard before (probably from him!), his books are always well reasoned and well researched - he is fabulously well read on his chosen subject. Just as you are beginning to drift along on a haze of nostalgia, he'll make you sit up and take notice with a perceptive piece of reasoning or a brilliant one liner.

As generally happens with David's books, he builds to a central thesis in the last half hour. Here, he focuses in on why British bands were so successful in the USA from the early 60s to the early 80s - and why they aren't now.

It's all brilliantly entertaining and - as always - wonderfully read by the author.

Another fabulous listen

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