Mystery Train, 50th Anniversary Edition - by Greil Marcus (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A 50th anniversary edition of the music classic, with fully updated discographies and new introductions from Greil Marcus and Dwight Garner

In this special 50th anniversary edition of the beloved Plume backlist staple first released in 1975, Mystery Train's complex analysis of the relationship between rock 'n' roll music and America is given new life with updated discographies and new introductions by Greil Marcus and Dwight Garner.

Rather than providing a general overview of influential bands and artists, Marcus's definitive book focuses on just six: virtually unknown early rock 'n' roller Harmonica Frank; the country blues singer Robert Johnson; and some of the better-known musicians who followed--The Band, Sly Stone, Randy Newman, and Elvis Presley.

This is the original book to take these rock legends and place them in the American culture of their time. And now, in 2025, Mystery Train continues its groundbreaking work for a new generation of readers and music lovers.

Review Quotes

"When Greil Marcus published Mystery Train in 1975, it was hailed as the greatest book ever written about rock & roll. Fifty years after it came out, there's a lot more competition -- but no other book has come close."--Rolling Stone

"In this special 50th-anniversary edition, he revives its analysis of the relationship between rock 'n' roll music and America with updated discographies and new intros. Marcus' definitive book focuses on just six bands and artists: early rock 'n' roller Harmonica Frank; country blues singer Robert Johnson; and some of the better-known musicians who followed." --7x7 Bay Area

"Gets as close to the heart and soul of America and American music as the best of rock 'n' roll." --Bruce Springsteen

"Perhaps the finest book ever written about pop music." --Alan Light, The New York Times Book Review

"Greil Marcus developed an ability to discern an art movement, or an entire country, lurking inside a song." --The New Yorker

"Probably the most astute critic of American popular culture since Edmund Wilson." --D.D. Guttenplan, London Review of Books

"The 1975 appearance of Greil Marcus' first book, Mystery Train, was an explosion as unexpected and indelible as the first records Elvis Presley had cut almost exactly twenty years before." --Mark Rozzo, Los Angeles Times' Book Review

"[Marcus's] tinkering has kept it relevant through six editions, but his writing and ideas have rendered it ageless. I've been reading it for years; when I lent it to a friend I missed it so much I bought a second copy. Mystery Train is more than rock criticism. It explores the meaning of America through rock 'n' roll. The chapter on Robert Johnson opens with the end of The Great Gatsby. Woodrow Wilson and D. H. Lawrence turn up in the Elvis section. A moment on the Band's debut album inspires this: 'You couldn't ask for a more perfect statement of the conviction that America is blessed, or of the lingering suspicion that it is cursed.' The Marcus worldview -- the notion that pop culture matters as much as history and literature -- is perfectly distilled in the prologue, where he connects the immortal sweep of art to Little Richard."
--Manny Fernandez, Houston bureau chief

"Mystery Train changed a lot of things for me. Most basically, it plugged me into a lifetime's worth of listening. Because of it, I erased 'English lit' as my college major and inked in 'American lit.' It remains the book I can't help measuring critical writing against...I plan to give a copy of Mr. Marcus's book to each of my children when they leave for college. It speaks intimately to a part of the cultural heritage that, in my haphazard way, I've tried to give them."--Dwight Garner, The New York Times

About the Author

Greil Marcus was born in San Francisco in 1945. In 1963, two events took place that have shaped his life since: in August, at a Joan Baez concert in New Jersey, she brought out a singer who sang a song called "With God on Our Side"; and on the Monday of the week that President Kennedy was assassinated, at the University of California at Berkeley, he met his future wife, Jenny Bernstein of St. Paul, who had already heard of the singer he hadn't.

In 1969, he became the first Records Editor at Rolling Stone. He has written many books, including Lipstick Traces (1989) and What Nails It (2024), and for many publications. Since 1986, his column "Real Life Rock Top Ten" has migrated through a dozen outlets, from The Village Voice to Substack. In 2009, with Werner Sollors, he edited A New Literary History of America. Between 2000 and 2019, he taught at Cal, Princeton, the New School, Minnesota, NYU, and the Graduate Center in New York. He lives in Oakland.