I'm looking forward to this. Mats and Thurston are both massive record nerds whose enthusiasm I find infectious (I'm less familiar with the work of Byron Coley). Based on the sample pages both the record picks and writing style are accessible. I think it's going to be a fun book to flick through.
I'm seeing Mats and Thurston play tomorrow and kind of hoping there might be copies on the merch table.
So "prevailing opinions" have progressed beyond what Jim Dawson and Steve Propes wrote in "What Was The First Rock'n'Roll Record"?
Among the 50 candidates listed chronologically and discussed in that book, "Rocket 88" is placed 24th and "Sh-Boom" is 38th. So, chronologically speaking, I'd tend to vote for "Good Rockin' Tonight" (placed 8th) in its hit version by Wynonie Harris.