Harold Bronson of Rhino Records Releases Rock Diaries

Harold Bronson releases Rock Diaries.

On September 27, Trouser Press Books will publish Time Has Come Today: Rock and Roll Diaries 1967 – 2007 by Harold Bronson. Early praise for the book has come in from the likes of Dr. Demento, legendary journalist and author Robert Hilburn, and others.

“Harold Bronson, co-founder of Rhino Records, has seen it all in his 40+ years of being a mover and shaker of the LA rock record industry. He knew everybody, including me! What’s more, he kept a diary for all those years, and here are hundreds of the juiciest, most revealing, most colorful entries, printed for your edification and pleasure. He’s an ace writer and a fearless critic. This, his third book, is a total page-turner.”

—Barret Hansen (Dr. Demento)

“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 Rhino Records, 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

“It takes a true insider to tell the tale. Harold was there and wrote it all down: his own life trajectory described in day-by-day minutia: encounters with the stars, where they ate, attendance figures and album sales, craziness and good times, the particulars that distinguish the music business from all others.”

—Barry Miles, author of Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now

“In 1970s Los Angeles, Bronson graduated from young rock journalist for magazines like Rolling Stone to co-founder of Rhino Records, the label revered by music aficionados worldwide. While still a college student, he had a knack for gaining surprising access to rock legends. Now, as one of the few survivors of the era who had his feet on the ground and was taking notes, he brings us on a magic carpet ride through the rise and fall of the rock and roll biz, from wild Led Zeppelin hotel parties to concerts where up-and-comers like Bruce Springsteen found their voice, shows where Tom Petty helped Bob Dylan find his next incarnation and apartments where George Carlin navigated his transition from conventional journeyman to longhaired truth-teller. From encounters with amiable metal maestros Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne to cantankerous Monkees, Doors insiders, punk rock icons, Suzi Quatro, Blondie, the Bee Gees, George Harrison, and dozens more, Bronson bluntly tells it like it was with an amazing eye for detail. As Rhino label exec, Bronson butts heads with nutty artists making outlandish demands even as he fights to make sure they get the back royalties owed to them, bails mad visionaries like Love’s Arthur Lee out of jail, and rescues forgotten geniuses from obscurity, presenting them to the world as they should have been from the beginning. You can dip into any page of Time Has Come Today and find a fascinating new anecdote to illustrate why Arthur Lee called Bronson ‘the most honest man in the music business.’”

—Andrew Grant Jackson, author of 1973: Rock at the Crossroads and 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music.

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People who are born into 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 Southern 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 and other magazines. After meeting and interviewing many of the era’s greats, he launched the Rhino label from the back room of the Los Angeles record store he managed. And in doing so he took on a new role, working behind the scenes with many of those same artists – in studios, offices, concert halls, and restaurants — to bring their old – and sometimes new — music to the public.

Completing a trilogy of books that began with The Rhino Records Story (2013) and continued with My British Invasion (2017), 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 of the boldface names that Bronson worked with:

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, Stephen Bishop, and many more

Posting bail for Arthur Lee of Love

Parties with Gene Simmons, Alice Cooper, and many more

Conversations with the Bee Gees, the Doors, the Knack, ELO, George Clinton, Mickie Most, Hunter S. Thompson, John Sebastian, Van Dyke Parks, Rod Argent, Bon Scott, Janis Ian, Edgar Winter, the Chambers Brothers, Suzi Quatro, David Essex, Sha Na Na, Mike Chapman, Nicky Hopkins, Badfinger, Rodney Bingenheimer, John Kay of Steppenwolf, Sean Bonniwell of the Music Machine, Michael Brown of the Left Banke and members of Iron Butterfly, 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

ABOUT TROUSER PRESS BOOKS:

Trouser Press Books, a division of Trouser Press LLC, is an independent publisher based in New York City that specializes in music journalism and literary fiction. Editorial Director Ira Robbins co-founded the legendary rock magazine Trouser Press in 1974 and now operates its website. For more information, please visit www.trouserpressbooks.com.