Irwin Stambler; wrote rock encyclopedia . By Richard Sandomir New York
Times . NEW YORK - Irwin Stambler, who was trained as an aeronautics
engineer but whose deep love for music inspired him to write "The
Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul" - a major feat of research before
the Internet made it easier to find out more about Bo Diddley or the
Beach Boys - died Feb. 10 in Los Angeles. He was 92. His son Lyndon
that said the cause was complications of sepsis. Mr. Stambler's
encyclopedia, published by St. Martin's Press in 1974, covered a wide
swath of music history, from acid rock to the Zombies, in an
easy-to-read style. His entry about singer Marianne Faithfull, for
example, called her the "daughter of a baroness and blessed with the
face of an angel (some observers said a fallen angel). He added that
she was "well educated in convent schools, but the sheltered atmosphere
of those years probably contributed to her desire to kick over the
traces. Mr. Stambler's book was not the first of its kind. It was
preceded by "Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia," published by Grosset &
Dunlap in 1969. But it was published nearly a decade before one from a
more traditional authority on rock: Rolling Stone magazine. Holly
George-Warren, who edited the second and third editions of "The Rolling
Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll," said, "I remember the Stambler book
as being a valuable resource and a tool for fact-checking the entries
in our own book. Mr. Stambler toggled regularly between science and
music throughout his career. He worked as an engineer into the 1950s -
designing aircraft parts, among other assignments - but then shifted
full time into writing about aerospace and technology, as well as music
and sports. He wrote for magazines like Space Aeronautics. He wrote
newsletters. And he wrote dozens of books on subjects as diverse as the
space program, drag racing, minibikes, the fastest humans, the X-15
rocket-powered aircraft, pitcher Catfish Hunter, and basketball star
Bill Walton. By 1969, he had already written two music encyclopedias:
one on popular music and a second on country, with Grelun Landon, a
music industry executive. In an unpublished memoir, Mr. Stambler said
he had wanted to write the rock encyclopedia in the 1960s but his
publisher resisted in favor of a somewhat tamer subject. So he wrote
"Encyclopedia of Popular Music" (1965) instead, insisting, however,
that he be able to sprinkle in some biographical entries on rock
pioneers like Elvis Presley and Bill Haley. Haley actually did not end
up in the book, but Presley did, as did rock 'n' rollers like Fats
Domino and the Everly Brothers. Andy Leach, the senior director of
library and archives at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, said
Mr. Stambler's popular music encyclopedia was groundbreaking "because
popular music wasn't being taken seriously by most scholars or serious
writers at the time. The subsequent rock encyclopedia, he added, has
become a "standard reference. Irwin Stambler was born in Brooklyn. He
attended New York University, his time there broken up by two years of
Army service during World War II. He received bachelor's and master's
degrees in aeronautical engineering. Music was always a passion. He
preferred not to play classical piano, as his mother did, but he wrote
pop songs with a partner, Morton Weinberg, with titles like "Strawberry
Sky," "Fade Out," and "Indigo Blue. He built up a collection of close
to 8,000 records and CDs. "Music was always on at home," Lyndon
Stambler said. "Dad played guitar, and I made a harp in high school. He
loved all music. "Before my sister-in-law married my brother, one of
the first images she saw of my dad was of him lying on his bed, wearing
headphones and listening to Led Zeppelin. When she saw that, she knew
everything was going to be OK. In addition to Lyndon, Mr. Stambler
leaves his wife, the former Constance Lebowitz; another son, Barrett;
two daughters, Amy Sprague Champeau and Alice Seidman; nine
grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
