Nik Cohn

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See Nick Cohen for the New Statesman and The Observer contributor

Nik Cohn (also written Nick Cohn) is a British rock journalist, born in London in 1946.

Established as the father of rock criticism, with Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom written at the age of 22 in the late 60s, he then has published articles, novels and music books regularly.

When reviewing a rough mix of The Who's rock opera Tommy, he told the group members that the album was less than spectacular. Knowing that Cohn was a fan of pinball, Pete Townshend suggested that the album's deaf, dumb, and blind title character could also be an exceptional pinball player. Cohn's opinion of the album immediately improved, and Townshend subsequently wrote "Pinball Wizard" to be added to the album.

During one stay in America in the late 80s, he shared a flat with wrestler Chris Candido. Certain aspects of Cohn's personality were taken on by Candido in his "No Gimmicks Required" personae in ECW.

He wrote the 1975 New York Magazine article "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night", which was the source material for the movie Saturday Night Fever. In 2001 in a follow-up article printed in The Guardian, Mr. Cohn said he based his piece on a young man he knew in England. "My story was a fraud," he wrote. "I'd only recently arrived in New York. Far from being steeped in Brooklyn street life, I hardly knew the place. As for Vincent, my story's hero, he was largely inspired by a Shepherd's Bush mod whom I'd known in the Sixties, a one-time king of Goldhawk Road. ^[1]"
Nik Cohn is now a columnist for The Guardian.

He is the son of historian Norman Cohn.

[edit] Bibliography

Cohn, Nik (1967 for the first edition). I Am Still the Greatest Says Johnny Angelo (novel). Secker & Warburg. ISBN B0000CNMIW.
Cohn, Nik (1969). Pop (novel). Weidenfeld & N. ISBN 0-297-17807-5.
Cohn, Nik (1970). Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom (US title: Rock from the Beginning). Paladin. ISBN 0-586-08014-7.
Cohn, Nik (1970). Market. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-003183-9.
Cohn, Nik (1971). Today There are No Gentlemen. Weidenfeld & N. ISBN 0-297-00454-9.
Cohn, Nik (1973). Arfur. Panther. ISBN 0-586-03572-9.
Cohn, Nik (1975). King Death. Harcourt. ISBN 0-15-147223-8.
Cohn, Nik, & Peellaert, Guy (1982 for the first edition). Rock Dreams. Alfred A Knopf. ISBN 0-394-52870-0.
Cohn, Nik (1989). Ball the Wall: Nik Cohn in the Age of Rock. Macmillan. ISBN 0-330-29970-0.
Cohn, Nik (1992). The Heart of the World. Alfred a Knopf. ISBN 0-394-56869-9.
Cohn, Nik (1992). Heart of the World. Octagon. ISBN 0-374-00000-X.
Cohn, Nik (1997). Need. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-42707-4.
Cohn, Nik (1999). God Given Months. Chatto and Windus. ISBN 0-7011-4743-1.
Cohn, Nik (1999). Yes We Have No: Adventures in the Other England. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-56870-2.
Cohn, Nik & Peellaert, Guy (1999). Twentieth Century Dreams. 0330299700. ISBN 0-436-27617-8.
Cohn, Nik & Dorner, Julia (2002). Soljas. Taschen. ISBN.
Cohn, Nik (2005). Triksta : Life and Death and New Orleans Rap. Knopf. ISBN 1-4000-4245-3.