On paper Steve Katz’s career rivals anyone’s except the 1960s’ and ’70s’ biggest stars: the Monterey Pop Festival with the legendary Blues Project, Woodstock with Blood, Sweat & Tears, and even producing rock’s most celebrated speed addict, Lou Reed.

But Katz’s memoir is more than the lurid party-with-your-pants-down memoir that has become a norm in rock n roll books. It’s an honest and personal account of a life at the edge of the spotlight—a privileged vantage point that earned him more objectivity and earnest outrage than a lot of his colleagues, who were too far into the scene to lay any honest witness to it. Set during the Greenwich Village folk/rock scene and the 60s’ most celebrated venues and concerts, this is the unlikely story of a rock star as nerd, nerd as rock star, a nice Jewish boy who got to sit at the cool kid’s table and score the hot chicks.