One chapter a year, 1971 onwards. The songs sit where the prose names them, so a chapter reads in the order it was written — and where Questlove stops to make a list of his own, those are marked as his picks.
- IntroIntroduction16
- 1971Stretched On History’s Wheel7
- 1972Music Is The Message35
- 1973Past Is Prologue—And Protest30
- 1974Cool Like That17
- 1975The Pov Lane30
- 1976Having Two Parties37
- 1977Future to the Back42
- 1978Disco Tech19
- 1979An Idea Runs Wild48
- 1980Teach The Children7
- 1981Inside Outside Leave Me Alone13
- 1982History by the Numbers23
- 1983Why Does Everybody Have A Bomb?28
- 1984File Under11
- 1985Long For Yesterday27
- 1986And You Don’t Stop23
- 1987Greatness Expectations18
- 1988Taste! How Low Can You Go?16
- 1989Seeds of Change25
- 1990Return of the Impressed25
- 1991Furious Styles27
- 1992Echo Park48
- 1993X Marks The Spot10
- 1994In The Sun I Feel As One15
- 1995Present, Tense30
- 1996You’ve Got Me Feeling Emotions18
- 1997Moving Like You’re Standing Still7
- 1998Fair and Unfair Use9
- 1999Things Fall Apart32
- 2000Things Come Together13
- 2001The Bad Minus46
- 2002–PresentOur Twenty-First Century45