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The Jim Morrison Scrapbook


James Henke - 2007
    New interviews with friends, family members, surviving band members, and music industry figures complement a selection of rare and never-before-published photos, including shots of private moments with his "cosmic mate" Pam Courson and his last days in Paris. The book also features 24 pieces of removable facsimile memorabilia, such as Jim's handwritten lyrics to "L. A. Woman," his teenage artwork, and a letterto his father concerning Jim's infamous arrest in Miami. An exclusive 60-minute CD comprising rare interviews plus Jim telling candid stories and a never-before-heard original poem caps off this incomparable collector's package.

The Doors Unhinged: Jim Morrison's Legacy Goes on Trial


John Densmore - 2010
    The Doors weren’t just a soundtrack to that revolution. Their music gave it a voice. They lived by its ideals. And in a garage in Venice, CA, the four members of the band agreed to a business relationship that was also revolutionary; each member of the band would share equal songwriting credit and equal veto power. All for one, one for all. And for almost forty years, even after the death of lead singer Jim Morrison, that progressive 60s ethos guided the former band mates in all their decisions. Until one day the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll came up against its biggest nemesis—money—and the legendarily equal relationship between the remaining members of the Doors began to splinter.Drummer John Densmore’s THE DOORS: UNHINGED is the true story of the court case that put Jim Morrison’s legacy on trial and divided the former band mates in half, with Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger on one side, and John Densmore and the estate of Jim Morrison on the other.

Got a Revolution!: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane


Jeff Tamarkin - 2003
    Their smash hits "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" virtually invented the era's signature pulsating psychedelic music and, during one of the most tumultuous times in American history, came to personify the decade's radical counterculture. In this groundbreaking biography of the band, veteran music writer and historian Jeff Tamarkin produces a portrait of the band like none that has come before it. Having worked closely with Jefferson Airplane for more than a decade, Tamarkin had unprecedented access to the band members, their families, friends, lovers, crew members, fellow musicians, cultural luminaries, even the highest-ranking politicians of the time. More than just a definitive history, Got a Revolution! is a rock legend unto itself. Jann Wenner, editor-in-chief and publisher of Rolling Stone, wrote, "The classic [Jefferson] Airplane lineup were both architects and messengers of a psychedelic age, a liberation of mind and body that profoundly changed American art, politics, and spirituality. It was a renaissance that could only have been born in San Francisco, and the Airplane, more than any other band in town, spread the good news nationwide."

The Doors: The Illustrated History


Danny Sugerman - 1981
    This book consists of magazine and newspaper articles, interviews, record reviews, excerpts from books, and other material related to the history of The Doors, to whose memory it is dedicated.This book consists of magazine and newspaper articles, interviews, record reviews, excerpts from books, and other material related to the history of The Doors, to whose memory it is dedicated.

Jim Morrison: Dark Star


Dylan Jones - 1990
    Part poet, part clown, part modern-day Renaissance man, Morrison created an image that was ultimately his undoing. Though he died more than twenty years ago, Jim Morrison still has the power to fascinate. He remains one of youth culture's most revered heroes--a hero who got out just in time.

Wild Child: Life with Jim Morrison


Linda Ashcroft - 1999
    This vivid portrait is based on her diaries from the four-year period when she knew Morrison. "Wild Child," one of Morrison's most popular songs, was written for Ashcroft. Morrison's dreams and demons, and the meaning behind his lyrics and poems, are revealed through Ashcroft's evocative writing. Wild Child is a richly detailed and passionate account of what life was like with the legendary Doors singer. It is also the first book to illuminate the mystery of Morrison's death through the words of the woman who was with him when he died in Paris, Pamela Courson. Before flying to Paris, Morrison told the author: "It may have been in bits and pieces, but I gave you the best of me." In return, Linda Ashcroft gives us the best of Jim Morrison.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath


Joel McIver - 2006
    In the world of heavy metal, no other band have lived life to the fullest, stared death in the face so many times, battled addiction, warred within themselves and still emerged, unbowed with as much bloody-minded persistence as Black Sabbath.

Passion Is a Fashion: The Real Story of the Clash


Pat Gilbert - 2004
    It was an agenda mirrored in the Clash’s music, which swiftly evolved from ferocious punk rock to incorporate reggae, ska, funk, jazz, soul, and hip-hop. Passion Is a Fashion draws on over 70 interviews with the key participants in the story—roadies, producers, friends, and fans—and conversations with the Clash: Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, and Topper Headon. The first book to give real insight into what went on behind the scenes during the Clash’s ten-year career, it charts the Clash’s picaresque progress through the days of the early punk scene and their groundbreaking Rock Against Racism gigs, to the arduous touring, to their break out in America, and the making of the classic London Calling album, all the way to the band’s eventual dissolution and the sudden, sad death of frontman Joe Strummer. Gritty, compelling, and above all authoritative, Passion Is a Fashion is the biography the Clash has long deserved.

No Quarter: The Three Lives of Jimmy Page


Martin J. Power - 2015
    Starting with the early Sixties session scene when the teenage Page contributed to recordings by The Who, The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones and many more, the author goes on to explore Page's time in The Yardbirds, the band that would metamorphose into the legendary Led Zeppelin.Supported by album reviews, rare photographs, a full discography and candid conversations with Page's friends, managers and musical collaborators, author Martin Power's No Quarter: The Three Lives Of Jimmy Page represents the most comprehensive and up-to-date biography yet written about Jimmy Page—a "one man guitar army" and true music legend.

Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd


Nick Mason - 2004
    With 116 million albums sold worldwide and 25 years on the pop charts to their credit, Pink Floyd is one of the most successful rock groups in history, yet their storyuntil nowis one of the least known. The only continuous member of the band through its entire 40-year history, Nick Mason has witnessed every twist, turn, and sommersault from behind his drum kit. The journey begins with the band's origins as the darlings of London's late 1960s underground and the creation of the classic Pink Floyd sound, all the way through to The Wall and those legendary stadium shows. Here are the players who shaped the band's history and the story behind the storythe inside perspective on, for example, the deterioration and departure of Syd Barrett; the overwhelming success of The Dark Side of the Moon and the resulting pressures and conflicts within the band, including the rift with Roger Waters; and Nick and David Gilmour's decision to put their reputations on the line and continue as Pink Floyd. Packed with rare photographs and vintage Floyd graphics from Nick Mason's extensive private archive, Inside Out is an eye-opener for both veteran fans and those just discovering the group. And, in keeping with the classic Floyd style, the book's cover was designed by Storm Thorgerson, creator of such iconic images as the Dark Side pyramid. Always candid, by turns poignant and funny, Nick's own memories are augmented with extensive research and interviews, making Inside Out a comprehensive history of one of the most brilliant and imaginative bands the world has knownand a masterly memoir of rock and roll.

Genesis: Chapter & Verse


Philip DoddSteve Hackett - 2007
    The story of their band spans thirty years and thirty albums, and through all the changes in the band's line-up and musical direction, the spirit of Genesis has remained constant and undimmed."Genesis: Chapter & Verse" is the ultimate addition to any fan's collection, setting the record straight as the band's members tell their story their way. Remarkably, the band survived the high-profile departure of not one lead vocalist, but two (Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins), two influential guitarists (Anthony Phillips and Steve Hackett), and its best-known drummer (Phil Collins). Genesis simply got stronger and bigger - matching the huge solo success of Gabriel, Collins, and Mike + The Mechanics.A collaboration between all the members of Genesis, past and present, "Genesis: Chapter and Verse" is the band's definitive autobiography: an intimate, no-holds-barred, no-stone-unturned history that allows character and personality to come to the forefront. Covering the band's story as well as the writing and performance of significant songs from each period, this treasure trove of text and photographs provides long-awaited insight into the way this exceptional group of songwriters worked together, allowing the band to dispatch more than a few sacred cows along the way. It is a book like none other, and an exclusive look into the life and times of one of rock's most influential and lasting groups.

Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend


Stephen Davis - 2004
    The music he created with The Doors has sold over 50 million records worldwide?with over 13 million in the last decade alone, as their songs have been embraced by a new generation. But despite Morrison's seminal importance, there has not yet been an authoritative biography that does justice to him and his creative legacy. Until now. Stephen Davis, the preeminent rock biographer and author of the classic Led Zeppelin history "Hammer of the Gods" (over 600,000 copies sold in three editions, and a #1 "New York Times" bestseller), has uncovered never-before-seen documents, conducted dozens of original interviews, and scoured Morrison's unpublished journals and recordings to write the definitive biography of a misunderstood legend. "Jim Morrison" is packed with startling new revelations about every phase of his life and career, from his troubled youth in a strict military household to his blossoming as a rock icon among the avant-garde LA scene to his voracious drug abuse and secret sexual experiments. Davis also investigates one of the greatest mysteries in rock history?the circumstances surrounding Morrison's mysterious and unsolved death?as he pieces together new evidence to tell the true and heartbreaking story of Morrison's last tragic days in Paris.Compelling and unforgettable, "Jim Morrison" is destined to become a classic.

Light My Fire


Ray Manzarek - 1998
    Includes 16 pages of photos."A refreshingly candid read...a Doors bio worth opening." --Entertainment WeeklyNo other band has ever sounded quite like the Doors, and no other frontman has ever transfixed an audience quite the way Jim Morrison did. Ray Manzarek, the band's co-founder and keyboard player, was there from the very start--and until the sad dissolution--of the Doors. In this heartfelt and colorfully detailed memoir, complete with 16 pages of photographs, he brings us an insider's view of the brief, brilliant history...from the beginning to the end."An engaging read." --Washington Post Book World

Kink: An Autobiography


Dave Davies - 1996
    of photos.

John Lennon: The Life


Philip Norman - 2008
    Now, at last, Norman turns his formidable talent to the Beatle for whom being a Beatle was never enough. Drawing on previously untapped sources, and with unprecedented access to all the major characters, Norman presents the comprehensive and most revealing portrait of John Lennon ever published.This masterly biography takes a fresh and penetrating look at every aspect of Lennon's much-chronicled life, including the songs that have turned him, posthumously, into a near-secular saint. In three years of research, Norman has turned up an extraordinary amount of new information about even the best-known episodes of Lennon folklore—his upbringing by his strict Aunt Mimi; his allegedly wasted school and student days; the evolution of his peerless creative partnership with Paul McCartney; his Beatle-busting love affair with a Japanese performance artist; his forays into painting and literature; his experiments with Transcendental Meditation, primal scream therapy, and drugs. The book's numerous key informants and interviewees include Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin, Sean Lennon—whose moving reminiscence reveals his father as never seen before—and Yoko Ono, who speaks with sometimes shocking candor about the inner workings of her marriage to John.“[A] haunting, mammoth, terrific piece of work.” -New York Times Honest and unflinching, as John himself would wish, Norman gives us the whole man in all his endless contradictions—tough and cynical, hilariously funny but also naive, vulnerable and insecure—and reveals how the mother who gave him away as a toddler haunted his mind and his music for the rest of his days.