Garcia: A Signpost To New Space


Jerry Garcia - 1972
    The guitarist and de facto leader of the Grateful Dead was a gregarious talker, keenly engaged with the new world exploding around him. In 1972, Garcia was visited by Charles Reich, a Yale law professor, and Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone. Garcia was just thirty-one years old but already viewed--to his lasting dismay--as a social avatar for the new sensibility sweeping the land, an anarchist streak with a populist undercurrent that had roots in Ken Kesey's pranksters, the writers of the Beat Generation, and the libertine tradition of the American transcendentalists. In this interview, Garcia reveals how he is a combination of these and other influences, a high-school dropout and autodidact blessed with a gift for eloquent turns of phrase and a refreshing directness. He speaks of the saga of the Grateful Dead and his hoodlum youth growing up in San Francisco's Mission district. He delves into fascinating discourses on the music that shaped his own playing and writing, and freely discusses his use of drugs and explains why he felt it was important to stay high. Like the Grateful Dead's best music, Garcia: A Signpost to New Space is familiar, friendly, and inviting.

The Clash: Return of the Last Gang in Town


Marcus Gray - 2002
    Revised and updated to cover the Clash's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the band members' post-Clash careers, The Clash: Return of the Last Gang in Town now includes the first full account of Joe Strummer's "Wilderness Years," his triumphant comeback with the Mescaleros, and his sudden and tragic early death. Extensively revised and updated from both its 1995 and 2001 incarnations, The Clash traces the band members' progress from dispiriting rehearsals in damp London basements to packed American stadiums. A fascinatingly detailed account of the first band to take punk's radical politics to the masses and survive for a decade against all the odds, it also offers an intriguing investigation into the gap between rock mythology and rock reality.

Mustn't Grumble


Terry Wogan - 2006
    Written in a style familiar to his millions of listeners, rich with warmth and irony, Terry introduces his post-emergency Ireland, his chain-smoking maiden-aunts, his quick-witted mother and hard-working father and explains exactly how he's managed to avoid a hard day's work from childhood to knighthood.

Rap Dad: A Story of Family and the Subculture That Shaped a Generation


Juan Vidal - 2018
    Throughout his life, neglectful men were the rule—his own dad struggled with drug addiction and infidelity—a cycle that, inevitably, wrought Vidal with insecurity. At age twenty-six, with only a bare grip on life, what lessons could he possibly offer a kid? Determined to alter the course for his child, Vidal did what he’d always done when confronted with life’s challenges. He turned to the counterculture. “The counterculture took the place of a father I could no longer touch. Since things like school and church couldn’t get through to me, I was being trained up outside of organized institutions. What I gravitated to were these movements that not only felt redeeming, but also freeing. They were almost everything I needed.” In Rap Dad, the musician-turned-journalist takes a thoughtful and inventive approach to exploring identity and examining how we view fatherhood in a modern context. To root out the source of his fears around parenting, Vidal revisits the flash points of his juvenescence, a feat that transports him, a first-generation American born to Colombian parents, back to the drug-fueled streets of 1980s–90s Miami. It’s during those pivotal years that he’s drawn to skateboarding, graffiti, and the music of rebellion: hip-hop. As he looks to the past for answers, he infuses his personal story with rap lyrics and interviews with some of pop culture’s most compelling voices—plenty of whom have proven to be some of society’s best, albeit nontraditional, dads. Along the way, Vidal confronts the unfair stereotypes that taint urban men—especially Black and Latino men—in today’s society. An illuminating journey of discovery, Rap Dad is a striking portrait of modern fatherhood that is as much political as it is entertaining, personal as it is representative, and challenging as it is revealing.

Frank Sinatra: My Father


Nancy Sinatra - 1985
    the only authorized biography of the phenomenal superstar. From his boyhood in Hoboken to his first big breaks, from the heights and depths of Hollywood to Washington, New York, Brazil and the world, Nancy gives us the story of The Voice through many other voices, among them Cary Grant, Bing Crosby, Mia Farrow, Richard Burton, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. - and frequently in specially written personal commentary by Frank Sinatra himself. For the first time we come to know the complex, generous, controversial, charismatic man behind the elusive image. Much has been written about Francis Albert Sinatra - but the truth behind his agonies and triumphs is now revealed with the intimate understanding that only his daughter posesses.

Crossroads: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton


Michael Schumacher - 1995
    His brilliant musicianship inspired his fans in London to scrawl graffiti in the underground train proclaiming, "Clapton is God." Nearly forty years later, this multi-million selling, Grammy award-winning virtuoso guitarist is still winning adulation from a whole new generation of fans.Crossroads, the definitive portrait of the man and his music, reveals with compassion and insight both the depths of Clapton's pain and the roots of his musical power. Michael Schumacher traces his career from the early years of the Yardbirds and John Mayall to the legendary supergroups Cream and Derek and the Dominoes to the solo career that has lasted a quarter of a century. Crossroads also explores the tumultuous life -- his heroin addiction, the excruciating relationship with Patti Boyd (George Harrison's wife and the woman who inspired the classic "Layla"), the year of 1990 when he lost four close friends, and the devastating death of his four-year-old son Connor the following year. Both revealing and sympathetic, this is the ultimate look at the enduring legend who transformed personal suffering into lasting artistic triumph.-- Revised and updated to include details on Clapton's new marriage and his recent recordings and tour-- Complete with a comprehensive discography and tour history

Out of Sync: A Memoir


Lance Bass - 2007
    Soon after, he left his small-town home in Clinton, Mississippi, to join an emerging musical group called *NSYNC. Two years later *NSYNC was inspiring Beatles-esque mania around the world, becoming the face of the new MTV generation, and earning the all-time record for most album sales in a single day (more than one million) and in a single week for No Strings Attached.He's remained in the spotlight ever since, and here he talks in depth for the first time about his childhood, his astonishing experiences as a young man and Christian growing up in one of the biggest bands in the world, his shock and frustration at the band's eventual dissolution, and his subsequent career, including his six months in Russia, training to become a cosmonaut.He also frankly discusses life as a gay man -- his first same-sex relationship at twenty-one, his struggle to keep his sexuality hidden from *NSYNC's fans in case it jeopardized the band's success, and the true circumstances that led to his decision to publicly come out at the age of twenty-seven. Full of fascinating behind-the-scenes lore and revealing insights from a pop star who, until now, has been notoriously private, Out of Sync is the book that millions of fans have been waiting for.About the AuthorLANCE BASS is the ultimate multi-hyphenate: singer-actor-producer-writer-entrepreneur-philanthropist. As a member of *NSYNC, Lance won a number of honors, including a People's Choice Award, an American Music Award, an MTV Video Music Award, a Kids' Choice Award, and a host of Grammy nominations. Lance was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame, making him the youngest person ever to receive this honor. He is currently Youth Spokesperson for World Space Week and remains active in various charitable organizations, including the Lance Bass Foundation, created to meet the health and educational needs of children. Lance lives in Los Angeles.

Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions: 1983 and 1984 (Prince Studio Sessions)


Duane Tudahl - 2017
    

Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince


Alex Hahn - 2003
    Few artists have accomplished what Prince Rogers Nelson has: he has topped the R&B, pop and dance charts, he has overwhelmed musicians and critics with his seemingly endless wealth of talent, he has outraged, and he has inspired.

God, Guns Rock'N'Roll


Ted Nugent - 2000
    Rock and Roll legend Ted Nugent contends that a lot of what is wrong with this country could be remedied by a simple, but controversial concept: gun ownership.

Pearl Jam: Place/Date


Lance Mercer - 1998
    Having sold over 30 million albums since its triumphant 1991 debut 10, Pearl Jam brought the hard-edged, estranged and oftentimes angry sound of Seattle to the musical forefront. They pioneered a movement in music and culture that quickly became known as grunge. Imitators followed, and the band could have quickly lost touch with its fans and unpretentious ideals and become simply a money-making celebrity group. Instead, Eddie Vedder and the members of Pearl Jam took on the establishment: challenging Ticketmaster's control over concert venues and ticket prices and refusing media any access to the band--even through music videos--during the peak of their success. Pearl Jam's disappearance from media and from traditional touring has intensified the loyalty of its fans and has refocused the band's attention on its original musical center. Despite the lack of advertising and recent shifts in musical trends, Pearl Jam concerts repeatedly sell out within hours for the hundreds of thousands who remain devoted to a group that continues to uphold its musical and political integrity. Allowed access to the concerts, jam sessions, and private moments of Pearl Jam's members, photographers Charles Peterson and Lance Mercer provide a heretofore unseen record of the Pearl Jam experience for new and diehard fans alike.

The Universal Tone: My Life


Carlos Santana - 2014
    In the category of major rock memoirs yet undone, this is at the top-a big autobiography by one of the most mysterious and influential musicians of the last 50 years. From growing up dirt poor in Mexico and suffering abuse to becoming a lowly dishwasher in the US with a hot guitar hand, to a person whom you might almost think is perpetually in a state of nirvana or at least bliss, this is the story of a fascinating man who brings the ideal combination of storytelling gold and a major marketing machine. This is one of the most sensory (and sensual) major rock bios you'll ever read. His voice comes through, it's deeply honest and frank, and from imagining the wisps of smoke from a long gone Miles Davis before Carlos's shows to describing the depths of his connection to sound, Santana brings a remarkable book to his huge following this fall.

The Rise of David Bowie, 1972-1973


Mick Rock - 2016
    With it landed Bowie s Stardust alter-ego: A glitter-clad, mascara-eyed, sexually-ambiguous persona who kicked down the boundaries between male and female, straight and gay, fact and fiction into one shifting and sparkling phenomenon of 70s self-expression. Together, Ziggy the album and Ziggy the stage spectacular propelled the softly spoken Londoner into one of the world s biggest stars.A key passenger on this glam trip into the stratosphere was fellow Londoner and photographer Mick Rock. Rock bonded with Bowie artistically and personally, immersed himself in the singer s inner circle, and, between 1972 and 1973, worked as the singer s photographer and videographer.This collection, featuring around 50 percent previously unpublished images, brings together spectacular stage shots, iconic photo shoots, as well as intimate backstage portraits. With a lenticular cover of different headshots, it celebrates Bowie s fearless experimentation and reinvention, while offering privileged access to the many facets of his personality and fame. Through the aloof and approachable, the playful and serious, the candid and the contrived, the result is a passionate tribute to a brilliant and inspirational artist whose creative vision will never be forgotten.

Buried Alive: The Biography of Janis Joplin


Myra Friedman - 1973
    It is a stunning panorama of the turbulent decade when Joplin's was the rallying voice of a generation that lost itself in her music and found itself in her words.From her small hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, from the intimate coffeehouses to the supercharged concert halls, from the glitter of worldwide fame to her tragic end in a Hollywood hotel, here is all the fire and anguish of an immortal, immensely talented, and troubled performer who devoured everything the rock scene had to offer in a fatal attempt to make peace with herself and her era. Yet, in an eloquent introduction recently written by the author, Joplin emerges from her "ugly duckling" childhood as a woman truly ahead of her time, an outrageous rebel, a defiant outcast and artist of incomparable authenticity who, almost in spite of herself, became to so many a symbol of triumph over adversity.This edition also contains an afterword detailing the whereabouts of a large and colorful cast of characters who were part of Joplin's life, as well as "We Remember Janis," a new chapter of poignant and affectionate anecdotes told by friends.

Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Life of Motown's First Superstar


Peter Benjaminson - 2012
    Based in part on four hours of previously unreleased and unpublicized deathbed interviews with Wells, this account delves deeply into her rapid rise and long fall as a recording artist, her spectacular romantic and family life, the violent incidents in which she was a participant, and her abuse of drugs. From tumultuous affairs, including one with R&B superstar Jackie Wilson, to a courageous battle with throat cancer that climaxed in her gutsiest performance, this history draws upon years of interviews with Wells’s friends, lovers, and husband to tell the whole story of a woman whose songs crossed the color line and whose voice captivated the Beatles.