This book reverses that approach. It takes a fresh and often funny look at the magnificent and sometimes idiotic career path of the Beatles through the prism of one vital album -- a record considered by many (including John Lennon) to be the one on which they reached their peak as songwriters. It focuses not just on the intimate recording details and creative process, but on the politics, music, and culture of the era, as well as the band's individual development amid increasing dissolution. In crisp and witty prose, the inside stories behind the making and release of the album are revealed: how the White Album got its look and name; why it included the most experimental track the Beatles ever recorded; how it inspired the bloody massacres of Charles Manson and his 'family'; why Ringo Starr walked out on the sessions and who replaced him; the actual identities of 'Dear Prudence', 'Sexy Sadie', 'Martha My Dear', 'Julia' and 'Bungalow Bill'; on which song Yoko sang lead; which song is about Eric Clapton's teeth;

    And that’s just since the Halifax musician started making records of his own in 1999. For a decade before that, he was one-quarter of Thrush Hermit, a band of scrappy Superchunk disciples who became hard-rock revivalists and one of the last survivors of the ’90s pop “explosion” of major-label interest in Halifax.Canada’s east coast has never been much of a pop-culture mecca. Most musicians from the region who’ve ever made it big moved away. But armed with a stubborn streak and a knack for great songwriting, Plaskett has kept Halifax as his home, building both a career and a music community there. Along the way, he’s earned great respect: when he plays shows in Alberta, east-coast expats literally thank him for staying home.Nowhere with You is the study of how he pulled this off, from the origins of Canada’s east-coast exodus to Plaskett’s anointment as “Halifax’s Rick Rubin.” It’s a story about what happens when you call a city “the new Seattle,” about the lessons you learn playing to empty rooms in Oklahoma, and about defying radio-single expectations with rock operas and triple records. It’s about doing what you want, where you want, no matter how much work it takes.

    Forming their band 'Anvil' they went on to become the 'demi-gods of Canadian metal', releasing one of the heaviest albums in metal history, 1982's Metal on Metal. The album influenced a musical generation including the world-dominating bands Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, all of whom went on to sell millions of records. Anvil's career would take a different path, however, as they slipped straight into obscurity...Almost thirty years later Lips and Robb, our unlikely musical heroes, are still chasing their dream. Anvil! The Story of Anvil, their autobiography, follows the ups and down of their career and their volatile friendship (which has now spanned almost four decades), reveals their dedication and unadulterated passion for their music, and carries us along on their last-ditch quest for fame and fortune. Based on Sacha Gervasi's award-winning film of the same name, and published to coincide with its worldwide release, this hilarious yet poignant book reminds us that if you believe in yourself, stick by your friends and never give up, you really can make your dreams come true. You cannot fail to be moved by this story. Anvil rock!

    King uncovered some of the strangest—and most hypnotic—sounds he had ever heard. The 78s were immensely moving, seeming to tap into a primal well of emotion inaccessible through contemporary music. The songs, King learned, were from Epirus, an area straddling southern Albania and northwestern Greece and boasting a folk tradition extending back to the pre-Homeric era. To hear this music is to hear the past.Lament from Epirus is an unforgettable journey into a musical obsession, which traces a unique genre back to the roots of song itself. As King hunts for two long-lost virtuosos—one of whom may have committed a murder—he also tells the story of the Roma people who pioneered Epirotic folk music and their descendants who continue the tradition today.King discovers clues to his most profound questions about the function of music in the history of humanity: What is the relationship between music and language? Why do we organize sound as music? Is music superfluous, a mere form of entertainment, or could it be a tool for survival? King’s journey becomes an investigation into song and dance’s role as a means of spiritual healing—and what that may reveal about music’s evolutionary origins.

    Hewitt has even been the inspiration for some of Weller's songs - and he has extraordinary in-depth knowledge of the inspiration behind the rest.Once, when Hewitt interviewed Weller for a music magazine, he complained - 'I don't know why people ask me all these questions. All the answers are in my songs.' Largely unnoticed, Weller has used thirty-years of lyrics to explore his personal history and beliefs. Taking as his starting point these lyrics, alongside a lifetime's friendship, Paolo Hewitt shows us the real Paul Weller, the man inside the music.

    Here is a book that will be enjoyed by all pianists not only for the stimulating advice it provides, but also for the style with which it is written.

    His influential work spans many practices over a 23-year period, from music packaging to installation work to printmaking. Here, he reveals his personal notebooks, photographs, sketches, and abandoned routes to iconic Radiohead artworks. Arranged chronologically, each chapter is dedicated to a major work—whether an album cover, promotional piece, or a personal project—and is presented as a step-by-step working case study. Featuring commentary by Thom Yorke and never-before-seen archival material, this is the first deep dive into Donwood’s creative practice and the artistic freedom afforded to him by working for a major music act. It is a must-have for fans of the band and anyone interested in graphic design and popular culture.

    His writing style is remarkable — unrestrained, informal, full of brilliant insight — and this style plus Huneker's wide knowledge of art and literature as well as music has kept his literacy work alive. Chopin: The Man and His Music reflects the intimate, thorough knowledge of Chopin's music that Huneker acquired while studying to be a concert pianist and his unusually keen insight into the character of the great Polish composer whose music he adored.The book is divided into two parts. The first treats Chopin's life — his youth in Poland, his emigration to Paris, the famous George Sand episode, his sickness and death — and comments on Chopin as a teacher and as a pianist and performer. The second part discusses the entire body of Chopin's music, piece by piece. Huneker notes his own overall impression of the individual compositions as well as the impressions of Schumann, George Sand, Chopin's biographer Frederick Niecks, many of the great pianists, and others. He directly compares differing editions of Chopin's Études, Preludes, Nocturnes, Mazurkas, Polonaises, Sonatas, and other works edited by von Bülow, Kullak, Riemann, Mikuli, and Godowsky in their detailed treatment of fingering, phrasing, pedaling, tempo indication, and so forth.Huneker's entire work is reprinted here unchanged, thoroughly edited in running footnotes by Herbert Weinstock to correct the exuberant Huneker's inaccuracies and to add information that modern musical scholarship has unearthed. Weinstock has also provided an engrossing introductory essay on Huneker, and has amplified the bibliography to include modern books and articles on Chopin.A classic in musical biography and commentary, this work is unsurpassed for sympathetic understanding and insight into Chopin's life and music. It will interest equally music students, pianists, and music lovers.

    McGill methodically explains the frequently misunderstood "Tabuteau number system" and its relationship to note grouping-the lifeblood of music. The controversial issue of baroque performance practice is also addressed. Instrumentalists and vocalists alike will find that many of the ideas presented in this book will help develop their musicianship as well as their understanding of what makes a performance "musical."

    Mark Hodkinson's biography of Queen focuses on the band's formative years, and draws on interviews with over sixty friends and colleagues of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon.

    The Vinyl Dialogues offers the stories behind 31 of the top albums of the 70s, including backstories behind the albums, the songs, and the artists. It was the 1970s: Big hair, bell-bottomed pants, Elvis sideburns and puka shell necklaces. The drugs, the freedom, the Me Generation, the lime green leisure suits. And then there was the music and how it defined a generation. The birth of Philly soul, the Jersey Shore Sound and disco. It's all there in "The Vinyl Dialogues," as told by the artists who lived and made Rock and Roll history throughout the decade.Throw in a little political intrigue - The Guess Who being asked not to play its biggest hit, "American Woman," at a White House appearance and Brewer and Shipley being called political subversives and making President Nixon's infamous "enemies list" - and "The Vinyl Dialogues offers a first-hand snapshot of a country in transition, hung over from the massive cultural changes of the 1960s and ready to dress outrageously and to shake its collective booty. All seen through the eyes, recollections and perspectives of the artists who lived it and made all that great music on all those great albums.

    Whether you want to play pop, folk, country, rock, blues, jazz, classical, or any other style of music, you will pick up the basic techniques without tedious drills and exercises. Using real music and a step-by-step approach, How to Play Guitar will teach you about:- Choosing and buying a guitar- Tuning your instrument correctlyReading sheet music, guitar music, and tablature- Playing melodies with chordsFingerpicking- Mastering left-hand techniques, including sliding and bending notes- Transposing melodies from one key to another and much more.

    It will make you happy. Legendary producer and co-founder of Chic, Nile Rodgers wrote 'We are Family' for Sister Sledge and 'I'm Coming Out' for Diana Ross, produced 'Let's Dance' for David Bowie and 'Like a Virgin' for Madonna. He has worked with just about every major star, from Michael Jackson and Bob Dylan to Prince and Duran Duran. But before he reinvented pop music, Nile Rodgers invented himself. Born into a mixed-race family of dopefiend bohemians, he learned "at a very early age" everything he needed to know about love, loss, fashion, art, music, and the subversive power of underground culture. The stars of the scene were his glamorous teenage mom and heroin-addicted Jewish stepfather, but there were also monkeys, voodoo orishas, jazz cats, and contract killers in the mix. By the age of 16, Nile was busking his way through the 60s, half-hippie and half-Black Panther. He jammed with Jimi Hendrix, took acid with Timothy Leary, toured with Big Bird on Sesame Street's road show, and played guitar behind history's greatest soul singers. And then, one night, he discovered disco. This was pop's most glamorous and decadent age. Nile Rodgers wrote the songs, produced the hits and lived behind the velvet rope holding court in the bathroom stalls at Studio 54, club-hopping with Madonna, scarfing down burgers with Diana Ross. Le Freak is the personal, moving story of a creative genius, told in his own unique voice "warm, intimate and relentlessly charming. It is also a stunning recreation of an age" told by the man who wrote its soundtrack.

    In this book, John Prine curates a selection of his best loved songs. Included are lyrics, guitar chords, commentary from John and over 100 photographs - may never before published - from his personal collection. John Prine has written songs that have become central to the American musical heritage. This former Maywood, Illinois mailman came to prominence with his debut record, 'John Prine' in 1971, which includes classics like, "Angel from Montgomery," "Sam Stone," "Paradise," and "Hello in There." His lyrics speak to the everyday experience of ordinary people, with a simple honesty and an extraordinary ability to connect with the heart.

    This is the autobiography of their lead singer, Ian Gillan. Here he tells his life story, and that of the band he helped to make great. Stories of friction and violence, groupies and non-stop partying, drugs and alcohol, and how, finally, it all spiralled out of control to destroy the band.