Nowhere else is the man and musician so convincingly deconstructed and so compellingly humanized.

    In the summer of 1964, aged twenty, Ray Davies led The Kinks to fame with their number one hit ‘You Really Got Me’. Within months, they were challenging The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in the charts, swamped by fans and renowned for the rioting at their gigs. Over the next three decades, Davies wrote a string of enduring classics – ‘All Day and All of the Night’, ‘Sunny Afternoon’, ‘Waterloo Sunset’, ‘Lola’ – that secured his status as one of the handful of people to have redefined pop culture over the last fifty years.But Ray’s journey from working-class Muswell Hill to the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame was tumultuous in the extreme, featuring breakdowns, bitter lawsuits, spectacular punch-ups and a ban from entering the USA for almost four years. His relationship with his brother Dave, The Kinks’ lead guitarist, is surely the most ferocious and abusive in music history. Based on countless interviews conducted over several decades, this richly detailed and revelatory biography presents the most frank and intimate portrait yet of Ray Davies, and promises to be the definitive biography of this most fascinating and complicated life.

    chart hit. The band followed it with 40 further albums of consistently challenging, distinctive and innovative music. Drawing on hours of new interviews, and encouraged by Crimson supremo Robert Fripp, the author traces the band’s turbulent history year by year, track by track.

    When twenty-five-year-old Bob Dylan wrecked his motorcycle near Woodstock in 1966 and dropped out of the public eye, he was already recognized as a genius, a youth idol with an acid wit and a barbwire throat; and Greenwich Village, where he first made his mark, was unquestionably the center of youth culture.In Positively 4th Street, David Hajdu recounts the emergence of folk music from cult practice to popular and enduring art form as the story of a colorful foursome: not only Dylan but also his part-time lover Joan Baez -- the first voice of the new generation; her sister Mimi -- beautiful, haunted, and an artist in her own right; and Mimi's husband, Richard Fariña, a comic novelist (Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me) who invented the worldly-wise bohemian persona that Dylan adopted -- some say stole -- and made his own.A national bestseller in hardcover, acclaimed as "one of the best books about music in America" (Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post), Positively 4th Street is that rare book with a new story to tell about the 1960s -- about how the decade and all that it is now associated with were created in a fit of collective inspiration, with an energy and creativity that David Hajdu has captured on the page as if for the first time.

    This edition spans the years between 1973's Can't Buy a Thrill and their 2000 comeback Two against Nature.

    If you’re looking for eye-opening revelations, they’re here, including the drug habits that brought the band members to their knees. But My Life with Deth is far more than just another memoir of debauchery. Ellefson also shares the story of his faith journey, which began when he decided his only choice for survival was to get free from his addic­tion. Whether religious or not, you’ll be enthralled and inspired by this tell-all book on discovering meaning in a life of rock and roll. You’ll find insightful comments from some of the biggest names in heavy metal, along with universal life lessons. With a delicate balance between humor and earnestness, anyone “can appreciate Ellefson’s unpretentious tone and the delightful irony of a serious Christian who helped define seriously heavy metal music” (Publisher’s Weekly).

    From his soul-crushing professional and artistic setbacks to his battle with addiction, Mustaine has hit rock bottom on multiple occasions. April 1983 was his lowest point, when he was unceremoniously fired from Metallica for his hard-partying ways. But, what seemed to be the end of it all was just the beginning for the guitarist.After parting ways with Metallica, Mustaine went on to become the front man, singer, songwriter, guitarist (and de facto CEO) for Megadeth—one of the most successful metal bands in the world. A pioneer of the thrash metal movement, Megadeth rose to international fame in the 1980s, and has gone on to earn seven consecutive Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance.In this outrageously candid memoir, one of heavy metal’s most iconic figures gives an insider’s look into the loud and sordid world of thrash metal—sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll included.

    Highly acclaimed music critic Peter Carlin tracks the Boss's dazzling ascent to fame, whilst painting a vivid portrait of the real Springsteen: an insistently private man who nevertheless would do anything for his fans.Recently, in response to his mother's failing health, Springsteen decided he wanted to tell his story, and that he wanted Carlin to tell it. He gave Carlin many hours of interview time, including a trip to his family home, and lett him preview his unreleased album. With unprecedented access to Springsteen, his family, friends and management, Carlin presents a riveting and highly personal account of Springsteen's life.

    At its center stood Mike Rutherford, driving the music from pioneering prog rock to chart-topping hits. Now for the first time, he tells the remarkable inside story of Genesis and his own band, Mike + The Mechanics.Against the rhythm of drink, drugs, and lineup changes, Mike's father, a World War II naval officer, always stood in the background. He would watch Genesis grow, supporting them from the very beginning when they toured Britain in the back of a bread van. Through extreme highs and lows, loyal Captain Rutherford was always there, earplugs at the ready.But when his father suddenly died, Mike was forced to reexamine their relationship and only then began to understand how much their lives had overlapped. The Living Years is a revealing memoir of the relationship between father and son and the story of how music, families, and friendship combine.

    Kooper's quirky keyboard style was a seminal force in popularizing the Hammond B3 organ as a major voice in rock music. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, B.B. King, George Harrison, The Who, Trisha Yearwood, and a plethora of other artists have benefited from having Kooper perform on their albums and singles. Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards, Kooper's insightful and amusing autobiography, puts you in the passenger seat as you cruise the entire history of rock 'n roll as well as the various cultural landmarks and idiosyncrasies of the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s.

    From his childhood in war-torn Britain and his pivotal role in the recording studios that launched the British Invasion of the '60s to his milestone achievements, his dark, nefarious excesses with Led Zeppelin, and his emergence as a revered cultural icon and honored philanthropist, this biography - the first ever written about Jimmy Page - portrays all his spiritual, artistic, and personal dimensions. Swinging London, the Sunset Strip, Bron-yr-Aur, Kashmir, and Clarksdale: Magus, Musician, Man traverses through all of Page's hallowed stomping grounds and tells, at last, the complete story of one of rock 'n' roll's most enigmatic and influential talents.

    Judy Huddleston’s parents had just gotten divorced, and she spent her last year of high school attending Doors concerts. Transformed from a perceptive child into a rebellious teenager bent on attracting boys and fueled by psychedelics, she had lost her sense of self. Then Jim Morrison came into her life.Love Him Madly chronicles Judy’s four-year relationship with the singer. Honest and funny, written in the idealistic but jaded voice of a teenager, this intensely intimate memoir is a cautionary tale about sex, codependence, and misplaced spirituality. It also provides a direct and unprecedented view of a late-1960s Los Angeles subculture, an emotional portrayal of a sexual relationship with a man whose demons haunted everyone he knew, and a vivid portrait of Jim Morrison as a complex human being. A balanced portrait of an unbalanced relationship, Love Him Madly is an intense, moving, and poetic journey through one teenage girl’s unforgettable fall from innocence.

    Blending the country and folk music of the late sixties with the melodic seductiveness of Detroit-style roots rock, the Eagles brought a new sound to a stagnant music scene. Under the brilliant management of David Geffen, the Eagles projected a public image of unshakable camaraderie -- embodied by the cerebral, brooding Don Henley and the intuitive, self-destructive Glenn Frey -- bolstered by the gorgeous harmonies of their songs. Behind the scenes, however, there was another story. At turns revealing, inspiring, funny, and shocking, To the Limit is the chronicle of a time, a place, and a group that succeeded in changing forever the world of popular music.

    In this unapologetic, Technicolor, high-fiber blast, David Lee Roth comes across with seemingly unlimited energy and graphic clarity. of photos.

    Founded by Jerry Dammers, their fusion of punk, reggae, and ska created a new musical fashion—spearheaded by their own Two Tone record label—that stood for unity and racial harmony in a polarized society. This musical odyssey with The Specials moves from their early days on Coventry's punk circuit, to their chart-storming success with singles like Too Much Too Young and the eerily prescient Ghost Town, released as the race riots of 1982 saw Toxteth and Brixton go up in flames. Written with wry humor, this affectionate look at a band whose sublime music remains influential today is a must for all fans of The Specials.