Book picks similar to
56 Thoughts from 56 Hope Road: The Sayings and Psalms of Bob Marley by Cedella Marley Booker
music
philosophy-sociology-politics
cedella
0-100
Dancing with Demons: The Authorized Biography of Dusty Springfield
Penny Valentine - 2000
Her signature voice made songs such as, "I Only Want to Be With You," "Son of A Preacher Man," and "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," international hits. In Dancing With Demons, two of her closest friends, Valentine and Wickham, capture, with vivid memories and personal anecdotes, a Dusty most people never glimpsed in this no-holds-barred yet touching portrait of one of the world's true grand dames of popular music.
Sheryl Crow: Words + Music
Sheryl Crow - 2020
Part of Audible’s rapidly expanding Words + Music series, blending storytelling, music, and performance to create exceptional listening experiences, Crow’s session is marked by gorgeously stripped-down versions of the songs that made her a household name (exclusively recorded for these sessions). The tunes punctuate rich storytelling, as she dives deep into the history of her career, reexamining the personal experiences and relationships that impacted her artistic journey.“My journey is my own”, Crow says. “I mean, it's definitely not without some detours and definitely not without some hard lessons”. True to form, Crow leads us through her winding road to success - maybe more accurately defined as a series of jolting roller-coaster rides, as she recounts all the fits and starts, the feverish highs and lows, that have come to define a career now in its fourth decade. Featuring stunningly crisp, yet lo-fi renditions of eight songs including, “If It Makes You Happy”, “All I Wanna Do”, “Leaving Las Vegas”, “Strong Enough”, “My Favorite Mistake”, and George Harrison’s soulful “Beware of Darkness”, Sheryl Crow lays herself bare. From her early days in small-town Missouri where she sought salvation from her melancholy by turning to mystical rockers (Stevie Nicks and Zeppelin, most notably); to pursuing her dreams, and in quick fashion landing the spectacular gig as one of Michael Jackson’s featured solo vocalists on tour. (A career catapult that quickly became a cautionary tale.)From the crushing weight of perfectionism and loneliness, to the joys of finally finding kindred musical spirits - only to have it all crumble, just as the music was skyrocketing, the toll of her volatile ascent to stardom comes into focus. In a particularly fascinating section, she revisits the total sense of peer disconnect during the height of her records’ success as her style was painfully incongruent with the greater musical landscape at the time. This, subsequently leading to an “adoption” of sorts by an older, more simpatico class of musicians - luckily for her, they doubled as her heroes: Nicks, Keith Richards, and Dylan among them. In another poignant moment, Sheryl lets listeners in on the dysfunction and emotional reckoning that came after her well-publicized romances with Eric Clapton and a few years later Lance Armstrong.In just an hour and a half, Sheryl Crow manages to transform before our ears: from a well-known artist to human being we now know pretty damn well. That’s not easy to accomplish. And perhaps most extraordinarily, we are left with a lasting gift: beautiful songs we entered knowing become beautiful songs we now understand.
The Adventures of Lord Iffy Boatrace
Bruce Dickinson - 1990
But even he, with his penchant for fishnet stockings and stiletto heels, is stunned by the antics of his guests - to say nothing of the Butler who invented the ultimate sex machine.The author also wrote "Iron Maiden".
Eternal Troubadour: The Improbable Life Of Tiny Tim
Justin Martell - 2015
In 1968, after years of playing dive bars and lesbian cabarets on the Greenwich Village scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bob Dylan and Lenny Bruce, the forty-something falsetto-voiced, ukulele-playing Tiny Tim landed a recording contract with Sinatra's Reprise label and an appearance on NBC's Laugh-In. The resulting album, God Bless Tiny Tim, and its single, 'Tip-toe Thru' The Tulips With Me', catapulted him to the highest levels of fame. Soon, Tiny was playing to huge audiences in the USA and Europe, while his marriage to the seventeen-year-old 'Miss' Vicki was broadcast on The Tonight Show in front of an audience of fifty million. Before long, however, his star began to fade. Miss Vicki left him, his earnings evaporated, and the mainstream turned its back on him. He would spend the rest of his life trying to revive his career, with many of those attempts taking a turn toward the absurd. But while he is often characterized as an oddball curio, Tiny Tim was a master interpreter and student of early American popular song, and his story is one of Shakespearean tragedy framed around a bizarre yet loveable public persona. Here, drawing on dozens of new interviews, never-before-seen diaries, and years of original research, author Justin Martell brings that story to life with the first serious biography of one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood figures in popular music.
Raising Kanye
Donda West - 2007
And she has every right to be proud: She raised her son with strong moral values, teaching him right from wrong and helping him become the man he is today. In Raising Kanye, Donda not only pays homage to her famous son but reflects on all the things she learned about being his mother along the way. Featuring never-before-seen photos and compelling personal anecdotes, Donda's powerful and inspiring memoir reveals everything from the difficulties she faced as a single mother in the African-American community to her later experiences as Kanye's manager as he rose to superstardom. Speaking frankly about her son's reputation as a "Mama's Boy," and his memorable public outbursts about gay rights and President George W. Bush, Donda supports her son without exception, and here she shares the invaluable wisdom she has taken away from each experience -- passion, tolerance, patience, and above all, always telling the truth. Ultimately, she not only expresses what her famously talented son has meant to her but what he has meant to music and an entire generation.
Summerlandish: Do As I Say, Not As I Did
Summer Land - 2013
Summerlandish is all the hard-won, scar-leaving, tattoo-regretting, butthole-tearing lessons Summer has learned over the years – “summer-ised” here in all their glamorously gory detail, so you don’t have to bother with learning them yourselves. And, surprisingly, she seems to know quite a bit about love, life and awkward moments involving too much caffeine and/or lack of restraint.
Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man: An Unauthorized Biography
George Case - 2007
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.
I ♥ Justin Bieber
Harlee Harte - 2010
Following a bidding war between Justin Timberlake and Usher, the fifteen-year-old singing sensation has had four singles hit the Top 40—before his first record was even released. With that kind of popularity, it’s no wonder that Harlee Harte, author of the “I ♥” series, is on the case! Harlee is the celebrity columnist for Hollywoodland High’s student newspaper. Accompanied by her fun, fashion-forward and fabulous friends, Harlee’s “all-access” press credentials let her get up close and personal with Justin backstage, on the road, and even at major awards ceremonies. Not just a paste-up of Justin Bieber facts, Harlee’s columns are full of puzzles, quizzes, and games that bring her devoted readers closer to this top tween celebrity than ever before. Follow Harlee on Justin’s trail as she tries to juggle the ups and downs, twists and turns of her everyday teenage life—school, boys, girlfriends, parents, and, of course, staying connected with all things Bieber.
Björk's Homogenic
Emily MacKay - 2017
With the release of her conceptual app-album Biophilia in 2011, and a huge retrospective exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art coinciding with her most recent album, Vulnicura, in 2015, her status as artpop auteur has been secured. The album that made all this possible, though is 1997's Homogenic, a turning point in Björk's career and still among her finest musical achievements. Produced under great strain, it moves beyond the stylistic magpie rush of Debut and the urbanophile future-pop of Post, to something darker, stronger and braver, full of dramatic assertions of independence, sharp, stuttering beats, rich strings and raw outbursts of noise. It created, as the Alexander McQueen designed sleeve clearly asserted, a new Björk, one who would never stop hunting.
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.
Drake's Rock
Alex Riordan - 2014
Practicing law by day, she moonlights as a singer in a rock band by night. Young, beautiful, smart and talented, her life is nothing if not busy. So, why does her boss think she has time to not only train, but spend her spare time babysitting the lead actress in the TV series he’s producing? With a small contingent of both male and female fans waiting for their chance and one very persistent special friend, Jessie is already on the verge of overwhelmed. Not sure where her life is going, if anywhere, she’s still hiding from her past. The fact that her favorite actress just walked through her door isn’t helping either. Actress Stephanie Winters arrives in Ohio determined to just ‘do her job’ and go home. Still depressed after her latest failed relationship, she has no desire to take on a new role, let alone a part in a new TV series. Still, she does need to work and keep her career going. At least that’s what her agent keeps telling her. When she meets Jessica Drake for the first time, she becomes intrigued by the emotionally detached, yet gorgeous lawyer. No longer interested in one night stands or long distance relationships, Stephanie still finds herself drawn to Jessie. Can Jessie move beyond her inability to trust someone again? Is Stephanie Winters worth the pain? For that matter, is Stephanie willing to break her own self-imposed loneliness and wait for Jessie?
Sweet Jones: Pimp C's Trill Life Story
Julia Beverly - 2015
Sweet Jones pays tribute to the extremely talented - yet bipolar and complex - musician who embodied the Southern dream. Written by the founder and Editor-in-Chief of esteemed Southern rap publication OZONE Magazine and compiled from interviews with Pimp C himself, his mother and manager Weslyn "Mama Wes" Monroe, UGK rap partner Bun B, and hundreds of friends, family members, and collaborators like Snoop Dogg, Scarface, Too $hort, 8Ball & MJG, Jazze Pha, David Banner, Mannie Fresh, Paul Wall, Slim Thug, Trae, and Willie D of the Geto Boys, Sweet Jones is a must-read for any Southern rap fan.
Becoming Jimi Hendrix: From Southern Crossroads to Psychedelic London
Steven Roby - 2010
As a sideman, Hendrix played with the likes of Little Richard, Ike and Tina Turner, the Isley Brothers, and Sam & Dave—but none knew what to make of his spotlight-stealing rock guitar experimentation, the likes of which had never been heard before. From 1962 to 1966, on the rough and tumble club circuit, Hendrix learned to please a crowd, deal with racism, and navigate shady music industry characters, all while evolving his own astonishing style. Finally, in New York’s Greenwich Village, two key women helped him survive, and his discovery in a tiny basement club in 1966 led to Hendrix instantly being heralded as a major act in Europe before he returned to America, appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival, and entered the pantheon of rock’s greatest musicians. Becoming Jimi Hendrix is based on over one hundred interviews with those who knew Hendrix best during his lean years, more than half of whom have never spoken about him on the record. Utilizing court transcripts, FBI files, private letters, unpublished photos, and U.S. Army documents, this is the story of a young musician who overcame enormous odds, a past that drove him to outbursts of violence, and terrible professional and personal decisions that complicated his life before his untimely demise.
Hannah Montana: Songs from and Inspired by the Hit TV Series
Hal Leonard Corporation - 2007
In the hit TV show on the Disney Channel, actress Miley Cyrus (daughter of Billy Ray) leads a double-life, playing a mild-mannered 8th grader by day, and famous pop sensation Hannah Montana by night. Our PVG folio features all 13 songs from the soundtrack, which was among the ten bestselling albums of 2006! Includes: The Best of Both Worlds * I Got Nerve * If We Were a Movie * Pop Princess * Who Said * more!