Home Sweet Road: Finding Love, Making Music & Building a Life One City at a Time


Johnnyswim - 2021
    Foreword by Chip and Joanna GainesWork and life partners Amanda Sudano Ramirez and Abner Ramirez are known for translating the memories and milestones of their journey, as well as the honest realities of marriage, into their spirited and soulful songs. With this beautifully designed, visually stunning book, the duo shares never-before-told stories, beautiful photos, recipes, poetry, and more from their life in a deeply engaging experience as they travel on tour around the country with their three young kids, capturing the family's raw, intimate, and behind-the-scenes life on the road and embracing home no matter where they are.

Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Authorised Biography


Mark Paytress - 2003
    Now reformed, they are launching their Best Of... album in 2002. The book features exclusive interviews and photos and is written by personal friend and journalist Paul Mather, from London.

The Accidental Footballer


Pat Nevin - 2021
    

Elvis Presley: A Life in Music — The Complete Recording Sessions


Ernst Jorgensen - 1998
    With exclusive access to the RCA vaults, producer Ernst Jorgensen brings to intimate life every moment that Elvis spent in the studio--from the spontaneous joy of his early sessions to the intensely creative periods of his later career. At once the definitive recording session guide and a compellingly readable narrative, this is the ultimate companion to the singer and his songs.

Barenaked Ladies: Public Stunts, Private Stories


Paul Myers - 2001
    Now, for the first time in the United States, we can read their astonishing story. Steven, Ed, Jim, Tyler, and Kevin have two Grammy nominations under their belts, they've appeared on The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live, and their music is featured in commercials. They've even preempted the Olympics and rocked the vote on The West Wing. Their quirky, bizarre lyrics and unforgettable live performances have secured a rabidly loyal fan base across North America. They are Barenaked Ladies. Want to know more about this Canadian quintet? It's all here, from the births of five Barenaked babies to the triumph of band member Kevin over leukemia. All the stories, from goo-goo to glory Photographs of the band, never before seen in the United States, including family photos, baby pictures, and shots from the early days of BNLA list of BNL's favorite road games and instructions so you, too, can playA detailed list of every musical project the Ladies have recorded or been involved withMore information on band camp and what gifted Canadian kids do for fun than you ever thought you wanted Given exclusive access to the band, author Paul Myers gets inside the heads of five guys who drew on their eclectic backgrounds to generate a groundbreaking musical style. Fun, frank, and sometimes frivolous, this is the naked truth behind Barenaked Ladies.

Love, Janis


Laura Joplin - 1992
    By the time her life and artistry were cut tragically short by a heroin overdose, Joplin had become the stuff of rock–and–roll legend.Through the eyes of her family and closest friends , we see Janis as a young girl, already rebelling against injustice, racism, and hypocrisy in society. We follow Janis as she discovers her amazing talents in the Beat hangouts of Venice and North Beach–singing in coffeehouses, shooting speed to enhance her creativity, challenging the norms of straight society. Janis truly came into her own in the fantastic, psychedelic, acid–soaked world of Haight–Asbury. At the height of her fame, Janis's life is a whirlwind of public adoration and hard living. Laura Joplin shows us not only the public Janice who could drink Jim Morrison under the table and bean him with a bottle of booze when he got fresh; she shows us the private Janis, struggling to perfect her art, searching for the balance between love and stardom, battling to overcome her alcohol addiction and heroin use in a world where substance abuse was nearly universal.At the heart of Love, Janis is an astonishing series of letters by Janis herself that have never been previously published. In them she conveys as no one else could the wild ride from awkward small–town teenager to rock–and–roll queen. Love, Janis is the new life of Janis Joplin we have been waiting for–a celebration of the sixties' joyous experimentation and creativity, and a loving, compassionate examination of one of that era's greatest talents.

Honky Tonk Angel: The Intimate Story of Patsy Cline


Ellis Nassour - 1993
    But when she sang, she was an angel. Her career...came the hard way, after she battle a Virginia hardscrabble childhood and broke through the all-male barriers of Nashville to make America "Crazy" for country music. Her image...flouted all the taboos. Brassy, big-hearted, sexy as hell, she dressed like a cowgirl or a call girl, swore like a truck driver, and seduced men like a femme fatale. Her money...bought her a dream house and a silver fox coat. But it was too little, too late to erase the memories of mental breakdown and marriages-or avert the tragedies to come. Her men...were lady-killers-hard-loving, big-talking country boys who would hit the bottle, let her down and break her heart. Her music...remains haunting, earthy and selling millions...even though she fought against recording her hits, "Walkin' After Midnight" and "I Fall to Pieces," because they weren't "country enough."

Kiss and Sell: The Making of a Supergroup


C.K. Lendt - 1997
    The unauthorized behind-the-scenes story of the making and marketing of one of rock's original supergroups, viewed from the perspective of an executive from Kiss's business management team.

I'm (No Longer) a Mormon: A Confessional


Regina Samuelson - 2012
    This is not as easy as one would imagine: She was born in the church, educated at BYU, married in the temple, and is raising more Mormons. She faced a serious conundrum: keep quiet (and avoid losing everything dear to her), or tell the world what being raised LDS does to a person's psyche, especially when they realize that everything they were taught and everything they hoped to believe is a lie. To expose the difficulty faced by Mormons who leave the Church and to seek support for their plight, Regina offers a first-person confessional memoir recounting her many atrocious experiences, managing to weave in enough humor to keep you turning pages, and enough brutal honesty to bring you to an understanding of what it is to be a Mormon, and to try to leave it behind...

The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats


Grandmaster Flash - 2008
    Theirs was a groundbreaking union between one DJ and five rapping MCs. One of the first hip hop posses, they were responsible for such masterpieces as “The Message” and “Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel.” In the 1970s Grandmaster Flash pioneered the art of break-beat DJing—the process of remixing and thereby creating a new piece of music by playing vinyl records and turntables as musical instruments. Disco-era DJs spun records so that people could dance. The original turntablist, Flash took it a step further by cutting, rubbing, backspinning, and mixing records, focusing on “breaks”—what Flash described as “the short, climactic parts of the records that really grabbed me”—as a way of heightening musical excitement and creating something new. Now the man who paved the way for such artists as Jay-Z, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, and 50 Cent tells all—from his early days on the mean streets of the South Bronx, to the heights of hip hop stardom, losing millions at the hands of his record label, his downward spiral into cocaine addiction, and his ultimate redemption with the help and love of his family and friends. In this powerful memoir, Flash recounts how music from the streets, much like rock ’n’ roll a generation before, became the sound of an era and swept a nation with its funk, flavor, and beat.

Moonage Daydream: The Life & Times of Ziggy Stardust


David Bowie - 2002
    Moonage Daydream is the most complete, detailed exploration of one of rock 'n' roll's greatest creations: Ziggy Stardust.Featuring more than 600 photographs from Mick Rock's vast archive, Moonage Daydream takes the reader from the early English Concerts where Ziggy and the Spiders from Mars made their names, to Ziggy's final swansong, the flamboyant 1980 Floor Show.Alongside Mick Rock's reflections on these incredible images, David Bowie adds his own thoughts: discussing Ziggy's origins ad giving an unprecedented insight into the stratospheric two-year career of his alter-ego.These include reflections on his collaboration with mime artist Lindsay Kemp; the breakthrough tour of the USA; the massive sell-out UK tour that culminated in Ziggy's official retirement; and the recording of Pin Ups in Paris.Mick Rock's camera caught more of the Ziggy legend than any other ad followed Bowie into hotel rooms and dressing rooms, on the road and socialising with musicians and friends including Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Mick Jagger.Also included are formal studio sessions for the Pin Ups album sleeve and the four pioneering music videos that Mick directed and filmed for Bowie.

And Then I Cried: Stories of a Mortuary NCO


Justin Jordan - 2012
    Jordan details life as an Air Force Mortuary Non Commissioned Officer. In his stunning debut Jordan forces the reader to walk beside him on his journey in this gruesome world. Jordan holds nothing back, and shares in graphic detail how he honored Americas heroes, both at deployed locations and stateside. This book will pry your eyes wide open as you gasp from the sheer horror he faced daily, from dealing with the families of the fallen, to witnessing the embalming and preparations of the deceased. Jordan also shares how this job taxed his mental well being, as he suffered in silence, longing not to care. Jordan is still serving on Active Duty and suffers from the crippling effects of PTSD, his story will enlighten you, it will touch you, and yes, you will cry.

Steely Dan: Reelin' in the Years


Brian Sweet - 1994
    This edition spans the years between 1973's Can't Buy a Thrill and their 2000 comeback Two against Nature.

Elvis and the Memphis Mafia


Alanna Nash - 1995
    Through revealing interviews with three of Elvis’s closest friends, who were also his protectors and rescuers, Nash achieves the first true mapping of Elvis’s psyche. Billy Smith – Elvis’s first cousin and the person he reputedly loved most after his own mother – Marty Lacker – best man at his wedding and foreman of the ‘Memphis Mafia’, the King’s handpicked group of gatekeepers and confidants – and Lamar Fike – the touring crew member who accompanied him into the Army – were with Elvis from his teens to his final days and provide unique access to the greatest of all rock and roll legends. The revelations cut through every aspect of Elvis’s life, from the childhood seeds of his drug dependency, through his fear for his mother’s life and his plan to change his identity, to his bizarre self-mutilation. No one who reads this symphonic blending of three proud, ribald, sad and ultimately wistful voices can fail to be profoundly moved.

Chapter and Verse: New Order, Joy Division and Me


Bernard Sumner - 2014
    Until now… An integral part of the Manchester music scene since the late 1970s, his is the definitive version of the events that created two of the most influential bands of all time. Chapter and Verse includes a vivid and illuminating account of Bernard’s Salford childhood, the early days of Joy Division, the band’s enormous critical and popular success, and the subsequent tragic death of Ian Curtis. Bernard describes the formation of New Order, takes us behind the scenes at the birth of classics such as 'Blue Monday' and gives his first-hand account of the ecstasy and the agony of the Haçienda days.Sometimes moving, often hilarious and occasionally completely out of control, this is a tale populated by some of the most colourful and creative characters in music history, such as Ian Curtis, Tony Wilson, Rob Gretton and Martin Hannett. Others have told parts of the story, in film and book form. Now, for the first time, Bernard Sumner gives you chapter and verse.