Jeremy Simmonds here draws on a lifetime’s obsession to match the industry’s biggest departed stars--Buddy, Jeff, Sid, Jimi, Biggie, Janis, Elvis, Marc, Tupac--with more than a few lesser-known tales of rock tragedy. He also includes a smorgasbord of lighter-hearted sidebars, including strange facts, lucky escapes, and top-ten death discs. An indispensable reference full of useful and useless information, with hundreds of photos of the good, the bad, and the silly, The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars is guaranteed to rock the world of trivia buffs and diehards alike.

    From folk-rockers to blue- and brown-eyed soulsters to rock sati

    This study of the blues by one of America's premier essayists and novelists will change old attitudes about a tradition that continues to feed the very heart of popular music—a blues that dances, shakes, shimmies, and exchanges bad news for stomping, rollicking, pulse-quickening good times.

    New Large Hardcover with dust jacket

    An in-depth analysis of Dylan's groudbreaking and often controversial work on stage and in the studio.

    While vinyl records have enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, good 78s are exponentially harder to come by and play. A recent eBay auction for the only known copy of a particular record topped out at $37,100. Do Not Sell at Any Price explores the rarified world of the 78rpm record—from the format’s heyday to its near extinction—and how collectors and archivists are working frantically to preserve the music before it’s lost forever.Through fascinating historical research and beguiling visits with the most prominent 78 preservers, Amanda Petrusich offers both a singular glimpse of the world of 78 collecting and the lost backwoods blues artists whose 78s from the 1920s and 1930s have yet to be found or heard by modern ears. We follow the author’s descent into the oddball fraternity of collectors—including adventures with Joe Bussard, Chris King, John Tefteller, Pete Whelan, and more—who create and follow their own rules, vocabulary, and economics and explore the elemental genres of blues, folk, jazz, and gospel that gave seed to the rock, pop, country, and hip-hop we hear today. From Thomas Edison to Jack White, Do Not Sell at Any Price is an untold, intriguing story of preservation, loss, obsession, art, and the evolution of the recording formats that have changed the ways we listen to (and create) music.

    Dismissed by critics and academics, condemned by parents and politicians, fervently embraced by legions of fans, heavy metal music attracts and embodies cultural conflicts that are central to our society. Walser explores how and why heavy metal works, both musically and socially, and at the same time uses metal to investigate contemporary formations of identity, community, gender, and power.

    Each became a star; their story would become a legend. J. D. Davis's enthralling new biography of famous cousins Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Swaggart, and Mickey Gilley, born within a twelve-month span in small-town Louisiana during the Great Depression, draws from exhaustive research and personal connections with friends and family. Davis recreates the irresistible and life-changing power of music that surrounded the cousins as boys and shaped their engagingly distinct paths to fame. With three personal journeys set alongside important landmarks in pop-culture history, Davis presents a unique tale of American music centered on the trials, tribulations, and achievements of three men who remain truly Unconquered.

    The books have been organized according to major historical periods, as they would be in any major Western history text. Each title is linked with the Amazon page where the book is offered. Simply click on the title that interests you and then download it to your computer. Kindle users may be able to use the same approach or they may simply search for the titles using the "search" page (scroll down to Kindle Store) and then download at no charge. If the first approach will not work, the second will.Mike Caputo (Editor)WHAT OUR READERS SAY"Fascinating." (S.F.S. reader)"A History readers' delight." (Amazon customer)"Great For Historical Knowledge." (C.E. reader) "Great books. I am glad someone took the time to curate this." (Adam, reader)"I love all of the older history volumes available on Amazon.This is a well constructed list..." (C.B. Reader)"...a good resource..." (A.A. Reader)"A fine list of free history books for the Kindle on Amazon."(Kindle Customer)"Would and do recommend to anyone who spends way too much time as I do, looking at books." (Kindle customer)"Great information here." (Kindle customer)"A great selection for research and reference. Many interesting books on multiple topics that were written as it was happening, not a researchers opinion of what they think happened way back when." (Kindle customer)

    But it’s a bit less widely understood that in about 1950, this stream of great songs more or less dried up. All of a sudden, what came over the radio wasn’t Gershwin, Porter, and Berlin, but “Come on-a My House” and “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?” Elvis and rock and roll arrived a few years later, and at that point the game was truly up. What happened, and why? In The B Side, acclaimed cultural historian Ben Yagoda answers those questions in a fascinating piece of detective work. Drawing on previously untapped archival sources and on scores of interviews—the voices include Randy Newman, Jimmy Webb, Linda Ronstadt, and Herb Alpert—the book illuminates broad musical trends through a series of intertwined stories. Among them are the battle between ASCAP and Broadcast Music, Inc.; the revolution in jazz after World War II; the impact of radio and then television; and the bitter, decades-long feud between Mitch Miller and Frank Sinatra. The B Side is about taste, and the particular economics and culture of songwriting, and the potential of popular art for greatness and beauty. It’s destined to become a classic of American musical history.

    Beatles.

    The Rough Guide to the Beatles covers every aspect of the Fab Four, delving deep into the Beatles music, lyrics, movies and the Beatles solo careers. Features include: The Story: from Liverpool clubs to Beatlemania. The Music: incisive reviews of every Beatles and solo album and new Beatle Music from George Martin's son Giles. The Canon: the inside track on the 50 greatest songs. On Screen: the movies, the promos and the TV appearances and new coverage of the upcoming Rock Band-style video game of Beatle music.The Fifth Beatle: George Martin, Yoko Ono, Magic Alex and other contenders as well as the resignation and death of Neil Aspinall. Beatleology: the best books, the weirdest covers, the most obsessive websites, the obscurest trivia. This updated edition includes new material on Cirque Du Soleil 's acclaimed Love Show - the only officially endorsed Beatles theatrical presentation, Paul McCartney's albums Memory Almost Full, Ecce Cor Meum and Electric Arguments and the media circus surrounding the McCartney/ Mills divorce. All you need is this!

    Ward and Ken Burns vividly bring to life the story of the quintessential American music—jazz. Born in the black community of turn-of-the-century New Orleans but played from the beginning by musicians of every color, jazz celebrates all Americans at their best.Here are the stories of the extraordinary men and women who made the music: Louis Armstrong, the fatherless waif whose unrivaled genius helped turn jazz into a soloist's art and influenced every singer, every instrumentalist who came after him; Duke Ellington, the pampered son of middle-class parents who turned a whole orchestra into his personal instrument, wrote nearly two thousand pieces for it, and captured more of American life than any other composer. Bix Beiderbecke, the doomed cornet prodigy who showed white musicians that they too could make an important contribution to the music; Benny Goodman, the immigrants' son who learned the clarinet to help feed his family, but who grew up to teach a whole country how to dance; Billie Holiday, whose distinctive style routinely transformed mediocre music into great art; Charlie Parker, who helped lead a musical revolution, only to destroy himself at thirty-four; and Miles Davis, whose search for fresh ways to sound made him the most influential jazz musician of his generation, and then led him to abandon jazz altogether. Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Artie Shaw, and Ella Fitzgerald are all here; so are Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and a host of others.But Jazz is more than mere biography. The history of the music echoes the history of twentieth-century America. Jazz provided the background for the giddy era that F. Scott Fitzgerald called the Jazz Age. The irresistible pulse of big-band swing lifted the spirits and boosted American morale during the Great Depression and World War II. The virtuosic, demanding style called bebop mirrored the stepped-up pace and dislocation that came with peace. During the Cold War era, jazz served as a propaganda weapon—and forged links with the burgeoning counterculture. The story of jazz encompasses the story of American courtship and show business; the epic growth of great cities—New Orleans and Chicago, Kansas City and New York—and the struggle for civil rights and simple justice that continues into the new millennium.Visually stunning, with more than five hundred photographs, some never before published, this book, like the music it chronicles, is an exploration—and a celebration—of the American experiment.From the Hardcover edition.

    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 fully updated and expanded book is not about how the music business should work, but how it does work. Industry insider Moses Avalon tells it like it is how producers dip into budgets, artists steal songs, lawyers write contracts in code and shows you how to survive these and other career-stifling situations. Deconstructing actual major and indie-label record deals, this book dissects each party's involvement and offers perspective on their actual roles, how much they get paid, and what their agendas really are. Engineers, managers, producers, artists, labels and lawyers each take their turn in the hot seat. It also outlines realistic alternatives for newcomers, such as "baby" production deals and vanity labels. This third edition includes: an entire chapter comparing ASCAP and BMI a publishing first * new insights for indie artists, including the lowdown on digital-distribution scams and independent A&R * information on new legislation and its impact on sampling and other legal matters * new music-industry "family trees" that reflect recent consolidation and reorganization * 80 pages of new material * and much more.