Ordinary People


Ozzy Osbourne - 2003
    It will also feature the couple's third child, Aimee, who declined to take part in the show and lived in the guesthouse during the six months of taping. It features their alternating voices and will add yet another dimension to this highly original show.

Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink


Elvis Costello - 2015
    Costello went into the family business and had taken the popular music world by storm before he was twenty-four.Costello continues to add to one of the most intriguing and extensive songbooks of the day. His performances have taken him from a cardboard guitar in his front room to fronting a rock and roll band on your television screen and performing in the world's greatest concert halls in a wild variety of company. Unfaithful Music describes how Costello's career has somehow endured for almost four decades through a combination of dumb luck and animal cunning, even managing the occasional absurd episode of pop stardom.This memoir, written with the same inimitable touch as his lyrics, and including dozens of images from his personal archive, offers his unique view of his unlikely and sometimes comical rise to international success, with diversions through the previously undocumented emotional foundations of some of his best known songs and the hits of tomorrow. The book contains many stories and observations about his renowned co-writers and co-conspirators, though Costello also pauses along the way for considerations on the less appealing side of infamy.Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink is destined to be a classic, idiosyncratic memoir of a singular man.

Northern Soul


Jimmy Nail - 2004
    Jimmy Nail has been a household name since Auf Wiedersehen, Pet hit our screens in the 1980s. since then, his career as an actor and a musician has put on him on the silver screen alongside Madonna and given him a No. 1 hit single. Success on this astonishing scale was beyond the wildest dreams of the working class lad whose harsh childhood and brutal schooling put him on a collision course with Strangeways. But a short spell in prison helped propel Nail onwards and upwards. With the support of his friends and family, it wasn't long before Jimmy's unique talents and single-minded determination brought him attention of a different kind - and changed his life for ever. In A Northern Soul, Jimmy Nail tells his own vivid story in this intriguing, inspiring and sometimes confounding account of how one man rose to fame and fortune by refusing to be anything but himself.

Gold Dust Woman: A Biography of Stevie Nicks


Stephen Davis - 2017
    Just as Nicks (and Lindsay Buckingham) gave Fleetwood Mac the shot of adrenaline they needed to become real rock stars--according to Christine McVie--Gold Dust Woman is vibrant with stories and with a life lived large and hard: ●How Nicks and Buckingham were asked to join Fleetwood Mac and how they turned the band into stars ●The affairs that informed Nicks' greatest songs ●Her relationships with the Eagles' Don Henley and Joe Walsh, and with Fleetwood himself ●Why Nicks married her best friend's widower ●Her dependency on cocaine, drinking and pot, but how it was a decade-long addiction to Klonopin that almost killed her ●Nicks' successful solo career that has her still performing in venues like Madison Square Garden ●The cult of Nicks and its extension to chart-toppers like Taylor Swift and the Dixie Chicks

Lennon: The Definitive Biography


Ray Coleman - 1986
    The best and most complete biography about the influential Beatle.

Further Adventures of a Grumpy Old Rock Star


Rick Wakeman - 2009
    What do Postman Pat, Tommy Cooper, Norman Wisdom and George Best have in common with being abandoned in a Costa Rican jungle after a severe bout of flatulence? Indeed, how are they also connected to trying to buy an Australian brewery just to get a beer, owning twenty-two cars, an American soccer team and a Swiss mail-order pornography company?The common feature is of course a certain Richard Wakeman.The Further Adventures of a Grumpy Old Rock Star takes you, the privileged reader, on a trip of absurd excess, a cultural car crash of side-splitting hilarity and an unforgettable glimpse (again) into the life of one of Britain's most legendary showmen, rock stars and all-time great raconteurs.

A Cellarful of Noise


Brian Epstein - 1964
    Much more than simply their manager, confidant, and group guru, Epstein helped create a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.A Cellarful of Noise, Epstein's long out-of-print autobiography, gives readers the inside story of his discovery and management of the world's most famous rock 'n' roll band. From their initial struggles to their wild rocket ride to the pinnacle of success, this true story includes How a request for a record led to the discovery of the Beatles; Why Ringo Starr replaced the original Beatle drummer; How Paul McCartney was nearly blinded by a fan; and hundreds of other fascinating little-known facts of Epstein's life with the Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and other top stars.This new edition of A Cellarful of Noise features an introduction by world-renowned Beatles expert Martin Lewis, which, along with Epstein's own words, creates a compelling insightful exploration of the life and times of a gifted man who had an ear for genius.

Steve Marriott: All Too Beautiful: Fully Revised, Expanded and Updated


Paolo Hewitt - 2004
    An influence on Rod Stewart, Marriott is adored by Blur, Oasis, and Paul Weller.All Too Beautiful was published in hardcover to universal critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the 2005 US ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) Awards for excellence in historical recording research.

Lennon Revealed


Larry Kane - 2005
    "Lennon Revealed" is filled with eye-opening revelations: Kane provides stunning information about Lennon's relationships with Ono, his childhood soulmate Stuart Sutcliffe, his lover May Pang, and Beatles' manager Brian Epstein. Drawing on extensive personal accounts and extraordinary new interviews--most notably, Yoko Ono--Kane brings the reader closer than ever to the charismatic man who, in life and in death, had a singular impact on humanity. The exclusive DVD also features the rarely seen final filmed interview with Lennon and Paul McCartney, conducted by Larry Kane in 1968. (l

John Prine: In Spite of Himself


Eddie Huffman - 2015
    Across five decades, Prine has created critically acclaimed albums--John Prine (one of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time), Bruised Orange, and The Missing Years--and earned many honors, including two Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting from the Americana Music Association, and induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. His songs have been covered by scores of artists, from Johnny Cash and Miranda Lambert to Bette Midler and 10,000 Maniacs, and have influenced everyone from Roger McGuinn to Kacey Musgraves. Hailed in his early years as the "new Dylan," Prine still counts Bob Dylan among his most enthusiastic fans. In John Prine, Eddie Huffman traces the long arc of Prine's musical career, beginning with his early, seemingly effortless successes, which led paradoxically not to stardom but to a rich and varied career writing songs that other people have made famous. He recounts the stories, many of them humorous, behind Prine's best-known songs and discusses all of Prine's albums as he explores the brilliant records and the ill-advised side trips, the underappreciated gems and the hard-earned comebacks that led Prine to found his own successful record label, Oh Boy Records. This thorough, entertaining treatment gives John Prine his due as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation.

Dark Horse: The Life And Art Of George Harrison


Geoffrey Giuliano - 1989
    In the mid–1980s Geoffrey Giuliano lived in the "often wonderfully unreal" world of Harrison and his friends, interviews with whom are the basis for much of this vivid and revealing portrait. Here are Harrison's Liverpool childhood, the forging of the Beatles, their unheralded ascendancy, and the bitter break-up; his turbulent solo career with its soaring successes and harrowing setbacks; his reincarnation as a Traveling Wilbury; his impact as a record and film producer; his oft-publicized and misjudged spiritual quest; and much more. This edition includes an additional chapter that discusses Harrison's life through the twenty-fifth-anniversary reunion of the surviving Beatles to record new tracks for their video and musical anthology, as well as updated appendices and rare, previously unpublished photos. The result is a comprehensive, illuminating look at George Harrison's musical career and inner life.

Rocks: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith


Joe Perry - 2014
    He delves deep into his volatile, profound, and enduring relationship with singer Steve Tyler and reveals the real people behind the larger-than-life rock-gods on stage. The nearly five-decade saga of Aerosmith is epic, at once a study in brotherhood and solitude that plays out on the killing fields of rock and roll.With record-making hits and colossal album sales, Aerosmith has earned their place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But theirs is ultimately a story of endurance, and it starts almost half a century ago with young Perry, the rebel whose loving parents wanted him to assimilate, but who quits school because he doesn’t want to cut his hair. He meets Tyler in a restaurant in New Hampshire, sways him from pop music to rock-and-roll, and it doesn’t take long for the “Toxic Twins” to skyrocket into a world of fame and utter excess. From the mega-successful song and music video with Run DMC, “Walk This Way,” to the realization that he can’t pay his room service bill, Perry takes a personal look into the human stories behind Aerosmith, the people who enabled them, the ones who controlled them, and the ones who changed them. In his own words, Rocks is the whole story: “the loner’s story, the band’s story, the recovery story, the cult story, the love story, the success story, the failure story, the rebirth story, the re-destruction story, the post-destructive rebirth story.”Foreward by Johnny Depp.

Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970s


Tom Doyle - 2013
    Holed up at his farmhouse in Scotland, he sank into a deep depression. To outsiders, McCartney seemed like a man adrift—intimidated by his own fame, paralyzed by the choices that lay before him, cut loose from his musical moorings. But what appeared to be the sad finale of a glorious career was just the start of a remarkable second act.   The product of a long series of one-on-one interviews between McCartney and Scottish rock journalist Tom Doyle, Man on the Run chronicles Paul McCartney’s decadelong effort to escape the shadow of his past, outrace his critics, and defy the expectations of his fans. From the bitter and painful breakup of the Beatles to the sobering wake-up call of John Lennon’s murder, this is a deeply revealing look at a sometimes frightening, often exhilarating period in the life of the world’s most famous rock star.   Sensing that he had nowhere to go but up, Paul McCartney started over from scratch. With emotional—and musical—backing from Linda, he released eccentric solo albums and embarked on a nomadic hippie lifestyle. He formed a new band, Wings, which first took flight on a ramshackle tour of British university towns and eventually returned Paul to the summit of arena rock superstardom.   In Man on the Run, Doyle follows McCartney inside the recording sessions for Wings’ classic album Band on the Run—and provides context for some of the baffling misfires in his discography. Doyle tracks the dizzying highs and exasperating lows of a life lived in the public spotlight: the richly excessive world tours, the Japanese drug bust that nearly ended McCartney’s career, his bitter public feuds with his erstwhile Beatle bandmates, and the aftermath of an infamous drug-and-alcohol-fueled jam session where McCartney helped reconcile the estranged John Lennon and Yoko Ono.   For Paul McCartney, the 1970s were a wild ride with some dark turns. Set against the backdrop of a turbulent decade, Man on the Run casts the “sunny Beatle” in an entirely new light.Praise for Man on the Run   ““Tom Doyle’s detailed chronicle, which includes rare interviews with McCartney and former Wings members, portrays a band that was far more contentious than eager-to-please hits like 1976’s ‘Let ’Em In’ had us believe, fronted by a legend who wanted to be both boss and buddy. The book is larded with tales of Seventies rock-star excess, Paul and Linda’s love of weed, docked paychecks, and grousing musicians.”—Rolling Stone   “Well-researched but still breezy and engaging, the book offers a comprehensive tour of the shaggy, bleary-eyed decade when the hardest-working ex-Beatle reached the zenith of his creative and commercial success. . . . Man on the Run makes an excellent contribution to the burgeoning literature devoted to McCartney’s post-Beatles career.”—The Boston Globe   “In the 1970s, a depressed, heavy-drinking Paul McCartney walked away from The Beatles and reinvented himself as the leader of another hitmaking rock ’n’ roll band. A new book by longtime Q magazine contributing editor Tom Doyle about that turbulent period in the legendary rock star’s life, Man on the Run, catches him in mid-flight.”—Billboard

Faithfull


Marianne Faithfull - 1994
    She recalls her love and life with Mick Jagger, how Bob Dylan wooed her, the Rolling Stones courted her and finally, how drugs trapped her into a world where nothing else mattered but the next fix. She also reveals the contradictions of life as a "star", first as the pop confection she was packaged as, and later as the hard-edged artist who co-authored "Sister Morphine" and shocked the world with "Broken English".

Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer’s Life in Music


Ted Templeman - 2020
    Along the way, Ted details his late ’60s stint as an unlikely star with the sunshine pop outfit Harpers Bizarre and his grind-it-out days as a Warner Bros. tape listener, including the life-altering moment that launched his career as a producer: his discovery of the Doobie Brothers. Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer’s Life in Music takes us into the studio sessions of No. 1 hits like “Black Water” by the Doobie Brothers and “Jump” by Van Halen, as Ted recounts memories and the behind-the-scene dramas that engulfed both massively successful acts. Throughout, Ted also reveals the inner workings of his professional and personal relationships with some of the most talented and successful recording artists in history, including Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Eric Clapton, Lowell George, Sammy Hagar, Linda Ronstadt, David Lee Roth, and Carly Simon.