Now anyone can write and play their own songs on the guitar with no prior training! This inspirational handbook teaches readers how to play guitar, while providing a solid foundation in songwriting techniques, using well-known songs as examples, easy-to-follow text, and graphics that explain and demonstrate lyrics, melody, harmony and rhythm. This book's straightforward style will have even those who've never played a guitar or written a song making music with ease.

    

    Nominated for a whopping 10 Tony Awards in 2005, Wicked is an undeniable Broadway smash! A prequel to the all-American classic The Wizard of Oz , this new musical is a character study of Elphaba and Glinda, school roommates who grow up to become the Wicked Witch and the Good Witch, respectively. This songbook, in standard piano/vocal format with the melody in the piano part, feature a color photos from the production, a note from composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz, and these fantastic tunes: As Long as You're Mine * Dancing Through Life * Defying Gravity * For Good * I Couldn't Be Happier * I'm Not That Girl * No Good Deed * No One Mourns the Wicked * One Short Day * Popular * What Is This Feeling? * The Wizard and I * Wonderful.

    The embarrassment is palatable, but perseverance is the most touching part of these stories. These awful things that happened don't interrupt the dream. The dream of performing and stardom. The dream of connecting with an audience. No Encore! is a glimpse into the analog past; a trip to a distant world when artists made albums and suites of songs you listened in order." —Bret Easton Ellis   “They hated us and started throwing cups, bottles, change, chairs, and anything that wasn’t nailed down.” —Dean Ween This hilarious, sometimes horrifying, collection spans four decades and chronicles the craziest, druggiest, and most embarrassing concert moments in music history—direct from the artists who survived them.  “In the midst of my insanity, I thought it would be a very romantic gesture to go into Fiona Apple’s dressing room and write a message on her wall in my own blood.” —Dave Navarro From wardrobe malfunctions to equipment failures, from bad decisions to even worse choices, this is a riveting look into what happens when things go wrong onstage and off. “Ozzy had a sixty-inch teleprompter with the song lyrics, and that got stolen, along with microphones, snare drums and cymbals. Our drummer at the time was stabbing people in the neck with his drumstick.” —Zakk Wylde No Encore! is an unflinchingly honest account of the shows that tested the dedication to a dream—from Alice Cooper’s python having a violent, gastric malfunction on stage to Lou Barlow’s disastrous attempt to sober up at Glastonbury, from Shirley Manson’s desperate search for a bathroom to the extraordinary effort made to awaken Al Jourgenson as Ministry was taking the stage. As Hunter S. Thompson famously wrote, “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”  “I go to exit the venue, and there’s 25 people marching towards us. It’s about 3:00 AM, and they weren’t there to be nice. They were carrying bats, boards, chains, hammers, and they were coming for us.” —Dee Snider

    In this book, readers will discover how he got his start in the entertainment industry through fascinating facts and a timeline of his career so far. Exciting concert photographs and cute close-ups enhance the accessible text. Reluctant readers will have Bieber fever after reading this high-interest book.

    All songs are arranged with standard notation and tab for guitar, with chord symbols, full lyrics and chord boxes. Includes a generous selection of color photographs of the band in action and Gerald Scarfe illustrations. Songs include: Another Brick in the Wall * Comfortably Numb * Hey You * In the Flesh? * Is There Anybody Out There? * Mother * Run Like Hell * Young Lust * and more.

    Practical reference manual and accompanying audiotape deal with the vocal problems encountered daily in the teaching studio and choral rehearsal Accompanying audiotape contains 14 voice samples cross-referenced to text Male and female voice samples help to identify basic characteristic sounds associated with each fault

    Understanding the unique talents and training of musicians, veteran music career counselor Angela Myles Beeching presents a wealth of creative solutions for career advancement in the highly competitive music industry. Step-by-step instructions detail how to design promotional materials, book performances, network and access resources and assistance, jump start a stalled career, and expand your employment opportunities while remaining true to your music. Beeching untangles artist management and the recording industry, explains how to find and create performance opportunities, and provides guidance on grant writing and fundraising, day jobs, freelancing, and how to manage money, time, and stress. The companion website puts numerous up-to-date and useful internet resources at your fingertips. This essential handbook goes beyond the usual how-to, helping musicians tackle the core questions about career goals, and create a meaningful life as a professional musician. Beyond Talent is the ideal companion for students and professionals, emerging musicians and mid-career artists.

    Richard Meltzer (a.k.a. R. Meltzer) took his training as a young philosopher and applied it with unalloyed enthusiasm to the lyrics, sound, and culture of rock and roll. Never before had anyone noticed the relationship between the philosophy of Heidegger and a tune by Little Anthony and the Imperials, heard the cries of agony in the Shangri Las' “Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)”, or transcribed every "papa-ooma-mow-mow" in the Trashmen's “Surfin' Bird.”From Dionne Warwick to Plato, Jim Morrison to Bert Brecht, Conway Twitty to Miguel de Unamuno, Meltzer subverts high and low culture in his search for meaning, emotion, and codes in popular music. At once an earnest investigation and a crypto put-on, the book can be read for its nuggets of information and insights or for its humor. Here with Greil Marcus's new introduction, yet another generation of readers can be outraged and inspired.

    In his brief life, Hank Williams created one of the defining bodies of American music. Songs such as "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Hey, Good Lookin'," and "Jambalaya" sold millions of records and became the model for virtually all country music that followed. But by the time of his death at age twenty-nine, Williams had drunk and drugged and philandered his way through two messy marriages and out of his headline spot on the Grand Ole Opry. Even though he was country music's top seller, toward the end he was so famously unreliable that he was lucky to get a booking in a beer hall. Colin Escott's enthralling, definitive biograph -- now the basis of the major motion picture I Saw the Light -- vividly details the singer's stunning rise and his spectacular decline, revealing much that was previously unknown or hidden about the life of this country music legend. Originally published as Hank William: The Biography.

    Lies, myths, rumors and tall tales spread by people who didn’t know him have masked Jim Morrison and clouded what he accomplished. Fearing that the original, actual real Jim would become hopelessly lost, Frank Lisciandro, Jim’s friend and film collaborator, gathered together more than a dozen of Morrison’s friends for a series of conversations and interviews. In the transcripts of these talks Jim Morrison is candidly brought to light by the people who knew him, who were his pals, colleagues, mentors and lovers. Jim Morrison: Friends Gathered Together confronts and sweeps away the fantasy to illuminate an extraordinary man and gifted creative artist. A quote from the book: "To call him a rock star is just a total insult to him and his intelligence and his awareness and this philosophy that was inside of him. His life was a philosophy. He didn’t tell people what they have to do, he just did it himself. He just put it all out there."– Ron Alan The conversations covered a multitude of topics and events. The people who share their stories were themselves active participants in the West Coast music scene: musicians, concert promoters, publicists and band managers. Readers will discover funny stories, secrets revealed and truths more astounding than the fabrications published during and after Morrison’s life. Another quote from the book: “I loved Jim when he would get an idea, he'd say, ‘Uh oh, I think I'm getting a cerebral erection’. And then he'd hold his hands to his head because he had a new idea for a poem or song and then laugh about it. It was the laughter that followed that was wonderful.”– Leon Barnard From his first year in high school and his student days at UCLA to the formation of The Doors and his rise to fame, this book weaves an amazing tapestry of honest information about Morrison the poet, the brilliant lyricist, and the iconic singer and performer of The Doors. The book is a treat for Jim’s fans worldwide and for curious readers who want to know the true Jim Morrison story. The conversations also offer a unique oral history of the restless and turbulent Sixties when L.A.’s Sunset Strip was the focus of a cultural renaissance and musical revolution. The book contains more than 50 original Frank Lisciandro photographs, many never published before. More quotes from the book: "Jim was totally not interested in the economic aspect of his career. I never met anybody like Jim. He was seemingly disconnected with the meaning of money. He truly had no interest in physical possessions." – Bill Siddons “The biographers seem to have lost Jim’s sense of humor. I can’t impress upon you enough that it was always there….He was the funniest human being I ever met. Simply that, the funniest human being I ever met.” – Fud Ford "A few weeks before he left for Paris, I organized a (touch) football game. Jim was relentless in his pursuit of my brother, who was the opposing quarterback.

    By turns hilarious, cautionary, poignant and powerful, the Stop Me...stories collected here include encounters with some of rock's most iconic stars, including David Bowie, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Smiths, R.E.M. and Pearl Jam. From backstage brawls and drug blow-outs, to riots, superstar punch-ups, hotel room confessionals and tour bus lunacy, these are stories from the madness of a music scene now long gone. Allan Jones is an award-winning British music journalist and editor. In 1974, he applied for a job on the UK's best-selling music paper as a junior reporter, signing off his application with "Melody Maker needs a bullet up the arse. I'm the gun, pull the trigger†?. He was editor of Melody Maker from 1984 to 1997 and until 2014 editor of music and film monthly Uncut.

    Everyone's wearing black. And on-stage a tenor is blowing his heart out, a searching, jagged saxophone journey played out against a moody, walking bass and the swish of a drummer's brushes. To a great many listeners--from African American aficionados of the period to a whole new group of fans today--this is the very embodiment of jazz. It is also quintessential hard bop. In this, the first thorough study of the subject, jazz expert and enthusiast David H. Rosenthal vividly examines the roots, traditions, explorations and permutations, personalities and recordings of a climactic period in jazz history. Beginning with hard bop's origins as an amalgam of bebop and R&B, Rosenthal narrates the growth of a movement that embraced the heavy beat and bluesy phrasing of such popular artists as Horace Silver and Cannonball Adderley; the stark, astringent, tormented music of saxophonists Jackie McLean and Tina Brooks; the gentler, more lyrical contributions of trumpeter Art Farmer, pianists Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan, composers Benny Golson and Gigi Gryce; and such consciously experimental and truly one-of-a-kind players and composers as Andrew Hill, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus. Hard bop welcomed all influences--whether Gospel, the blues, Latin rhythms, or Debussy and Ravel--into its astonishingly creative, hard-swinging orbit. Although its emphasis on expression and downright badness over technical virtuosity was unappreciated by critics, hard bop was the music of black neighborhoods and the last jazz movement to attract the most talented young black musicians. Fortunately, records were there to catch it all. The years between 1955 and 1965 are unrivaled in jazz history for the number of milestones on vinyl. Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, Charles Mingus's Mingus Ah Um, Thelonious Monk's Brilliant Corners, Horace Silver's Further Explorations--Rosenthal gives a perceptive cut-by-cut analysis of these and other jazz masterpieces, supplying an essential discography as well. For knowledgeable jazz-lovers and novices alike, Hard Bop is a lively, multi-dimensional, much-needed examination of the artists, the milieus, and above all the sounds of one of America's great musical epochs.

    It's about their adventures in pizza. It's about them discovering the DIY punk community and starting a record label. It's about a lot of other stuff too."

    His heart damaged by rheumatic fever as a youth, Berns was not expected to live to see 21. Although his name is little remembered today, Berns worked alongside all the greats of the era—Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler, Burt Bacharach, Phil Spector, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, anyone who was anyone in New York rhythm and blues. In seven quick years, he went from nobody to the top of the pops—producer of monumental r&b classics, songwriter of “Twist and Shout,” “My Girl Sloopy,” “Piece of My Heart,” and others.His fury to succeed led Berns to use his Mafia associations to muscle Atlantic Records out of their partnership and intimidate new talents like Neil Diamond and Van Morrison, whom he had signed to his record label. Berns died at age 38 from a long-expected heart attack, just when he was seeing his grandest plans and life’s ambitions frustrated and foiled.