While he is often unjustly overlooked as a mere adjunct to his more famous brothers Brian and Dennis, Carl was a major international rock star from his early teens.The proud owner of one of the greatest voices in popular music--one that graced some of the most important records of the pop era, including 'God Only Knows' and 'Good Vibrations'--Wilson was also one of the first musicians to bring the electric guitar to the forefront of rock'n'roll. His musical skills provided The Beach Boys' entree into the music business, from which he then stewarded their onstage journey through the ups and downs of the 60s to their comeback in the 70s and into the role of 'America's band' in the 80s. Along the way, Carl quietly endured his own battles with obesity, divorce, substance abuse, and ultimately terminal cancer, all the while working to protect his family's business and legacy. This major new biography reveals the true story of modern rock'n'roll, lived from the center of the most important decades of popular music.

    Packed full of zingers and hilarious illustrations, if this doesn't put a smile on your face, nothing will. What's not to like:The other day someone left a piece of plasticine in my dressing room. I didn't know what to make of it. I'm against hunting. I'm actually a hunt saboteur. I go out the night before and shoot the fox. I saw this bloke chatting up a cheetah. He was trying to pull a fast one. Black holes. I don't know what people see in them. So I fancied a game of darts with my mate. He said, 'Nearest the bull goes first.' He went 'Baah' and I went 'Moo'. He said 'You're closest.' Velcro. What a rip-off. Black Beauty. He's a dark horse. I've got a sponge front door. Hey, don't knock it.

    His writing style is remarkable — unrestrained, informal, full of brilliant insight — and this style plus Huneker's wide knowledge of art and literature as well as music has kept his literacy work alive. Chopin: The Man and His Music reflects the intimate, thorough knowledge of Chopin's music that Huneker acquired while studying to be a concert pianist and his unusually keen insight into the character of the great Polish composer whose music he adored.The book is divided into two parts. The first treats Chopin's life — his youth in Poland, his emigration to Paris, the famous George Sand episode, his sickness and death — and comments on Chopin as a teacher and as a pianist and performer. The second part discusses the entire body of Chopin's music, piece by piece. Huneker notes his own overall impression of the individual compositions as well as the impressions of Schumann, George Sand, Chopin's biographer Frederick Niecks, many of the great pianists, and others. He directly compares differing editions of Chopin's Études, Preludes, Nocturnes, Mazurkas, Polonaises, Sonatas, and other works edited by von Bülow, Kullak, Riemann, Mikuli, and Godowsky in their detailed treatment of fingering, phrasing, pedaling, tempo indication, and so forth.Huneker's entire work is reprinted here unchanged, thoroughly edited in running footnotes by Herbert Weinstock to correct the exuberant Huneker's inaccuracies and to add information that modern musical scholarship has unearthed. Weinstock has also provided an engrossing introductory essay on Huneker, and has amplified the bibliography to include modern books and articles on Chopin.A classic in musical biography and commentary, this work is unsurpassed for sympathetic understanding and insight into Chopin's life and music. It will interest equally music students, pianists, and music lovers.

    When all of this is melded with Popoff’s unique and celebrated insights into the metal of yesterday and today, an essential resource becomes a rock-writing standard. From AC/DC to ZZ Top and from Black Sabbath to Pantera, both headbanging chart-toppers and lesser-known gems are catalogued and critically appraised. With reviews of early metal albums of the 1960s, as well as the latest hits, The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time blends praise with criticism to produce an honest assessment of the most influential and important heavy metal recordings. Also featured are photos and appendices that revel in mountains of metal minutiae. “Martin Popoff has no doubt supplied the raw material for all manner of intense debates among the former denizens of basement bedrooms everywhere.” — The Toronto Sun

    At the age of 15, in 1964, Lulu - born Marie Lawrie in Glasgow - was already a star with her international hit song 'Shout'. At 18 she stole hearts as an English schoolgirl to Sidney Poitier's teacher with the movie hit 'To Sir With Love'. At 21, she married a Bee Gee, Maurice Gibb, and tied as winner of the Eurovision Song Contest with 'Boom-Bang-a-Bang'. Yet in 1993 she reached No.1 with 'Relight My Fire' (with Take That). Nearly forty years at the top of the showbiz tree, Lulu has never been afraid to experiment with new trends, and her book reflects the daring that took a girl from a Glasgow tenement to international stardom - as 'To Sir With Love' says, 'from crayons to perfume'.I DON’T WANT TO FIGHT (the title of a song Lulu wrote and Tina Turner recorded) is the devastatingly candid autobiography of a singer who has never shirked from facing anything.

    The book contains the lyrics, melody, and chord symbols for eight hit songs. The CD contains demos for listening and separate backing tracks so you can sing along. The CD is playable on any CD, but it is also enhanced for PC and Mac computer users so you can adjust the recording to any pitch without changing the tempo Perfect for home rehearsal, parties, auditions, corporate events, and gigs without a backup band. This volume includes 8 top hits from the show "Hannah Montana" The Best of Both Worlds * I Got Nerve * If We Were a Movie * Life's What You Make It * Nobody's Perfect * The Other Side of Me * We Got the Party * Who Said.

    Scores include all instrumental parts (even drums!), guitar, and bass in both notation and guitar tab, plus chords, and complete lyrics. 212 songs. 1,136 pages, hardcover in deluxe slip case.

    From The Wire: "Matthew Ingram, aka Woebot, has published a book titled 100 Lost Rock Albums From The 1970s. The book takes in strands of metal, glam rock, French artists, punk and pub rock, and is released digitally as a self-published eBook via Amazon. Ingram says: 'Last year I started writing an article on the 100 Lost Rock Albums From The 1970s but it ballooned out of all proportions and I decided to turn it into an eBook.''Over time we have lost touch with the original character of the 70s. Using 'lost' records I've attempted to re-examinine the decade and redress what I see as imbalance. Beyond small reviews of a meticulously-selected 100 albums there's quite a lot of contemporary history, much theorising and lots of gags.'"

    Once a cynical New York reporter trying to get the "scoop" on the Mormons, Luke is now one himself, and determined to live a Christ-like life. On a new assignment in Sudan, Africa as part of a humanitarian project, Luke realizes this isn't "Mormonville" anymore, in fact, Sudan is one of the most dangerous places in the world. But with a goal to further his career and be of good service, he plows ahead. Seeking an injured man outside the safety of a refugee camp, Luke and fellow workers are ambushed and kidnapped by terrorists. Now he will learn what it means to be a true Christian as he tries to build relationships with his captors, modeling compassion and kindness in hopes of a release. But days turn into weeks and months, and Luke wonders if he'll ever hold Hayley in his arms again. A timely look at a troubling situation, Jeff Call takes us on a journey of profound importance, especially for all of us who want to learn what it means to stand for the right and yet, "turn the other cheek."

    Add the mercurial Brian Jones (who'd been effectively run out of Cheltenham for theft, multiple impregnations and playing blues guitar) and the wryly opinionated Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, and the potential was obvious. During the 1960s and 70s the Rolling Stones were the polarising figures in Britain, admired in some quarters for their flamboyance, creativity and salacious lifestyles, and reviled elsewhere for the same reasons. Confidently expected never to reach 30 they are now approaching their seventies and, in 2012, will have been together for 50 years. In The Rolling Stones, Christopher Sandford tells the human drama at the centre of the Rolling Stones story. Sandford has carried out interviews with those close to the Stones, family members (including Mick's parents), the group's fans and contemporaries - even examined their previously unreleased FBI files. Like no other book before The Rolling Stones will make sense of the rich brew of clever invention and opportunism, of talent, good fortune, insecurity, self-destructiveness, and of drugs, sex and other excess, that made the Stones who they are.

    The hugely popular Gareth Malone recounts the heart-warming stories and transformations behind the award-winning BBC2 series The Choir

    But when Alan Horne and Edwyn Collins decided to start their own label from a shabby Glasgow flat in 1979, nobody was going to stand in their way.Postcard Records was the mad, makeshift and quite preposterous result. Launching the careers of Orange Juice, Aztec Camera and cult heroes Josef K, the self-styled 'Sound of Young Scotland' stuck it to the London music biz and, quite by accident, kickstarted the 1980s indie music revolution.Simon Goddard has interviewed everyone involved in the making of the Postcard legend to tell this thrilling rock'n'roll story of punk audacity, knickerbocker glories, broken windscreens, raccoon-fur hats, comedy, violence and creating something beautiful from nothing, against all the odds.

    Freak Out the Squares is Russell's exceptionally witty, unusual and enlightening account of the heady times being a key member of Britpop's best-loved and most enduringly relevant band. The first account of life in Pulp, it takes as its starting point the band's reunion tour in 2011, which culminated in a triumphant Glastonbury performance. It's packed with good stories about Britpop luminaries, including Jarvis of course, and digs back into Pulp's origins in Sheffield and to their glory days at the height of Britpop. Russell Senior is a man too smart to have ever been a pop star. And Pulp were too odd a band ever to have become so big. But we can only be grateful that he was, and they did – and that Freak Out the Squares tells the story in Russell's inimitable, entertaining and fascinating way.

    Part I, Artful Practice, describes strategies to interpret and memorizecompositions, fuel motivation, collaborate, and more. Part II, Fearless Performance, lifts the lid on the hidden causes of nervousness and shows how musicians can become confident performers. Part III, Lifelong Creativity, surveys tactics to prevent music-related injuries and equips musicians to taptheir own innate creativity. Written in a conversational style, The Musician's Way presents an inclusive system for all instrumentalists and vocalists to advance their musical abilities and succeed as performing artists.

    As the founder of Creation Records he brought us the music that defined an era. A charismatic Glaswegian who partied just as hard as any of the bands on his notoriously dissolute label, he became a star himself.In Creation Stories he tells his story in depth for the first time, from leaving school at sixteen to setting up the Living Room club in London, which showcased many emerging indie bands, from managing the Jesus and Mary Chain to co-founding Creation when he was only twenty-three.He then discovered dance and acid house, decamping to Manchester and hanging out at the Hacienda, and took Creation into the big time with Primal Scream's Screamadelica. His drug-induced breakdown, when it came was dramatic. But as he climbed back to sobriety, he signed Oasis, becoming one of the figureheads of Britpop. He sold the label to Sony to stave off bankruptcy and eventually left in 1999 but has continued to be in an influential figure in the music industry.