The Clash: Return of the Last Gang in Town


Marcus Gray - 2002
    Revised and updated to cover the Clash's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the band members' post-Clash careers, The Clash: Return of the Last Gang in Town now includes the first full account of Joe Strummer's "Wilderness Years," his triumphant comeback with the Mescaleros, and his sudden and tragic early death. Extensively revised and updated from both its 1995 and 2001 incarnations, The Clash traces the band members' progress from dispiriting rehearsals in damp London basements to packed American stadiums. A fascinatingly detailed account of the first band to take punk's radical politics to the masses and survive for a decade against all the odds, it also offers an intriguing investigation into the gap between rock mythology and rock reality.

Everything Is Combustible


Richard Lloyd - 2017
    Lloyd recounts the founding of Television, the band's rise alongside other bands and personalities in the 1970’s New York Music scene, and the legend-making of the unparalleled music venue CBGB. As the rock ‘n’ roll tales unfold, he accompanies them with insights into his approach to music and the electric guitar.Lloyd’s mid-career vignettes detail his solo years, including the backstory of critically praised records such as Alchemy and Field of Fire, his drug addiction and recovery, his 90s-era work, and touring adventures with artists such as Matthew Sweet, John Doe, and Robert Quine. Throughout the book is an undercurrent—Lloyd’s continually evolving spiritual-philosophical approach to life, emerging from the conscious digestion of the highs and the lows—both ends of the same stick.In Everything is Combustible, Richard Lloyd relates his life, both inner and outer, in the narrative style, digging beneath the events and revealing their meanings.Considered a foundational band of alternative rock, Television’s debut record, Marquee Moon, is widely viewed by critics and musicians as one of the greatest albums ever recorded. As one half of Television’s unique guitar sound, and a legendary solo artist in his own right, Richard Lloyd’s music has influenced a range of bands and artists from U2, Johnny Marr and Joy Division to R.E.M., Sonic Youth, Wilco and John Frusciante.

The Stranglers: Song by Song 1974-1990


Hugh Cornwell - 2002
    Their hits, including Golden Brown, No More Heroes and Always The Sun, were written against a background of spectacular success, dismal failure, drug dependency, financial ruin, infighting and misfortune. Understandably, the band have been loath to reveal the true meaning behind their songs, instead revelling in the mystery and confusion they created. As a response to David Buckley's one-sided biography of the band (No Mercy, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997), Hugh Cornwell, founding member and songwriter, is determined to set the record straight, displace the myths and explain for the first time the real stories behind The Stranglers, his departure and the origins of all their songs.

My Dead Dad Was in ZZ Top: 100% Real*, Never-Before-Seen Documents from the World of Rock and Roll


Jon Glaser - 2011
    In this book, you'll discover the following:• Handwritten letters by Glaser's own father, which reveal him to be an early member of the band we now know as ZZ Top• Old lyrics journals of, among others, Bob Dylan and David Bowie, featuring a collection of songs they probably hoped would never see the light of day• A letter from Ringo to the rest of the Beatles, the week after their breakup, informing them of his plans to start a Beatles tribute band• Formerly classified government documents with shocking revelations about the Navy SEALs and the Butthole Surfers• Prince's set list for the bat mitzvah of Steven Spielberg's daughter Rachel, including the songs "Purple Oy Vey," "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Rabbi," and "When Doves Kvetch"My Dead Dad Was in ZZ Top is for everyone who loves absurd, made-up stories about their favorite bands. It's also for everyone who doesn't love absurd, made-up stories about their favorite real bands—they just might not enjoy it as much.

The John Lennon Letters


John Lennon - 2012
    John Lennon was one of the greatest songwriters the world has ever known, creator of "Help!", "Come Together", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Imagine", and dozens more. But it was in his correspondences that he let his personality and poetry flow unguarded. Now, gathered for the first time in book form, are his letters to family, friends, strangers, and lovers from every point in his life. Funny, informative, wise, poetic, and sometimes heartbreaking, his letters illuminate a never-before-seen intimate side of the private genius. This groundbreaking collection of almost 300 letters and postcards has been edited and annotated by Hunter Davies, whose authorized biography The Beatles (1968) was published to great acclaim. With unparalleled knowledge of Lennon and his contemporaries, Davies reads between the lines of the artist's words, contextualizing them in Lennon's life and using them to reveal the man himself.

The Beatles: The Biography


Bob Spitz - 2005
    This version of the Beatles legend smoothed the rough edges and filled in the fault lines, and for more than forty years this manicured version of the Beatles story has sustained as truth - until now.The product of almost a decade of research, hundreds of unprecedented interviews, and the discovery of scores of never-before-revealed documents, Bob Spitz's The Beatles is the biography fans have been waiting for -- a vast, complete account as brilliant and joyous and revelatory as a Beatles record itself. Spitz begins in Liverpool, a hard city knocked on its heels. In the housing projects and school playgrounds, four boys would discover themselves -- and via late-night radio broadcasts, a new form of music called rock 'n roll.Never before has a biography of musicians been so immersive and textured. Spitz takes us down Penny Lane and to Strawberry Field (John later added the s), to Hamburg, Germany, where -- amid the squalor and the violence and the pep pills -- the Beatles truly became the Beatles. We are there in the McCartney living room when Paul and John learn to write songs together; in the heat of Liverpool's Cavern Club, where jazz has been the norm before the Beatles show up; backstage the night Ringo takes over on drums; in seedy German strip clubs where George lies about his age so the band can perform; on the lonely tours through frigid Scottish towns before the breakthrough; at Abbey Road Studios, where a young producer named George Martin takes them under his wing; at the Ed Sullivan Show as America discovers the joy and the madness; and onward and upward: up the charts, from Shea to San Francisco, through the London night, on to India, through marmalade skies, across the universe...all the way to a rooftop concert and one last moment of laughter and music.It is all here, raw and right: the highs and the lows, the love and the rivalry, the awe and the jealousy, the drugs, the tears, the thrill, the magic never again to be repeated. Open this book and begin to read -- Bob Spitz's masterpiece is, at long last, the biography the Beatles deserve.

This Is Your Life


Jennifer Ann Shore - 2021
    He’s immediately dismissive of me, thinking I’m some crazed fan, and I’m left in confusion as to why the gorgeous stranger with arrogance the size of Manhattan just told me off in a public park.With the help of his foul-mouthed, chain-smoking sister and adorable dog, we’re given a second chance, and soon I’m swept up by his charm and drawn to something deeper and darker that he hides from the world.The more time we spend together, the more I’m certain I absolutely want to find out who the real Gabe King is. But with fame, there’s a price to be paid—and I’m not sure I can afford the admission.

Genesis: Chapter & Verse


Philip DoddSteve Hackett - 2007
    The story of their band spans thirty years and thirty albums, and through all the changes in the band's line-up and musical direction, the spirit of Genesis has remained constant and undimmed."Genesis: Chapter & Verse" is the ultimate addition to any fan's collection, setting the record straight as the band's members tell their story their way. Remarkably, the band survived the high-profile departure of not one lead vocalist, but two (Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins), two influential guitarists (Anthony Phillips and Steve Hackett), and its best-known drummer (Phil Collins). Genesis simply got stronger and bigger - matching the huge solo success of Gabriel, Collins, and Mike + The Mechanics.A collaboration between all the members of Genesis, past and present, "Genesis: Chapter and Verse" is the band's definitive autobiography: an intimate, no-holds-barred, no-stone-unturned history that allows character and personality to come to the forefront. Covering the band's story as well as the writing and performance of significant songs from each period, this treasure trove of text and photographs provides long-awaited insight into the way this exceptional group of songwriters worked together, allowing the band to dispatch more than a few sacred cows along the way. It is a book like none other, and an exclusive look into the life and times of one of rock's most influential and lasting groups.

Picturing Prince: An Intimate Portrait


Steve Parke - 2017
    At least half of the images in the book are exclusively published here for the first time; most other images in the book are rare to the public eye.Alongside these remarkable images are fifty engaging, poignant and often funny written vignettes by Parke, which reveal the very human man behind the reclusive superstar: from shooting hoops to renting out movie theatres at 4am; from midnight requests for camels to meaningful conversations that shed light on Prince as a man and artist.STEVE PARKE started working with Prince in 1988, after a mutual friend showed Prince some of Steve's photorealistic paintings. He designed everything from album covers and merchandise to sets for Prince's tours and videos. Somewhere in all of this, he became Paisley Park's official art director. He began photographing Prince at the request of the star himself, and continued to do so for the next several years. The images in this book are the arresting result of this collaboration.Biographical Notes STEVE PARKE is photo editor for Faerie Magazine. He worked as art director for Prince at Paisley Park for fourteen years. As a photographer, his clients have included Prince, David Bowie, Bon Jovi, Bob Dylan, Sheila E., AC/DC and more. He lives in Baltimore, USA.

Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life


Scott M. Marshall - 2017
    Tracking an American original—from his Jewish roots to his controversial embrace of Jesus to his enduring legacy as the composer of the Tempest album—Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life delivers the story of a man in dogged pursuit of redemption.Based on years of research and original interviews, this book sorts through the myths and misunderstandings and reveals Dylan to be both traditional and radical in the way he expresses his spiritual quest for purpose and meaning. "Call Dylan whatever you want, but the name won’t stick," said foreword writer and film director Scott Derrickson. "What does stick is his music, in part because his songs contain a deep, abiding spirituality that moves listeners like me more than the songs of any other artist."Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life bridges the gap between purpose and meaning in grand fashion. It offers readers an informative, entertaining, and nuanced look into Bob Dylan’s spiritual odyssey. Today, there is not a Dylan book in existence that exclusively focuses on his spiritual odyssey through years of research and original interviews with those who know him and his journey well, such as Barry Beckett, Arthur Blessit, T-Bone Burnett, Carolyn Dennis, Dave Kelly, Regina McCrary, Maria Muldaur, Scott Ross, Jerry Wexler, and Paul Wasserman. The evidence abounds and Dylan's friends and fans provide a plethora of insight into this veritable music icon's spiritual side.“I’ve had a God-given sense of destiny," said Dylan in 2001. "This is what I was put on earth to do.”

When Ziggy Played Guitar: David Bowie and Four Minutes that Shook the World


Dylan Jones - 2012
    This was Bowie's third appearance on TOTP but this was the one that properly resonated with its audience, the one that would go on to cause a seismic shift in the Zeitgeist. This is the performance that turned Bowie into a star, embedding his Ziggy Stardust persona into the nation's consciousness.With a tall, flame-orange cockade quiff (stolen from a Kansai Yamamoto model on the cover of Honey), lavishly applied make-up, white nail polish, and wearing a multi-coloured jump-suit that looked as though it were made from fluorescent fish skin (chosen by Ziggy co-shaper, the designer Freddie Buretti), and carrying a brand spanking new, blue acoustic guitar, a bone-thin Bowie appeared not so much as a pop singer, but rather as some sort of benevolent alien, a concept helped along by the provocative appearance of his guitarist, the chicken-headed Mick Ronson, with both of them unapologetically sporting knee-length patent leather wrestler's boots (Bowie's were red). 'Most people are scared of colour,' Bowie said later. 'Their lives are built up in shades of grey. It doesn't matter how straight the style is, make it brightly coloured material and everyone starts acting weird.'Suddenly Bowie - a man called alias - had the world at his nail-varnished fingertips, and in no time at all he would be the biggest star in the world.

A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock & The 1970s


Mike Barnes - 2020
    He examines the myths and misconceptions that have grown up around progressive rock and paints a vivid, colourful picture of the Seventies based on hundreds of hours of his own interviews with musicians, music business insiders, journalists and DJs, and from the personal testimonies of those who were fans of the music in that extraordinary decade.

KPOP BTS QUIZ BOOK: 123 Fun Facts Trivia Questions About K-Pop's Hottest Band


Fandom Media - 2017
     KPOP BTS QUIZ BOOK covers various quiz questions about each member of the group, as well as many interesting facts as a group, such as... "On the November 22, BTS was announced to be officially recognized by THIS organization as a musical group with the most Twitter engagement." "On the very first Episode of American Hustle Life, BTS travels to THIS CITY to learn Hip Hop." "THIS member was an underground rapper in Daegu." "J-Hope said that the kind of super power he would like to have is...?" "When Jimin was asked to describe and compare Rap Monster to something other than a human, he said Rap Monster is like..." "When V celebrated his Birthday (2013.12.30 at MBC Gayo Daejun), he shared birthday with THIS famous singer. He said to V “Hey, is it your Birthday today? It’s mine too! Let’s blow the candle together.” "True or False...? Jungkook's dream when he was little is to become a badminton player, but changed his mind after listening to..." Can you answer the questions? If you can't, that's totally fine cause that's the best way of getting to know your favorite BTS oppa's!

I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen


Sylvie Simmons - 2011
    Cohen is also a man of complexities and seeming contradictions: a devout Jew, who is also a sophisticate and a ladies' man, as well as an ordained Buddhist monk whose name, Jikan—"ordinary silence"—is quite the appellation for a writer and singer whose life has been anything but ordinary.I'm Your Man is the definitive account of that extraordinary life. Starting in Montreal, Cohen's birthplace, acclaimed music journalist Sylvie Simmons follows his trail, via London and the Greek island of Hydra, to New York in the sixties, where Cohen launched his career in music. From there she traces the arc of his prodigious achievements to his remarkable retreat in the mid-nineties and his reemergence for a sold-out world tour almost fifteen years later. Whether navigating Cohen's journeys through the backstreets of Mumbai or his countless hotel rooms along the way, Simmons explores with equal focus every complex, contradictory strand of Cohen's life and presents a deeply insightful portrait of the vision, spirit, depth, and talent of an artist and a man who continues to move people like no one else.

This Book is Broken


Stuart Berman - 2008
    The alternative music scene had all but died, and pre-packaged pop stars had filled the vacuum. But in a basement apartment in the heart of downtown Toronto, two musicians were forming a creative partnership that would revive the mass appeal of indie music and forever change how we think of a band.In this biography of the ever-evolving indie-rock collective, Broken Social Scene, music columnist Stuart Berman tracks the group's inception by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning; groundbreaking performances at Ted's Wrecking Yard that raised the band's local status to mythical proportions; Broken Social Scene's meteoric rise upon the release of breakout album You Forgot It In People; the creation of Arts & Crafts records with music-biz maverick Jeffrey Remedios; and life on the road with revolving bandmates, including members of Stars, Metric, The Dears, and international pop sensation Feist.Stuart Berman has drawn from hours of interviews with members and affiliates of Broken Social Scene, and exclusive, never-before-seen photographs, gig posters, and artwork to create a spectacular oral and visual history of this ever-evolving indie-rock collective.