'Probably the most ambitious, generous and thorough volume about a musician to see publication' Mouth Magazine The authorised companion to the music of Nick Drake, compiled, composed and edited by Cally Callomon and Gabrielle Drake, with contributions from Nick's friends, critics, adherents, family and from Nick Drake himself. Remembered For A While is not a biography. It is, rather, an attempt to cast a few shards of light on Nick Drake the poet, the musician, the singer, the friend, son and brother, who was also more than all of these. We hope it will accompany all those in search of an elusive artist, whose haunting presence defies analysis. The book contains: * In-depth interviews with many of Nick's friends, most notably Paul Wheeler, Nick's close friend from Cambridge days, a singer-songwriter who, of all Nick's friends, perhaps best understood, from personal experience, Nick's journey through musical creation to despair and back again. * A selection of photos from all eras - some never seen before - with reproductions of documents such as the scrapbook Molly Drake kept of her son's press cuttings, and the original and rejected album covers. * Images of Nick's handwritten and typed lyrics, including the lyrics of some songs for which the music has never been found. * Newly commissioned pieces by Nick's friends Jeremy Harmer, Brian Wells, Robin Frederick and the poet Will Stone. Contributions also from the sleeve designer Michael Trevithick, Island Records's Ann Sullivan and the photographer and artist Nigel Waymouth. *Extracts from Nick's letters - part of an extensive correspondence that exists between Nick and his parents, which charts their relationship from the time he first went to boarding school until the time he came home, when his depression had settled upon him and he felt he had nowhere else to go. From this point, Nick's life was documented by his father, Rodney Drake, who kept a detailed diary, as he and his wife Molly struggled to understand their son's state of mind and how to help him. Passages from this poignant record are included. * A short musical guide to each song's key and tuning to accompany the lyrics, together with an explanatory interpretation of Nick's guitar performance, the result of several years close study by singer-songwriter Chris Healey. * A comprehensive guide to all of Nick's live performances. * And a lengthy essay by noted music critic Pete Paphides, which includes interviews with Nick's musical collaborators and friends - his producer Joe Boyd, his recording engineer John Wood and his orchestrator, the late Robert Kirby - as well as descriptions of the recording process of each album.

Mike Dixon has been involved in the British music industry for over 40 years and has been Musical Director for more than twenty West End productions including, We Will Rock You, The Bodyguard, Grease, Aspects of Love, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar. His TV credits include six Royal Variety Performances, countless light entertainment series and Glastonbury with Shirley Bassey, as well as a huge number of high profile television and radio concerts. His career has taken him all over the world working with some of the most iconic artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Dame Shirley Bassey, Lord Lloyd-Webber, Leslie Bricusse, Sir Tim Rice, Don Black, Sir Elton John, Lionel Richie, Sir Tom Jones, Lady Gaga and Queen. The book follows his journey as his exciting and eclectic musical career develops. From his early musical experiences in Plymouth, studying at Trinity College of Music, to conducting in the Royal Albert Hall, with plenty of humour along the way, it is a little peek behind the scenes into the world of entertainment from a unique, hands-on perspective.

This year marks the anniversary not only of what would have been John Lennon's 80th birthday but also the 40th anniversary of his death in New York. Understanding John Lennon takes us back to where it all began. While other writers have only touched on the 'cause' of John's genius, Francis Kenny reveals its roots in the post-war nature of Liverpool, John's family with its complex history, and the pain and hurt John felt during his childhood, revealing how his early life experiences shaped his brilliance as a songwriter and musician. Of all the books on The Beatles, this is the only one by an author who was himself born and raised under the same influences as the band's, in the heart of Liverpool. From the maritime nature of the city to its blue-collar background and the Irish heritage of its people, this book provides an insight into post-war Liverpool and John's family life, which gave rise to his brilliant but conflicted nature and traces how this ultimately contributed to the fall of The Beatles. Covering Lennon's life from Liverpool to New York, Kenny writes with sympathetic understanding of the confusion, pain and corrosiveness that can, at times, accompany the demands and expectations of the creative process at its highest level. With new material revealing the real source of inspiration of 'Strawberry Fields', we are provided with a thought-provoking insight into a complex mind and a genius in the making. Whilst most books regurgitate the same stories about John's childhood and his time with The Beatles, this book presents an original insight into the founder of a band that was at the forefront of a social and cultural revolution. It is the only work to reveal the true sources of John's genius which continues to leave an enduring imprint on our everyday life and imagination.

Moon Pix was conceived during a hallucinatory waking nightmare in the South Carolina home of Chan Marshall one fateful day in 1997. Spirits violently swam up around her house, looming at the windows, beckoning her to join them. Her and her acoustic guitar warded them off song after song, nearly the entire album rushed forth onto a tape recorder that night. Facts, fictions and visions ripple throughout the accounts of Moon Pix from every angle— memories of screaming at an audience, spirals of drunkenness, swimming with sharks in Australia, intense, resonant lyrics and thunderstorms ringing through speakers. Like all legends, the aura surrounding them is an impression, a sensory feeling of unreliable memories: layers of stories become histories. Through interviews with key players, audience member accounts, fictional narrative imaginings, a collection of record reviews and other explorations of truth, this book, like Moon Pix itself, is an ode to the myth within the music and the music within the myth.

Most people know that Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a German composer, a musical prodigy whose Symphony No. 5 is recognizable the world over from its opening four notes. What, perhaps, they don't know is that he was almost completely deaf for nearly half his life; that his father would often lie about when Beethoven was born to make his talents seem even more astonishing; that he wrote a sonata to be played with building implements and called it the "Hammer-Klavier Sonata"; and that he dedicated works to Napoleon and a dead poodle. Biographic Beethoven presents an instant impression of his life, work, and legacy, with an array of irresistible facts and figures converted into infographics to reveal the composer behind the compositions.

This is the first English monograph of legendary French musique-concrete pioneer Luc Ferrari (1929-2005). Founding member of Groupe de Recherches (GRM) with Pierre Schaeffer-the group and studio were dedicated to the electronic medium that changed composition forever. This sumptuous volume includes facsimiles of Ferrari's original compositions, notebooks, and the first English translations of his writings, including poetry and fictional works and correspondence, as well as a special full-colour section that includes the composer's own collage artwork.

Augustus Frederic Christopher Kollmann (1756-1829) was born in Germany and lived from 1782 at St James's Palace, London, where he was organist and schoolmaster of His Majesty's German Chapel. He was one of the most profound music theorists of his time, and a pioneer in introducing Bach's music to England. His most extensive effort to inform the public about developments in the whole field of music - from acoustics to concert performance, from musical patents to books about music - was The Quarterly Musical Register, the first number of which is dated 1 January 1812. It can be regarded as England's first musicological journal. Written almost entirely by Kollmann, this journal included the first substantial English-language biography of Bach, identified anonymous music reviewers in English literary periodicals, gave a retrospect of the state of music in Great Britain and Germany, discussed efforts to improve organs and pianos, critically reviewed two editions of John Wall Callcott's Musical Grammar, and provided an account of Kollmann's own theory and much more. The Quarterly Musical Register folded after its second number. Only eight copies of the first number and six of the second appear to be extant, and just two libraries have the covering wrappers with which each number was issued. This book reproduces in facsimile both numbers and their wrappers, and presents new information about Kollmann's life and works.

A major step in the rediscovery of one of the towering composers of the twentieth century; this brings to Schmidt's music the scholarship it so richly merits. Franz Schmidt is increasingly being recognised as a major composer. His music covers symphonies, quartets, opera and oratorio, and works and organ. In all of these genres he proves himself a master of large-scale symphonic form and one of the most substantial lyric geniuses of all time. Schmidt spent most of his life in Austria [he died in Vienna in 1939] where his importance was universally agreed. Here, Harold Truscott, the outstanding authorityon Schmidt in the English-speaking world, examines the orchestral works, taking the reader and listener through each of these mighty scores. Introduced by the `Personal Recollections' of Hans Keller, who knew Schmidt well in pre-World-War-II Vienna, the book also features the first-ever translation into English of Schmidt's Autobiographical Sketch, where the composer tells of his early childhood in Hungary, his teenage years near Vienna and his life as acellist in the Vienna Philharmonic. HAROLD TRUSCOTT is a composer and writer. He was Principal Lecturer in Music at Huddersfield Polytechnic and has performed widely as a pianist in recital, broadcast and concert work.

Led by indefatigable singer and songwriter Robert Pollard, GBV have been one of the most important rock groups of the past thirty years. After toiling for a decade in obscurity, they broke onto the scene in the early 90s by delivering generation- and genre-defining records such as 1994 s Bee Thousand and 1995 s Alien Lanes. Pollard and a rotating cast of musicians have kept at it ever since, releasing LP after LP of stadium-worthy rock n roll. Zeppelin Over Dayton: Guided By Voices Album By Album is the first serious and comprehensive look at the band s work. Based on the popular GBV podcast Self-Inflicted Aural Nostalgia, Zeppelin Over Dayton takes an in-depth look at each one of the group s records, looking at who was in the band at the time and how the LP fits into the band s discography, and providing commentary and analysis of every song. Drawing on new interviews and extensive research, Zeppelin Over Dayton offers an honest and thorough assessment of GBV s amazingly sprawling discography, providing ardent admirers with tons of fresh anecdotes and insight, and new fans a way to successfully navigate the group s dozens of LPs.

Colombia, November 1993: a reconstructed old passenger train is carrying one hundred musicians, acrobats and artists on a daring adventure through the heart of a country soaked in violence. Leading this crusade of hope is Manu Chao with his band Mano Negra. Manu's father Ramon Chao is on board to chronicle the journey. As the papa of the train, he endures personal discomfort, internal strife, derailments, stowaways, disease, guerrillas and paramilitaries. When the train arrives in Aracataca, the real-life Macondo of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Mano Negra disintegrates, leaving Manu to pick up the pieces with those determined to see this once-in-a-lifetime adventure through to the end.

A ground-breaking study of the musical and literary priorities, professional practices and creative interactions that shaped one of the most adventurous artforms of the Belle Epoque. French art song, or melodie, was one of the most radical and exploratory artforms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was also among the most intimate, a genre of experimentation, hesitation and unfiltered artistic conversation. In this landmark history, Emily Kilpatrick charts the compositional preoccupations and literary stimuli, the friendships and rivalries, critical narratives and performance practices that shaped French art song between 1870 and the First World War. She traces the expanding horizons of an essentially new musical idiom, moving from the lively debates of the avant-garde to the social and artistic contradictions of the salons, the pedagogy of the Paris Conservatoire, and the eventual accession of song to the concert platform and a central place in the world's musical imagination. The melodie of the Belle Epoque flourished amidst a culture of creative collaboration, and through the musicianship and advocacy of performers as well as composers. Setting key works by Faure, Duparc, Chausson, Debussy, and Ravel alongside historical curiosities and hidden gems, French Art Song: History of a New Music probes composer-performer relationships and the shaping of performance traditions and addresses the challenges faced by the twenty-first century interpreter. Kilpatrick twines cultural history with musical insight and a wealth of previously unpublished source material in a wide-ranging and richly detailed account of the public and private faces of musical invention.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) is now rightly recognized as one of the greatest and most original composers of the nineteenth century. His keen understanding of poetry and his uncanny ability to translate his profound understanding of human nature into remarkably balanced compositions marks him out from other contemporaries in the field of song. Schubert was one of the first major composers to devote so much time to song and his awareness that this genre was not rated highly in the musical hierarchy did not deter him, throughout a short but resolute and hard-working career, from producing songs that invariably arrest attention and frequently strike a deeply poetic note. Schubert did not emerge as a composer until after his death, but during his short lifetime his genius flowered prolifically and diversely. His reputation was first established among the aristocracy who took the art music of Vienna into their homes, which became places of refuge from the musical mediocrity of popular performance. More than any other composer, Schubert steadily graced Viennese musical life with his songs, piano music and chamber compositions. Throughout his career he experimented constantly with technique and in his final years began experiments with form. The resultant fascinating works were never performed in his lifetime, and only in recent years have the nature of his experiments found scholarly favor. In The Unknown Schubert contributors explore Schubert's radical modernity from a number of perspectives by examining both popular and neglected works. Chapters by renowned scholars describe the historical context of his work, its relation to the dominant artistic discourses of the early nineteenth century, and Schubert's role in the paradigmatic shift to a new perception of song. This valuable book seeks to bring Franz Schubert to life, exploring his early years as a composer of opera, his later years of ill-health when he composed in the shadow of death, and his efforts to reflect in his music his own profound inner experience.

The grotesque is one of art's most puzzling figures - transgressive, comprising an unresolveable hybrid, generally focussing on the human body, full of hyperbole, and ultimately semantically deeply puzzling. In Bluebeard's Castle (1911), The Wooden Prince (1916/17), The Miraculous Mandarin (1919/24, rev. 1931) and Cantata Profana (1930), BartA(3)k engaged scenarios featuring either overtly grotesque bodies or closely related transformations and violations of the body. In a number of instrumental works he also overtly engaged grotesque satirical strategies, sometimes - as in Two Portraits: 'Ideal' and 'Grotesque' - indicating this in the title. In this book, Julie Brown argues that BartA(3)k's concerns with stylistic hybridity (high-low, East-West, tonal-atonal-modal), the body, and the grotesque are inter-connected. While BartA(3)k developed each interest in highly individual ways, and did so separately to a considerable extent, the three concerns remained conceptually interlinked. All three were thoroughly implicated in cultural constructions of the Modern during the period in which BartA(3)k was composing.

ERingo: With a Little HelpE is the first in-depth biography of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr who kept the beat for an entire generation and who remains a rock icon over fifty years since the Beatles took the world by storm. EWith a Little HelpE traces the entire arc of Ringo's remarkable life and career from his sickly childhood to his life as The World's Most Famous drummer to his triumphs addictions and emotional battles following the breakup of the Beatles as he comes to terms with his legacy.THBorn in 1940 as Richard Starkey in the Dingle one of Liverpool's most gritty rough-and-tumble neighborhoods he rose from a hardscrabble childhood a marked by serious illnesses long hospital stays and little schooling a to emerge against all odds as a locally renowned drummer. Taking the stage name Ringo Starr his big break with the Beatles rocketed him to the pinnacle of worldwide acclaim in a remarkably short time. He was the last member of the Beatles to join the group but also the most vulnerable and his post-Beatles career was marked by chart-topping successes a jet-setting life of excess and alcohol abuse and ultimately his rebirth as one of rock's revered elder statesman.

The astonishing run of albums unleashed upon an unsuspecting public within the span of five years created the legend of Alice Cooper that lives on to this day. But we're talking about the original Alice Cooper group here, a band called that with a lead singer also going by that name. In other words, the legend was built by Vincent "Alice Cooper" Furnier, Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway and "platinum god" Neal Smith. It is all of them working together - along with producer Bob Ezrin - that created the mystique of songs like "I'm Eighteen," "Is It My Body," "Desperado," "Under My Wheels," "Be My Lover," "Elected" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy." And it is all of them working together - along with crack management in Shep Gordon and Joe Greenberg-that created the shock rock buzz that kept the newspapers full of indignation about this band set out to destroy human civilization. Easy Action: The Original Alice Cooper Group tells the story in meticulous chronological detail, from the band's early days in Phoenix as The Spiders, through being broke on the Sunset Strip, followed by a career-reviving relocation to a notorious party house on the outskirts of Pontiac, Michigan. Corroborating the improbable sequence of events is a plethora of stories from the band themselves, who explain how the original Alice Cooper group went from politely ignored pariahs in Los Angeles to international Public Enemies No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Listen to the guys and their good-natured explanations behind the mayhem, and it soon becomes apparent that the ghoulish makeup around the singer's eyes and the boa constrictor around his neck - not to mention the head-choppings, the hangings and the hard rock - were all served up in good fun. Now it's time for you, dear reader, to join in the fun and see why Alice Cooper was, for a golden moment in time fully 50 years ago now, the most feared and revered act in all of rock 'n' roll.

'An indispensable compendium for Steely Dan fans' The Wire At its core a creative marriage between Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, Steely Dan are one of the defining and bestselling American rock acts of the last half-century, recording several of the cleverest and best-produced albums of the '70s - from the breathlessly catchy Can't Buy a Thrill to the sleekly sinister Gaucho. In the '90s they returned to remind us of how sorely we had missed their elegance and erudition, subsequently recording Two Against Nature and Everything Must Go during the following decade. They have sold close to forty-five million albums. 'A lot of people think of them as the epitome of boring '70s stuff,' novelist William Gibson said in 1993, when Becker and Fagen toured for the first time in nineteen years. 'They don't realize this is probably the most subversive material pop has ever thrown up.' Now fully embraced by the 'Yacht Rock' generation - semi-ironic devotees of '70s Southern-California slickness - Steely Dan no longer polarize lo-fi punks and studio geeks in the way they used to. In 2001 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Major Dudes collects some of the smartest and wittiest interviews Becker and Fagen have ever given, along with insightful reviews of - and commentary on - their extraordinary songs. Compiled by Rock's Backpages editor Barney Hoskyns, the book's contributors include Charles Shaar Murray, Robert Palmer, Ian MacDonald, Bud Scoppa, Penny Valentine, Fred Schruers, Sylvie Simmons and Michael Watts.

Blue OEyster Cult On Track is a song-by-song analysis of the discography of Long Island's greatest sons, the Blue OEyster Cult. Dubbed "the thinking man's heavy metal band" and celebrated by critics, fans and musicians since their debut album in 1972, the band carved a unique path in hard rock history by combining chops, humour, occultism, poetry, jazz chords and pop sensibilities. Best known for their FM radio hits ""(Don't Fear) The Reaper"" and ""Burnin' For You"", Blue OEyster Cult's discography is in fact a treasure trove of fascinating, ever-evolving music by a band that was never afraid to explore, and never had the slightest respect for genre boundaries. The band's influence stretches from seminal metal bands like Metallica to cult act like Current 93 and their music has been heard in movies like ""Scream"" and ""Halloween"" and has been quoted by Stephen King. This book combines the author's analyses of Blue OEyster Cult's songs with insights from band members and people who worked with the band through the years. It is the ultimate companion for a deep dive into the catalogue of a band whose music is both inscrutable, fascinating and rewarding. From the canonized first 4 albums through their controversial 80s output and all the way to their revitalization and comeback in the late 90s, this book treats every era of the band with equal respect.

A stunning social history of British rap and grime - from the artists and communities who created and were shaped by the music, to the listeners who found a sense of identity and home within it - by one of the nation's foremost cultural chroniclers. 'A landmark work that will undoubtedly shape conversations about not just UK rap and grime, but British music for years to come.' YOMI ADEGOKE, author of The List 'The book I've been waiting to read . . . illuminating and intimate. Ekpoudom's prose is rhythmic and deft but also crackles with joy. I know I'll be reading it for years to come.' CALEB AZUMAH NELSON, author of Small Worlds *** I met people who never quite fit in where they were supposed to, who found solace, salvation and meaning in these sounds, these words. Something is happening in Britain, trembling the tracks as it unfolds. Recent years have borne witness to underground genres leaking out from the inner cities, going on to become some of the most popular music in the nation. In this groundbreaking social history, journalist Aniefiok Ekpoudom travels the country to paint a compelling portrait of the dawn, boom and subsequent blossoming of UK rap and grime. Taking us from the heart of south London to the West Midlands and South Wales, he explores how a history of migration and an enduring spirit of resistance have shaped the current realities of these linked communities and the music they produce. These sounds have become vessels for the marginalised, carrying Black and working-class stories into the light. Vividly depicted and compassionately told, Where We Come From weaves together intimate stories of resilience, courage and loss, as well as a shared music culture that gave refuge and purpose to those in search of belonging. Ekpoudom offers a rich chronicle of rap, identity, place and, above all, the social and human condition in modern Britain. *** 'A rousing, inspiring, often breathtaking history that reads with the flow of a magnificent novel. Ekpoudom is one of the very finest chroniclers of black British culture.' MUSA OKWONGA 'Essential . . . a book from the nation's frontline, where poverty and hardship and exclusion meet poetry and beauty and a higher voice. The writing achieves a lyrical, hypnotic power all of its own.' SAM KNIGHT, author of The Premonitions Bureau

The Rolling Stones are one of the most influential, prolific, and enduring Rock and Roll bands in the history of music. This groundbreaking, specifically commissioned collection of essays provides the first dedicated academic overview of the music, career, influences, history, and cultural impact of the Rolling Stones. Shining a light on the many communities and sources of knowledge about the group, this Companion brings together essays by musicologists, ethnomusicologists, players, film scholars, and filmmakers into a single volume intended to stimulate fresh thinking about the group as they vault well over the mid-century of their career. Threaded throughout these essays are album- and song-oriented discussions of the landmark recordings of the group and their influence. Exploring new issues about sound, culture, media representation, the influence of world music, fan communities, group personnel, and the importance of their revival post-1989, this collection greatly expands our understanding of their music.

Alfred Mathis-Rosenzweig (1897-1948) was a Viennese musicologist and critic who studied at the universities of Budapest and Vienna. From 1933 he embarked on producing a large-scale study of Mahler but at the time of his death the manuscript was left unfinished. Although it was presumed lost until 1997, the unfinished typescript, written in German, had been deposited in the library of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. In 2003, the School's Research Centre commissioned Jeremy Barham to prepare the first published edition of this important work, and his annotations and commentary add invaluable material to his translation of this historic document. Biographical material is used as a loose framework and platform for Mathis-Rosenzweig's profound examination of the environment within which Mahler's earlier music was embedded. This is an environment in which Wagner, Bruckner and Wolf feature prominently, and in which Mahler's music is viewed from the wider perspective of nineteenth-century German cultural domination and the subsequent rise of political extremism in the form of Hitlerite fascism.

Faure Studies showcases new research from leading scholars in the United States, United Kingdom, and France into this influential French composer of the fin de siecle. This book features interpretations of individual works and musical analyses, as well as studies of compositional pedagogy, social history, and aesthetics. Accessible to a wide range of readers, this volume also provides a valuable overview of Faure research from the composer's lifetime to the present. As part of Cambridge Composer Studies, Faure Studies adds momentum to new research into this major composer, which includes recently launched critical editions of his music.

Since the publication of The London Pianoforte School (ed. Nicholas Temperley) twenty years ago, research has proliferated in the area of music for the piano during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and into developments in the musical life of London, for a time the centre of piano manufacturing, publishing and performance. But none has focused on the piano exclusively within Britain. The eleven chapters in this volume explore major issues surrounding the instrument, its performers and music within an expanded geographical context created by the spread of the instrument and the growth of concert touring. Topics covered include: the piano trade and how piano manufacturing affected a major provincial town; the reception of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and Clementi's Gradus ad Parnassum during the nineteenth century; the shift from composer-pianists to pianist-interpreters in the first half of the century that triggered crucial changes in piano performance and concert structure; the growth of musical life in the peripheries outside major musical centres; the pianist as advocate for contemporary composers as well as for historical repertory; the status of British pianists both in relation to foreigners on tour in Britain and as welcomed star performers in outposts of the Empire; marketing forces that had an impact on piano sales, concerts and piano careers; leading virtuosos, writers and critics; the important role played by women pianists and the development of the recording industry, bringing the volume into the early twentieth century.

Today Vincent Novello (1781-1861) is remembered as the father of the music-publishing firm. Fiona Palmer's evaluation of Novello the man and the musician in the marketplace draws on rich primary sources. It is the first to provide a rounded view of his life and work, and the nature of his importance both in his own time and to posterity. Novello's early musical training, particularly his experience of music-making in London's embassy chapels, influenced him profoundly. His practical experience as director of music at the Portuguese Embassy Chapel in Mayfair informed his approach to editing and arranging. Fundamental moral and social attitudes underpinned Novello's progress. Ideas on religion, education and the function of family and friendship within society shaped his life choices. The Novello family lived in turbulent times and was widely-read, discussing politics and religion and not only the arts at its social gatherings. Within Vincent and Mary Novello's close circle were radical thinkers with republican views - such as Leigh Hunt and Charles Cowden Clarke - who saw sociability as a means of reorganizing society. Thematic studies focus on Novello as practical musician and educator, as editor, and as composer. His connections with institutions such as the Covent Garden and Pantheon Theatres, the Philharmonic Society and Moorfields Chapel, together with his adjudicating and teaching activities, are examined. In his wide-ranging editorial work Novello found his true vocation positioning himself as preservationist, pioneer and philanthropist. His work as composer, though unremarkable in quality, mirrored the demands and expectations of his consumers. Novello emerges from this study as a visionary who single-mindedly pursued greater musical knowledge for the benefit of everyone.

An icon of British national identity and one of the most widely performed twentieth-century composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams has been as much misunderstood as revered; his international impact and enduring influence on areas as diverse as church music, film scores and popular music has been insufficiently appreciated. This volume brings together a team of leading scholars, examining all areas of the composer's output from new perspectives, and re-evaluating the cultural politics of his lifelong advocacy for the music-making of ordinary people. Surveys of major genres are complemented by chapters exploring such topics as the composer's relationship with the BBC and his studies with Ravel; uniquely, the book also includes specially commissioned interviews with major living composers Peter Maxwell Davies, Piers Hellawell, Nicola Lefanu and Anthony Payne. The Companion is a vital resource for all those interested in this pivotal figure of modern music.

When Alice Cooper became the stuff of legend in the early '70s, their shows were monuments of fun and invention. Riding on a string of hits like "I'm 18" and "School's Out," they became America's highest-grossing act, producing four platinum albums and hitting number one on the U.S. and U.K. charts with Billion Dollar Babies in 1973. As teenagers in Phoenix, Dennis Dunaway and lead singer Vince Furnier, who would later change his name to Alice Cooper, formed a hard-knuckles band that played prisons, cowboy bars and teen clubs. Their journey took them from Hollywood to the ferocious Detroit music scene. From struggling for recognition to topping the charts, the Alice Cooper group was entertaining, outrageous, and one-of-a-kind. Dennis Dunaway, the bassist and co-songwriter for the band, tells a story just as over-the-top crazy as their (in)famous shows. Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! is the riveting account of the band's creation in the '60s, strange glory in the '70s, and the legendary characters they met along the way.