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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Composers & musicians
'A passionate, pacey tome you should do anything for a copy of' - Kerrang! "I never wanted to be a big star. I just wanted to be the biggest at what I do! Powerful, unstoppable, heavy - when that word still meant something good!" - Meat Loaf, as told to Mick Wall Everything in the story of Meat Loaf is big. From the place he was born (Texas); to the family he was born into (his father weighed 22 stone, his uncle weighed over 40 stone, while Meat Loaf himself weighed 17 stone before he was even in his teens); to the sound he made (a colossal collision between Richard Wagner, Phil Spector and Bruce Springsteen); and of course the records he sold - nearly 50 million in Britain and America alone. From a tumultuous childhood with an alcoholic father to the relentless abusive bullying he endured, nobody could have predicted Meat Loaf's meteoric rise to fame. But when the messianic rock opera Bat Out of Hell was released in 1977, it became one of the biggest albums of all time, selling over 45 million copies worldwide to date. Its release marked the start of a rollercoaster ride of incredible highs and seemingly career-ending lows. By the 80s, Meat Loaf was battling with drug and alcohol addiction and escalating money problems. But just when it seemed like it was all over, the astonishing success of Bat Out of Hell II and the mega-hit 'I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)' marked an extraordinary new wave of success. Now, Mick Wall will bring this extraordinary story up to date, drawing on the hours he spent with Meat Loaf, both in interviews and on tour, as well as offering up a unique insight from those who have known him best.
Teaching the Beatles is designed to provide ideas for instructors who teach the music of the Beatles. Experienced contributors describe varied approaches to effectively convey the group's characteristics and lasting importance. Some of these include: treating the Beatles' lyrics as poetry; their influence on the world of art, film, fashion and spirituality; the group's impact on post-war Britain; political aspects of the Fab Four; Lennon and McCartney's songwriting and musical innovations; the band's use of recording technology; business aspects of the Beatles' career; and insights into teaching the Beatles in an online format.
Full of information about living without a permanent residence, this complete collection of the "Dwelling Portably" zines from 1980 through 2012 contains helpful and informative tips for living far outside of cities and bereft of technology. All of the tips and advice have been edited down to what remains relevant in a technologically changing world, and it is crammed full of informative tips for biking, tents, showering, cooking, and living. Whether camping on the edges, living simply, or getting by on the road and loving it, this book is for modern nomads choosing alternative lifestyles to working 9-5 in the same place.
In Girl in a Band Kim Gordon, founding member of Sonic Youth and role model for a generation of women, tells her story. She writes frankly about her route from girl to woman and pioneering icon within the music and art scene of New York City in the 1980s and 90s as well as marriage, motherhood, and independence. Filled with the sights and sounds of a changing world and a remarkable life, Girl in a Band is a moving, evocative chronicle of an extraordinary artist.
In addition, The Tone Clock contains a broad selection of Peter
Schat's polemical writings, embracing historical, political,
aesthetic and environmental perspectives. His book is not just of
interest to composers, but it also provides a valuable insight for
anyone interested in the development of twentieth-century
music.
Can you find the King of Rock `n' Roll? This fabulous, fun and comically-illustrated book features scenes based on Elvis' remarkable, star-studded life and career. Look out for Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, the Memphis Mafia and many others. Has Elvis left the building? Only you can find out!
When it was first published in 2017, Jesse Fink's masterful biography of Bon Scott became an international sensation: it made the cover of Classic Rock magazine, threats were made against the author, and there was talk among some AC/DC fans of boycotts and book burnings. So why the uproar? The legend of the man known around the world as 'Bon' grows with each passing year. In death, AC/DC's trailblazing frontman has become a rock icon. But so much of his story is myth. Bon: The Last Highway tells the unvarnished truth. The 1977–80 period forged the legend of AC/DC. There wasn’t a harder working band on the road in America. But, as Fink reveals in a journey that takes the reader from Austin to Miami to London, the relentless AC/DC machine was threatening to fall apart. With unprecedented access to Bon's lovers, newly unearthed documents and a trove of never-before-seen photos, this updated edition contains a new introduction and more revelations about the singer's death, which should dispel once and for all the idea that Scott succumbed to acute alcohol poisoning on 19 February 1980. Meticulously researched and packed with fresh information, Bon: The Last Highway is an affectionate, honest tribute to a titan of rock music.
First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Supersonic: Personal Situations With Oasis (1992-96) charts the Manchester band's meteoric rise from the tiny venues of their hometown to playing to 250,000 people over two days in the Summer of 1996, as told by the fans and people who worked closely with the band during these formative years. The book features unseen photos and unheard stories as the authors Deabill and Snowball take the reader back to the nights of riotous gigs, Definitely Maybe, Oasis vs Blur, the mammoth-selling second album What's The Story (Morning Glory) and how over an eighth of the UK's population applied for tickets for the band's record-breaking gigs at Knebworth. Headed by the brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, Oasis made guitars cool again, put attitude back in the charts and saw their music reach all four corners of the globe with swagger and style. This is the real story of the early days of rock and roll's last stand.
The ultimate collection of stunning photographs documenting the career of one of the world's greatest superstars There has never been or will there ever be an artist like Prince. "A 5' 3? Mastermind . . . satiated with virtuosity, controversy, stubbornness, and poise . . . His influence on Music transcended any and every category given titles by industry wizards and musicologists. Pop, Rock, Rhythm & Blues, Classical, Funk, Jazz, Soul, and Rap . . . He did it all and he did it well . . . and in his time . . . He did it first," writes Randee St. Nicholas. For twenty-five years, this legendary photographer, with a storied career of her own, worked closely with Prince, capturing some of his most intimate and revealing moments both on and off stage. Now, the fruits of their numerous collaborations are on full display in My Name Is Prince, the largest collection of the most iconic photographs that will ever exist of one of the world's greatest superstars. In this dazzling collector's edition, readers are treated to a front-row seat to their innovative and awe-inspiring projects, from his music videos Gett Off and My Name Is Prince; to their impromptu photo shoots...just because; their adventures around the world from London to Tokyo to Prague, and his breathtaking, showstopping live concert appearances from great stages at Coachella and the 02 Arena to intimate nightclubs. Many of the trips, we will discover, are either unplanned or hastily arranged. And yet you will marvel at the results-as Prince expected nothing less than the best. When they met, Prince was ready for a change. The quixotic performer was known for seizing a moment and then on to the next. After their initial 1991 photo shoot in her Los Angeles studio, Prince assured St. Nicholas, "Don't worry, I'll be back." Over the next twenty-five years he would return again and again, challenging himself and St. Nicholas to reach higher and to go further with every original pursuit. My Name Is Prince is the story of that unique working relationship and artistic evolution that produced many stunning images and lasted from their first meeting until the end: He had incredible timing, not just musically but spiritually, emotionally, and creatively . . . that Prince rhythm fueled a spontaneity that was contagious, enabling you to be more fearless and flexible than you thought you ever could be. When he would call . . . you had to be ready for anything . . . to jump on a plane with an hour or two notice, to put together a crew in a city you had never worked in before without any preparation time . . . or to simply just go outside your house at four in the morning where he was parked in his car, waiting for you to get in and listen to new music he had just recorded. One never knew what to expect . . . but it was always an inspired adventure. Told through 384 pages of striking visuals and poignant, intimate stories, the insights revealed in My Name Is Prince show a side of the enigmatic megastar that few have ever seen. We go beyond the genius and meet the man-playful, moody, disciplined, sensual, serious, and soulful. And in hundreds of photographs, we see that incandescent light behind his hypnotic eyes; that sly smile, strong hands, and transformative and transcendent presence that connected people from every part of the globe through his music. As his sound lives on, My Name Is Prince is a visual testimony to his greatness and a space that can never be filled.
A tell-all biography of the epic in-fighting of the Grateful Dead in the years following band leader Jerry Garcia's death in 1995The Grateful Dead rose to greatness under the inspired leadership of guitarist Jerry Garcia, but the band very nearly died along with him. When Garcia passed away suddenly in August of 1995, the remaining band members experienced full crises of confidence and identity. So long defined by Garcia's vision for the group, the surviving 'Core Four,' as they came to be called, were reduced to conflicting agendas, strained relationships, and catastrophic business decisions that would leave the iconic band in shambles. Wrestling with how best to define their living legacy, the band made many attempts at restructuring, but it would take twenty years before relationships were mended enough for the Grateful Dead as fans remembered them to once again take the stage.Acclaimed music journalist and New York Times bestselling author Joel Selvin was there for much of the turmoil following Garcia's death, and he'll offer a behind-the-scenes account of the ebbs and flows that occurred during the ensuing two decades. Plenty of books have been written about the rise of the Grateful Dead, but this final chapter of the band's history has never before been explored in detail. Culminating in the landmark tour bearing the same name, Fare Thee Well charts the arduous journey from Garcia's passing all the way up to the uneasy agreement between the Core Four that led to the series of shows celebrating the band's fiftieth anniversary and finally allowing for a proper, and joyous, sendoff of the group revered by so many.
The beautiful and tragic saga of the Louvin Brothers - one of the most legendary country duos of all time - is one of America's great untold stories. Charlie Louvin was a good, god-fearing, churchgoing singer, but his brother Ira had the devil in him and was known for smashing his mandolin to splinters onstage, cussing out Elvis Presley, and trying to strangle his third wife with a telephone cord. "Satan is Real" is the incredible tale of Charlie Louvin's sixty-five-year career, the timeless murder ballads of the Louvin Brothers, and the epic tale of two brothers bound together by love, hate, alcohol, blood, and music.
The late nineteenth century was a propitious time for British composers. But while the demand from music publishers for their works grew substantially, the copyright and royalty terms were such that even successful composers could not achieve the levels of earnings enjoyed by other creative artists such as authors, painters and dramatists. However, in the early twentieth century, new sources of earnings emerged, notably performing fees, broadcasting fees and royalties from record sales. Unlike other leading contemporary British composers, who also held prestigious, salaried positions, Elgar was, by his own volition, a freelance composer who relied entirely on the precarious earnings from his works, supplemented by conducting fees and a brief tenure at Birmingham University. As a result, although Elgar achieved fame, status and recognition in his lifetime, both nationally and internationally, his earnings did not match the standard of living to which he aspired. This lack of money, exacerbated by too much expenditure, was a constant source of worry, complaint and frustration to Elgar, even though he had become a beneficiary from the new sources of income in the twentieth century. Elgar's Earnings investigates whether Elgar's complaints about a lack of money can be justified by the facts. Drawing on hitherto neglected primary sources, especially the Novello Business Archive, John Drysdale examines the relatively poor terms offered by music publishers to composers of serious music in general and Elgar in particular and explores the reasons why successful painters and authors, such as G. B. Shaw, could obtain much better terms. This comparative analysis enriches our understanding of the economic and social forces at work in nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain and shows how Elgar, despite his insecure financial position, helped to establish the profession of the English composer, to the lasting benefit of future generations. JOHN DRYSDALE is a musicologist and former investment banker.
The correspondence between composer John Cage and Peter Yates represents the third and final part of Cage's most significant exchanges of letters, following those with Pierre Boulez and with David Tudor. Martin Iddon's book is the first volume to collect the complete extant correspondence with his critical friend, thus completing the 'trilogy' of Cage correspondence published by Cambridge. By bringing together more than 100 letters, beginning in 1940 and continuing until 1971, Iddon reveals the dialogue within which many of Cage's ideas were first forged and informed, with particular focus on his developing attitudes to music criticism and aesthetics. The correspondence with Yates represents precisely, in alignment with Cage's fastidious neatness, the part of his letter writing in which he engages most directly with the last part of his famous tricolon, 'composing's one thing, performing's another, listening's a third'.
(Book). Read & Burn is the first serious, in-depth appraisal of Wire, one of the most influential British bands to emerge during the punk era. If Wire were briefly a punk band, however, it was largely by historical accident. Despite the fact that they had complicated and transformed that category almost before they'd begun, they seem never to have quite escaped the label. Be it punk, post-punk, or art-punk, critics have clung onto the p-word in an attempt to capture the essence of Wire's innovative uniqueness. But their story which honors punk's original yet quickly forgotten commitment to the new is one of constant remaking and remodelling, one that stubbornly resists reduction to a single identity. As a result, the group's projects have always balanced uneasily between artistic endeavour and the need for commercial sustainability, played out against the backdrop of the musicians' perennially complex creative relationships. Tracing Wire's diverse output from 1977 up until the present, Read & Burn seeks to do justice to their highly influential and restlessly inventive body of work by developing a sustained critical account of their shifting approaches. It combines analysis and interpretation with perspective drawn from exclusive interviews with past and present members of the band.
A compelling portrait of rock's greatest guitarist at the moment of his ascendance, Stone Free is the first book to focus exclusively on the happiest and most productive period of Jimi Hendrix's life. As it begins in the fall of 1966, he's an under-sung, under-accomplished sideman struggling to survive in New York City. Nine months later, he's the toast of Swinging London, a fashion icon, and the brightest star to step off the stage at the Monterey International Pop Festival. This momentum-building, day-by-day account of this extraordinary transformation offers new details into Jimi's personality, relationships, songwriting, guitar innovations, studio sessions, and record releases. It explores the social changes sweeping the U.K., Hendrix's role in the dawning of ""flower power,"" and the prejudice he faced while fronting the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In addition to featuring the voices of Jimi, his bandmates, and other eyewitnesses, Stone Free draws extensively from contemporary accounts published in English- and foreign-language newspapers and music magazines. This celebratory account is a must-read for Hendrix fans.
"Gustav Mahler and Alma Maria Schindler were married in . . . 1902. The bride was twenty-one and a half years old, her groom a few months short of forty-two. Apart from their substantial age difference, it seems to have been the very disparity of their intellectual and social backgrounds that drew them together. Mahler was attracted to Alma by her beauty, her alert mind and emotional intensity. Though aware that he possessed by far the broader outlook, he trusted in Alma's ability and willingness to learn from him." from the Introduction"Once the stiffness of unfamiliarity has been softened by a few months of marriage, Mahler's style of correspondence with Alma is generally simple, direct, and astonishingly down-to-earth. In a manner akin to that of his musical style, he spikes his language with witticisms and double-entendres, colloquialisms and quotations from librettos and classical works of literature." from the PrefaceThis profusely illustrated collection of Gustav Mahler's letters to his wife Alma is more comprehensive than any previous edition; it contains 350 letters, 188 of them until now unpublished. Since 1995, when the German edition of this book was first published, two events have served to expand its horizons: the publication in 1997 of the complete text of Alma's early diaries, dating from January 1898 to March 1902, and the publication in 2003 of a catalogue of all Mahler letters acquired from the Moldenhauer Archives. With the aid of this new material, the editors were also able to revise the dates assigned to many of the letters. Commentaries and annotations throughout the book have been corrected and expanded annotations included. The editors' introduction provides a biographical context for the correspondence that follows."
The paperback edition of the bestselling biography. The Kinks are the quintessential British sixties band, revered for an incredible series of classic songs ('You Really Got Me', 'Waterloo Sunset' and 'Lola' to name but a few) and critically acclaimed albums (The Village Green Preservation Society). Featuring original interviews with key band members Ray Davies, his brother Dave and Mick Avory, as well as Chrissie Hynde and many others close to the group, every stage of their career is covered in fascinating detail: the hits, the American successes of the 1970s and the legendary band in-fighting. Nearly 50 years after they formed, The Kinks influence is still being felt today as strongly as ever.
It is 1965, and Swinging London is coming into its prime years. The streets are alive with mods and rockers, playboys and good-time girls, all revelling in the blossoming artistic, creative and cultural energies of the decade. Amid the colour and chaos is a boy sporting drainpipe jeans, an immaculately tailored sports coat and a half-inch wide tie. A devoted fan of The Who, he looks the part in his pristine mod gear. As the lead singer of the Lower Third, his talent is shaping itself into something truly special. His name is Davie Jones. In ten years, he will be unrecognisable as fresh-faced boy of 1965, and in just over fifty years, his death will be mourned by millions, his legacy the story of the greatest rock star of all time. And through Bowie's transition from pop group member to solo performer, Phil Lancaster was by his side. As the drummer in Bowie's band, the Lower Third, Phil was there as the singer's musical stripes began to show, and was witness to his early recording techniques, his first experimental forays into drug-taking, and the band's discovery of his bisexuality in shocking circumstances. In this riveting - and often very funny - memoir, Phil tells the story of life alongside the insecure yet blazingly talented boy who became Bowie, at a critical crossroad of time and place in music history. What follows is an intimate, personal and important perspective on the genesis of one of the most iconic musicians of the twentieth century - one that gets under the skin of the man himself, before the personas and alter-egos masked the fascinating figure beneath them. At the Birth of Bowie is essential reading for anyone who knows what happened on Bowie's journey, but wants to understand how, and why, it ever began.
The first in over half a century to be devoted to a detailed analysis of the complete Beethoven sonatas for violin and piano, this book arose from the author's desire to pass on to a younger generation more than sixty years' experience as a practising musician and teacher. Professor Rostal addresses himself to professional and amateur musicians alike, to students and to listeners, all of whom will derive pleasure and enlightenment from his words. Each of the ten Sonatas is carefully discussed, the manuscripts and first and later editions meticulously compared. Musicians will find technical and interpretative problems approached and solved and the music-lover a helpful listener's guide to these ever-popular masterpieces. As the Amadeus Quartet's Preface says of this important book, It is a "must" for all students and performers, and is a "must" for all lovers of Beethoven.' A renowned violinist and teacher, Professor MAX ROSTAL studied music under Arnold Ros138> and Carl Flesch. Founder and President of the European String Teachers' Association, he has made many recordings and is the editor of numerous wirks in the violin repertoire.
Music Master of the Middle West was first published in 1944. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.Probably only in the fields of sports and music could fifty college undergraduates draw 5000 spectators. The far-famed St. Olaf Choir can and does; yearly it amazes concert-goers from New York to San Francisco by its seemingly impossible perfection.For the thousands who already know the choir and its director, for those interested in music and its development, this book has been written. Here are the stories of F. Melius Christiansen, his choir, and the setting of Norwegian-American Lutheranism out of which he grew.Christiansen brought to this country a rich treasure of Norwegian folk music. Years of study in Minneapolis and Europe, of directing band and choir groups in midwestern towns, prepared hum for the work that was to bring him fame."The story of Christiansen's contribution to American music, his recognized influence on choral singing from coast to coast, is the story of an Old World heritage shaped and enlarged by the free, wide ways and the deep soul-hunger of the New. `Norway gave me much,' says Christiansen, `but America has taught me how to use it.'"Mrs. Bergmann's account of the choir, its personnel, training, and experience, is full of lively anecdotes as well as technical details. Her own four years as a member of the group, her behind-the-scenes knowledge enable her to convey the spirit of the singers, to discuss frankly both strength and weakness. But always she insists that success "lies not in the superior quality of the voices that make up the choirs, since Christiansen chooses largely the average, untrained voice, but in the nature of the director."Thus it is primarily F. Melius Christiansen's story, concerned with his techniques and methods and, above all, with the vigorous personality which makes him remembered by all who know him. |
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