The definitive no-holds-barred biography of John Entwistle, The Who's legendary bass guitarist It is an unequivocal fact that in terms of rock bands, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Who represent Year Zero; the beginning of all things, ground-breakers all. To that end, John Entwistle - the Who's beloved bassist - is also without question one of the most important and influential figures in the annals of rock. He is also among an even more rarefied few by virtue of his being such a fascinating, transfixing and gloriously oversized character. However, Entwistle has not been the subject of a major biography. Likely, this was due to no-one being able to gain close access to the subject himself: the still in many other respects enigmatic Entwistle's enduring legacy has been carefully guarded by his surviving family. With the full co-operation of the Entwistle family, The Ox will correct this oversight and in doing so, shine a long overdue light on one of the single greatest, and most impactful figures in rock history. Drawing on his own notes for an unfinished autobiography that he started before his death in 2002 (and which will be quoted from extensively), as well as his personal archives and interviews with his family and friends, The Ox will give readers a never-before-seen glimpse into the two very distinct poles of John Entwistle. On the one hand, he was the rock star incarnate, being larger than life, self-obsessed to a fault, and proudly and almost defiantly so. Extravagant with money, he famously shipped two vintage American cars across the Atlantic without having so much as a driver's license, built exponentially bigger and grandiose bars into every home he owned, and amassed an extraordinary collection of possessions, from arachnids, armor, and weaponry, to his patented Cuban-heeled boots. But beneath this fame and flutter, he was also a man of simple tastes and traditional opinions. He was a devoted father and family man who loved nothing more than to wake up to a full English breakfast, or to have a supper of fish, chips, and a pint at his local pub. After his untimely death, many of these stories were shuttered away into the memories of his family, friends, and loved ones, but now, for the first time, The Ox will introduce us to the man behind the myth-the iconic and inimitable John Entwistle.

Explains what happened to music-for both artists and fans-when music went online. Playing to the Crowd explores and explains how the rise of digital communication platforms has transformed artist-fan relationships into something closer to friendship or family. Through in-depth interviews with musicians such as Billy Bragg and Richie Hawtin, as well as members of the Cure, UB40, and Throwing Muses, Baym reveals how new media has facilitated these connections through the active, and often required, participation of the artists and their devoted, digital fan base. Before the rise of social sharing and user-generated content, fans were mostly seen as an undifferentiated and unidentifiable mass, often mediated through record labels and the press. However, in today's networked era, musicians and fans have built more active relationships through social media, fan sites, and artist sites, giving fans a new sense of intimacy and offering artists unparalleled information about their audiences. However, this comes at a price. For audiences, meeting their heroes can kill the mystique. And for artists, maintaining active relationships with so many people can be both personally and financially draining, as well as extremely labor intensive. Drawing on her own rich history as an active and deeply connected music fan, Baym offers an entirely new approach to media culture, arguing that the work musicians put in to create and maintain these intimate relationships reflect the demands of the gig economy, one which requires resources and strategies that we must all come to recognize and appreciate.

Leonard Cohen: A Remarkable Life tells the story of the life, loves and work of Leonard Cohen, the poet, songwriter and singer 'born with the gift of a golden voice.' As the man himself once dryly put it.Anthony Reynolds' fascinating and detailed biography draws on scores of new interviews conducted with Cohen's band members past and present, his business associates, editors, friends, fans, producers, colleagues, enemies and peers. As well as their revealing accounts, the author has gained access to hours of previously unpublished interviews with Cohen as well as video archive recordings from several decades. The book also includes an authoritative summary of every Cohen album, with insights and recollections supplied from the musicians who appeared on the recordings. Gradually, despite Cohen's own good-natured evasiveness over the past 40 years, a surprisingly frank portrait begins to emerge of the legendary figure who commands unparalleled loyalty from his fans and followers, young and old. From the distant days of his penniless beginnings as a much-praised poet in Montreal, through the travels, affairs and religious crisis to his latest tours, Cohen's extraordinary life and body of work is examined as never before. The book includes many previously unpublished photographs.

A must-have book for any fan of the Beatles. This book shows how the Fab Four were heavily influenced by music from America and many of their concerts were built around classic songs that had their roots in American R&B, soul, and rock 'n' roll.

Greil Marcus once said to an interviewer, "There is an infinite amount of meaning about anything, and I free associate." For more than four decades, Marcus has explored the connections among figures, sounds, and events in culture, relating unrelated points of departure, mapping alternate histories and surprising correspondences. He is a unique and influential voice in American letters.Marcus was born in 1945 in San Francisco. In 1968 he published his first piece, a review of "Magic Bus: The Who on Tour," in "Rolling Stone," where he became the magazine's first records editor. Renowned for his ongoing "Real Life Top Ten" column, Marcus has been a writer for a number of magazines and websites, and is the author and editor of over fifteen books. His critique is egalitarian: no figure, object, or event is too high, low, celebrated, or obscure for an inquiry into the ways in which our lives can open outward, often unexpectedly."In Conversations with Greil Marcus," Marcus discuses in lively, wide-ranging interviews his books and columns as well as his critical methodology and broad approach to his material, signaled by a generosity of spirit leavened with aggressive critical standards.

* The first book to analyse every Queen song - giving equal weight to album tracks alongside the hits . * Includes analysis of about 20 classic songs using the original 24 track master tapes. * Queen remain ever popular and active, and continue to tour despite the death of Freddie Mercury in 1991. This book examines Queen's music, album by album, track by track, in detail. Where possible, recourse to the original multi-track master tapes has provided extra insight. Those familiar hits are revisited, but those classic album cuts - like `Liar', `March of the Black Queen', `Death on Two Legs', and `Dragon Attack', `are given equal precedence. The book also examines the changes that these same four musicians went through - from heavy and pomp rock to pop as the chart hits began to flow - with a keen and unbiased eye. Whether as a fan your preference is for the albums `A Night at the Opera', `Jazz' or `Innuendo' this detailed and definitive guide will tell you all you need to know. Queen had strength in depth. These are the songs on which a legend was built.

This limited printing, hardcover 40th anniversary edition includes: -an exclusive new interview with lead singer Simon Le Bon -a Rio timeline -a newly designed book cover by Rio album sleeve designer, Malcolm Garrette -vintage Duran Duran photos and ads -and much more... In the '80s, the Birmingham, England, band Duran Duran became closely associated with new wave, an idiosyncratic genre that dominated the decade's music and culture. No album represented this rip-it-up-and-start-again movement better than the act's breakthrough 1982 LP, Rio. A cohesive album with a retro-futuristic sound-influences include danceable disco, tangy funk, swaggering glam, and Roxy Music's art-rock-the full-length sold millions and spawned smashes such as "Hungry Like the Wolf" and the title track. However, Rio wasn't a success everywhere at first; in fact, the LP had to be buffed-up with remixes and reissued before it found an audience in America. The album was further buoyed by colorful music videos and a cutting-edge visual aesthetic, both of which established the 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees as leaders of an MTV-driven second British Invasion. Via extensive new and exclusive interviews with band members and other figures who helped Rio succeed, this book explores how and why Rio became a landmark pop-rock album, and examines how the LP was both a musical inspiration-and a reflection of a musical, cultural, and technology zeitgeist.

Combining the International Who's Who in Classical Music and the International Who's Who in Popular Music, this two-volume set provides a complete view of the whole of the music world. Within the International Who's Who in Classical Music, each biographical entry comprises personal information, principal career details, repertoire, recordings and compositions, and full contact details where available. Appendices provide contact details for national orchestras, opera companies, music festivals, music organizations and major competitions and awards. The International Who's Who in Popular Music boasts detailed entries, including full biographical information, such as principal career details, recordings and compositions, honours and contact information.

The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyricsis an authoritative text, providing standard versions of all the original songs you thought you knew forwards and backwards. These are some of the best-loved songs in the modern American songbook. They are hummed and spoken among thousands as counterculture code and recorded by musicians of all stripes for their inimitable singability and obscure accessibility. How do they do all this? To provide a context for this formidable body of work, of which his part is primary, Robert Hunter has written a foreword that goes to the heart of the matter. And the annotations on sources provide a gloss on the lyrics, which goes to the roots of Western culture as they are incorporated into them. An avid Grateful Dead concertgoer for more than two decades, David Dodd is a librarian who brings to the work a detective's love of following a clue as far as it will take him. Including essays by Dead lyricists Robert Hunter and John Perry and Jim Carpenter's original illustrations, whimsical elements in the lyrics are brought to light, showcasing the American legend that is present in so many songs. A gorgeous keepsake edition of the Dead's official annotated lyrics,The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyricsis an absolute must-have for the fiftieth anniversary-you won't think of this cultural icon the same way again. In fact, founding band member Bob Weir said: "This book is great. Now I'll never have to explain myself."

Amy Winehouse was one of the most successful female singers in the world. Featuring interviews with Amy's bandmates, friends and ex-lovers, this no-holds-barred biography tells the story of her unstoppable rise to the top, her spectacular fall from grace, and her tragic passing.

'I'm no stranger to failure, and I'm aware it can arrive at any minute--as it often has. You have to keep things close to your chest and be aware of what's really important: the work, not everything around it. If you have faith in the work, then the people will come ... it's an artistic imperative, it has nothing to do with public perception or career or any of that crap. The name, Swans, it's synonymous with who I am, but it's how it's achieved and it's achieved by people--those people need to have total commitment to making this sound and to making it utterly incisive and uncompromising. The work is everything and it has to--at least at the time--appear, to me, to be stellar. That's the prerequisite. It's an intangible thing where it really speaks and has some truth within it.' - Michael Gira Over a span of some three and a half decades, Michael Gira's Swans have risen from chaotic origins in the aftermath of New York's No Wave scene to become one of the most acclaimed rock-orientated acts of recent years. The 1980s' infamous 'loudest band on the planet' morphed repeatedly until collapsing exhausted, broken, and dispirited in the late 1990s. Swans returned triumphantly in 2010 to top end-of-year polls and achieve feted status among fans and critics alike as the great survivors and latter-day statesmen of the underground scene. Throughout, Gira's desire has remained to create music of such intensity that the listener might forget flesh, get rid of the body, exist as pure energy--transcendent--inside of the sound. Through these pages, the musicians responsible tell the tale of one of the most significant bands of the US post-punk era. Drawing on more than 125 original interviews, Swans: Sacrifice And Transcendence is the ultimate companion to Swans and their work from the 1980s to the present day.

'From her raging, handwritten letters to late-night phone calls with David Bowie, this biography gets up close and personal with the tempestuous Nina Simone' Observer Drawing on glimpses into previously unseen diaries, rare interviews and childhood journals, and with the aid of her daughter, What Happened, Miss Simone? tells the story of the classically trained pianist who became a soul legend, a committed civil rights activist and one of the most influential, provocative and least understood artists of our time. This is the story of the real Miss Simone.

The love songs of Bob Dylan provide a unique template on which to map the changes in American society since the 1960s. In looking across a diverse range of Dylan's songs, the book will explore issues surrounding masculinity, femininity, sexuality and identity from such a perspective. There have been many books on Dylan, but this present work might be seen as distinct from others insomuch as it will employ the use of specific aspects of cultural theory to explore the underlying appeal of Dylan's prolific output. In this way, it might be said to be a unique example within the world of Dylan studies, as the book possesses relatively little interest in Bob Dylan, the man, but a great sense of interest in the songs he has written, in the cultural texts he has produced. As such the book aspires to offer an accurate depiction of Bob Dylan's reputation as an American songwriter.

A ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR "To flip through the book is to be immersed back in the glory days of Cool Britannia... and it's just as cool as you remember" GQ Remember Britpop and the '90s through hundreds of its most striking images - with many seen here for the very first time. Taken by renowned photographer Kevin Cummins, chief photographer at the NME for more than a decade, the images in this book explore the rise and fall of Cool Britannia and all that came with it. Nostalgic, anarchic and featuring contributions from icons of the Britpop era including Noel Gallagher and Brett Anderson, While We Were Getting High is a seminal portrait of a decade like no other. Artists featured include: Oasis Blur Suede Pulp Elastica Supergrass The Charlatans Gene Sleeper Kula Shaker Echobelly The Bluetones ...and many more

As humanly possible, this book attempts to evaluate every track that Paul McCartney has released on a major label. Thus, the premise of this book: to sift the gems from the chaff and examine what's driven McCartney up and down for fifty years. There are plenty of tracks suitable for casual fans, adolescents, even pre-schoolers. But there are tracks for an older audience too, tracks so good they can supply grown-ups with a rewarding soundtrack for a lifetime. It's these that make for a playlist worth keeping. From 1970 and beyond, the songwriting McCartney seemed to be saddled with a rickety who-cares system that generated iffy results. Gone were 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'Penny Lane'. Instead, came the thought-free 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' and 'Bip Bop', songs The Beatles wouldn't have considered for a second. Troubles swarmed around him as he searched for his place. The Beatles had theirs - where was his? Was he overly obsessed with perfection? Maybe. Or was it insecurity? His next record couldn't be a forward-thinking experiment, with sales falling wherever they may. It had to - had to - be a chart topper adored all over the world.

Popular music has become not only one of the most lucrative spheres of human activity, but also one of the most influential on the identities of individuals and communities. Popular music matters, and it matters to many people, people we can only partially understand if we do not understand their music. In the light of this phenomenon the academic study of popular music has become universally established as an active discipline at university level and this timely series brings together the fruits of recent teaching and research in this field. It makes overt recognition of the fact that the study of popular music is necessarily inter-disciplinary and addresses issues as diverse as: the popular music industry and its institutions; aspects of the history of genres; issues in the theories and methodologies of study and practice; questions of the ontologies and hermeneutics of particular musics; the varying influence of different waves of technological development; the ways markets and audiences are constructed, reproduced and reached; and aspects of the repertory without which there would be no popular music to study. The eight volumes in this series span the range of the world's popular music genres from rap, hip hop, soul and jazz, to roots, electronica, dance and club music. Each volume editor has contributed an introductory essay which constitutes a broad overview of the specific group of genres, and made a selection of the most important and influential published articles, papers and other relevant material. Taken together, these volumes offer an invaluable resource for the study of popular music today in all its forms.

Made in Brazil: Studies in Popular Music serves as a comprehensive and thorough introduction to the history, sociology, and musicology of twentieth-century Brazilian popular music. The volume consists of essays by leading scholars and journalists of Brazilian music, and covers the major figures, styles, and social contexts of pop music in Brazil. Each essay provides adequate context so readers understand why the figure or genre under discussion is of lasting significance to Brazilian popular music. The book first presents a general description of the history and background of popular music in Brazil, followed by essays that are organized into thematic sections: Samba and Choro; History, Memory, and Representations; Scenes and Artists; and Music, Market and New Media.

Set against a backdrop of world-changing historical and political events, Fire and Rain tells the extraordinary story of one pivotal year in the lives and music of four legendary artists, and reveals how these artists and their songs both shaped and reflected their times. Drawing on interviews, rare recordings, and newly discovered documents, acclaimed journalist David Browne allows us to see,and to hear,the elusive moment when the '60s became the '70s in a completely fresh way" (Mark Harris, author of Pictures at a Revolution ).

A Rough Trade Book of the Year After the success of his memoir, Telling Stories, Tim set himself a quest. He got in touch with people he admires, and asked them to suggest an album for him to track down on his travels, giving an insight into what makes them tick, while also giving Tim a chance to see how record shops around the world were faring in the digital age. Sending out texts, phone calls, emails and handwritten notes to the likes of Iggy Pop, Johnny Marr, David Lynch and Cosey Fanni Tutti, here is the tender, funny and surprising story of what came back.

Combining the International Who's Who in Classical Music and the International Who's Who in Popular Music, this two-volume set provides a complete view of the whole of the music world. Within the International Who's Who in Classical Music, each biographical entry comprises personal information, principal career details, repertoire, recordings and compositions, and full contact details where available. Appendices provide contact details for national orchestras, opera companies, music festivals, music organizations and major competitions and awards. The International Who's Who in Popular Music boasts detailed entries, including full biographical information, such as principal career details, recordings and compositions, honours and contact information.

KISS is the most outrageous and yet the most enduring of rock bands, with an unparalleled, almost religious level of devotion from millions of die-hard fans. In KISS and Philosophy, professional thinkers of diverse outlooks provide much-needed insights into the motivating ideas and metaphysical foundations of the KISS take on life. According to some, the true message of KISS is self-actualization through the hard work of following your dreams. Others focus on the existential aspect of KISS thinking, drawing upon Camus and Sartre to show that KISS is preoccupied with empowering the individual to achieve self-greatness. By contrast, there is a view of KISS which identifies a "destroyer" attitude, leading some listeners to reject KISS outright, while encouraging others to become the most dedicated of followers. Yet another view sees KISS's "letting loose" as essentially Dionysian. Some chapters gain access to KISS thinking by tracing the band's cultural and historical impact, finding meaning in the way generations of fans make sense of KISS's always evolving output, the changing line-up, and the archetypal characters represented by the band's use of make-up and presentation. Other chapters look at the aesthetic quality of the band's output, especially their most controversial album, Music from "The Elder." Several chapters examine KISS's orientation to bodily pleasures, notably sex, extracting the band's philosophy of sex and love from different clues and indications. How does KISS's unashamed indulgence relate to various pleasure-governed ethical systems throughout history? Is getting the most out of pleasure key to living the good life? And does a life of gratifying one's body ultimately yield fulfillment? What are the limitations and hazards of a pleasure-oriented lifestyle? The biography of band members also provides material for reflection, looking at the nature of forgiveness through the lens of KISS's notorious feuds, and determining how to reconcile the apparently conflicting accounts of some famous squabbles. The changing line-up of the band raises questions about the meaning of "KISS" and whether KISS could last forever

Featured in the film Twenty Feet From Stardom, the woman whose voice the New York Times said "is as embedded in the history of rock 'n' roll as Eric Clapton's guitar and Bob Dylan's lyrics" tells her story

Right out of high school, Darlene Love began singing lead vocals for legendary producer Phil Spector, cutting such classic hits as the number one "He's a Rebel," "Da Doo Ron Ron," and "He's Sure the Boy I Love." As part of the girl group the Blossoms, she held a regular spot on television's Shindig , and with Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans she toured the country.

Later, she sang backup--and collected numerous scintillating backstage stories--with, among others, Dionne Warwick, the Mamas and the Papas, and Sonny and Cher. Now in My Name Is Love, Darlene is ready to tell her tales about Elvis coming on to her backstage during his famous '68 Comeback Special, about wild parties she witnessed at Tom Jones's house, and about her love affair with Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers. She also recalls how she found herself cleaning houses in Beverly Hills, heard herself on the radio, and vowed to make a comeback. That comeback has included roles in all of the Lethal Weapon movies, starring roles on Broadway, and headlining concert appearances worldwide.

A dishy, behind-the-scenes showbiz memoir, My Name Is Love is also the inspiring story of a woman who refused to give up.

(Guitar Book). Bassist James Jamerson was the embodiment of the Motown spirit and groove the invisible entity whose playing inspired thousands. His tumultuous life and musical brilliance are explored in depth through hundreds of interviews, 49 transcribed musical scores, two hours of recorded all-star performances, and more than 50 rarely seen photos in this stellar tribute to behind-the-scenes Motown. Features a 120-minute CD Allan Slutsky's 2002 documentary of the same name is the winner of the New York Film Critics "Best Documentary of the Year" award