"Hoskyns brings a genuine love as well as an outsider's keen eye to the rise and fall of the California scene...This is a riveting story, sensitively told." - Anthony DeCurtis, Contributing Editor, "Rolling Stone". From enduring musical achievements to drug fueled chaos and bed hopping antics, the L.A. pop music scene in the sixties and seventies was like no other, and journalist Barney Hoskyns re-creates all the excitement and mayhem. "Hotel California" brings to life the genesis of Crosby, Stills, and Nash at Joni Mitchell's house; the Eagles' backstage fistfights after the success of "Hotel California"; the drama of David Geffen and the other money men who transformed the L.A. music scene; and more. Barney Hoskyns (London, UK) is the former U.S. correspondent for MOJO, the author of several books about music and Hollywood, and the cofounder of rocksbackpages.com, a rock journalism library.

In his graphic biography Nick Cave: Mercy on Me, Reinhard Kleist paints an expressive and enthralling portrait of the musician, novelist, poet, and actor. It is, according to Nick Cave himself, "a complex, chilling and completely bizarre journey into Cave World." Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: An Art Book collects Kleist's moody and expressive portraits of the musician and his band, spanning 30 years of writing, recording, and live performance. Kleist also returns readers to Cave's imaginative world with comic book reimaginings of "Deanna," "The Good Son," and "Stagger Lee." Filled with visual delights, this record-size art book is a kaleidoscopic portrait of Nick Cave's wide-ranging career as a storyteller, musician, and cultural icon.

John Lennon was a rock star, a school clown, a writer, a wit, an iconoclast, a sometime peace activist and finally an eccentric millionaire. He was also a Beatle - his plain-speaking and impudent rejection of authority catching, and eloquently articulating, the group's moment in history. Chronicling a famously troubled life, Being John Lennon analyses the contradictions in the singer-songwriter's creative and destructive personality. Drawing on many interviews and conversations with Lennon, his first wife Cynthia and second Yoko Ono, as well as his girlfriend May Pang and song-writing partner Paul McCartney, Ray Connolly unsparingly reassesses the chameleon nature of the perpetually dissatisfied star who just couldn't stop reinventing himself.

Greil Marcus saw Bob Dylan for the first time in a New Jersey field in 1963. He didn't know the name of the scruffy singer who had a bit part in a Joan Baez concert, but he knew his performance was unique. So began a dedicated and enduring relationship between America's finest critic of popular music, "simply peerless," in Nick Hornby's words, "not only as a rock writer but as a cultural historian", and Bob Dylan, who in 2016 won the Nobel Prize for Literature. In Like A Rolling Stone Marcus locates Dylan's six-minute masterwork in its richest, fullest context, capturing the heady atmosphere of the recording studio in 1965 as musicians and technicians clustered around the mercurial genius from Minnesota, the young Bob Dylan at the height of his powers. But Marcus shows how, far from being a song only of 1965, "Like a Rolling Stone" is rooted in faraway American places and times, drawing on timeless cultural impulses that make the song as challenging, disruptive, and restless today as it ever was, capable of reinvention by artists as disparate as the comedian Richard Belzer and the Italian hip-hop duo Articolo 31. "Like a Rolling Stone" never loses its essential quality, which is directly to challenge the listener: it remains a call to arms and a demand for a better world. Forty years later it is still revolutionary as will and idea, as an attack and an embrace. How Does it Feel? In this unique, burningly intense book, Marcus tells you, and much more besides.

(Berklee Methods). The Berklee in the Pocket Essential Songwriter is an accessible reference guide that will quickly lead songwriters to ideas that are at the heart of countless hit songs. The tips and strategies jam-packed into this concise guide will help you tackle writer's block and gain fresh insight into the songwriting process. Includes: the 17 chord progressions that are at the heart of the most popular hit songs, guitar charts and keyboard chords showing how to play progressions in all 12 keys, tips to customize essential chord progressions to suit your own songs, contact info for businesses and organizations most important to the working songwriter, and more

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.

Recording Artists don't always enjoy success with their first release. A hit record relies on any number of factors: the right song, a memorable performance, a healthy promotional budget, great management, a spot of luck, and even some intangibles. Take choice of a name. For a single artist, duo, vocal group or band, the name can carry a lot of weight. Some recording artists changed their name to appeal to an entirely different demographic, like when country superstar Garth Brooks recorded as Chris Gaines to score on the pop charts. The Beefeaters became the Byrds-and they spelled the band name with a "y" in the wake of the meteoric success of the Beatles, whose letter "A" turned the image of a nasty bug into something intriguing. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel amassed a litany of aliases-Simon went by True Taylor, Jerry Landis, and Paul Kane; Art Garfunkel as Artie Garr; together they were Tom & Jerry before finally using their very ethnic-sounding given names. Bob Leszczak has amassed several hundred examples of musical pseudonyms in The Encyclopedia of Pop Music Aliases, 1950-2000, describing the history of these artists from their obscure origins under another name to their rise to prominence as a major musical act. Music trivia buffs, rock historians, and popular music fans will uncover nugget after nugget of eye-opening information about their favorite acts and perhaps learn a thing or two about a number of other acts. Leszczak goes the extra yard of gathering critical data directly from many of these famous recording artists through in-person interviews and archival research. Whether skipping around randomly or reading from cover-to-cover, readers will find The Encyclopedia of Pop Music Aliases, 1950-2000 a must-have for that music library.

This is THE definitive Gershwin songbook - a truly magnificant collection containing 50 of George Gershwin's best songs for piano and voice with guitar chords in a large 216 page volume. This is the first in a brand new series entitled 'The Platinum Collection'. All the songs within this book are newly engraved and have been thoroughly researched and edited to provide the best published edition. No other series can claim to be as definitive as Faber Music's new Platinum Collection.
Titles include: A Foggy Day * Bess, You Is My Woman Now * Bidin' My Time * But Not For Me * By Strauss * Clap Yo' Hands * Do It Again * Do-Do-Do * Embraceable You * Fascinating Rhythm * Fidgety Feet * Funny Face * He loves and she loves * High Hat * How Long Has This Been Going On? * I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' * I Got Rhythm * I'll Build A Stairway To Paradise * I've Got A Crush On You * Isn't It A Pity? * It Ain't Necessarily So * Let's Call the Whole Thing Off * Let's kiss and make up * Love Is Here To Stay * Love Is Sweeping The Country * Love Walked In from * Maybe Mine * My One And Only * Nice Work If You Can Get It * Of Thee I Sing * Summertime and more

A Times, Rough Trade and Uncut Book of the Year, shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2015. Original Rockers is a clear-eyed yet romantic account of the several years that Richard King spent working behind the counter at Bristol's Revolver Records -- a business run from the heart rather than the head. King brings that lost environment back to life -- the sounds, the smells and the people -- along with a vivid sense of how it feels to discover taste-shaping records and the artists who created them for the first time. Original Rockers evokes a golden moment in British cultural history, and celebrates the magical abandon that music offers us.

A lively examination of the most legendary (and least understood) rivalry in the annals of rock 'n' roll: ""Beatles vs. Stones" is one of the best rock biographies I have seen this year...If you thought you knew everything there was to know about these two groups, think again" ("Seattle Post-Intelligencer").
In the 1960s an epic battle was waged between the two biggest bands in the world--the lovable Beatles and the bad-boy Rolling Stones. Both groups liked to maintain that they weren't really "rivals"--that was just a media myth, they politely said--and yet they plainly competed for commercial success and aesthetic credibility. On both sides of the Atlantic, fans often aligned themselves with one group or the other. In "Beatles vs. Stones," John McMillian gets to the truth behind the ultimate rock and roll debate.
Painting an eye-opening portrait of a generation dragged into an ideological battle between Flower Power and New Left militance, McMillian reveals how the Beatles-Stones rivalry was created by music managers intent on engineering a moneymaking empire. He explores how the Beatles were marketed as cute and amiable, when in fact they came from hardscrabble backgrounds in Liverpool. By contrast, the Stones were cast as an edgy, dangerous group, even though they mostly hailed from the chic London suburbs. For many years, writers and historians have associated the Beatles with the gauzy idealism of the "good" sixties, placing the Stones as representatives of the dangerous and nihilistic "bad" sixties. "Beatles vs. Stones" is "balanced, informed, yet still passionate...Even the most gnarled and intransigent veterans of the debate will emerge enlightened by this book....McMillian negotiates these thickets with insight, care, and a willingness to unsettle cliches" ("The New York Times Book Review").

Play guitar with six of The Smiths' greatest songs. On the CD are two specially recorded 'soundalike' backing tracks of each song. Also included is a full demo with guitar, showing you how the song should sound and a backing track without the guitar for you to play along with on your own guitar. In the music book are music, chords and lyrics and learn the guitar part from the tab or the standard notation.

(Play It Like It Is). 15 songs from the self-titled debut by the acoustic metal/comedy duo of Kyle Gass and Jack Black. Includes: Double Team * Explosivo * Kielbasa * Malibu Nights * Rock Your Socks * Tribute * and more. PARENTAL ADVISORY FOR EXPLICIT LYRICS.

In celebration of the 45th anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon, Bill Kopp explores the ingenuity with which Pink Floyd rebranded itself following the 1968 departure of Syd Barrett. Not only did the band survive Barrett's departure, but it went on to release landmark albums that continue to influence generations of musicians and fans. Reinventing Pink Floyd follows the path taken by the remaining band members to establish a musical identity, develop a songwriting style, and create a new template for the manner in which albums are made and even enjoyed by listeners. As veteran music journalist Bill Kopp illustrates, that path was filled with failed experiments, creative blind alleys, one-off musical excursions, abortive collaborations, general restlessness, and-most importantly-a dedicated search for a distinctive musical personality. This exciting guide to the works of 1968 through 1973 highlights key innovations and musical breakthroughs of lasting influence. Kopp places Pink Floyd in its historical, cultural, and musical contexts while celebrating the test of fire that took the band from the brink of demise to enduring superstardom.

Popular Musicology and Identity paves new paths for studying popular music's entwinement with gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class, locality, and a range of other factors. The book consists of original essays in honour of Stan Hawkins, whose work has been a major influence on the musicological study of gender and identity since the early 1990s. In the new millennium, musicological approaches have proliferated and evolved alongside major shifts in the music industry and popular culture. Reflecting this plurality, the book reaches into a range of musical contexts, eras, and idioms to critically investigate the discursive structures that govern the processes through which music is mobilised as a focal point for negotiating and assessing identity. With contributions from leading scholars in the field, Popular Musicology and Identity accounts for the state of popular musicology at the onset of the 2020s while also offering a platform for the further advancement of the critical study of popular music and identity. This collection of essays thus provides an up-to-date resource for scholars across fields such as popular music studies, musicology, gender studies, and media studies.

With 2014 marking the 60th anniversary of the release of Elvis Presley's first record, "That's All Right," this book makes the perfect companion for celebrating the life and music of one of the world's most popular entertainers. Packed with history, trivia, lists, little-known facts, and must-do adventures, legions of Elvis fans around the globe who still adore him more than three decades after his death will delight in this ode to "The King." Ranked from one to 100, the songs, albums, movies, places, personalities, and events that are the most important to know in Elvis lore unfold on the pages, offering hours of entertainment for both casual and serious fans.

'I've been on six-week tours of America and it breaks you open, but to do it straight off the bat, in the middle of winter, with three new girls... I was thinking, If we survive this, it'll be a miracle... but it was the best time we've ever had.' The first official book from Noel Gallagher, this is the behind-the-scenes story of his biggest ever solo tour and the making of the critically-acclaimed album Who Built The Moon?. Join Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds as they embark on the Stranded On The Earth world tour - a phenomenal year-long journey around the globe, taking in dates across the USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Europe and Southeast Asia. With photography by Sharon Latham, who was granted unprecedented access, this fully illustrated book documents life on the road for one of the world's most successful artists; featuring unseen images and candid interviews with Noel and the band.

Depending on who you asked, George Harrison was many different things to different people. There was his songcraft, which won over the affections of producer savant Phil Spector; there was his musicianship, that captured the hearts of blues savants Eric Clapton and Delaney Bramlett; and then there was his penchant for comedy, which made him an obvious shoo-in for Rutland Weekend Television and Saturday Night Live. But behind these traits stood a fragile man, aching for enlightenment and peace in an industry that strove to rid him of any of it. Keenly aware of this conflict, Harrison was brave enough to commit it to tape on the wistful Dark Horse, a confessional album written against the backdrop of a regrettable American Tour. But Harrison was always ready to brave the conflict, and it served him better to ride it out than to return to The Beatles for an easy paycheque. He was known as 'The Quiet Beatle', although this title did him a disservice, considering his intellectual focus and thoughtful nature. Instead, he was arguably 'The Chameleonic Beatle', a moniker that only serves to understand the deeply complex guitar player better. And in a deeply complicated decade, Harrison's artistry flourished

A GUARDIAN AND INDEPENDENT BEST MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR 'At last an expert classicist gets to grips with Bob Dylan' Mary Beard 'Thomas's elegant, charming book offers something for everyone - not just the super-fans' Independent When the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan, the literary world was up in arms. How could the world's most prestigious book prize be awarded to a famously cantankerous singer-songwriter in his Seventies, who wouldn't even deign to make an acceptance speech? In Why Dylan Matters, Harvard Professor Richard F. Thomas answers that question with magisterial erudition. A world expert on Classical poetry, Thomas was initially ridiculed by his colleagues for teaching a course on Bob Dylan alongside his traditional seminars on Homer, Virgil and Ovid. Dylan's Nobel prize win brought him vindication. This witty, personal volume is a distillation of Thomas's famous course, and makes a compelling case for moving Dylan out of the rock n' roll Hall of Fame and into the pantheon of Classical poets. You'll never think about Bob Dylan in the same way again.

Phil Collins was everywhere in the 1980s. He had more top forty singles in the US than any other artist during the 1980s: fourteen as a solo artist and eleven with Genesis, along with two number one albums. Add to this, twenty-five solo / group hit singles and eight number one albums in the UK. He also recorded with artists as diverse as Peter Gabriel, John Martyn, Frida, Robert Plant, Mike Oldfield, Marti Webb, Al Di Meola, Adam Ant, Eric Clapton, Phil Bailey, Band Aid, Marilyn Martin, Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Chaka Khan and Tears For Fears - another thirty-five albums or standalone singles, some of which were massive global hits. He also found time, somehow, to tour with Plant and Clapton in addition to his extensive in-concert duties with Genesis and as a solo artist. And perform at Live Aid. At both concerts. That's around six hundred live concerts in total between 1980 and 1989. There's no doubt that the guy was busy in that period! Amidst the overwhelming commercial success and ahead of any other career plan Phil Collins was and is a musician. His ubiquity between 1980 and 1989 hides ten years of magnificent music and this book examines Phil Collins' musical output through these ten tumultuous years.

The plane crash of 3 February 1959 which claimed the life of Buddy Holly was both a human tragedy, and a tragedy for rock'n'roll. In a little under two years, Holly and his band -- the Crickets -- had become major stars, thanks to their high standard of musicianship and a string of memorable hits including 'That'll Be The Day', 'Rave On', 'Peggy Sue', 'Oh Boy!' and 'Heartbeat', only for their career to be cruelly cut short. After his death, Holly's records continued to sell in quantity for many years -- a testament to his massive influence and the lasting popularity of his music. It may sound strange now, but in those monochrome, pre-Internet days very little was actually known about the singer with the unusual name and the hiccup in his voice -- a situation that persisted until the appearance of John Goldrosen's pioneering biography in 1975. Since then, much more information has been uncovered, thanks to decades of research by dedicated fans. This book draws together a mass of Holly facts and info from a variety of published sources, as well as the author's own original research, and presents them in an easy-to-use encyclopaedic format. Now in its third edition, it has proved to be a popular and valuable reference work on this seminal rock'n'roller. This is a book that every Holly fan will want to keep at his fingertips. A book about a musical genius who will never be forgotten.

The iconic life and career of the famed guitarist of the Rolling Stones is detailed in this compilation of interviews that spans the last 50 years. Featuring articles from GQ, Melody Maker, and Rolling Stone, as well as interviews that have never previously appeared in print, it charts Keith Richards's journey from gauche, young pretender and swaggering epitome of the zeitgeist to beloved elder statesman of rock. Initially overshadowed by band mates Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, Richards gained popularity as half of the second-most important songwriting team of the 1960s, and in 1967 the drug bust at his house and his subsequent trial and imprisonment made him a household name. His interviews match his outlaw image: free of banality and euphemism, they revel in frank stories of drugs and debauchery. Yet they also reveal an unexpectedly warm, unpretentious, articulate, and honest man. This collection amply illustrates the magic and charm of Keith Richards.