Life's a Gamble is the autobiography of iconic singer-songwriter Pauline Murray. It recounts her journey from a small mining village in northeast England, through to gaining national recognition as the frontwoman of her band, Penetration, and how she became a key member of the punk movement. Emerging onto the punk scene at just 18 years old, inspired by an early encounter with the Sex Pistols, Pauline details how she played alongside the leading bands of the era, navigated the demands of the music industry, conquered the post-punk landscape with the Invisible Girls, opened her own music studios and reformed Penetration in 2001. Highly illustrated with unseen photographs and drawing upon Pauline's teenage diaries, interviews and archive material from her personal collection, this book chronicles the life and work of an authentic creative artist and punk rock legend.

The full story of Taylor Swift's stratospheric rise to fame; all any dedicated Swifty needs to know about the pop superstar who's taking over the world. A small-town girl with an incredible talent, and the strength to realise her dream, Taylor has grown into an award-winning, chart-topping artist and worldwide star, as well as a strong and stylish woman. But how did she get there? And what lies in store for her in the future? From childhood dreams of a musical future in Pennsylvania, to determined and budding teen musician with a trademark she's stayed faithful to ever since: honest lyrics about real-life events; her fight to be taken seriously in the music industry, through to the rewards of success and the intense pressure of expectation, Taylor Swift: The Whole Story is a full account of Taylor's incredible journey, with everything you need to know about America's Sweetheart. This compelling book is packed full of fascinating details revealing the true Taylor - what drives, motivates and moves her, how she overcame the challenges that loomed on the road to fame and looks at how authentic her wholesome image is, plus the truth about her relationships with Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal and Conor Kennedy and who she's really talking about on her tracks. The full portrait of a girl who could so easily have faded into the background - but who blossomed in the spotlight into a grounded, graceful and inspiring young woman.

Since his death in 1971, friends and band members have produced several biographies describing various aspects of Jim Morrison's life and career. Now James Riordan and Jerry Prochnicky examine with insightful clarity the entire story of Morrison's roots, his early family life, the intellectual foundations of his music, his wild days with The Doors, his private life, and the mystery that still surrounds his death.

In Break On Through, we see Morrison's angry relationship with his father and how a horrifying, deadly car accident Morrison witnessed as a small boy influenced his songs and poetry. We witness The Doors' exhilarating early days of struggle and the infamous Miami trial, where Morrison stood charged with obscenity. And here is the real story of Morrison's death in Paris, based on interviews with new sources who conclusively disprove the official finding of death by heart attack.

Break On Through is more than an insightful look at a rock legend whose cult following never stops growing. With dozens of rarely published photographs, this is the authoritative portrait of the man and his career.

Rufus Thomas may not be a household name, but he is widely regarded as the patriarch of Memphis R&B, and his music influenced three generations. His first singles in the early 1950s were recorded as blues transitioned into R&B, and he was arguably one of the founding fathers of early rock ’n’ roll. In the early 1960s, his songs "The Dog" and "Walking the Dog" made a huge impact on the emerging British "mod" scene, influencing the likes of the Georgie Fame, the Rolling Stones, and the Who. And in the early 1970s, Thomas rebranded himself as the "funkiest man alive" and recorded funk classics that were later sampled by the likes of Public Enemy, Missy Elliot, and the Wu-Tang Clan. In Funkiest Man Alive: Rufus Thomas and Memphis Soul, Matthew Ruddick reveals the amazing life and career of Thomas, who started as a dancer in the minstrel shows that toured the South before becoming one of the nation’s early African American disc jockeys, and then going on to record the first hit singles for both Chess Records and Stax Records. Ruddick also examines the social fabric of the city of Memphis, analyzing the factors behind the vast array of talent that appeared in the late 1950s, with singers like Isaac Hayes, William Bell, Maurice White (Earth, Wind & Fire), and Thomas’s older daughter, Carla Thomas, all emerging from the tightly knit African American community. He also tells the story of Memphis-based Stax Records, one of the nation’s leading R&B record labels. From the earliest blues, the segregated minstrel shows, and the birth of rock ’n’ roll through to the emergence of R&B and funk, Rufus Thomas saw it all.

Spawned in the intensely fertile music scene that blossomed in and around Seattle in the late 1980s, Nirvana instantly distinguished itself from the bulk of its peers by virtue of the singular passion that drove its leader, Kurt Cobain. Few were prepared for worldwide Nirvana-mania set off by the 1991 release of Nevermind. With the instantaneous success of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' the album stormed the charts. Their next album, In Utero, was the last studio recording released by Nirvana: the demons that made Cobain's writing so powerful took their toll: he took his own life less than a year later. Although the band released just five albums, Nirvana's influence is certain to be felt for many years to come: Nirvana, an unofficial publication, shows the multiple reasons behind that impact through the words of the band, their friends and their colleagues. Through interviews with those close to the band coupled with intensive archive research, the unique status this band occupies-as representatives of the time, and as timeless songwriters-will be revealed.

The global icon, award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, actress, mother, daughter, sister, storyteller and artist finally tells the unfiltered story of her life in The Meaning of Mariah Carey. It took me a lifetime to have the courage and the clarity to write my memoir. I want to tell the story of the moments - the ups and downs, the triumphs and traumas, the debacles and the dreams - that contributed to the person I am today. Though there have been countless stories about me throughout my career and very public personal life, it's been impossible to communicate the complexities and depths of my experience in any single magazine article or a ten-minute television interview. And even then, my words were filtered through someone else's lens, largely satisfying someone else's assignment to define me. This book is composed of my memories, my mishaps, my struggles, my survival and my songs. Unfiltered. I went deep into my childhood and gave the scared little girl inside of me a big voice. I let the abandoned and ambitious adolescent have her say, and the betrayed and triumphant woman I became tell her side. Writing this memoir was incredibly hard, humbling and healing. My sincere hope is that you are moved to a new understanding, not only about me, but also about the resilience of the human spirit. Love, Mariah

This is the story of the little girl with the magnificent voice from Savannah, Georgie who sang out to America with the Big Bands of Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. For two years Connie Haines and Frank Sinatra, who won the title Best Boy and Girl Singer of the era, sang shoulder to shoulder on stages across America, singing: Let's Get Away from It All; Snootie Little Cutie; and Oh, Look At Me Now. With a foreword by her friend and singing companion Jane Russell, and comments by Frankie Laine and Rhonda Fleming, you are transported back to the 1940s and '50s, Big Band Era. With over 50 wonderful, original photos you will relive her days with the Big Bands and the Abbott and Costello tours and with 'Les Girls' Jane, Beryl Davis, and Rhonda Fleming. As Jane Russell says, "I'm sure you'll enjoy learning more about this honourable, faithful, fun-loving, talented, crystal Chandelier-loving Southern Belle.". Richard Grudens brings you this heart-warming story of one of America's best-loved vocalists who still performs today. He provides you with that special insight into her life.

Classical music was never meant to be an art for snobs! In the 1700s and 1800s, classical music was popular music. People went to concerts with their friends, they brought snacks and drinks, and cheered right in the middle of the concert. Well, guess what? Three hundred years later, that music is just as catchy, thrilling, and emotional. From Bach to Mozart and Chopin, history's greatest composers have stood the test of time and continue to delight listeners from all walks of life. And in Classical Music For Dummies, you'll dive deeply into some of the greatest pieces of music ever written. You'll also get: A second-by-second listening guide to some of history's greatest pieces, annotated with time codes A classical music timeline, a field guide to the orchestra, and listening suggestions for your next foray into the classical genre Expanded references so you can continue your studies with recommended resources Bonus online material, like videos and audio tracks, to help you better understand concepts from the book Classical Music For Dummies is perfect for anyone who loves music. It's also a funny, authoritative guide to expanding your musical horizons--and to learning how the world's greatest composers laid the groundwork for every piece of music written since.

'A masterpiece, as fresh and shocking as if it were written yesterday' Craig Brown "I've been told that no one sings the word 'hunger' like I do. Or the word 'love'." Lady Sings the Blues is the inimitable autobiography of one of the greatest icons of the twentieth century. Born to a single mother in 1915 Baltimore, Billie Holiday had her first run-in with the law at aged 13. But Billie Holiday is no victim. Her memoir tells the story of her life spent in jazz, smoky Harlem clubs and packed-out concert halls, her love affairs, her wildly creative friends, her struggles with addiction and her adventures in love. Billie Holiday is a wise and aphoristic guide to the story of her unforgettable life.

This book contains all the scales and arpeggios required for ABRSM's Grade 3 Piano exam. It covers all the new requirements from 2021.

Rock Atlas has hundreds of stories which deliver a fresh, new insight into the lives of the UK and Ireland's rock and pop stars. This fact-packed look at rock and pop, from an entirely different perspective, throws up many new revelations about our favourite musicians. When you ve finished reading the stories, you can visit the places. Every one of the book's 800 entries is followed by directions for how to find the iconic venues, record shops, statues, album cover shoots, childhood homes and festival sites.

Die FAK-sangbundel se eerste verskyning in 1937 was ’n belangrike kulturele gebeurtenis. Sedertdien was dit so wyd in aanvraag dat dit vier uitgawes en vyf herdrukke beleef het. In latere uitgawes is liedere wat nie veel aftrek gekry het nie weggelaat en gewildes wat vroeer ontbreek het, opgeneem. Tans word dit beskou as die mees omvattende bundel Afrikaanse lirieke met bladmusiek en dit dien as verwysingswerk vir ’n groot aantal kulturele organisasies, koormeesters en skole. Dit is voorsien van ’n register volgens liedere se titels en eerste reels sowel as ’n rubriekindeling, waaronder vaderlandsliedere, natuurlirieke, liefdes-, kleuter- en slaapliedjies en gewyde liedere. Bekende Afrikaans digters en komponiste se talente word hier saamgevoeg, sowel as sensitief vertaalde Afrikaanse weergawes van wereldwye gunstelinge.

In her intimate memoir, More Myself, Alicia Keys shares her quest for truth: about herself, her past, and her shift from sacrificing her spirit to celebrating her worth. One of the most celebrated musicians of our time, Alicia Keys has enraptured the nation with her heartfelt lyrics, extraordinary vocal range, and soul-stirring piano compositions. Yet away from the spotlight, Alicia has grappled with private heartache over the challenging and complex relationship with her father, the people-pleasing nature that characterized her early career, the loss of privacy surrounding her romantic relationships, and the oppressive expectations of female perfection. Since her rise to fame, Alicia's public persona has belied a deep personal truth: she has spent years not fully recognizing or honoring her own worth. After withholding parts of herself for so long, she is at last exploring the questions that live at the heart of her story: Who am I, really? And once I discover that truth, how can I become brave enough to embrace it? More Myself is part autobiography, part narrative documentary. Alicia's journey is revealed not only through her own candid recounting, but also through vivid recollections from those who have walked alongside her. The result is a 360-degree perspective on Alicia's path: from her girlhood in Hell's Kitchen and Harlem, to the process of self-discovery she's still navigating. With the raw honesty that epitomizes Alicia's artistry, More Myself is at once a riveting account and a clarion call to readers: to define themselves in a world that rarely encourages a true and unique identity.

"Both a pleasure and a testament to life in Ukraine, before" The Times "Ukraine's greatest living novelist" New European "A Ukrainian Murakami" Guardian A hugely entertaining romp through the beautiful city of Lviv, by the author of Death and the Penguin and Grey Bees, now reporting widely on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, his home country. Strange things are afoot in the cosmopolitan city of Lviv, western Ukraine. Seagulls are circling and the air smells salty, though Lviv is a long way from the sea . . . A ragtag group gathers round a mysterious grave in Lychakiv Cemetery - among them an ex-KGB officer and an ageing hippy he used to spy on. Before long, Captain Ryabtsev and Alik Olisevych are teaming up to discover the source of the "anomalies". Meanwhile, Taras ­- who makes a living driving kidney-stone patients over cobblestones in his ancient Opel Vectra - is courting Darka, who works nights at a bureau de change despite being allergic to money. The young lovers don't know it, but their fate depends on two lonely old men, relics of another era, who will stop at nothing to save their city. Shot through with Kurkov's unique brand of black humour and vodka-fuelled magic realism, Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv is an affectionate portrait one the world's most intriguing cities. Translated from the Russian by Reuben Woolley

SHORTLISTED for the Baillie Gifford Prize’s 25th Anniversary Winner of Winners award WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020 A Spectator Book of the Year • A Times Book of the Year • A Telegraph Book of the Year • A Sunday Times Book of the Year From the award-winning author of Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret comes a fascinating, hilarious, kaleidoscopic biography of the Fab Four. John Updike compared them to ‘the sun coming out on an Easter morning’. Bob Dylan introduced them to drugs. The Duchess of Windsor adored them. Noel Coward despised them. JRR Tolkien snubbed them. The Rolling Stones copied them. Loenard Bernstein admired them. Muhammad Ali called them ‘little sissies’. Successive Prime Ministers sucked up to them. No one has remained unaffected by the music of The Beatles. As Queen Elizabeth II observed on her golden wedding anniversary, ‘Think what we would have missed if we had never heard The Beatles.’ One Two Three Four traces the chance fusion of the four key elements that made up The Beatles: fire (John), water (Paul), air (George) and earth (Ringo). It also tells the bizarre and often unfortunate tales of the disparate and colourful people within their orbit, among them Fred Lennon, Yoko Ono, the Maharishi, Aunt Mimi, Helen Shapiro, the con artist Magic Alex, Phil Spector, their psychedelic dentist John Riley and their failed nemesis, Det Sgt Norman Pilcher. From the bestselling author of Ma’am Darling comes a kaleidoscopic mixture of history, etymology, diaries, autobiography, fan letters, essays, parallel lives, party lists, charts, interviews, announcements and stories. One Two Three Four joyfully echoes the frenetic hurly-burly of an era.

This set of four volumes draws together extended material from across the topics of music in Britain in the long nineteenth century, particularly focussing on documents not readily accessible or not commonly quoted in the literature. Together they will form an important resource for students and scholars of music and culture. The general introduction explores the state of research into music in nineteenth-century Britain from a historiographical perspective, as well as an assessment of the most pressing themes for the immediate future of the discipline. Introductions to each thematic section briefly review the relevant literature and the most important points of concern, while a short preface to each document points out particular points of note, context, and explanations of any unusual phrases. Each sub-topic includes four or five documents drawn from newspapers, journals, pamphlets and, where possible, archival material. Documents will span the full length of the nineteenth century and a significant number will be drawn from the writings of Scottish, Welsh and Irish authors.

'Ian Stone has one of the sharpest comic minds in the country. I would read anything he's written about anything. This book made me start listening to The Jam' Romesh Ranganathan'Full of wit, cheek and energy - not just for fans of The Jam, this is for fans of London, of youth, of life itself' Rory Bremner 'This is a funny, fascinating, absorbing, surprising and readable book with the added bonus of Phill Jupitus's delicious cartoons . . . A book for anyone who is now middle-aged and looking back joyfully at their youth' Jo Brand'I really liked this book. I'd forgotten how shit it was in the seventies' Paul Weller Ian Stone grew up in a Jewish, working-class house in north London in the mid-1970s. Everywhere around him, adults were behaving badly. His parents' relationship was in freefall so he tried not to spend too much time at home. But outside, there was industrial unrest, football violence, racism and police brutality. As for the music, it was all 'Save All Your Grandma's Kisses for My Love Sweet Jesus'. It made him feel physically sick. Then The Jam appeared. This is Ian's story of that time. Of weekend jobs so that he could go to gigs. Of bunking into the Hammersmith Odeon and ending up on the roof. Of going to see The Jam in Paris and somehow finding himself being interviewed for Melody Maker. Of attempting to keep out of the way of skinheads and trying (and failing) to work out how to talk to girls. And of devastation when in 1982 Paul Weller announced that the band were splitting up. There will never be another band like The Jam. For those who went on that journey with them, the love ran deep. And still does. They helped Ian and thousands like him to grow up - to be someone.

Four lads from a small town called Liverpool changed the face of Rock and Roll—forever. But their story is far more than one of music. It's about having dreams and making them come true. It's about the power of genuine friendship; it's about believing in yourself—and others—and living a life filled with heart, tenacity, and passion. John, Paul, George, and Ringo gave the musical world its Happily Ever After, and for this, a billion fans are eternally grateful. But, maybe even more than that, The Beatles' story is a heartfelt reminder to every one of us that it's not where you start that counts—it's how you finish.

In 1968, the 19 year-old Nick Drake had everything to live for. The product of a loving, creative family and a privileged background, he was not only a handsome and popular Cambridge undergraduate, but also a new signing to the UK's hippest record label, Island. Three years later, however - having made three well-reviewed but low-selling albums - he had been overwhelmed by a mysterious mental illness. Based back in his family home in rural Warwickshire as of 1971, he largely withdrew from life and died in obscurity and despair in 1974. In the decades since he has become the subject of ever-growing fascination and speculation. Combined sales of his records now stand in the millions, his songs are frequently heard on TV and in films, and it is no exaggeration to call him one of the most widely known and best loved singer-songwriters of his generation. Nick Drake: The Authorised Biography will be the only life of Nick to be written with the approval and involvement of his estate. Drawing on copious original research, new interviews with close family friends, schoolfellows and musical contemporaries and collaborators, as well as deeply personal archive material unavailable to previous biographers - including his father's diaries, his Cambridge essays and letters home from school, university and elsewhere - this book is the most comprehensive and authoritative account possible of this beloved figure's short and enigmatic life.

From Mozart's fabulous legato that "flowed like oil" to Beethoven's oceanlike surge, from Clara Schumann's touch "sharp as a pencil sketch" to Rubinstein's volcanic and sensual playing, The Great Pianists brings to life the brilliant, stylish, and sometimes eccentric personalities, methods, and technical peculiarities of history's greatest pianists.Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author Harold C. Schonberg presents vivid accounts of the artists' performances, styles, and even their personal lives and quirky characteristics-- such as Mozart's intense competition with Clementi, Lizst's magnetic effect on women (when he played, ladies flung their jewels on stage), and Gottschalk's persistent nailbiting, which left the keys covered with blood. Including profiles of Horowitz and Van Cliburn, among others, and chapters detailing the playing and careers of such modern pianists as de Larrocha, Ashkenazy, Gilels, Gould, Brendel, Bolet, Gutierrez, and Watts, The Great Pianists is a comprehensive and fascinating look at legendary performers past and present.

This one-stop source for Logic Pro insight helps you spend more time creating music Every minute you spend trying to figure out how to set up a new track or build a drum loop is a minute you don’t spend creating and recording your music. This guide to the recording software favored by Mac users helps you bypass the time needed to search for tech answers and spend more time capturing sounds. Discover the full recording power of Logic Pro, starting with launching a project and recording your audio. Explore the built-in digital instruments and beat makers, augment your recording power with plug-ins, and finalize your song by editing, adding effects, mixing, mastering, and sharing. The final step is music stardom! Learn your way around the Logic Pro interface and understand the workflow Set up your project and add tracks and regions Record acoustic audio or conduct your orchestra of MIDI instruments Edit, mix, automate, export, and feel proud of your audio files For beginning music creators and producers, this Dummies guide makes it simple to get started with Logic Pro.