Showing titles in Music

“One of the best literary works of this year” (Miami Herald-Tribune): The true story of a theatrical dream—or nightmare—come true…the making of the Spider-Man musical. As you might imagine, writing a Broadway musical has its challenges. But it turns out there are challenges one can’t...

The New York Times bestselling memoir from legendary rapper Gucci Mane spares no detail in this “cautionary tale that ends in triumph” (GQ). For the first time, Gucci Mane tells his extraordinary life story in his own words. It’s “as wild, unpredictable, and fascinating as the man...

In Listen to This, Alex Ross, the music critic for The New Yorker, looks both backward and forward in time, capturing essential figures and ideas in classical-music history as well as giving an alternative view of recent pop music that emphasizes the power of the individual musical voice in...

The very strange but nevertheless true story of the dark underbelly of a 1960s hippie utopia. Laurel Canyon in the 1960s and early 1970s was a magical place where a dizzying array of musical artists congregated to create much of the music that provided the soundtrack to those turbulent times. But there was a dark side to that scene as well. Many didn't make it out alive, and many of those deaths remain shrouded in mystery to this day.

In this intimate account of Amy Winehouse's life, music, and untimely death, her father Mitch Winehouse gives readers full access to his daughter’s private life in the midst of her immensely public triumphs and tragedies. Amy Winehouse needs no introduction. A critically acclaimed recording artist, Amy touched millions with her music during her short but extraordinary life. Following her tragic death in July 2011, Mitch Winehouse wants to tell her incredible story in full. Amy, My Daughter will take the reader through her early years, her rise to stardom and to her addiction.

This audiobook is read by the author and includes an exclusive Q&A between Mark Kermode and Jenny Nelson 'Brims with enthusiasm and joyful insight' – Richard Ayoade How can a film score make you cheer, shiver, cry or punch the air? How do directors communicate their musical vision to composers?...

Kelly Osbourne is the child of one of the best documented - and least ordinary - families in Britain and life under the spotlight means she has had to learn from her mistakes the hard way. Fierce takes us from Kelly's first period to her first night in Chicago. From depression and dealing with alcohol and drugs, to coping with the ultimate embarrassing dad, this book is totally honest and totally Kelly.

As the founder of Island Records, fabled music producer Chris Blackwell has discovered and worked with some of the most important musicians of the second half of the twentieth century—from Steve Winwood to Cat Stevens, Bob Marley to Grace Jones, U2 to Roxy Music, plus countless others. He is also widely credited with having brought reggae music to the world stage. Now, as he turns eighty-five, Blackwell takes us back to the island where it all began: Jamaica.

Alan McGee's role in shaping British musical culture over the past 30 years is hard to overstate. As the founder of Creation Records, he brought us the bands that defined an era. A charismatic Glaswegian, who partied just as hard as any of the acts on his notoriously hedonistic label, he became an infamous character in the world of music.

Music is like no other business. It's about being at the right place at the right time, following your nose and diving in feet first. It's about being plugged into the mystical electricity and about surfing on the wild energy. And no one captures this wild feral spirit better than Alan McGee whose helter-skelter career through music has made him a major force. His ability to start a raw power ruckus brought the visceral danger back to a moribund mid-eighties music scene.

Lost in Music is about growing up with pop music - about hearing it, buying it, loving it, and attempting to play it in public for money. A brilliant combination of the confessional and the unapologetic, this is a book for anyone who has ever treasured vinyl, or sung into a roll-on deodorant in front of the bedroom mirror and dreamed of playing Wembley.

From 1965 to 1995, the Grateful Dead flourished as one of the most beloved, unusual, and accomplished musical entities to ever grace American culture. The creative synchronicity among Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan exploded out of the early 60s roots and folk scene, providing the soundtrack for the Dionysian revels of the counterculture. Dennis McNally, the band's historian and publicist for more than 20 years, takes listeners back through the Dead's history.

An updated version of the celebrated story of how Marshall Mathers went from school and low-paid jobs in his native Detroit to global superstardom, rehab and comeback.

Everett True, the journalist credited with discovering Nirvana, Hole, Pavement, and Soundgarden, offers an exclusive, insider's account of one of rock's most influential bands. He famously introduced Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love, performed with Nirvana numerous times, and even pushed Kurt onto the stage at the 1992 Reading Festival in a wheelchair. This is the definitive story, told by the only journalist allowed into the Cobain home immediately after Kurt’s death.

From his early, crazy days as a founding member of Metallica, Dave Mustaine has seen and experienced everything in the world of rock n’ roll. From his young triumphs and ignominious ouster from the band for his hard-partying ways to his later rule over Megadeth, one of the most successful...

Oliver Sacks’ compassionate tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have fundamentally changed the way we think of our own minds. In Musicophilia, he examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians and everyday people - those struck by affliction, by unusual talent and even, in one case, by lightning - to show not only that music occupies more areas of our brain than language does but also that it can torment, calm, organise and heal.

After years of gigging everywhere from suburban backyards to dive bars, Van Halen - led by frontman extraordinaire David Lee Roth and guitar virtuoso Edward Van Halen - had the songs, the swagger, and the talent to turn the rock world on its ear. The quartet's classic 1978 debut, Van Halen, sold more than a million copies within months of release and rocketed the band to the stratosphere of rock success.

The story of Stax Records unfolds like a Greek tragedy. A white brother and sister build a record company that becomes a monument to racial harmony in 1960’s segregated south Memphis. Their success is startling, and Stax soon defines an international sound. Then, after losses both business and personal, the siblings part, and the brother allies with a visionary African-American partner. Under integrated leadership, Stax explodes as a national player until, Icarus-like, they fall from great heights to a tragic demise.

When Miranda Sawyer interviewed Liam Gallagher in 1994, his gag wishing Damon Albarn would die of AIDS became front-page news all over the world. This fascinating pop history, exploring the moment British music suddenly meant everything, explains why. Picking out twenty key songs, delving into the surprising stories behind them and their unlikely creators, UNCOMMON PEOPLE takes us back to when Jarvis Cocker became a national hero, films like Trainspotting were international hits, rave became what everybody did - and it felt like the revolution was happening.

**MiCannes Award Music Book of the Year** The first full-length biography of Mal Evans, the Beatles’ beloved roadie, assistant, confidant and friend A towering figure in horn-rimmed glasses, Malcolm ‘Mal’ Evans was an invaluable member of the Beatles’ inner circle. Serving as their...