Cleverly marketed by their original manager as the bad boys of rock, the Rolling Stones have survived dalliances with the devil, drug busts, and the death of founding member Brian Jones to become the world''s longest-running rock and roll band. Led by partners-in-crime Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones have had No. 1 hits, released classic albums, broken box office records, and literally changed the world. All too often, however, books on the Rolling Stones glimmer with gossip instead of shimmering with facts about the band''s music. The Rolling Stones FAQ presents these musical facts in a fast-moving, fan-friendly read. The five incarnations of the Rolling Stones are highlighted with in-depth explorations of the band''s hit records, albums, films, and tours. The band''s story is told not only through the biographies of the eight men to each be called a Rolling Stone, but also through the stories of session men, producers, managers, artists, girlfriends, and wives who have contributed to the enduring, yet controversial, success of the Rolling Stones.
To Alice Cooper, the outlaw quality of rock 'n' roll is little more than theater. "Just because I cut the heads off dolls, doesn't mean I hate babies " he once said. But others have lived by the criminal philosophy espoused in their work. "The only negative thing about murder is that when you kill someone, they...no longer suffer " said Norwegian black-metal rocker Varg Vikernes of Mayhem in 1993, the same year he stabbed musical rival Euronymous to death.His tale is prominently featured in Where You Goin' with That Gun in Your Hand? The True Crime Blotter of Rock 'n' Roll. The book examines a total of 21 fatal crimes tied to the music industry, such as the murders of Marvin Gaye, Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, and Selena. In the case of Vikernes - dubbed the most violent musician in the history of metal - the performer is the perpetrator. In other instances - the deaths of John Lennon or Run DMC's Jam Master Jay, for example - the star is the victim. Other chapters deal with conspiracy theories involving musicians whose lives ended prematurely (e.g., the Rolling Stones' Brian Jones, the Doors' Jim Morrison, and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain).Each story is written as a compelling narrative, in a style the author perfected while writing several true-crime books, as well as December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died and Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die: James Dean's Final Hours.
The mid-''70s were a time of reckoning. It was also an era of paradoxes, of record making and record breaking, of sold-out shows, and, in the minds of some, sell-out artists. Critics, who once exalted the shamanic characteristics of rock stars, launched full-frontal assaults on mainstream music icons and their tendencies toward overindulgent artistic visions. Amid this confusion, psychedelic and progressive rock pioneers Pink Floyd, unlikely messengers in uncertain times, unleashed their 1975 progressive rock milestone, Wish You Were Here.Refusing to buckle under pressure, Floyd looked inward to produce Wish You Were Here, a conceptual, self-referential album that spoke of spiritual depravation, mental absence, and industry corruption, while, perhaps inadvertently, reflecting the general madness and societal malaise of the mid-''70s. Created in the spirit of camaraderie, Wish You Were Here waged war against the system, better known in Floydlandia as "The Machine " while paying tribute to a fallen hero and victim of the industry - the creative force fundamental to the band''s existence, Syd Barrett.As our world was racked by unsustainable overseas military conflicts, governmental scandals, political assassination attempts, and a near-total erosion of the public trust, Pink Floyd emerged victorious, responding to this external dissonance with their ultimate band statement. What a strange, complex moment in time to have generated a classic. After 1975, Pink Floyd would never be the same - and neither would we.
Thomas Edward Harkin''s Woodstock FAQ: All That''s Left to Know About the Fabled Garden cuts through the lofty rhetoric and mythology surrounding the legendary festival. Rather than waxing philosophical about whether or not the Woodstock Music & Art Fair was the defining moment of the 1960s as so many have done before, Harkins places the focus on the music, solo artists, and bands who performed.Thirty-two acts took to the stage in Bethel, New York that weekend, and the book gives the performers and the music their due consideration. Who were they? Where did they come from? What songs did they play? What happened to them afterward? How did the festival impact their careers? Those are the questions explored in these pages. Further, the book attempts to restore the chronological arc of the festival from concept to concert to its aftermath and enduring legacy.Drawing on his experiences as a media scholar, Harkins ponders how the album releases and Michael Wadleigh''s Academy Award-winning 1970 film Woodstock helped shape the narrative of the festival and in the bargain distort people''s memories of the actual event.
Dave Matthews Band celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2016, a milestone few bands achieve. How did the group build and retain an audience so devoted that they stuck with DMB through more than a quarter century? Dave Matthews Band FAQ answers this question and many more, exploring the group''s history in detail from a variety of angles. Natives of the college rock circuit of the southern Atlantic seaboard, DMB became part of a close-knit group of similarly minded jam bands that spread across the USA during the 1990s. Thanks to a grassroots following that eagerly traded tapes of live DMB shows, the band cultivated a dedicated fan base that crossed over into the mainstream.Dave Matthews Band FAQ traces this evolution, documenting the culture of Charlottesville, Virginia, at the dawn of the ''90s, detailing the group''s peers and examining their catalog, both live and studio, in detail. Collectively, these chapters explain everything there is to know about the most popular jam band in history.
The year 1979 was a seminal watershed moment in rock music. The year saw the release of Pink Floyd's The Wall, David Bowie's Lodger, Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door, Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, Elvis Costello and the Attractions' Armed Forces, Joe Jackson's Look Sharp! and I'm the Man, Stiff Little Fingers' Inflammable Material, Gary Numan/Tubeway Army's Replicas and the Pleasure Principle, Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, the Jam's Setting Sons, the Clash's London Calling, and the UK 2-Tone phenomenon. It also saw a slump in album sales, a resurgence in single sales, and the peak and bloody death of disco. Now, with the help of new and exclusive interviews with artists and producers, New Waves, Old Hands, and Unknown Pleasures tells the varied, vibrant, and often unexamined story of popular music in 1979. It reveals the stories behind key recordings, traces the trajectories of commercial and artistic successes, and explains the musical and socio-political context behind the sounds of the day.
Providing a career-spanning view of everyone's favorite geek writer and director, Joss Whedon FAQ offers answers to fans' questions about one of the most significant pop culture auteurs of the past twenty-five years. The book gazes at Whedon's early work in Hollywood as a script doctor on films such The Quick and the Dead (1995) and Waterworld (1995), and follows his career as he became the cult-favorite creator of such sensations as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. In addition to looking at Whedon's ascent to blockbuster superhero filmmaking with titles such as The Avengers, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Justice League, this eminently readable compendium explores Whedon's lesser known but no less fascinating forays into the world of Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing) and even big-screen romantic fantasy (In Your Eyes). The book closes with discussions of Whedon's politics and feminism, as well as a catalog of his (unofficial) repertory company and a list of the most memorable on-screen character deaths in his canon.
Richard Wesley was witness to a revolution. As both a celebrated participant and eager student of the Black Theater Movement in the late 1960s, he became part of a seismic force in American culture, breaking down barriers and helping to disrupt the cultural landscape. It's Always Loud in the Balcony: A Life in Black Theater, from Harlem to Hollywood and Back is both history and memoir, tracing Wesley's roots from riot-torn Newark, New Jersey, across the rocky terrain of Harlem, and finally to Hollywood, where he became partners with Sidney Poitier, writing several successful films before returning to New York and the theater world-a trip that Wesley has wryly characterized as "black power to black establishment." Wesley unfolds the history of black theater with love and precision, from the emergence of Amiri Baraka, and his own debut, the fiercely militant Black Terror-which landed him a deal with the legendary producer Joseph Papp-through his moviemaking experience in Los Angeles, working with Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor, among others. Wesley lands on solid ground in the twenty-first century as an elder statesman, a happy witness to the great success of a new breed of black theater that includes the widespread success of Tyler Perry and Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, which brought hip-hop to Broadway. It's Always Loud in the Balcony is the passionate, firsthand account of a crucial American art movement whose effects will be felt for generations to come.
In ÊThe Composer-Pianists: Hamelin and The EightÊ Robert Rimm writes about eight legendary enigmatic and interrelated composer-pianists of the instrument''s golden age and goes on to consider their present-day advocate and astounding interpreter Marc-Andr© Hamelin whose dynamic playing and engaging personality immediately impressed Rimm upon their first encounter. Rimm portrays The Eight (Alkan Busoni Feinberg Godowsky Medtner Rachmaninov Scriabin and Sorabji) as the piano''s aural sensualists and explores the relationships among their music their music-making their ideas and their lives.
These essays by respected scholars examine representative operatic productions from diverse national schools and periods together forming a comprehensive history of the staging techniques of opera over the centuries.
This is the first English-language biography of the beloved Swedish tenor, incorporating recollections by his widow, information from the family archives, and material from operatic archives the world over. A chronology of his performances is also included.
Available for the first time in English, this biography, published in Prague only a few months after the composer''s death, provides a contemporary view of the man and musician. Eminent Beethoven scholar Barry Cooper puts this curious work into perspective, clarifying inaccuracies in the original 19th-century text.
The playscript to Ghost in the Machine by David Gilman begins with a common situation - that of a missing fifty dollar bill - and spins it into intriguing questions of probability, chance and the complexities of musical composition: illusion and reality.
"...a play about power, leadership, and the rough-and tumble process of social change. In its multifaceted search for the meaning behind the headline-grabbing events in Memphis, and in its depiction of the roots of black-vs.-black power struggles, it offers both food for thought and an emotional punch." - Chicago Sun-Times
In the same way that Shakespeare himself continued to meditate and transform his own ideas and the shape they took, Marowitz gives us license to continue that meditation in productions extrapolated from Shakespeare''s work. Shakespeare becomes the greatest of all catalysts who stimulates a constant re-formulation of the fundamental questions of philosophy, history and meaning. Marowitz introduces us to Shakespeare as an active contemporary collaborator who strives with us to yield a vibrant contemporary theatre.
Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry GelbartIntroduction by Larry Gelbart"This brazenly retro Broadway musical, inspired by Plautus, is as timeless as comedy itself." -Vincent Canby, The New York Times"The most urbane and literate musical comedy text ever conceived." -John Simon, New York magazine
This detailed analysis of every record made by Maria Callas examines the development of her art from her first recordings in 1949 to the last in 1977.
This lucid guide traces the concerto''s evolution over the major periods of music: baroque, classical, romantic, and 20th century. The compositions of each important composer are discussed in detail, making this a useful companion to the form.
TURN IT ON AGAIN PETER GABRIEL, PHIL COLLINS AND GENESIS
THE GUITAR PLAYER BOOK: THE ULTIMATE RESOURCE FOR GUITARISTS
THE ACOUSTIC ROCK MASTERS THE WAY THEY PLAY BK/CD
JAMBANDS BK/CD COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE PLAYERS MUSIC AND SCENE
Packed with musical examples charts and photos this is a complete step-by-step course for learning acoustic or electric blues guitar. In-depth lessons teach you to build your own style while exploring the music of traditional bluesmen and modern stars. From practicing your scales and turn-arounds to breaking out Chicago-style this book from the former editor of ÊGuitar PlayerÊ brings you: essential lessons on blues basics; insights into the music of masters like B.B. King Eric Clapton John Lee Hooker T-Bone Walker Albert Collins Buddy Guy and many others; advice on selecting gear and setting up your guitar; a great blues discography; and even free access to audio lessons on the web!
A behind-the-scenes account of the Fender Electric Instrument Company by its former general manager. White traces the company''s entire history from Leo Fender''s beginnings as a radio repairman up to the eventual sale of Fender to CBS and beyond. Includes stories about the development of the Telecaster Precision Bass and Stratocaster as well as insights into Leo Fender''s unique personality. It is packed with more than 100 historic photos and illustrations instrument diagrams and specifications and anecdotes about artists such as Merle Travis Bob Wills Speedy West and Tex Ritter. 7-1/4Í x 9-1/4Í.
Pop music comes and goes with dull regularity but classic rock is always there. Led Zeppelin. Jimi Hendrix. The Eagles. The Doors. Creedence. The Who. These are the bands and artists who changed the face of American rock and whose innovations remain fresh and exciting today. This book is an unprecedented collection of hard-hitting & informative interviews with the artists who made rock classic including David Gilmour Angus Young Robby Krieger (The Doors) Don Felder (The Eagles) Pete Townshend Aerosmith Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd) and more. Includes a special tribute to Grateful Dead visionary Jerry Garcia plus the stories behind rock''s most famous songs including: Stairway to Heaven Sweet Home Alabama Ramblin'' Man Light My Fire Hotel California and many others. 288 pages 6Í x 9Í
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