Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal
by Ian Christe
The popularity of the soundtrack to the motion picture "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" brought an extraordinary amount of attention to bluegrass, but it also drew its share of criticism from some aficionados who felt the album's inclusion of more modern tracks misrepresented the genre. This soundtrack, these purists argued, wasn't bluegrass, but "roots music," a new and, indeed, more overarching category concocted by journalists and marketers. Why is it that popular music genres like these and othe...
There was rich praise for the original edition of "The Beatles Stories Behind The Songs Book", including Steve Matteo in "The Music Paper" describing it as 'One of the most readable and illuminating books ever written about The Beatles'. In his autobiography, "Many Years From Now", even Paul McCartney acknowledged Steve Turner's work. Who was 'just seventeen' and made Paul's heart go 'boom'? Was there really an Eleanor Rigby? Steve Turner shatters many well-worn myths and adds a new dimension to...
Author Mark Beaumont met and interviewed Jay Z in 2009 and many quotes from that interview feature in this biography. Includes interviews with Kanye West, Chris Martin, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Damon Dash, Dr Dre, Rick Rubin and many others. Details his early life, his Father abandoning him, his accidental shooting of his brother and his delving into cocaine dealing. The launch of his Roc-A-Fella record label and his subsequent album releases including the platinum selling In My Life and Hard...
Thirty years after she first heard his voice singing to her from a jukebox at her local drive-in, Barbara began her love affair with Frank Sinatra. After a tempestuous courtship, she finally heard him say the wedding vows that began his fourth, final, and most enduring marriage; one that would last more than two decades until the end of his life. Generous and jealous, witty and wicked, Frank comes alive in this poignant inside story of the highs and lows of marriage to one of the world's most fa...
Following the American Revolution, French authors often viewed the United States as a laboratory for the forging of new practices of liberte and egalite, in affinity with France's own Revolutionary ideals but in competition with lingering anti-American depictions of an inferior, untamed New World. The volume examines French imagining of America through musical/theatrical portrayals of the American Revolution and Republic, soundscapes of the Statue of Liberty, homages to Washington, Franklin an...
Bigger in the US than Guns 'n Roses, more popular than Nirvana - both of whom they outsold in 1992 - Seattle grunge-pioneers Pearl Jam have now broken out of the hard rock strait-jacket. The reasons for their astounding success are simple. Pearl Jam are a socially aware, riff-laden monstermash, busy redesigning the embarrassment of heavy metal. Their debut 1992 album, "Ten" was named as one of the Top 10 Albums of the Nineties in both "Spin" and "Rolling Stone". It did not hurt their burgeoning...
The Making of "Soundgarden's" Superunknown
by Mary Elizabeth Hargrove
Rossini's the Barber of Seville (Opera Classics Library)
by Burton D Fisher
In 1983, backstage at the Lyceum in London, Tracey Thorn and Lindy Morrison first met. Tracey's music career was just beginning, while Lindy, drummer for The Go-Betweens, was ten years her senior. They became confidantes, comrades and best friends, a relationship cemented by gossip and feminism, books and gigs and rock 'n' roll love affairs.Morrison - a headstrong heroine blazing her way through a male-dominated industry - came to be a kind of mentor to Thorn. They shared the joy and the struggl...