Popular music Books

An experimental account of one woman's quest to shed addictive substances and behaviors from her life-which dares to ask if we're really better off without them.In January 2021, Freda Love Smith, acclaimed rock musician and author of Red Velvet...

This is the first comprehensive history of goth music and culture. Across more than 500 pages, John Robb explores the origins and legacy of this enduring scene, which has its roots in the post-punk era.Drawing on his own experience as a musician and...

Donald Fagen will forever be associated with Steely Dan, the band he formed with Walter Becker and four other musicians in 1972.The smooth, radio-friendly veneer of the duo's songs made Steely Dan internationally popular and famous in the 1970s, but the...

A rollicking no-holds barred memoir from journalist and musician Eugene S. Robinson that takes readers along through the story of his life."A weird rollicking ride" frames how author Eugene S. Robinson views his journey from a Brooklyn kid with decidedly...

In extensive interviews with scene pioneers and mainstays including Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional), Geoff Rickly (Thursday), Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance), Gabe Saporta (Midtown/Cobra Starship), and Max Bemis (Say Anything), veteran music...

The only encyclopedic and definitive book on American indie metal!If all you know about metal music was what was heard on commercial radio, then you don't know metal at all. Heroes of the Metal Underground profiles over 1100 American bands from every...

This book is a critical history of Sub Pop, the Seattle independent rock label that launched the careers of countless influential 'grunge' bands in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It focuses in particular on the languages and personas...

Johnny Thunders: In Cold Blood is the definitive portrait of the condemned man of rock'n'roll, from the baptism of fire and tragedy that was the New York Dolls, through the junkie punk years of the Heartbreakers, to his sudden and mysterious death in...

This book takes you through the first two years of the legendary Led Zeppelin's career from their first concert to becoming the biggest rock band in the world with interviews, memories and rare and unseen photographs.Fifty years ago on 7th September 1968...

Pairing history's 100 greatest rock stars with recipes for their iconic drink of choice, How to Drink Like a Rock Star is the perfect guide to summoning the muse for music fans, rock and roll bartenders, and cocktail enthusiasts.Have you longed for a...

Every photographer knows the moment of truth, and every picture tells a story. Over the past four decades, Paul Natkin has had a front-row seat for music history, attending over 10,000 shows and concerts to chronicle the excitement and excess of the...

"The masterful art of chess, Kung-fu sword play, and the sweet science of boxing are all hip-hop expressions that connect us universally.Beatboxingtells the story. It's razor sharp."-Masta Killa, Wu-Tang Clan"I love howTodd Snyder's brain works. Like...

On February 25, 1963, Columbia Records released The Barbra Streisand Album. The first song was "Cry Me a River," and with that a star was born. Barbra Joan Streisand had a zany personality backed by a talent that Stephen Sondheim once described as "one...

'Weird Al' Yankovic is one of music's most beloved figures. A skilled accordion player and songwriter, the California native is known for his meticulous parodies of popular songs, hilarious originals, and, of course, for upbeat polkas!For much of Al's...

In Inside Studio 54, the former owner takes you behind the scenes of the most famous nightclub in the world, through the crowd, to a place where celebrities, friends, and the beautiful people sip champagne and share lines of cocaine using rolled-up...

Starring super-notorious musclebound punk/metal dudes Glenn Danzig and Henry Rollins (with a little help from super-notorious soft-rockdudes Hall and Oates) Henry & Glenn Forever is a love story to end all love stories! The premise of this comic is...

Gary Moore delighted entire generations with his passionate guitar playing, from the driving rock of Thin Lizzy in the 1970s to his explorations in subsequent decades of jazz fusion, heavy metal, hard rock, blues rock, and more. Throughout that time, he...

The rise and fall of Some Bizzare-the label that introduced the world to Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, and The The-is the great untold story of alternative music.Along with Factory, Mute, and Creation, Some Bizzare was the vanguard of outsider music in the...

Holy Ghost is the first extended study of free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler, who is seen today as one of the most important innovators in the history of jazz.Ayler synthesized children's songs, La Marseillaise, American march music, and gospel hymns,...

"There were only a handful of people in the world who still really believed in Suede at the time, and five of them were in the band."Brett Anderson, Suede"Suede were Marmite at the time, and I was expecting the press to trash them. Every meeting I had...

Renegade Snares is the definitive book on drum & bass music. Pieced together using original interviews conducted with all the scene's main players, it traces the history of jungle/drum & bass from its early roots in sound system culture and rave...

'This was a statement: We're on our way back. It signaled to the industry that this band that you thought was over and done ... might not be.'Eddie Trunk (Trunk Nation host)'There's just something about those albums they released from 1983 to 1997 that...

Compiled from over one hundred interviews and years of in-depth research, KEEP MUSIC EVIL tells the full, unexpurgated tale of the infamous psych-rockers The Brian Jonestown Massacre.'They didn't know what to do with us. Anton was drinking, like, a...

'I think they're easily one of the best rock trios anywhere. I don't think they've been equaled.'Andy Summers (The Police)'They were really ahead of their time. If you listen to the music that followed, they really figured things out that took many bands...

Return Of The King tells the story of a tumultuous period in the life of Elvis Presley. By 1967, The King Of Rock'n'Roll was all but washed-up, thanks to a string of bland movie roles and lackluster records. But within a year he had roused himself,...

When Cream broke up in 1968 it was by no means a foregone conclusion that it would be Eric Clapton who would enjoy continued commercial success. After all, it was Jack Bruce who had the looks, and who co-wrote and sang all the band's major hits,...

'I was raised with an artist's mentality; my first 25 years were spent as somebody who wanted to live among graphics and artwork and illustration, and then for the next 30 years it was all music. Recently, I've reverted into the arts, combining...

'I can be scratching around at home on an acoustic guitar, or singing a funny little idea into my phone, and all of a sudden, it becomes a beautifulfully fledged song. And I'm asking myself, how did we do that again? I still find that...

'Here on the shore, twenty years later, my message in a bottle has reached dry land. Words about our life, his death but mostly love and our journey to the end.' - Olivia HarrisonOlivia Harrison presents Came the Lightening a book of...

'These guitars have been really good tools; they're not just museum pieces. They all have a soul and they all come alive.' Eric Clapton'In his own words, Clapton tells his story through the history of his instruments.'Rolling StoneInSix-String...

'When I wrote and recorded these songs originally, I never would have expected the fantastic audience response all these years later; it's amazing.' Jeff LynneThe music of Jeff Lynne is beloved by fans all over the world and...

Now Is the Time to Invent offers a definitive portrait of the vibrant indie-rock scene that flourished in the mid-1980s and reached its creative peak in the 1990s. More than 60 profiles and interviews, taken from the pages of the acclaimed independent...

Detroit 67 is the story of Motor City in the year that changed everything. Twelve chapters take you on a turbulent year-long journey through the drama and chaos that ripped through the city in 1967 and tore it apart in personal, political and interracial...

Leeds, 1980. Amid the violence and decay, the city was home to an extraordinarily vibrant post-punk scene. Out of that swamp crawled the Sisters of Mercy. Over the next five years, they would rise from local heroes to leading alternative band, before...

The legendary music impresario (and producer of bands likeThe Yardbirds and Wham!)tells his life story in a series of mesmerisingly candid vignettes.Sour Mouth, Sweet Bottom: Lessons from a Dissolute Lifeis the book Simon Napier-Bell's fans have always...

Black Vinyl White Powder is the definitive story of five decades of British Pop - now in paperbackWhether penning hits for Dusty Springfield, discovering Marc Bolan or managing a series of stellar acts ranging from the Yardbirds to Wham! - Simon...

When rock 'n' roll burst into life in the 1950s the shockwaves echoed around the world, amplified by images of untamed youth projected on cinema screens. But for the performers themselves showbusiness remained in control, contriving a...

Exploring the explosion of the Who onto the international music scene, this heavily illustrated book looks at this furious band as an embodiment of pop art. 'Ours is music with built-in hatred.' - Pete Townshend, cofounder of the...

The compelling story of one of America's most adventurous jazz musicians.Ornette Coleman's career encompassed the glory years of jazz and the American avant-garde. Born in segregated Fort Worth, Texas, during the Great Depression, the...

Time Out of Mind is one of the most ambitious, complex, and provocative albums of Bob Dylan's distinguished artistic career. The present book interprets the songs recorded for Time Out of Mind as a series of dreams by a single singer/dreamer. These...

'Bob Batchelor writes with great eloquence and insight about the Doors, the greatest hard-rock band we have ever had, and through this book, we plunge deeply into the mystery that surrounds Jim Morrison. It is Batchelor's warmth and...

'I always thought I would get into painting, but I got waylaid by rock 'n' roll...' - Chrissie HyndeFeaturing oil paintings by Chrissie Hynde, Adding The Blue presents nearly 200 original artworks for the very first...

With six consecutive number one singles and the smash hit "Merry Xmas Everybody," Slade were unstoppable. Now, the man whose outlandish costumes and unmistakable hairstyle made Slade one of the definitive acts of the Glam Rock era tells his story.If...

I can't wait to read this book and figure out how he does it all! Keep going, David! Brian 'Head' Welch (KoRN)In this follow-up to his 2013 memoir My Life With Deth, Megadeth bassist and co-founder David Ellefson carries on where he left off, charting...

'The closest we'll ever get to a straight up Bowie autobiography - but who'd ever want anything straight-up from Bowie?' Rolling StoneIn 2002, David Bowie and Mick Rock created Moonage Daydream, the defining document of the life and times of Ziggy...

In this book, I wanted to include items from my personal archive that have played a part in my career over 60 years, to give the detail behind the detail. - Jimmy PageFrom his early days as a young session musician, through his years on the...

'This is a way of putting my life out there, because if I were to write a memoir, there'd be five volumes before I got to The Beatles. So I'm going at it this way, through photographs and quotes. And this is, I feel, a better way for me to do it.' -...

The biggest edition yet with 35,000 words of new material!Critically acclaimed in its previous editions, The Complete David Bowie is widely recognized as the foremost source of analysis and information on every facet of Bowie's career...