With a career spanning six decades, David Bowie consistently topped charts all over the world, selling an estimated 140 million albums. This book, through photographs and unique memorabilia, illustrates his journey from humble beginnings to world superstardom.
The Complete David Bowie is widely recognized as the foremost source of analysis and information on every facet of Bowie's career. From the 11-year-old's skiffle performance at a Scouts' Summer Camp in 1958, to the surprise 2011 appearance of the last album Toy and beyond, to his passing in January 2016.
A strikingly unique tribute to David Bowie, comprising a collection of 40 visual portraits of the icon throughout his career, and text tributes by his artistic collaborators and contemporaries.
New York, 2001. 9/11 plunges the US into a state of war and political volatility - and heralds the rebirth of the city's rock scene. As the old-guard music industry crumbles, a group of bands suddenly become the voice of a generation desperately in need of an anthem. The author charts New York's musical transformation in the early 2000s.
Published to accompany the V&A's major summer exhibition, Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, celebrates 50 years of one of the greatest bands of all time.
Bill Bruford - once called 'the godfather of progressive-rock drumming' - has been at the top of his profession for four decades, playing with Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, and Earthworks. This book presents the memoir of life at the heart of prog rock, art rock, and modern jazz.
When Warren Zevon died in 2003, he left behind a rich catalog of dark, witty rock 'n' roll classics, including "Lawyers, Guns and Money," "Excitable Boy," and the immortal "Werewolves of London."
The Smiths - Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce - were four working-class youths who came together, by fate or chance, in Manchester in the early 1980s. Their sound was both traditional and radically different, a music that spoke to a generation, and defied the dark socio-economic mood of the Thatcher years.
Robbie Robertson's singular contributions to popular music have made him one of the most beloved songwriters and guitarists of his time. Above all, it's the moving story of the profound friendship among five young men who together created a new kind of popular music.
The songs of Joy Division, infused with the energy of punk but steeped in a resigned longing, were born of Manchester in the late seventies. They were the songs too of Ian Curtis' inner tragedies, as he battled depression, epilepsy and debilitating stage fright. Ian Curtis committed suicide in 1980. This book tells his story.
Founding member and guitarist of Joy Division and the lead singer of New Order, the author has been famous over the years for his reticence. This book includes an account of his Salford childhood, the early days of Joy Division, the band's enormous critical and popular success, and the subsequent tragic death of Ian Curtis.
The author is a singular figure in the history of rock and pop culture in the last four decades, inducted not once but twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In this title, the author tells his story.
Icons of anti-celebrity rock who became huge celebrity rock stars, R.E.M. were one of the first US post-New-Wave bands to be both commercially successful and cool. Drawing on interviews with Mike Mills, Peter Buck and close friends, "Fiction" re-evaluates their music and career.
"This Land Is Your Land" is an iconic folk song in American history, and the masterwork of one of the country's greatest singer/song-writers, Woody Guthrie. Written in 1940 and first recorded in 1944, the song became an instant hit, and then a point of controversy, and finally a cross-generational anthem. This title tells the story of the song.
An autobiography that presents the author's take on the ups and downs of a band as notorious for its in-house fighting as for its great music; and on a life that has endured prison in America, drugs, bankruptcy, divorce, and the often bleak results of a legendary thirst.
John Lennon is a giant of popular music and culture. His reviews, features and regular columns have appeared in The Independent, Time Out, Mojo and BBC Music. His books include The 100 Greatest Cover Versions (McNidder & Grace 2012) and, as co-author, The Rough Guide to the Best Music You've Never Heard (Penguin 2008).
Part social history, part confessional memoir, U-God's intimate portrait of his life - and those of his Wu-Tang brothers - is a brave and unfiltered account of escaping poverty to transform the New York hip-hop scene forever.
33 1/3 is a new series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the last 40 years. Focusing on one album rather than an artist's entire output, the books dispense with the standard biographical background that fans know already, and cut to the heart of the music on each album.
Neil Young's "Harvest" is one of those strange albums that has achieved lasting success without ever winning the full approval of rock critics or hardcore fans. Inglis here explores the creation of the album and its lasting appeal.
Derek Taylor's iconic memoir is a rare opportunity to be immersed in one of the most whirlwind music sensations in history: Beatlemania. Whether watching the debut performance of 'Hey Jude' in a country pub or hearing first-hand gossip about a star-studded cast of characters, Taylor's unique narrative voice forges an autobiography like no other.
In the summer of 1972, during a compulsory stint in the South African military, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman heard the music that would forever change his life. A decade later, on yet another military base, Craig Bartholomew Strydom heard the same music. It would have a profound effect. Who was this folk singer who resonated with South Africa's youth?
By the middle of the 1970s, Bob Dylan's position as the pre-eminent artist of his generation was assured. The 1975 album Blood on the Tracks seemed to prove, finally, that an uncertain age had found its poet. This book tells his story.
Steven Patrick Morrissey was born in Manchester on May 22nd 1959. Singer-songwriter and co-founder of the Smiths, Morrissey has been a solo artist for twenty-six years, during which time he has had three number 1 albums in England in three different decades. This book deals with his work and life.
A year after Prince's death at the age of 57, acclaimed writer brilliantly anatomizes the star's dramatic career and an aesthetic that at times seemed otherworldly. In thematically structured chapters that blend critical consideration of Prince's art with the author's personal connection to the music.
Mike Love is a founding member of the Beach Boys. With their lush vocals and endlessly inventive arrangements, the band forged art from songs about cars, surfing and first love. But beneath the Beach Boys' wholesome appearance lurked darker truths: drugs and dissent, deceit and betrayal. This book tells their story.
Few groups have had a bigger impact than The Smiths and few musicians are as celebrated as Johnny Marr. He is an icon who defined an era and influenced a generation of guitarists. He joined The Pretenders, The The, Modest Mouse and The Cribs and has collaborated with Hans Zimmer. In this book, he tells his own side of the story.
If I had not kissed anyone, or danced with anyone, or had a reason to cry, the music made me feel as if I had gone through all that anyway. This book tells the story of the adventures that music leads us into: getting drunk, falling in love, dying of boredom, cutting our hair, terrifying our parents, wanting to change the world.
Think 'Woodstock' and the mind turns to the seminal 1969 festival. But Woodstock itself was over sixty miles away, and already a key location in the rock landscape as a community of brilliant, and freaks dazed and confused by the search for spiritual truth. This is a study of a vital music scene in a revolutionary time and place.
Deconstructs Japanese rock music and reveals what happened when East met West after World War Two. This book explores the clash between traditional, conservative Japanese values and the wild rock 'n' roll renegades of the 1960s and 70s, and tells of the seminal artists in Japanese post-war culture.