Anyone interested in musical history, Detroit rock 'n' roll, or American popular culture of the 1960s and beyond will appreciate this candid and fascinating look at the MC5, which was originally published in the UK and is available for the first time in the US in this updated version.
A Sculpture that Sings is a unique book about church bells, bell-ringing and the place of the tradition in the English landscape and its communities. In 2017 the artist David Ward and the composer Orland Gough came together to work with a group of bell-ringers in rural Dorset and later at St Paul's Cathedral in London.
Library of Aethers gathers a generous selection of lyrics from one of the finest songwriters of the last thirty years, Alasdair Roberts, with his own notes shedding light on the rich blend of biographical, historical and literary sources behind the songs.
In ten short years, Roxy Music made two of the most experimental albums in popular music history and one of the most smoothly romantic.The members of Roxy Music have had long and distinguished careers outside the band, but nothing can surpass the eight albums they made together.
Arguably the greatest album by the best rock band ever, The Beatles - also known as The White Album - proved to be a watershed recording.The album's diversity and creation are analysed and its background and dynamics revealed. This extraordinary double album reflects a remarkable time and period. As the sixties came to an end, so too did the band.
What if you had the chance to tell your hero just how much they meant to you?If Nick Drake came to my houseand knocked upon the doorI'm sure I'd be more happythan I've ever been before...In If Nick Drake Came to My House, Mackenzie Crook - the creator of Detectorists and Worzel Gummidge - explores the power of art to impact our lives, expressed through an imaginary visit from the late, great singer-songwriter. A tender homage to a classic book by Joan Gale Thomas, Crook's first book for adults is infused with his characteristic warm humour, both in the story and his beautiful illustrations. It's a book for anyone who has ever wished they had the chance to tell their hero how much they meant to them.
(Woodwind). Author of the Baroque Recorder Anthology series, Peter Bowman presents the first in a series of four volumes dedicated to recorder music from the Renaissance period. Featuring a variety of interesting pieces scored for recorder and keyboard accompaniment, this collection includes works by well-known figures as well as lesser known and rarely available pieces from a range of other composers. Suitable for students of ca. 2-3 years of playing experience, this book includes composer biographies and teaching notes on each piece, together with audio recordings of all works performed by Kathryn Bennetts.
Interweaving a social history of string playing with a collective biography of its participants, this book identifies and maps the rapid nationwide development of activities around the violin family in Britain from the 1870s to about 1930. Highlighting the spread of string playing among thousands of people previously excluded from taking up a stringed instrument, it shows how an infrastructure for violin culture coalesced through an expanding violin trade, influential educational initiatives, growing concert life, new string repertoire, and the nascent entertainment and catering industries. Christina Bashford draws a freshly broad picture of string playing and its popularity, emphasizing grass-roots activities, amateurs' pursuits, and everyday work in the profession's underbelly, allowing many long-ignored lives to be recognized and untold stories heard. It also explores the allure of stringed instruments, especially the violin, in Britain, analyzing and contextualizing how the instruments and their players, makers, and collectors were depicted and understood.
From Confucius to Saint Augustine and Beethoven to the blues, a rediscovery of the joy that is music
For over forty years, Michael Head has been creating inspirational music that is rooted in the streets of Liverpool. He formed Pale Fountains with his friend Chris McCaffrey in the early 1980s, and then after McCaffrey tragically died from a brain tumour, he went on to create Shack with his brother John. But during a career that has been beset with tragedy, addiction, loss and bad luck, Head has continued to create exceptional music - and in 2022 he had his biggest commercial success with The Red Elastic Band's Dear Scott. This is Head's story. It is a story of growing up in Liverpool, of thwarted dreams, self-sabotage, chronic substance abuse, homelessness and brushes with death. It is also a story of an under-appreciated genius, of transcendental songs and the healing power of art and music and family and love. This is the life-affirming story of Michael Head, told in his own poetic voice, a man who walked barefoot over broken glass for forty years before the world caught up with what the faithful already knew: this man is Britain's greatest songwriter.
In Song in the Novel, scholars of literature, music, and culture explore the presence of songs and singing in novels, focusing on English, French, Italian, Russian, and Spanish examples from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries.
Taylor Swift's defining breakout hit, 'Love Story', was written in twenty minutes on her bedroom floor and now is used for fan proposals at live shows that sell out stadiums and the adjacent car parks. In this book, Caitlin Robson writes her way through 11 albums and 18 years of Swift's lyrics, stories, controversies and re-recordings which set a precedent in the music industry to allow artists to demand ownership. There are bigger issues at play in Swift's lyrics; gender politics, mental health conversations, and the building of an enormous musical community while maintaining that letter-writing pen pal dynamic with fans. A fascinating biography of one of the most famous women in the world right now.
An oral history of the rise of The Beatles to international superstars in the words of over 500 fans
This volume marks the centenary of British composer Stephen Dodgson, bringing together interviews and specially commissioned articles on his musical output, reflections and anecdotes from friends and family, and a selection of the composer's own warmly erudite writings. An approachable, thoughtful book for the musician and curious layperson alike.
WHEN legendary music journalist Billy Sloan was fifteen years old he saw The Who play an incendiary live show at Green's Playhouse in Glasgow.
Music, the Market, and the Marvellous examines féerie, the fairy play, recovering a large swathe of the theatrical landscape of nineteenth-century Paris. Forgotten plays are rediscovered, familiar works take on new meanings, and traditional historiographical narratives about drama and 'musical theatre' are thrown into question.
Legendarily reticent, perverse and misleading, Prince is one of the few remaining 80s superstars who still, perhaps, remains unexplained. Now a firm fixture in the pop canon, where such classics as 'Purple Rain', 'Sign o' the Times' and 'Parade' regularly feature in Best Ever Album polls, Prince is still, as he ever was, an enigma. His live performances are legendary (21 Nights at the O2 in 2007) and while recent releases have been modestly successful at best, his influence on urban music, and R'n'B in particular, has never been more evident. The Minneapolis Sound can now be heard everywhere. Matt Thorne's Prince, through years of research and interviews with ex-Revolution members such as Wendy and Lisa, is an account of a pop maverick whose experiments with rock, funk, techno and jazz revolutionised pop. With reference to every song, released and unreleased, over 35 years of recording, Prince will stand for years to come as the go-to book on the Great Man.
Stunningly designed flexibound book profiling the top 40 most famous Australian pop and rock songs. What a famous song is about and what you think it's about aren't always the same thing. National Anthems names the top 40 classic Australian songs and tells the stories behind them - many unknown. From Hunters and Collectors' Throw Your Arms Around Me to INXS's Don't Change and Red Gum's I Was Only 19, author Glen Humphries unearths hidden gems and surprising back stories about the bands. It's a celebration of great Australian music that will have you reaching for old vinyl or phone apps to give some of these classics another listen. Chances are, each song is not what you had assumed.
As the first major handbook to music composition in decades, this book is primarily aimed at students and practitioners in the area of composition, but the range of topics and genres covered by this book will appeal to academics and practitioners in complementary fields of contemporary music, sound art and creativity.
As the first major handbook to music composition in decades, this book is primarily aimed at students and practitioners in the area of composition, but the range of topics and genres covered by this book will appeal to academics and practitioners in complementary fields of contemporary music, sound art and creativity.
An oral history of rock band The Who in the words of over 500 fans
An oral history of legendary rock band the Faces (featuring Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood) from 1969 to 1975
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