Art Pepper was described as the greatest alto-saxophonist of the post-Charlie Parker generation. Straight Life, originally narrated on tape to his wife Laurie, is an explosive work chronicling his work amidst a life dealing with alcoholism, heroin addiction, armed robberies and imprisonment.The result is an autobiography like no other, a masterpiece of the spoken word, shaped into a genuine work of literature.

Art Pepper (1925-1982) was called the greatest alto saxophonist of the post-Charlie Parker generation. But his autobiography, Straight Life, is much more than a jazz book--it is one of the most explosive, yet one of the most lyrical, of all autobiographies. This edition is updated with an extensive afterword by Laurie Pepper covering Art Pepper's last years, and a complete and up-to-date discography by Todd Selbert.

The once-in-a-generation memoir of a rock legend - the No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller.'Electrifying' New York Times'Funny, poignant, brutally honest' Sunday Telegraph'Immensely readable' Sunday Times'Once you begin this, wild, wild horses couldn't drag you away' IndependentAs a member of the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards cr...

I Remember Me weaves an American tapestry of colorful tales, beginning with the timid musings of a young boy on the verge of becoming a man in the Jewish section of New Yorks Bronx neighborhood, and bringing us up to date with the mature insight of a man whose remarkable trajectory has sent him to the top of Hollywoods elite and sparked the careers of dozens of household-name entertainers. Along the way, Reiner treats his loyal readers to everything from the ordinary to the truly unforgett...

In But Enough About Me, legendary film actor and Hollywood superstar Burt Reynolds recalls the people who shaped his life and career, for better or for worse. From Robert Altman, Cary Grant, Clint Eastwood and Robert Mitchum to Bette Davis, Marlon Brando, Woody Allen and Kirsty Alley, Burt pays homage to those he loves and respected, acknowledges those who've stayed loyal, and calls out the assholes he can't forgive.Recalling his life and career spanning over 50 glorious y...

You will hear a Nile Rodgers song today. It will make you happy. Legendary producer and co-founder of Chic, Nile wrote 'We are Family' for Sister Sledge and 'I'm Coming Out' for Diana Ross, and then produced Let's Dance for David Bowie and Like a Virgin for Madonna. But before he reinvented pop music Nile Rodgers invented himself. Le Freak is an astonishing, exuberant and inspiring story of a creative genius. It is also a stunning recreation of a time and place -...

In Eminent Hipsters, musician and songwriter Donald Fagen, best known as the co-founder of the rock band Steely Dan, presents an autobiographical portrait that touches on everything from the cultural figures that mattered the most to him as a teenager, to his years in the late 1960s at Bard College, to a hilarious account of a recent tour he made with Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald.Fagen begins by introducing the 'eminent hipsters' that spoke to him as he was growing up (...

'Johnny Cash ... Every man could relate to him, no man could be him, and only one man could get inside his head - Robert Hilburn' BONOPeople don't just listen to Johnny Cash: they believe in him. But no one has told the Man in Black's full story, until now.In Johnny Cash: The Life, Robert Hilburn conveys the unvarnished truth about a musical icon, whose colourful career stretched from his days at Sun Records with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis t...

He has appeared in over a hundred films. Elvis copied his looks. The Beatles put him on the cover of Sgt. Pepper. Tony Curtis is without question a Hollywood legend and part of its Golden Age. In American Prince he tells the whole story, from his hard-knock childhood growing up in the Bronx to his wild days as a Hollywood playboy, his destructive drug addiction and his life now as an artist in his eighties. He talks frankly about the people he has known during his long and illustr...

Newly updated to include his critically acclaimed post-millennial work, this look at Tom Waits - both the reality and the myriad myths - reveals the man behind the curtain. A tale of how a self-taught, drunken hipster in roach-killers and a dirty beret has influenced a generation of musicians with his sound, warmth, and willingness to take chances, this biography shows how he has moved between sideshow barker and evocative troubadour with ease, recording almost 20 albums that range from ca...

Fito de la Parra's unfiltered memoir pulls you inside the wild rise and unraveling of Canned Heat, a band that lived as hard as it played. Living the Blues is a firsthand account of the music, the chaos, and the price of survival--from breakthrough tours and legendary recording sessions to addiction, arrests, broken friendships, and the constant pressure to keep the show going. With vivid detail and dark humor, de la Parra recounts life on the road with Alan Wilson, Bob Hite, Henry Vestine...

Chosen by Paul Auster out of the four thousand stories submitted to his radio programme on National Public Radio, these 180 stories provide a wonderful portrait of America in the twentieth century. The requirement for selection was that each of the stories should be true, and each of the writers should not have been previously published. The collection that has emerged provides a richly varied and authentic voice for the American people, whose lives, loves, griefs, regrets, joys and sense ...