The Grateful Dead have left us a musical bounty of thirty years and thousands of shows. Now Dead to the Core: An Almanack of the Grateful Dead takes Deadheads through the seasons and years of the Dead's dazzling array of music, with lavish treatment of those "bumper crop" eras from which their most succulent songs and shows and shows can be harvested. It is part reference, part critical companion to the best the Dead have to offer, a work liberally stocked with trivia, lore, humor...

"You have to bear in mind that [Questlove] is one of the smartest motherf*****s on the planet. His musical knowledge, for all practical purposes, is limitless." --Robert ChristgauA punch-drunk memoir in which Everyone's Favorite Questlove tells his own story while tackling some of the lates, the greats, the fakes, the philosophers, the heavyweights, and the true originals of the music world. He digs deep into the album cuts of his life and unearths some pivotal moments in black art...

“The essential history of this distinctly American genre.”—Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionIn this “expertly researched, elegantly written, dispassionate yet thoughtful history” (Gary Giddins), award-winning author Ted Gioia gives us “the rare combination of a tome that is both deeply informative and enjoyable to read” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). From the field hollers of nineteenth-century plantations to Muddy Waters and B.B. King, Delta Blues delve...

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...

Paul Shaffer—born and bred music junkie and longtime leader of David Letterman’s Late Show band—opens up in this candid, endearing, hilarious, and star-studded memoir. From playing seedy strip joints in Toronto, to being the first musical director of Saturday Night Live and helping to form the Blues Brothers, to being onstage every night with David Letterman and playing with the greatest musicians of our time, Shaffer has lived the ultimate showbiz life. Now—dishing on ev...

An entertaining trivia compendium flush with fun facts about all things music.From boogie-woogie to Beethoven, from Prince to Pavarotti, from the bards of Broadway to the rebels of rock 'n' roll—it's all here. Uncle John has created this harmonious collection of tuneful tales for music lovers everywhere.Uncle John has proven once again that he is in tune with our legion of loyal readers. This 516-page musical masterpiece dedicated to all things noteworthy r...

This eclectic, funny, and moving book tracks a life lived in music and words. Paul Quarrington ruminates on the bands of his childhood; his restless youth, spent playing bass with the cult band Joe Hall and the Continental Drift; and his incarnation, in middle age, as rhythm guitarist and singer with the band Porkbelly Futures.Ranging through rock ’n’ roll, the blues, folk, country and soul, he explores how songs are made, how they work, and why they affect us so d...

This is the powerful, detailed and enlightening biography of the iconic composer, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist - the inimitable Prince.Prince was an icon. A man who defined an era of music and changed the shape of popular culture forever. There is no doubt that he was one of the most talented and influential artists of all time, and also one of the most mysterious. On 21st April 2016 the world lost its Prince; it was the day the mus...

A revelatory account of the life of beloved American music icon, Paul Simon, by the New York Times –bestselling rock biographer, the author of Bruce .To have been alive during the last sixty years is to have lived with the music of Paul Simon. The boy from Queens scored his first hit record in 1957, just months after Elvis Presley ignited the rock era. As the songwriting half of...

From humble folk instrument to American icon, the story of the guitar is told in this "exceptionally well-written" memoir by the NPR commentator ( Guitar Player).In this blend of personal memoir and cultural history, National Public Radio commentator Tim Brookes narrates the long and winding history of the guitar in the United States as he recounts his own quest to build the perfect instrument.Pairing up with a master artisan from the Green Mountai...

Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, U2, Peter Gabriel, and the Neville Brothers all have something in common: some of their best albums were produced by Daniel Lanois. A French-speaking kid from Canada, Lanois was driven by his innate curiosity and intense love of music to transcend his small-town origins and become one of the world's most prolific and successful record producers, as well as a brilliant musician in his own right.Lanois takes us through his childhood, from bein...

Until his death aged thirty-three in 1982, Lester Bangs wrote wired, rock 'n' roll pieces on Iggy Pop, The Clash, John Lennon, Kraftwerk, Lou Reed. As a rock critic, he had an eagle-eye for distinguishing the pre-packaged imitation from the real thing; written in a conversational, wisecracking, erotically charged style, his hallucinatory hagiographies and excoriating take-downs reveal an iconoclast unafraid to tell it like it is. To his journalism he brought the talent of a great a renegad...