The first ever biography of one of the most remarkable bands in rock history. Since the moment they emerged into the mainstream in 1974, armed with the hit ""This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us"", The Sparks - brothers Ron and Russell Mael - have endeared themselves to successive generations of fans, not only with their wry humour and quirkiness, but also with a lyrical and musical inventiveness that sees them listed among the most influential acts ever. Originally published to celeb...

First-ever look at the intertwining, outrageous lives of three rock legends.When Lou Reed and Iggy Pop first met David Bowie in the fall of 1971, Bowie was just another English musician passing through New York City. Lou was still recovering from the collapse of the Velvet Underground, and Iggy had already been branded a loser... Yet within two years they completely changed the face of popular music with a decadent glamour and street-level vibe. With Bowie producing, Reed's Tra...

London's Burning is the story of punk rock as it happened, stripped of hindsight and future legend, and laid bare. Here are the Damned and the Adverts on tour, the Sex Pistols swearing through their prime-time television debut, the Tom Robinson Band conducting a club full of skinheads through the anthem "Glad to Be Gay," rioting Rastas running through the carnage that closed the Notting Hill Carnival, Sid Vicious arguing about which was David Bowie's best song. At the same time, i...

Sherlock Holmes FAQ is a one-stop guide to more than a century's worth of mystery, mayhem, and most of all, deduction. Dave Thompson digs deep inside the manifold worlds of Sherlock Holmes, offering a dramatic and detailed digest of the Baker Street sleuth in all of his many guises, as TV and radio star, movie phenomenon, and, of course, literary giant.

The Child Ballads are a series of over 300 traditional ballads from England and Scotland that, along with their American variants, were anthologized by folklorist Francis James Child in the nineteenth century. An Evolving Tradition is the story of the Child Ballads—the world’s best-known and most highly regarded repository of traditional English folk songs, and the wellspring for approximately 10,000 recordings over the last century, from obscure musicological archives to classic releases ...

Get on the vinyl train and learn about this captivating hobbyVinyl Record Collecting For Dummies teaches you how to start a collection, grow your collection, and make that collection sound excellent. You'll learn how to shop for new, used, and rare records, and how to select the turntable that's right for you. Learn how to determine a record's value, build your collection on a budget, and properly store and maintain your records. This handy Dummies guide a...

Take a fast-paced survey of the ghosties, ghouls, and associated denizens of the country's haunted history with Haunted America FAQ. Tracing local ghost stories back to Native American legends and then forward through horror tales both ancient and modern, the book revisits some of the best known haunted locales, as well as some of the most obscure creepy places, in America.Delving deep into the cultural history of American hauntings, Haunted America FAQ includes c...

Never Fade Away is Dave Thompson's inside look at the life of one of the most thought-provoking men of all time - Kurt Cobain.Examining an artistic grunge rock genius who was light years ahead of his time, this is an unfailing account of Nirvana's rise and Cobain eventual descent.

Here is a fascinating, all-encompassing journey through the life and career of one of America’s most influential, and literate, songwriters.Beginning with Simon’s earliest days as an aspiring teenage idol and Tin Pan Alley songsmith, Paul Simon FAQ takes readers through Simon’s sometimes tempestuous relationship with singing partner Art Garfunkel, with whom he established the most popular musical duo in rock history.The book goes behind the scenes of Simon’s groundbreaking ...

Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors and baby dolls, Cooper has pioneered a grandly theatrical and violent brand of hard rock designed to shock. Drawing from exclusive and unpublished interviews with a variety of names and faces from throughout Alice’s career, the book follows Cooper’s tale from his life growing up as a preacher’s...

On Halloween night 1983, at an ROTC dance on a college campus deep in the heart of Vermont, the band subsequently known as Phish played their very first gig.It was a total disaster.But it was the beginning of an era. Here's the whole story.

Robert Plant: The Voice That Sailed the Zeppelin follows the iconic singer through his heights of fame with classic rock giant Led Zeppelin, his second life as a multimillion-selling solo artist, and his more idiosyncratic pursuits. A wealth of former associates lend their voices and recollections to an account that steps far beyond the tried and tested tales of Zeppelin's life and times.This all-new biography details Plant's early years as an unknown in Birmingham, Englan...