Musicians, singers, bands and groups Books

Book SynopsisBill Bruford, once called the godfather of progressive-rock drumming, has been at the top of his profession for four decades. This is his memoir of life at the heart of prog rock, art rock, and modern jazz, playing with Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Earthworks and many more. It is an honest and entertaining account of life on the road and in the studio, rubbing shoulders with the famous, the less famous, and the infamous, and creating an impressive tally of great music.A rock musician with the temperament of a classical musician who became a jazz musician, Bruford defies all the clichés about drummers. He says: 'You write what you have to write, you play what you have to play, because you cannot sleep at night. If you can sleep at night, you shouldn't be doing this anyway.'From time to time, at polite dinner parties, someone will ask Bill what he does. He replies that he is a musician. 'Yes, but what do you really do?' retorts the enquirer. This unusual, funny and insightful music memoir answers that question.

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Book SynopsisOriginally written in Danish in 1980, Pink Moon was the first biography of Nick Drake, and remains the only one to include exclusive interviews with the singer’s parents, Rodney and Molly Drake. In this new, significantly updated edition, available in English for the first time, author and poet Gorm Henrik Rasmussen reveals more from his visits to the Drakes in their home Far Leys – the first, just five years after the death of their troubled son. Rasmussen includes new interviews with Nick’s friends and collaborators plus extracts taken from his eight-year correspondence with the Drakes, and from telephone conversations he had with Rodney every month over four years. Full of intimate detail about the last three years of Nick’s life spent at his childhood home, Pink Moon – A Story about Nick Drake is a personal, original, and moving retelling of the life, death, and posthumous rise of a poet and guitarist who was strangely unsuited for his own time, and is more popular now than he ever was in life.Trade Review"...constructs the story of Drake’s life with insights from those who knew him best... Rasmussen writes elegantly about the music, while his detailed account of the last years of Drake’s life are sensitively handled. By the end of this book, Rasmussen has breathed new life into his subject and his music." source: www.mojo4music.com -- Mark Blake.'Gorm tells the story with great understanding of Nick and his art. He must be credited with writing the first book about Nick, and possibly the best one too. Like Nick's own works, it was unappreciated for many years.. now that its truth and magic are revealed, it deserves to find a much wider audience and will undoubtedly bring satisfaction to all those who wish to know the real Nick Drake a little better.' -- Jason Creed. * Pynk Moon fanzine *'A story in which straight biographical bits are interwoven with skillfully composed, extrapolated scenes ... fans will find it a great companion book to Drake’s music, and rock lovers will enjoy the author’s serious, personal attempt to get intimate with his icon.' Source: www.reviews.libraryjournal.com/2012/03/collection-development/books-for-dudes/books-for-dudes/ -- Douglas Lord.Table of ContentsForeword 1 Zeeland, 1978 Rodney and Molly The Music Room 2 The Guitar A Trip to Africa A Poet with a Guitar The American What Exactly is a Dream? The Royal Festival Hall The Girl and the Monkey Bryter Layter Pink Moon Hanging on a Star 3 Existential Depression Time of No Reply Family Tree Discography Sources

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Book SynopsisOriginally written in Danish in 1980, Pink Moon was the first biography of Nick Drake, and remains the only one to include exclusive interviews with the singer’s parents, Rodney and Molly Drake. In this new, significantly updated edition, available in English for the first time, author and poet Gorm Henrik Rasmussen reveals more from his visits to the Drakes in their home Far Leys – the first, just five years after the death of their troubled son. Rasmussen includes new interviews with Nick’s friends and collaborators plus extracts taken from his eight-year correspondence with the Drakes, and from telephone conversations he had with Rodney every month over four years. Full of intimate detail about the last three years of Nick’s life spent at his childhood home, Pink Moon – A Story about Nick Drake is a personal, original, and moving retelling of the life, death, and posthumous rise of a poet and guitarist who was strangely unsuited for his own time, and is more popular now than he ever was in life.Trade Review"...constructs the story of Drake’s life with insights from those who knew him best... Rasmussen writes elegantly about the music, while his detailed account of the last years of Drake’s life are sensitively handled. By the end of this book, Rasmussen has breathed new life into his subject and his music." source: www.mojo4music.com -- Mark Blake.'Gorm tells the story with great understanding of Nick and his art. He must be credited with writing the first book about Nick, and possibly the best one too. Like Nick's own works, it was unappreciated for many years.. now that its truth and magic are revealed, it deserves to find a much wider audience and will undoubtedly bring satisfaction to all those who wish to know the real Nick Drake a little better.' -- Jason Creed."A story in which straight biographical bits are interwoven with skillfully composed, extrapolated scenes ... fans will find it a great companion book to Drake’s music, and rock lovers will enjoy the author’s serious, personal attempt to get intimate with his icon." Source: www.reviews.libraryjournal.com/2012/03/collection-development/books-for-dudes/books-for-dudes/ -- Douglas Lord.Table of ContentsForeword 1 Zeeland, 1978 Rodney and Molly The Music Room 2 The Guitar A Trip to Africa A Poet with a Guitar The American What Exactly is a Dream? The Royal Festival Hall The Girl and the Monkey Bryter Layter Pink Moon Hanging on a Star 3 Existential Depression Time of No Reply Family Tree Discography Sources

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Book SynopsisAfter 27 years as undisputed queen of French pop, 11 number 1 singles and record sales in excess of 20 million within France alone, Mylene Farmer, more than a cultural phenomenon, has become that rarest of exceptions: a legend in her own lifetime. From "Maman a tort" through to "Lonely Lisa", "The Single File" revisits a career like no other, taking in sex, death, religion and controversy along the way, in the first ever English-language book to be published on the singer Salman Rushdie once described as "The voice of a fallen angel". A must-have for international Mylene Farmer fans!

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive story of Deep Purple's golden years 1968-76, which saw the band come from nowhere to have a top 4 US hit with its debut single. Within two years the band was in the throes of potentially dissolving when the record company went into liquidation. Fortunately, focussing on their homeland in Britain they re-launched their career with the groundbreaking In Rock LP in 1970 - the platform that ensured by 1973 Deep Purple was the biggest selling album artists in America. Band break-ups and in-fighting continually rocked the boat before finally calling it a day in 1976 after a brief UK tour. The Road Of Golden Dust documents the ups and downs, drawing on the author's interviews with various band and road crew members including founding members Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Nick Simper, as well as interviews with Roger Glover, Glenn Hughes, roadie Ian Hansford, tour manager Colin Hart plus co-operation from the management company Deep Purple (Overseas) Ltd, that all help to unveil some new stories that help to explain the whys and wherefores that shaped one of Britain's greatest and most influential rock bands of all time.

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Book SynopsisForty years in the business...six gold & platinum U.S. albums...classic songs like (Don'tFear) The Reaper, Godzilla, Burnin' For You, Astronomy and E.T.I. Donald "BuckDharma" Roeser, Eric Bloom, Allen Lanier, Albert Bouchard & Joe Bouchard comprised one of the great stadium acts of the '70s & '80s. BOC were heavy enough to duke it out with Kiss, Rush, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent & Black Sabbath, yet smart, funny, ironic & jaded enough to please the tough New York critics.Agents of Fortune examines the complicated early days of the band, graphically demonstrating the showbiz sweat that goes into making a successful act. The book is centred around the peerless intellectual quality of the songs - made entertaining by the band's psychotropic & ghoulish humour; its interest in all manner of conspiracy theories, cults, monsters, vampires, UFOs, foul play, arcane spiritualism, alchemy, love lost & love buried, science fiction & friction.Popoff draws on his personal interviews with Roeser, Bloom, Albert & Joe Bouchard, along with drummer Bobby Rondinelli, legendary band producer Murray Krugman & BOC expert Bolle Gregmar. For insight into the band's fantastic lyrical world, Popoff went right to the source, the writers of the BOC classics highlighting their creativity through the author's countless interviews with Sandy Pearlman (manager during the golden years), Richard Meltzer, John Shirley, cover artists Greg Scott and Ioannis, as well as the late Helen Wheels and David Roter. An essential read for Blue Oyster Cult devotees.

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Book SynopsisFollowing his highly successful previous book, Zappa The Hard Way, Frank Zappa specialist Andrew Greenaway's second tome on the influential cult artist is something completely different! Frank Talk: The Inside Stories of Zappa's Other People is compiled from over 40 interviews Greenaway has conducted during the past three decades, with the people who knew and worked with the legendary composer and musician. From Zappa's own family (including his brother and sister and eldest son, Dweezil), through to members of the Mothers of Invention such as Jimmy Carl Black, Roy Estrada & Don Preston - major discoveries like guitarists Warren Cuccurullo (who went on to much success with Duran Duran) & Steve Vai (Alcatrazz / Dave Lee Roth / Whitesnake) plus drummer extraordiniare Terry Bozzio who later formed Missing Persons as well as working with luminaries such as Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger, through to the likes of Ike Willis, Scott Thunes and Mike Keneally who played in Zappa's last touring band. Augmented with artwork and caricatures created by noted designer Antero Valerio, Frank Talk gives an extraordinary insight into this musical genius that is piled on in layers. With Greenaway's recognised knowledge of Zappa this book will undoubtedly compliment his previous title and be every bit as revered.

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Book SynopsisIn this large, full colour, hard cover book by James Court, yu can read about guitarist, drummer, bass player, pianist, keyboardist, song writer, producer, programmer, arranger, vocalist, business entrepreneur, actor, director, dancer and choreographer Prince. James Court has been an avid collector, writer and follower of Prince and his work for more than thirty years. Upon Prince's death in April 2016, James set about the colossal task of revealing every part of this fascinating ever-changing musician, leaving no stone unturned. The Biography tackles the issue's that plagued the Superstar, his fight for Musical freedom and his constant need to write record and perform without restriction or filter.Often described as the greatest Musician of his generation Prince remained at the very top of the game, a multi-instrumentalist with the ability to write cutting edge songs at will, his talent ability and influence were simply unmatched. The results make this the most comprehensive, detailed and exhaustingly accurate depiction of one of the most popular, misunderstood and illusive musicians in modern day music....

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Book SynopsisSouth Africa possesses one of the richest popular music traditions in the world - from marabi to mbaqanga, from boeremusiek to bubblegum, from kwela to kwaito. Yet the risk that future generations of South Africans will not know their musical roots is very real. Of all the recordings made here since the 1930s, thousands have been lost for ever, for the powers-that-be never deemed them worthy of preservation. And if one peruses the books that exist on South African popular music, one still fi nds that their authors have on occasion jumped to conclusions that were not as foregone as they had assumed. Yet the fault lies not with them, rather in the fact that there has been precious little documentation in South Africa of who played what, or who recorded what, with whom, and when. This is true of all music-making in this country, though it is most striking in the musics of the black communities. Beyond Memory: Recording the History, Moments and Memories of South African Music is an invaluable publication because it offers a first-hand account of the South African music scene of the past decades from the pen of a man, Max Thamagana Mojapelo, who was situated in the very thick of things, thanks to his job as a deejay at the South African Broadcasting Corporation. This book - astonishing for the breadth of its coverage - is based on his diaries, on interviews he conducted and on numerous other sources, and we find in it not only the well-known names of recent South African music but a countless host of others whose contribution must be recorded if we and future generations are to gain an accurate picture of South African music history of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

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Book SynopsisBeing on the road - the ultimate litany?I am simply a traveling explorer conducting research, without a commission, specialty, or expertise. In this semi-fictional account, Blixa Bargeld recounts life on tour in 2008 with Einstürzende Neubauten - from Lisbon to Moscow, Oslo to Naples, criss-crossing Europe. Along the way we encounter mind numbing routines, interesting restaurants (good and bad), colorful museums, rocky bus rides, mundane hotels, odd characters and old friends - they''re all there. Along with the structure holding it all together, namely, a recurring setlist that is invoked as a litany. In the end the book proves to be a declaration of love for Europe, and in the current dark times we are presently living through, more immediate than ever.

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