Search results for ""outline press ltd""
Outline Press Ltd Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over
Before #MeToo, before Riot Grrl, there was Lydia Lunch. A central figure in the No Wave scene of the seventies as founder of the seminal Teenage Jesus and The Jerks Lunch has pursued a four decade long career turning the substance of her life into unapologetic, stark, and beautiful art. From the eighties onward, Lunch became a lone voice publicly calling out the patriarchal aggressions and day-to-day violence enacted by the powerful and never gave a good goddamn whether you wanted to hear it or not. Refusing to be silenced, she took to stages the world over, fearlessly speaking the truth, whether of her own life with its legacy of parental abuse, of her wild times owning the streets of New York City, or of the world she saw around her. Seeing no boundaries between creative mediums, Lydia has enacted her vision through music, spoken word, film, theatre, and more. Released as an accompaniment to Beth B s new documentary The War Is Never Over, this book is the first comprehensive overview of Lunch s creative campaign of resistance, a celebration of pleasure as the ultimate act of rebellion. Across these pages, Lunch and her numerous collaborators including Thurston Moore, Jim Sclavunos, Kid Congo Powers, Bob Bert, Richard Kern, Nick Zedd, and Vivienne Dick recount life at the frontline of the musical extremes of the seventies and eighties underground, the wild times, the disciplined productivity, life lived as a defender of the voiceless, and an unapologetic force of righteous fury.
£13.46
Outline Press Ltd The Yacht Rock Book: The Oral History of the Soft, Smooth Sounds of the 70s and 80s
`It s amazing that this style came to be. Can you imagine being a struggling musician back then? It must take an incredible amount of restraint to play that gently. Actor/comedian Fred Armisen, from his foreword to this book. Just what is `yacht rock, you ask? Perhaps the easiest description is: music that would not sound out of place being played while carousing aboard a yacht back in the good old days. But these songs were also some of the top pop gems of the 70s and 80s. And while some associate yacht rock s biggest songs with one-hit wonder artists, several of rock s most renowned artists fall under this category, too including Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Steely Dan, Hall and Oates, The Doobie Brothers, Toto, and more. By the early twenty-first century, yacht rock seemed to have become extinct until a comedic video series, simply titled Yacht Rock, went viral and introduced captain s hats and blazers to a whole new generation as well as the emergence of a popular cover band, the Yacht Rock Revue, and of course, Jimmy Fallon s on-air admiration of all things yacht rock. Now, yacht rock is one of the most celebrated `yesteryear styles of pop music, and has resonated with a new generation of musicians (including the Fred Armisen/Bill Hader led Blue Jean Committee and soul/funk/electronica crossover act Thundercat). But despite all the hoopla, there has never been a book that told the entire story of the genre. Until now. Featuring interviews with many of the heavy hitters of the genre, including John Oates, Kenny Loggins, and Don Felder, The Yacht Rock Book leaves no sail unturned. This is the definitive story of the yacht rock s creation, rise, chart-smashing success, fall, and stunning rebirth.
£13.46
Outline Press Ltd Earthbound: David Bowie and The Man Who Fell To Earth
'Before there was Star Wars before there was Close Encounters there was The Man Who Fell To Earth. advertising tag line for 1981 reissue of the film. Earthbound is the first book-length exploration of a true classic of twentieth-century science-fiction cinema, shot under the heavy, ethereal skies of New Mexico by the legendary British director Nicolas Roeg and starring David Bowie in a role he seemed born for as an extra-terrestrial named Thomas Newton who comes to Earth in search of water. Based on a novel by the highly regarded American writer Walter Tevis, this dreamy, distressing, and visionary film resonates even more strongly in the twenty-first century than it did on its original release during the year of the US Bicentennial. Drawing on extensive research and exclusive first-hand interviews with members of the cast and crew, Earthbound begins with a look at Tevis s 1963 novel before moving into a detailed analysis of a film described by its director as 'a sci-fi film without a lot of sci-fi tools and starring a group of actors Bowie, Buck Henry, Candy Clark, Rip Torn later described by one of them (Henry) as 'not a cast but a dinner party. It also seeks to uncover the mysteries surrounding Bowie s rejected soundtrack to the film (elements of which later ended up his ground-breaking 1977 album Low) and closes with a look at his return to the themes and characters of The Man Who Fell To Earth in one of his final works, the acclaimed musical production Lazarus.
£13.46
Outline Press Ltd Lee, Myself & I: Inside The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood
If I had a name like Wyndham Wallace I would not associate or correspond with anyone with a simple name like mine. However, since you have lowered yourself to such depths, how can my old Indian heart (west not east) not respond favourably. -Lee Hazlewood, fax message to the author, Valentine's Day 1999. Lee, Myself and I is an intimate portrait of the last years of Lee Hazlewood, the legendary singer and songwriter best known for 'These Boots Are Made For Walkin', the chart-topping hit he wrote and produced for Nancy Sinatra. It begins in 1999, when Hazlewood began his comeback after many years in the wilderness, and ends with his death in 2007. In the intervening years, the author, Wyndham Wallace, became Hazlewood's friend, confidante, de-facto manager, and more, even providing the lyrics for Lee's final recording, 'Hilli (At The Top Of The World'. In the light of reissues of Hazlewood's work by the esteemed Light In The Attic label-including There's A Dream I've Been Saving: Lee Hazlewood Industries 1966-1971, an acclaimed boxed set of his work with the label he founded, LHI, as well as further releases including liner notes by Wallace-interest in Hazlewood has never been greater. Lee, Myself and I is the first book to address his life and work. Through recollections of their lengthy conversations and adventures together, Wallace captures the complex personality-charming but cantankerous, blunt but poetic-of a reclusive icon whose work helped shape the American pop cultural landscape, and who still influences countless artists today. He also sheds light on often overlooked or more obscure aspects of Hazlewood's career, including his pioneering work with Duane Eddy and Phil Spector, and the outstanding recordings he made during his self-imposed exile to Sweden in the 1970s. Lee, Myself and I is a tale of validation: both the author's and Hazlewood's. It's the story of what it's like to meet your hero, befriend him, and then watch him die.
£13.46
Outline Press Ltd Renegade Snares: The Resistance And Resilience Of Drum & Bass
Renegade Snares is the definitive book on drum & bass music. Pieced together using original interviews conducted with all the scene s main players, it traces the history of jungle/drum & bass from its early roots in soundsystem culture and rave music right through to the present day. With its hyper-speed breakbeats, warping bass pressure, and vast spectrum of sounds, drum & bass quick spawned a whole new movement in youth culture. What began as an outlaw street reverberation from the inner cities of Britain developed into a Mercury-winning, chart-topping, world-conquering genre in just a few short years. The frontier-breaking sorcery that emanated from its foundational producers and DJs pushed new levels of sonic science into the music world, and it has influenced all other electronic music genres in assorted ways. From the shock of the new to a global phenomenon, drum & bass has morphed from frowned-upon marginalisation to establishment approval -- and back again. A multicultural triumph, it is a story of resistance and resilience that takes in pioneers such as Goldie, Roni Size, Kemistry & Storm, Photek, Fabio & Grooverider, and many more renegade mavericks -- even, at one point, David Bowie. With vivid descriptions of key tracks and a detailed lineage of the scene s development, Renegade Snares traces the genre s gestation while also examining its musical twists and turns, worldwide spread, and enduring popularity. And, ultimately, it asks: surely a genre of music with such a significant grounding in black music culture, developed by so many black pioneers in its formative years, could never be whitewashed . . . could it?
£13.46
Outline Press Ltd She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Popular Music
Since She Bop was first published in 1995, digital downloading has transformed the music landscape. But has issue of gender inequality changed too? For She Bop, Lucy O Brien conducted over 250 interviews with female artists and women working behind the scenes in A and R, marketing, music publishing, and production to write a groundbreaking exploration of sexism in the music industry. Fusing many untold stories, O Brien presents a feminist history of women in popular music, from 1920s blues to the present day. Talking to iconic artists from Eartha Kitt and Nina Simone to Debbie Harry, Poly Styrene, and Beyonce, she charts how women have negotiated old boy power networks to be seen and to get their music heard. This revised edition updates that story through many fresh interviews and new perspectives. In a new introduction and additional closing chapter, O Brien asks why, in 2020, women own just 13 percent of music publishing and are still a minority among festival headliners. She celebrates the rise of unique women such as Lizzo and Billie Eilish who are bursting through and creating new possibilities for female artists, while also looking at the struggles of artists like Kesha and Aaliyah, and wondering whether the pop industry has had its #MeToo moment. When she first wrote She Bop, O Brien questioned the way the music press lumped female artists together under the term Women in Rock , saying that the ultimate goal was to make that phrase redundant. Now, despite the gender inequalities that still exist, greater awareness means few magazine editors would dare to feature women in such a derogatory way. Published to celebrate the original book s 25th anniversary and in the year that also marks the 50th anniversary of Women s Liberation this new She Bop will appeal to a huge cross-section of readers, from music fans to the LGBT audience and women of all generations.
£13.46
Outline Press Ltd Turn It Up!: My Time Making Hit Records In The Glory Days Of Rock Music, Featuring Mötley Crüe, Poison, Twisted Sister, Cheap Trick, Jeff Beck, Ted Nugent, and more
Growing up in the Boston suburbs, Tom Werman was deeply affected by pop music from a young age. He long dreamed of a career in music -- first as Elvis, then as the next George Harrison -- but it almost turned out very differently. Dutifully following the path his parents had laid out for him, he obtained an MBA from an Ivy League university and took a plum job in an industry he came to despise. Then, in 1970, a chance letter sent to CBS Records boss Clive Davis led to a new opportunity . . . and a place in rock and roll history. As an A&R man at Epic Records, Werman helped introduce the world to REO Speedwagon, Boston, Ted Nugent, and Cheap Trick; he also discovered KISS, Rush, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, but his record label passed on all of them. Then, as an independent producer, he oversaw landmark albums by Motley Crue (Shout At The Devil), Twisted Sister (Stay Hungry), Lita Ford (Dangerous Curves), Jeff Beck (Live With Jan Hammer), Poison (Open Up And Say ... Ahh!), and many more. All in all, his record-making resume includes twenty-three gold- or platinum-selling albums and cumulative sales of more than fifty-two million copies. After bearing witness to several sea changes in the music industry, Werman retired from producing in 2001 and reinvented himself as an award-winning innkeeper in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts. And that might have been that, until an off-the-cuff rebuttal to a disparaging critique of his role in making the Motley Crue album Girls, Girls, Girls on a music website led to a fortnightly column and now this book -- an honest and engaging insider account on how some of the best-loved albums of the 1970s and 80s came to be. A must for anyone interested in the glory days of rock and metal, Turn It Up! offers valuable insights into the recording process, the recording studio, the role of the producer, and the production values that are essential to the creation of a hit record.
£15.26
Outline Press Ltd Absolute Beginner: Memoirs of the world's best least-known guitarist
‘Kevin does what I pretend to do. Kevin’s a proper musician.’ David Bowie‘Kevin Armstrong has been around, and around.’ Iggy PopGrowing up in a world of punk squats and the London pub-rock scene, suburban rookie guitarist Kevin Armstrong found himself signed to EMI as a solo artist in the early 80s, but fate had other plans for him, his life and career changing in an instant when he was called for a studio date with an unnamed star at Abbey Road.That unnamed star was soon revealed to be David Bowie, and that afternoon’s recording catapulted this unlikely lad onto the world’s grandest stages alongside some of the biggest names in the business. Kevin has gone on to carve out a singular career as a producer, songwriter, and guitarist, performing live and recording with everyone from Grace Jones to Paul McCartney, Iggy Pop to Roy Orbison, Sandie Shaw to Alien Sex Fiend.Absolute Beginner is the story of what it takes to survive as a self-taught musician. It provides an honest and funny glimpse into the backstage world of the artists Kevin has worked with, and is packed with acerbic, laugh-out-loud observations on popular music and musicians from someone who has had a prime seat at the high table of rock’n’roll for more than forty years.
£15.26
Outline Press Ltd Complicated Game: Inside the Songs of XTC
Complicated Game offers a unique insight into the work of one of Britain's most original and influential songwriters-and an unprecedentedly revealing and instructive guide to how songs and records are made. Developed from a series of interviews conducted over many months, this fascinating book explores in detail some thirty XTC songs-including well-known singles such as 'Senses Working Overtime' and the controversial 'Dear God'-from throughout the group's thirty-year career. It casts new light on the writing of lyrics, the construction of melodies and arrangements, the process of recording, and the workings of the?music industry. But it is also filled with anecdotes about Partridge, his XTC bandmates, and their adventures around the world, all told with the songwriter's legendary humour. The book also includes pages from Partridge's songwriting notebooks and reproductions of his original artwork designs, as well as a guide to Andy Partridge's Swindon and a foreword by Steven Wilson, the guitarist, songwriter, and record producer best known as the founder and leader of Porcupine Tree.
£13.46
Outline Press Ltd I Wouldnt Say It If It Wasnt True
A vivid and revealing memoir from the leader and founder of one of the most revered indie rock bands of the 1980s.
£15.26
Outline Press Ltd Shadows Across The Moon: Outlaws, Freaks, Shamans, And The Making Of Ibiza Clubland
Once a fabled pirate garrison, the Balearic island of Ibiza has been colonised and continually fought over since the era of the Phoenicians. During the twentieth century it gained its reputation as a countercultural hotbed after it became a melting pot for bohemians and dropouts who had come there in search of adventure. Soon, Ibiza was a crossroads for experimental musicians, writers and artists, 'hippie trail travellers, enthusiastic trepanation pioneers, infamous art world conmen, and Osho sannyasins with pockets full of MDMA and, eventually, the epicentre for electronic music that it is today. After the establishment of the famous hippie markets and the trance parties that took place in forests or on deserted beaches, a number of now legendary nightclubs, including Ku, Pacha, and Amnesia started to emerge, although they had started out as simple, rural locations for islanders, fringe figures, and jetsetters to congregate together on open air terraces to listen to blues, rock n roll, and jazz. These days, pioneering electronic music DJs from around the world make the island their home from home over the summer season, attracting an equally international party community. Eco tourists and nature lovers seeking the particular pleasures of Ibiza also flock in annually, as does a crucial contingent of island faithfuls who return year after year to this tiny but charismatic and insubordinate Mediterranean hub to live an Ibiza 'experience that goes way beyond the parties. With a foreword by Richie Hawtin, the world s leading electronic artist and DJ, Shadows Across The Moon explores the social and cultural history of Ibiza and its nocturnal playgrounds, from the advent of the earliest settlers through the huge influence of the Moors on Ibiza s music and traditions, the early days of the Ibiza Town jazz scene, the Goa-influenced outdoor trance party culture, the early hippie clubs, the golden years of the 1980s and the second Summer of Love, to the huge and exciting impact the techno scene made on the island s nightlife with the advent of Sven Vath s audacious Cocoon. Along the way the book draws back the curtain to reveal clubland s sometimes shadowy mafia connections, crooked politics, backstabbing, outmanoeuvring skulduggery, specious drug busts, assassinations, and suicides as well as tales of quixotic originality and futuristic vision, outrageous pansexual parties, widely talented impresarios, and the open air gatherings that make the island so special, including the famous sunset bars and chill-out culture. Drawing on interviews with everyone from Carl Cox and Dubfire to Terry Gilliam and Johnny Golden, Shadows Across The Moon is the first and only book to cover the whole fascinating and unique history of dance and counterculture in Ibiza, and vividly describes the artists, sunset drummers, shamans, DJs, outlaws, psychedelic evangelists, politicians and hippie organisers who gradually shaped the island s party landscape into the hugely influential nexus it is today.
£12.95
Outline Press Ltd Becoming Elektra: The True Story of Jac Holzman's Visionary Record Label (Revised & Expanded Edition)
Becoming Elektra tells the incredible true story of the pioneering Elektra Records label and its far-sighted founder, Jac Holzman, who built a small folk imprint into a home for some of the most groundbreaking, important, and enduring music of the rock era. Placing the Elektra label in a broader context, the book presents a gripping narrative of musical and cultural history that reads like an inventory of all that is exciting and innovative about the 60s and 70s: The Doors, Love s Forever Changes, Tim Buckley s Goodbye and Hello, The Stooges, The MC5 s Kick Out The Jams, Queen and Queen II, The Incredible String Band, Carly Simon s No Secrets, and many, many more. First published in 2010, Becoming Elektra was praised as 'eye-opening (Q) and a 'dazzling narrative (The Sun), and for 'perfectly encapsulating the enigmatic, unpredictable spirit of the label (Record Collector). This fully revised and expanded edition includes a brand new foreword by John Densmore of The Doors and draws on extensive new interviews with a wide range of Elektra alumni, including Tom Paley, Judy Henske, Johnny Echols, Jean Ritchie, and Bernie Krause, as well as further conversations with Holzman himself. It also adds two new chapters: a look at Elektra in Britain in the 60s and a reappraisal of the label s 70s output.
£13.46
Outline Press Ltd Neil Sedaka Rock 'n' roll Survivor: The inside story of his incredible comeback
From 1958 to 1963, Neil Sedaka sold 25 million records - more than anyone except Elvis Presley. He thought he could do no wrong, but a year later he was all but off the charts, swept away by The Beatles and the British Invasion - a blow he never saw coming. The deejays stopped playing his records, and the public stopped buying them. For 12 agonizing years, Sedaka battled to get back on the charts-back to respectability. He tried everything: working with hip, young songwriters, playing on demo sessions, and even enduring the rough and tumble of working men's clubs in remote corners in the UK. Then, one magical night, he performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London. His new songs, including 'Solitaire,' were greeted with thunderous applause. Shortly thereafter, Elton John, the biggest rock'n'roll star of the decade, stopped by to see him and offered to sign Neil to his new label, Rocket Records. And that was it. In October 1974, 'Laughter In The Rain' showed up at number 95 on Billboard-Sedaka's first appearance on the charts in over a decade. Sixteen weeks later it reached number one, sealing one of the most amazing comebacks in music history. This vivid and authoritative book, written with full access to Sedaka and those closest to him, tells the absorbing story of how he overcame one obstacle after another to become the ultimate rock'n'roll survivor.
£13.46
Outline Press Ltd Read Burn
Read & Burn is the first serious, in-depth appraisal of Wire, one of the most influential British bands to emerge during the punk era. If Wire were briefly a punk band, however, it was largely by historical accident. Despite the fact that they had complicated and transformed that category almost before they''d begun, they seem never to have quite escaped the label. Be it punk, post-punk, or art-punk, critics have clung onto the p-word in an attempt to capture the essence of Wire''s innovative uniqueness. But their story - which honours punk''s original yet quickly forgotten commitment to the new - is one of constant remaking and remodelling, one that stubbornly resists reduction to a single identity. As a result, the group''s projects have always balanced uneasily between artistic endeavour and the need for commercial sustainability, played out against the backdrop of the musicians'' perennially complex creative relationships. Tracing Wire''s diverse output from 1977 up until
£13.46
Outline Press Ltd My Bloody Roots: From Sepultura to Soulfly and Beyond: The Autobiography: Revised & Updated Edition
My Bloody Roots is the brutally honest story of life in two of the world s best-known heavy metal bands, Sepultura and Soulfly, by one of the global metal scene s most respected musicians. Max Cavalera s has a unique and extraordinary story to tell, and My Bloody Roots is an autobiography like no other. Much more than just another tale of rock n roll debauchery, it s a story of heartbreak and loss and, ultimately, triumph. In it, Cavalera offers an unflinching account of life growing up in hardship in Brazil a country not previously known for heavy metal and the multi-million-selling success, against all odds, of the band he founded with his brother, Iggor: Sepultura. Then, for the first time, he reveals the full story behind his split with the band after which he did not speak to his brother for years and the formation of his Soulfly, one of the most critically and commercially successful metal bands of recent decades. He also goes into unflinching detail on the devastating impact of the deaths of his father, stepson, and grandson; his struggles with drugs and alcohol; his eventual reunion with Iggor in Cavalera Conspiracy; and more. This revised and updated edition continues to trace Max s career to the present day, covering the formation of his new band Go Ahead And Die as well as the supergroup Killer Be Killed, making it truly essential reading for all fans of metal.
£18.80
Outline Press Ltd Holy Ghost: The Life And Death Of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler
Holy Ghost is the first extended study of free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler, who is seen today as one of the most important innovators in the history of jazz. Ayler synthesized children s songs, La Marseillaise, American march music, and gospel hymns, turning them into powerful, rambunctious, squalling free-jazz improvisations. Some critics considered him a charlatan, others a heretic for unhinging the traditions of jazz. Some simply considered him insane. However, like most geniuses, Ayler was misunderstood in his time. His divine messages of peace and love, apocalyptic visions of flying saucers, and the strange account of the days leading up to his being found floating in New York s East River are central to his mystique, but, as Koloda points out, they are a distraction, overshadowing his profound impact on the direction of jazz as one of the most visible avant-garde players of the 1960s and a major influence on others, including John Coltrane. A musicologist, and friend of Don Ayler, Albert s troubled trumpet-playing brother, Richard Koloda has spent over two decades researching this book. He follows Ayler from his beginnings in his native Cleveland to France, where he received his greatest acclaim, to his untimely death on November 25, 1970, at age thirty-four, and puts to rest speculation concerning his mysterious death. A feat of biography and a major addition to jazz scholarship, Holy Ghost offers a new appreciation of one of the most important and controversial figures in the twentieth-century music.
£15.26
Outline Press Ltd Frank & Co: Conversations with Frank Zappa, 1977–1993
I think the best way to start when somebody says something can t be done, just look at them and say: why not? Frank Zappa, Los Angeles, 1990. Co de Kloet and Frank Zappa were friends for many years, and during that time Co recorded nearly every conversation the two men had. They also corresponded frequently about life, music, politics, and much more besides and this book offers a unique chronicle of their friendship, from their first meeting in 1977 to Zappa s death in 1993. Co is renowned as an expert on Zappa s music, but this book is about far more than that, and is unlike any other collection of interviews. As his son Dweezil writes in his foreword, Frank was a reluctant and sometimes combative interviewee, yet his conversations with Co were open and wide-ranging. Through more than two decades of these discussions, Frank & Co reveals a thoughtful, sensitive, and expansive Zappa, offering readers new insights into the life and career of one of the great masters of twentieth-century American music. It also includes Co s favourite memories of Frank, as well as interviews Zappa alumni Flo & Eddie, Jimmy Carl Black, Pamela Zarubica, and Don van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart.
£14.95
Outline Press Ltd Happy Forever: My musical adventures with The Turtles, Frank Zappa, T. Rex, Flo & Eddie, and more
Mark is one of the most indomitable yet gentle spirits I ve ever met. He will always be one of my favorite artists I ve ever worked with. And someday when I grow up, I want to be just like him. Alice Cooper. This book is a puzzle. The outside frame pieces are about me, but the picture wouldn t be complete without the perspectives of all the people telling you about me. Mark Volman. Mark Volman has led a storied life, and many of those stories are contained in Happy Forever. A true son of southern California, he has gone from topping the charts with The Turtles ( Happy Together ) to underground cred with Frank Zappa and beyond. As Flo & Eddie, Mark and his longtime singing partner Howard Kaylan were the not-so-secret ingredient on many other artist s records, taking Bruce Springsteen into the Top 10 for the very first time and helping T. Rex dominate the British charts. Then came The Ramones, U2, Blondie, Duran Duran, and so many more; the list of credits is long and varied. Happy Forever covers all of that, along with subsequent forays into animation, a stint as a radio personality in Los Angeles and New York, and a midlife return to academia, which led Mark to create and run innovative college programs in LA and Nashville. But this is not the world according to Mark Volman, and it is not your average musical autobiography. Alongside his own comments, this uniquely insightful book contains contributions from more than one hundred of Mark s peers, friends, and lovers who share their thoughts on the man himself and on topics that span the social and cultural landscape of past half-century. Happy Forever s cast list reads like a who s who of popular music, featuring members of The Doors, The Monkees, The Byrds, The E Street Band, and many more; producers Tony Visconti, Bob Ezrin, and Hal Willner; voice actors from The Simpsons and the Firesign Theatre; and key figures from the worlds of radio, animation, and academia. The book also includes previously unseen photographs and forewords by Alice Cooper and Chris Hillman.
£15.26
Outline Press Ltd What's Exactly The Matter With Me?: Memoirs of a life in music
I have been seeking P.F. Sloan, but no one knows where he's gone. -from the song 'P.F. Sloan' by Jimmy Webb. Absolutely none of 'em could beat ol' P.F. -Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone magazine. What's Exactly The Matter With Me? is a first-person account of an extraordinary life and pilgrimage through the most fascinating years of American and English musical culture. This is a story of dreams, success, destruction, and miraculous resurrection; the incredible, heartbreaking, and ultimately inspiring story of one of the greatest songwriters in American music-and also one of the most elusive and mysterious. P.F. Sloan was one of the most prolific and influential geniuses to emerge from the golden age of the 60s, and a pioneer of folk-rock. Between 1965 and 1967, 150 of his songs were recorded by major acts, and 45 of those made the charts. No other songwriter has ever come close to achieving so great number of hits in such a short period of time. From his little studio at Dunhill Records, P.F. Sloan was a veritable hit-machine, writing for The Mamas and The Papas (that's Sloan's infectious guitar lick on 'California Dreamin"), Jan and Dean (the falsetto you hear on most of their hits is Sloan's), Barry McGuire (the brilliant and controversial 'Eve Of Destruction'), Johnny Rivers ('Secret Agent Man'), The Turtles, The Fifth Dimension, and many, many more. He wrote so many songs, in fact, that Dunhill sold him as seven different acts. Unsurprisingly, he wound up exhausted and broken, thus beginning a long journey into the wilderness-a journey of UFOs and psychiatric hospitals, healing and survival, and, ultimately, redemption.
£13.46
Outline Press Ltd Touched by Grace
Features an account of the time the author has spent with his friend and collaborator, Jeff Buckley, during Jeff's early days in New York City. This title describes their magical performance together at the Greetings from Tim Buckley concert at the Church of St Ann in 1991 - the event that first introduced Jeff to the world at large.
£13.46
Outline Press Ltd Return Of The King: Elvis Presley's Great Comeback
On January 1, 1967, a new contract between 'Colonel' Tom Parker and his sole client, Elvis Presley, gave Parker a 50 per cent cut of royalties and profits that Presely generated. It was an unashamed grab for a bigger piece of a pie that had actually been shrinking for some time. Parker's plan to re-establish Presley as a star after he left the army in 1960 had been successful at first, with the success of films like "G.I. Blues" and "Blue Hawaii" and their soundtracks. But as the decade progressed the films became formulaic, the music bland, and sales declined. By 1967 Presley's singles struggled to break the top 20, and he hadn't had a number one for six years. Yet by the end of 1968 he was artistically revitalized, re-emerging in a TV comeback special of December that year slimmed down for the now iconic black leather suit, playing country-soul influenced rock like he meant it and loved it. It was the pivotal moment of the second great period of Presley's career, which lasted through to the end of 1970, during which he recorded some of his most enduring records, including "Suspicious Minds" and "In The Ghetto". In "Return Of The King" author Gillian Gaar shows how Presley reclaimed his crown, making an extraordinary transition from fading MoR balladeer to engaged, vital artist.
£13.46