Tori Amos, Aerosmith, The Beatles and Ben Sidran’s bio of Tommy LiPuma: This week’s new music books really run the gamut from A to B. Read all about ’em:
Resistance: A Songwriter’s Story of Hope, Change, and Courage
By Tori Amos
THE PRESS RELEASE: “A timely and passionate call to action for engaging with our current political moment, from the Grammy-nominated and multiplatinum singer-songwriter and New York Times bestselling author Tori Amos. Since the release of her first, career-defining solo album Little Earthquakes, Tori Amos has been one of the music industry’s most enduring and ingenious artists. From her unnerving depiction of sexual assault in Me and a Gun to her post-September 11 album Scarlet’s Walk, to her latest album Native Invader, her work has never shied away from intermingling the personal with the political. Amos began playing piano as a teenager for the politically powerful at hotel bars in Washington, DC, during the formative years of the post-Goldwater and then Koch-led Libertarian and Reaganite movements. The story continues to her time as a hungry artist in Los Angeles to the subsequent three decades of her formidable music career. Amos explains how she managed to create meaningful, politically resonant work against patriarchal power structures — and how her proud declarations of feminism and her fight for the marginalized always proved to be her guiding light. She teaches us to engage with intention in this tumultuous global climate and speaks directly to supporters of #MeToo and #TimesUp, as well as young people fighting for their rights and visibility in the world. Filled with compassionate guidance and actionable advice — and using some of the most powerful, political songs in Amos’s canon — this book is for anyone determined to steer the world back in the right direction.”
Aerosmith
By James Court
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Full colour coffee table hardcover book looking back at 50 years of Aerosmith. ‘A band like no other’ is a statement to describe Aerosmith and their longevity within the realms of music and touring. The band has achieved phenomenal success over the years and at no point toned down the raw passion for Rock and Roll that they exude with every performance. Their energy, passion and long lasting dedication to the foundations of Rock have kept them at the top of the music world for decades. They gain new fans with every tour while still maintaining the respect and adoration of all within the Rock world. They are a truly unique outfit that have captivated and entertained audiences all over the world since they first burst onto the music scene in the early 1970’s, growing in stature to become one of the most respected Rock band’s of all time. But like all great Rock bands its the core influences that drive them. It’s the early individual experiences coming together to form one force, one unit and one band. This early framework would form the foundations to elevate them forward and to remain so through some of the most indulgent and excessive times any band could encounter. These excesses have destroyed countless bands in the past but not Aerosmith, almost everything has been thrown at them, and still despite this they achieved incredible success. This would ultimately give them that cutting edge to ascend in the Rock world over taking there piers to dominate in the years ahead. But to understand just how great a Rock band Aerosmith truly are, and to see them like no other band, you have to start at the beginning…”
The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma
By Ben Sidran
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Tommy LiPuma was one of America’s most successful record producers whose work with seminal artists like Miles Davis, Diana Krall, Barbra Streisand, Rickie Lee Jones, George Benson and Willie Nelson went on to sell over 75 million records. It is also a picaresque journey that opens with the murder of a man on a dirt path in Sicily and concludes with five trips up the Grammy red carpet. The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma is real-life Horatio Alger adventure storied with bootleggers, gangsters, artists, hipsters, set in a revolutionary time in music history that changed popular culture around the world. Finally, it’s a deeply personal account of how music saved one man’s life, and how he went on to affect the lives of millions of others.”
LIFE | The Beatles Paperback
By The Editors of LIFE
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The songs are iconic, their faces unmistakable. When John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, all cheeky young lads from Liverpool, exploded on the international stage in the 1960s, with their mop tops and infectious love songs it was a cultural earthquake. Beatlemania swept the globe. The Fab Four’s music and lyrics would continue to grow in maturity and sophistication, including the albums Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Abbey Road broke new ground. After breaking up in 1970, The Beatles found both solo success and tragedy, with Lennon’s 1980 assassination and Harrison’s untimely death from cancer. But their music is eternal. This special edition tells their story and includes: The early days, John and Paul: friends and rivals, the women they loved, and going solo.”
