Indie-rock survivors, trans-punk icons, be-bop pioneers, hair-metal heroes and plenty more: It’s a surprisingly busy week for new books. Here are all the upcoming titles (along with a couple that actually came out the week before but didn’t show up on my searches until now):
Hollywood Park: A Memoir
By Mikel Jollett
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Hollywood Park is a remarkable memoir of a tumultuous life. Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country’s most infamous cults, and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce love and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice that signals the emergence of a uniquely gifted writer. His story opens in an experimental commune in California, which later morphed into the Church of Synanon, one of the country’s most infamous and dangerous cults. Per the leader’s mandate, all children, including Jollett and his older brother, were separated from their parents when they were six months old, and handed over to the cult’s “School.” After spending years in what was essentially an orphanage, Mikel escaped the cult one morning with his mother and older brother. But in many ways, life outside Synanon was even harder and more erratic. In his raw, poetic and powerful voice, Jollett portrays a childhood filled with abject poverty, trauma, emotional abuse, delinquency and the lure of drugs and alcohol. Raised by a clinically depressed mother, tormented by his angry older brother, subjected to the unpredictability of troubled step-fathers and longing for contact with his father, a former heroin addict and ex-con, Jollett slowly, often painfully, builds a life that leads him to Stanford University and, eventually, to finding his voice as a writer and musician. Hollywood Park is told at first through the limited perspective of a child, and then broadens as Jollett begins to understand the world around him. Although Mikel Jollett’s story is filled with heartbreak, it is ultimately an unforgettable portrayal of love at its fiercest and most loyal.”
Rock ‘N’ Roll Resurrection!!! Queenage Baby & Beyond: The Authorised Biography of Jayne County
By John Wombat
THE PRESS RELEASE: “This book presents the life and career of rock ‘n’ roll and punk music’s first ever trans artist, the pioneering Jayne County. Growing up in a small and rigidly conservative town in Georgia, Wayne Rogers found herself welcomed into the drag scene of Atlanta before heading for New York after the trauma of being shot at by a local redneck. The underground creative scene of New York accepted Wayne, and she soon appeared onstage as part of Jackie Curtis’ play Femme Fatale: The Three Faces Of Gloria as Wayne County. Impressing Andy Warhol with her own play World – Birth Of A Nation: The Castration Of Man, the next stop for Wayne was a part in Warhol’s stage play Pork, which enjoyed a successful run of performances in London. Back in New York, Wayne would find herself fronting her own band, Queen Elizabeth. Such was the impact of Wayne’s songs and image, she soon found herself courted by Tony Defries and his MainMan management company. However, rather than fulfilling their promises, MainMan left Wayne penniless and her career in tatters. Ever resurgent, Wayne returned with her band The Backstreet Boys and memorably rocked the punk world with The Electric Chairs. By the time the band broke up Wayne had become Jayne. Over the course of the 1980’s and 1990’s Jayne focused on her solo career, while expanding her acting CV. With the 2000’s underway, Jayne’s energies became concentrated on her artwork, attracting a growing fan base including Debbie Harry, John Waters and Dave Davies. With a six-decade career encompassing acting, music, writing and art, Jayne’s life has been a spectacularly colourful story.”
Dokken: Into The Fire And Other Embers Of 80s Metal History
By James Curl
THE PRESS RELEASE: “In 1989, Dokken was at the peak of their musical powers and had shared the stage with bands like AC/DC, Metallica, Aerosmith, Judas Priest, Van Halen, and the Scorpions. But just as they were about to grab hold of rock ‘n’ roll super stardom and become full-fledged arena headliners, it all came crumbling down. Drugs, greed, and egos clashed causing the demise of one of the greatest bands to come out of the ’80s. Though often maligned as an emblematic L.A. “hair metal” band, Dokken proved that they were far more than that. With a series of multi-platinum albums like: Tooth and Nail, Under Lock and Key and Back for the Attack, Dokken helped define the “Decade of Decadence,” while writing the sound track to Generation X. From personal interviews with Don Dokken and Jeff Pilson, as well as notable people from that era, this book recounts the incredible story of Don Dokken, George Lynch, Jeff Pilson, and Mick Brown. It tells of their humble beginnings before they formed Dokken, their early bands, and their struggles on L.A.’s famous Sunset Strip. This book also goes into detail about how Dokken came together, covers their rise and fall, and their reconciliation nearly 20 years later.”
Charlie Parker, Composer
By Henry Martin
THE PRESS RELEASE: “As a founding father of bebop and brilliant jazz improviser, Charlie Parker has secured a reputation and legacy second to none since his birth nearly 100 years ago. Because of his excellence as an improviser, however, his compositions — while admired and still played – have taken a back seat. In this exciting and timely new volume, author Henry Martin rebalances our understanding of Parker by spotlighting his significance as a jazz composer. Beginning with a review of Parker’s life and musical training, Charlie Parker, Composer critically analyzes Parker’s compositions, situating them within both his individual musicianship and early bebop style. Proposing that Parker composed up to 84 pieces, Martin examines their development and
aesthetic qualities, their similarities and dissimilarities within a range of seven types of jazz composition. Also discussed are eight tunes credited to Parker but never performed by him, along with an evaluation of where — if at all — they fit in his oeuvre. Providing the first assessment of a major jazz composer’s output in its entirety, Charlie Parker, Composer offers a thorough reexamination, through music-theoretical, historical, and philosophical lenses, of one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time.”
Cal Tjader: The Life & Recordings of the Man Who Revolutionized Latin Jazz
By S. Duncan Reid
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Within one of the most complex musical categories yet to surface, Cal Tjader quietly pioneered the genre as a jazz vibraphonist, composer, arranger and bandleader from the 1950s through the 1980s. Reid tells the life story of a humble musician, written in a familiar, conversational tone that reveals Tjader’s complex charisma. Tjader left behind a legacy and a labyrinth of influence, attested by his large audience and innovation that would change the course of jazz. Expanded and revised, this intimate biography now includes additional interviews and anecdotes from Tjader’s family, bandmates, and community, print research, and rare photographs, presenting a full history of an undervalued musician, as well as a detailed account of the progression of Latin Jazz.”
The Blues: A Visual History: 100 Years of Music That Changed the World
By Mike Evans
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Charting the history of the blues from its rural roots in the American South, and focusing on the key musicians and singers who brought it recognition worldwide, The Blues: A Visual History is a unique and fully illustrated account of the development of the blues. This deceptively simple, 12-bar musical form has become the common denominator that has driven the popular music of the last hundred years. As John Lee Hooker put it: “The music we play … that music is the roots. Rock music, everything else, is like a branch on the same tree. It all comes from the Blues.”
Tommy Bolin | In & Out of Deep Purple
By Laura Shenton
THE PRESS RELEASE: “It started off so well. As Jon Lord enthused in the October 1975 issue of Melody Maker: “Tommy can’t be so bad for us with so many good ideas. All I can say is when you hear the album (Come Taste The Band) you’ll change your mind. Whether you like the music or not, you’ll have to realise that Deep Purple now have an excitement in their playing that they haven’t had in a long time.” Despite calls of “We want Blackmore” when Deep Purple Mark IV played live, there was so much more to American guitarist Tommy Bolin than being Ritchie Blackmore’s replacement. As a result, the purpose of this long-overdue biography is to readdress the existing narrative of Tommy Bolin’s legacy. As well as discussing objectively Tommy’s time with Deep Purple, Laura Shenton offers an insight into his musical achievements in his own right outside of the band, which include two cult rock albums in Teaser and Private Eyes. He also had a stint in The James Gang and made numerous guest appearances, where his versatile and virtuosic skills as a guitarist were utilised, before his untimely death in 1976 at the shockingly young age of 25.”
Dream Theater | Every Album, Every Song
By Jordan Blum
THE PRESS RELEASE: “No other band has affected modern progressive metal as deeply or widely as American quintet Dream Theater. Formed at Berklee College of Music as Majesty in 1985 by guitarist John Petrucci, drummer Mike Portnoy, and bassist John Myung, the group has spent 30 years repeatedly pushing new boundaries and reinventing their identity. Although other acts — such as Queensrÿche and Fates Warning — paved the way for the prog-metal subgenre, Dream Theater were without doubt the first to meld influences from both metal and progressive rock into a groundbreaking blend of quirky instrumentation, extensively complex arrangements, and exceptional songwriting. Whether subtly or overtly, they’ve since left their mark on just about every progressive metal band that’s followed. In this book, Jordan Blum examines virtually all Dream Theater collections, and their behind-the-scenes circumstances, to explore how the group distinctively impacted the genre with each release. Whether classics of the 1990s like Images and Words and Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, benchmarks of the 2000s like Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and Octavarium, or even thrilling modern efforts like A Dramatic Turn of Events and Distance Over Time, every sequence of albums contributes something crucial to making Dream Theater’s legacy nothing short of astonishing.”
The Songs of Genesis: A Complete Guide to the Studio Recordings
By Steve Aldous
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Quintessentially British, Genesis spearheaded progressive rock in the 1970s, evolving into a chart-topping success through the end of the millennium. Influencing rock groups such as Radiohead, Phish, Rush, Marillion and Elbow, the experimental format of Genesis’ songs inspired new avenues for music to explore. From the 23-minute masterpiece Supper’s Ready, via the sublime beauty of Ripples and the bold experimentation of Mama, to hits such as Invisible Touch and I Can’t Dance, their material was inventive and unique. This book is the chronological history of the band’s music, with critical analysis and key details of each of the 204 songs Genesis recorded and released.”
Haynes Explains: Festivals Owners’ Workshop Manual
By Boris Starling
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Written by bestselling author Boris Starling, Haynes Explains Festivals is one of the new titles for 2020 in the Haynes Explains series. A light-hearted and entertaining take on the classic workshop manual, it contains everything you’d expect to see including exploded views, flow charts, fault diagnosis and the odd wiring diagram. It takes the reader through all areas of festival-going, giving all the hints and tips needed to make the entire experience run smoothly and mud-free.”
