Country icons and Britpop idols, album covers and jazz scenes, the Velvet Underground and a trio of track-by-track tomes: If you need some words to go with your music this week, you’ve got a few interesting options. Read all about it:
Gentle on My Mind: In Sickness and in Health with Glen Campbell
By Kim Campbell
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The page-turning, never-before-told story of Kim Campbell’s roller-coaster 34-year marriage to music legend Glen Campbell, including how Kim helped Glen finally conquer his addictions only to face their greatest challenge when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Kim Campbell was a fresh-faced 22-year-old dancer at Radio City Music Hall when a friend introduced her to Glen Campbell, the chart-topping, Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated entertainer. The two performers from small Southern towns quickly fell in love, a bond that produced a 34-year marriage and three children. In Gentle on My Mind, Kim tells the complete, no-holds-barred story of their relationship, recounting the highest of highs — award shows, acclaimed performances, the birth of their children, encounters with Mick Fleetwood, Waylon Jennings, Alan Jackson, Alice Cooper, Jane Seymour and others — and the lowest of lows, including battles with alcohol and drug addiction and, finally, Glen’s diagnosis, decline, and death from Alzheimer’s. With extraordinary candor, astonishing bravery, and a lively sense of humor, Kim reveals the whole truth of life with an entertainment giant and of caring for and loving him amid the extraordinary challenge of Alzheimer’s disease. This is a remarkable account of enduring love, quiet strength, and never-faltering faith.”
My Confessional
By Janet Devlin
THE PRESS RELEASE: “In 2011, Janet Devlin wowed X-Factor judges and charmed the nation with her unique vocals and performances. She consistently received the highest consecutive public vote out of all the contestants and gained a place on the live arena tour. But rather than this steering her towards greater musical success, Janet faced numerous challenges which almost cost her her career… “Believe it or not, you’re holding my life in your hands. Not the picture-perfect version we’ve all become accustomed to, thanks to social media. This is my life as I’ve lived it – no filters. Each chapter in this book unlocks the truth behind a song from my album Confessional. They span 10 years of intense self-discovery married with a lot of self-sabotage. My broken brain has taken me to dark places both in my own head and in the real world. But, with destruction comes creation. I genuinely hope that My Confessional does not personally resonate with you and that you’ve not been to the same Hell that I’ve come to call Home, but if you have let my life be proof that it all works out in the end. I see now that the world is truly what we make of it and that everything happens for a reason. Or, at least, that’s what I tell myself. Here lyeth my confessional of the sins I want so much to be free from and to finally forgive myself for what I’ve done. I confess.”
Swing Street: The Rise and Fall of New York’s 52nd Street Jazz Scene: An Illustrated Tribute, 1930-1950
By Leo T. Sullivan
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Swing Street was the name given to 52nd Street in midtown Manhattan in New York City, where there were more jazz clubs and bars per square block than anywhere else in the world, all showcasing the finest jazz musicians of the era. This illustrated book offers a history of Swing Street and presents the greats who played the clubs there in capsule biographies, vintage photos, and rare memorabilia. On Swing Street you were guaranteed to experience an evening of unforgettable jazz on a nightly basis, seven nights a week, until the wee hours of the morning; stopping into Club Downbeat to catch a set of Billie Holiday, or dropping by the Three Deuces to hear Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie playing be-bop. On any given night you could hear other iconic jazz artists such as Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Count Basie, Art Tatum, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and many others.”
Behind the Album: Design for Vinyl & CD
By Sandu Publications
THE PRESS RELEASE: “While the golden age of records may never be recreated, the importance of album art has never diminished. Capturing a musician’s talent visually is an essential part of their branding success. Behind the Album features 18 designers and their process for creating covers, posters, lyric books, and all the packaging essentials for top musicians. Each designer discusses their sources of inspiration, their interaction with the musicians and producers, and how their own love of music influenced their art.”
Dead Straight Guide to Velvet Underground and Lou Reed
By Peter Hogan
THE PRESS RELEASE: “The Velvet Underground were one of the most influential bands in rock sowing the seeds for punk, grunge and thousands of countercultural four-chord wonders. Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Moe Tucker mixed arty experimentation with primal rock ’n’ roll. Joined by the ice queen singer Nico and infamously managed by Andy Warhol, the Velvets brought the hip decadence of ’60s New York to the world.”
Roy Wood | The Move, ELO & Wizzard: Every Album, Every Song
By James R. Turner
THE PRESS RELEASE: “From the heart of the country, and the vibrant musical scene that rotated around Britain’s second largest city Birmingham, came in the middle of the 1960s a plethora of innovative and creative rock groups. Roy Wood, who together with several well-known Birmingham faces left their respective bands to form The Move (so-named after their musical chairs) with Roy’s distinctive song writing style, and the bands unique harmonies. They became regulars on famed British TV show Top of the Pops, having the first ever single to be played on BBC Radio 1. Meanwhile, in Birmingham, Roy’s replacement in the Nightriders had established a group of his own, taking his musical vision into psychedelic territories. He was Jeff Lynne and his band were the Idle Race.These two brilliant songwriters were also close friends, and Wood persuaded Lynne to join The Move and disband it in favour of a new project, Electric Light Orchestra, before a parting of the ways led to Wood forming Wizzard. This book looks at the music recorded by Roy Wood, The Move, early ELO, The Idle Race, and Wizzard, taking in genres including Rhythm and Blues, Psych Pop, Progressive Rock and Glam, as Roy Wood set the musical blueprint for the early ’70s.”
10CC and Godley & Creme: Every Album, Every Song
By Peter Kearns
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Hailing from Manchester, England, sophisticated pop purveyors 10cc hit the ground running with their 1972 debut single, Donna. Their pedigree reached back to bassist Graham Gouldman’s ’60s songwriting successes including The Yardbirds’ For Your Love and The Hollies’ Bus Stop. Guitarist and recording engineer Eric Stewart was already a bona fide pop star having sung the global 1966 hit, Groovy Kind of Love, for his group The Mindbenders. When the pair teamed up with drummer/singer Kevin Godley and multi-instrumentalist/singer Lol Creme, the combination wrought a legacy of four albums. They included the ambitious The Original Soundtrack and several hit singles, including the groundbreaking I’m Not In Love, that were rich in eclectic boundary-pushing pop that earned 10cc comparisons to The Beatles while still occupying a unique position in music. Departing in 1976, Godley & Creme moved on to create genre-defying experimental albums, while Gouldman and Stewart continued their run of hit singles and albums with a new 10cc lineup. Their final album was 1995’s Mirror Mirror, a highly respectable full stop on the influential band’s colourful and innovative discography. This book examines every released recording by both Godley & Creme and 10cc, including the band’s debut album under their early name, Hotlegs.
Iron Maiden: Every Album, Every Song
By Steve Pilkington
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Mention the words ‘heavy metal’ with regards to the past four decades, and chances are one of the first names you’ll get back is Iron Maiden. From their early days as front-runners of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal in 1980, through to their epic and progressive works of more recent times, via 30 years fronted by Bruce Dickinson broken up by a short period with Blaze Bayley, the band have been all things to all men in the metal world. Such is their profile that even the non-metal fan would probably cite them as a key example of the genre. This book lifts the lid on every single track recorded by the band, album by album, from the punk-ish debut album with original vocalist Paul DiAnno through to the sprawling double disc epic Book Of Souls. By way of facts, anecdotes, analysis and a dollop of opinion, author Steve Pilkington provides both an informative companion for the die-hard fan and perfect road-map for the more casual listener to follow. From Prowler to Empire Of The Clouds, through each and every line up change, this is every Number of The Beast — the ultimate recording history of Iron Maiden.
