Someday, there will be a week that doesn’t include yet another new book about The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley. Next week, however, is not that week. On the plus side, nobody bothered to write about Bob Dylan for a change.
The Stone Age: Sixty Years of The Rolling Stones
By Lesley-Ann Jones
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “As Lesley-Ann Jones writes, The Rolling Stones are “still roaming the globe like rusty tanks without a war to go to. Jumping, jacking, flashing, posturing, these septuagenarian caricatures with faces that might have been microwaved but coming on like eternal 30-year-olds.” On July 12, 1962, The Rollin’ Stones performed their first-ever gig at London’s Marquee jazz club. Down the line, a ‘g’ was added, a spark was lit and their destiny was sealed. No going back. These five white British kids set out to play the music of black America. They honed a style that bled bluesy undertones into dark insinuations of women, sex, and drugs. Denounced as ‘corruptors of youth’ and ‘messengers of the devil,’ they created some of the most thrilling music ever recorded. Now their sound and attitude seem louder and more influential than ever. Elvis is dead and The Beatles are over, but Jagger and Richards bestride the world. The Stones may be gathering moss, but on they roll. Yet how did the ultimate anti-establishment misfits become the global brand we know today? Who were the casualties, and what are the forgotten legacies? Can the artist ever be truly divisible from the art? Jones’s new history tracks this contradictory, disturbing, granitic and unstoppable band through hope, glory and exile, into the juggernaut years and beyond into rock’s ongoing reckoning … where the Stones seem more at odds than ever with the values and heritage against which they have always rebelled. Good, bad, and often ugly, here are The Rolling Stones as never seen before.”
Top of the Mountain: The Beatles at Shea Stadium 1965
By Laurie Jacobson
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “On a sweltering Sunday evening in August 1965, 56,000 people traveled by plane, car, bus, ferry, and subway train to pack New York’s Shea Stadium. They were there not for a ballgame, but a rock and roll concert — the audacious dream of promoter Sid Bernstein. No band had ever played a baseball stadium, and few believed it could be pulled off, but on that glorious night, The Beatles sold out Shea Stadium, shattering all existing box office and attendance records in show business history. Against a backdrop of mounting political and cultural tumult, Top of the Mountain delivers the details and excitement of Shea and the spirited, curious new generation who would soon claim the decade for its own. Packed with hundreds of color photographs, it gives a one-of-a-kind account of this monumental event, gathering first-person interviews and quotes from dozens of those who experienced a piece of pop-culture history — celebrities, writers, agents, producers, photographers, opening act performers, security guards, radio personalities, cameramen, and fans of all kinds. Among them were young Caryn Johnson (Whoopi Goldberg), Mary Louise Streep (Meryl Streep) and Steven Lento (Steven Van Zandt); future Beatle wives Linda Eastman and Barbara Bach; established stars like Bobby Vinton and Ed Sullivan; and artists such as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Felix Cavaliere and The Rascals, Marvin Gaye, and more. Together, they paint an unforgettable picture of a night like no other.”
Elvis Presley: Love Me Tender
By Michael O’Neill & Carolyn McHugh
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Packed with rare photographs and stunning on-the-page facsimile memorabilia, this book provides an insight into the unique journey of one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century — Elvis Presley. Follow the incredible story of the man they call the “King of Rock and Roll.” Presley’s life and career are shown, from his carefree beginnings at Sun Records in the 1950s to global superstardom. In addition, the book features rare interviews with the legendary Elvis guitarist Scotty Moore, drummer DJ Fontana, and loyal backing singers The Jordanaires. To bring you even closer to the King, the book features a wide variety of superb on-the-page rare memorabilia and documents from the archives, including tour posters, personal letters, publicity material, and fascinating items and tickets from his greatest gigs and best albums.”
Don’t Stop: 55 Years of Fleetwood Mac
By Peter Chrisp
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Fleetwood Mac — one of the greatest names in rock of all time — began as a little blues band in London, England, in 1967, named by its unassuming band leader and lead guitarist Peter Green in appreciation of his tight rhythm section: Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass. Just 10 years later, by 1977, with the help of John’s wife Christine McVie, and two virtually unknown American musicians called Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, they had become the world’s biggest band who released the world’s best-selling album: Rumours. Their enthusiasm, determination and dedication is nothing short of remarkable. When you also consider the highs and lows, the successes and failures, the personal turmoil, tragedy and heartbreak through which this band has journeyed over the last 55 years, the Fleetwood Mac story is transformed into pure drama. In this independent publication, music writer and journalist Pete Chrisp reveals the true story of how, over the last 55 years, despite all of those confrontations, pinnacles and all-time lows, Fleetwood Mac continue to dig in their heels and refuse to stop.”
The Music Never Stops: What Putting on 10,000 Shows Has Taught Me About Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Magic
By Peter Shapiro & Dean Budnick
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Peter Shapiro is one of the most influential concert promoters of his generation. He owned the legendary Wetlands in Tribeca and has gone on to much bigger things, including Brooklyn Bowl (NYC, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Nashville), the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, producing U2 3D, and promoting The Grateful Dead’s 50th-anniversary tour Fare Thee Well. In The Music Never Stops, Shapiro shares the inside story of how he became a powerhouse in the music industry — an island in an increasingly consolidated landscape of venues, ticketing, and touring — through the lens of 50 iconic concerts. Along the way, readers gain insight into what it was like to work with some of the most celebrated bands in modern music, including not just The Grateful Dead and U2, but also Bob Dylan, Phish, Dave Matthews Band, Al Green, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Jason Isbell, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The Roots, Robert Plant, Leonard Cohen and many more. Featuring never-before-published back-stage anecdotes, insights, and photographs of the biggest bands in the business and the concerts that later became legendary, The Music Never Stops is a perfect guide for anyone who wants to understand the modern live music industry.”
Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld
By T. J. English
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dangerous Rhythms tells the symbiotic story of jazz and the underworld: A relationship fostered in some of 20th century America’s most notorious vice districts. For the first half of the century mobsters and musicians enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership. By offering artists like Louis Armstrong, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald a stage, the mob, including major players Al Capone, Meyer Lansky and Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, provided opportunities that would not otherwise have existed. Even so, at the heart of this relationship was a festering racial inequity. The musicians were mostly African American, and the clubs and means of production were owned by white men. It was a glorified plantation system that, over time, would find itself out of tune with an emerging Civil Rights movement. Some artists, including Armstrong, believed they were safer and more likely to be paid fairly if they worked in “protected” joints. Others believed that playing in venues outside mob rule would make it easier to have control over their careers. Through T.J. English’s voluminous research and keen narrative skills, Dangerous Rhythms reveals this deeply fascinating slice of American history in all its sordid glory.”
From Boom Bap to Trap: Hip-Hop’s Greatest Producers
By Riley Wallace
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “There has never been a hip-hop book like this. Written and illustrated by noted hip-hop journalist Riley Wallace, From Boom Bap to Trap: Hip-Hop’s Greatest Producers is a groundbreaking compendium that not only digs deep into the stories and catalogs of icons like Pete Rock, RZA, Dr. Dre and DJ Premier, but also features highly influential beatmakers who have been slept on ― sometimes criminally (Easy Mo Bee, Daz, Paul C and Johnny J, for example.)”
Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys into an Electronic Music and Club Culture Capital
By Paul Hanford
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Coming To Berlin reflects, through the lives and music of migrants, settlers and newcomers, how a constantly in flux city with a tumultuous history has evolved into the de facto cultural capital of Europe. And how at the heart of this, electronic music and club culture play a unique role. A plea for multiculturalism and a love letter to the borderless potential of music, the book breaks the tradition of Berlin’s perception as techno ground zero and shows the true diversity and richness that make up this city. Told through Paul Hanford’s novelistic narration, Coming To Berlin mixes imagination and interview, psychogeography and narrative, humor and horror. Each chapter follows encounters with people who have made the city their own. We catch glimpses of the 1980s punk and art movement, and how it led towards the birth of modern club culture in the city. We follow the Turkish hip-hop scene on the streets. And under threat from gentrification, into the post-pandemic world where clubs, a 30-year long pulse stopped, we hang out with artists reshaping electronic music into new genres and even new genders.”
Punk Rock
By Mindy Clegg
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Punk Rock examines the history of punk rock in its totality. Punk became a way of thinking about the role of culture and community in modern life. Punks forged real alternatives to producing popular music and built community around their music. This punk counterpublic, forged in the late Cold War period, spanned the globe and has provided a viable cultural alternative to alienated young people over the years. This book starts with the rise of modernity and places the emergence of punk as a musical subculture into that longer historical narrative. It also reveals how punk itself became a contested terrain, as participants sought to imbue the production of music with greater meaning. It highlights all styles of punk and its wide variety of creators around the world, including from the LGBTQ+, feminist, and alternative communities. Punk was and remains a transnational phenomenon that influences music production and shapes our understanding of culture’s role in community building.”
Sound Experiments: The Music of the AACM
By Paul Steinbeck
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Founded on Chicago’s South Side in 1965 and still thriving today, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians is the most influential collective organization in jazz and experimental music. In Sound Experiments, Paul Steinbeck offers an in-depth historical and musical investigation of the collective, analyzing individual performances and formal innovations in captivating detail. He pays particular attention to compositions by Muhal Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell, the association’s leading figures, as well as Anthony Braxton, George Lewis (and his famous computer-music experiment Voyager), Wadada Leo Smith and Henry Threadgill, along with younger AACM members such as Mike Reed, Tomeka Reid and Nicole Mitchell. Sound Experiments represents a sonic history, spanning six decades, that affords insight not only into the individuals who created this music but also into an astonishing collective aesthetic. This aesthetic was uniquely grounded in nurturing communal ties across generations, as well as a commitment to experimentalism. The AACM’s compositions broke down the barriers between jazz and experimental music and made essential contributions to African American expression more broadly. Steinbeck shows how the creators of these extraordinary pieces pioneered novel approaches to instrumentation, notation, conducting, musical form, and technology, creating new soundscapes in contemporary music.”
Heavy Metal Armour: A Visual Study of Battle Jackets
By Thomas Cardwell
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Since the 1970s, customized denim ‘battle jackets’ have been worn by heavy metal fans to signify their devotion to the music and subcultures of metal. Embellished with patches, badges, and studs, these jackets are works of art that communicate the values of metal to the world at large. This book features a series of detailed paintings that visually document examples of jackets alongside photographic portraits of the fans that wear them. Reaching across a range of fields from art theory to ethnography and subcultural studies and informed by a series of interviews with metal fans, this book considers the significance of battle jackets in metal scenes and traces a lineage of customized clothing starting in the Middle Ages.”
