The Monkees have it made, Amy Winehouse shares a few words, The Ramones go back to school, Pepper Adams blazes a trail, and more last-minute additions to your summer reading list:
The Monkees: Made in Hollywood
By Tom Kemper
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Monkees represent a vital problem for rock and pop: Is it the music that matters or the personality and image of the performers? This book explores the system behind the Monkees, the controversial made-for-TV band that scored some of the biggest hits in the 1960s. The Monkees represent the cumulative result of a complex coordination of talented individuals, from songwriters to studio musicians to producers — in short, the 1960s Hollywood music industry. At the time, the new rock criticism bewailed the “fake” band while fans and audiences pushed The Monkees to the top of the charts. Through The Monkees’ unlikely success, this book illustrates the commercial genius of the Hollywood system and its legacy in popular music today.”
Amy Winehouse: In Her Words
By Amy Winehouse
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Amy Winehouse: In Her Words shines a spotlight on her incredible writing talent, her wit, her charm and lust for life. Bringing together Amy’s own never-before-seen journals, handwritten lyrics and family photographs together for the first time, this intimate tribute traces her creative evolution from growing up in North London to global superstardom, and provides a rare insight into the girl who became a legend.”
I Want You Around: The Ramones and the Making of Rock ’n’ Roll High School
By Stephen B. Armstrong
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The first of its sort, The Ramones and the Making of Rock ‘n’ Roll High School provides readers with a detailed production history of this beloved film that draws upon extensive interviews the author has conducted with many of the people who contributed to its creation, including director Allan Arkush, uncredited co-director Joe Dante, screenwriter Joseph McBride, producer Michael Finnell, The Ramones’ tour manager Monte A. Melnick, and Roger Corman.”
Pepper Adams: Saxophone Trailblazer
By Gary Carner
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Pepper Adams: Saxophone Trailblazer is more than a definitive biography of Park “Pepper” Adams (1930-1986). The culmination of 37 years of research, it’s a fascinating account of Adams’ life and times, thanks to colorful vignettes drawn from the author’s 250 unpublished conversations with Adams and other esteemed musicians. These candid observations about Adams and his colleagues reveal previously confidential aspects of Adams’s complex personality, his many outstanding achievements, and little-known facts about musicians with whom he worked, such as Thad Jones, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Elvin Jones, Charles Mingus, Stan Kenton, Duke Ellington, Bobby Timmons, Wardell Gray, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and others. Musicians, jazz fans and collectors, and readers who enjoy a hero’s journey will be intrigued by Adams’s extraordinary intelligence, the extent of his influence, the reverence he commanded, and his struggle to be rewarded as the unique stylist that he was throughout his career. Moreover, readers will be enlivened by the author’s unique approach to biography, in which storytelling moves thematically, sometimes in reverse chronological order.”
The Beatles: Fab But True – Remarkable Stories Revealed
By Doug Wolfberg
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Beatles: Fab But True examines 16 discrete stories about The Beatles that range from the merely unreal to the cosmically coincidental. Unlike the countless other Beatles books that have been written over the decades, The Beatles: Fab But True does a deep dive on some of the lesser-known — but more remarkable — aspects of the lives and career of the Fab Four and their numerous and colorful associates and colleagues. You’ll learn; how a lucky bet on a longshot racehorse helped birth The Beatles; how a drum salesman and a partially disabled signwriter created the enduring Beatles logo; how Paul McCartney conjured the fictional name Eleanor Rigby in 1966, only later to find that the real one lay buried beneath his feet; how The Beatles battled racial segregation in the South and played the first integrated concert at the Gator Bowl; why The Beatles were labeled as “hustlers” by The Rolling Stones; how an innocent musical homage to Chuck Berry got John Lennon entangled with a music industry mobster, and more.”
This Is Your Song Too: Phish & Contemporary Jewish Identity
By Oren Kroll-Zeldin & Ariella Werden-Greenfield
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Phish have a diehard fan base and a dedicated community of enthusiasts — called Phishheads — who follow the band around the country, some fans attending every show. What may be surprising is that a significant percentage of Phishheads are Jewish. Two members of the band — bassist Mike Gordon and drummer Jonathan Fishman — were raised in Jewish households, and Phish have been known to play Hebrew songs in concert. At live shows, many attendees, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the band’s name written in Hebrew letters, express feeling something special — even distinctly Jewish — during their performances. As this book shows, Phish are one avenue through which many Jews find cultural and spiritual fulfillment outside the confines of traditional and institutional Jewish life. In effect, Phish fandom and the live experience act as a microcosm through which we see American Jewish religious and cultural life manifest in unique and unexpected spaces. Featuring an interview with Gordon and a collection of fascinating photographs, This Is Your Song Too is an in-depth look at Jewishness in the Phish universe that also provides a deeper understanding of how spirituality, ritual, and identity function in the world of rock ’n’ roll.”
Broken Social Scene Presents: You Forgot It in People
By Z2 Comics, Lonnie Nadler & Justin Peroff
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Z2 Comics celebrates the most crucial indie album of the new millennium with Broken Social Scene Presents: You Forgot It in People, the graphic novel. Paralleling the confluence that led a community of Toronto musicians to craft a winding audio epiphany, this project unites one writer and and 13 artists to create a series of intertwining vignettes inspired by the 2003 record, You Forgot It in People, on its 20th anniversary. Overseen by Broken Social Scene’s Justin Peroff and Brendan Canning, writer Lonnie Nadler (X-Men, Black Stars Above) joins Eric Orchard, Ray Fawkes, Mike Feehan, Diana Nguyen and more artists for a fully Canadian sequential art jam session. Within these pages, a collection of seemingly disparate strangers’ lives weave in and out each others’ orbits, touched equally by the mundane and unexplainable. The meta of music and people and ideas harmonizing together shifts to a new medium for this touching and ambitious graphic novel.”
