I already have more than 50 music books languishing in a file on my computer, waiting for me to get around to reading them. And based on these new releases, I’m going to be adding another handful to the digital pile next week. On the plus side, at least I don’t have to buy new shelves to hold them. Check out the latest additions to your reading list:
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir
By Sly Stone & Ben Greenman
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Not many memoirs are generational events. But when Sly Stone, one of the few true musical geniuses of the last century, decides to finally tell hislife story, it can’t be called anything else. As the front man for the ’60s pop-rock-funk band Sly & The Family Stone, a songwriter who created some of the most memorable anthems of the 1960s and 1970s (Everyday People, Family Affair), and a performer who electrified audiences at Woodstock and elsewhere, Stone’s influence on modern music and culture is indisputable. But as much as people know the music, the man remains a mystery. After a rapid rise to superstardom, Sly spent decades in the grips of addiction. Now he is ready to relate the ups and downs and ins and outs of his amazing life in his memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin). The book moves from Sly’s early career as a radio DJ and record producer through the dizzying heights of the San Francisco music scene in the late 1960s and into the darker, denser life (and music) of 1970s and 1980s Los Angeles. Set on stages and in mansions, in the company of family and of other celebrities, it’s a story about flawed humanity and flawless artistry. Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) is a vivid, gripping, sometimes terrifying, ultimately affirming tour through Sly’s life and career. Like Sly, it’s honest and playful, sharp and blunt, emotional and analytical, always moving and never standing still.”
Great Falls, MT: Fast Times, Post-Punk Weirdos, And A Tale of Coming Home Again
By Reggie Watts
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Reggie Watts is weird. But you knew that. Anyone who’s seen his multifaceted, entirely improvised comedy and music shows knows that. Watts is also from the town of Great Falls, MT. These two facts are not unrelated. Watts grew up in Montana in the ’80s, half French, half American, half white, half Black, speaking a bunch of different languages and slipping between the orchestra geeks and the football jocks until he finally found a squad of fellow misfits with an affinity for trouble. It was a wide-open time and place that invited freedom and exploration — as well as car theft and the not infrequent use of recreational cough syrup. And it helped him become the uniquely strange creative voice he is today. In Great Falls, MT, Watts takes us through his story, hitting on the culture shock he experienced after moving from Europe to the heart of America, where he was called racial slurs by neighbors but wasn’t Black enough for his father’s extended family. Where he fought with his authoritarian dad, built a new family of antiestablishment, post-punk oddballs — and ultimately knew he had to leave. But after Watts’s career exploded in Seattle and New York, ultimately scoring him a nightly place next to James Corden on The Late Late Show, he found himself drawn back to his hometown after the deaths of his parents. This is his love letter to the town that made him. But like love itself, it’s messy and complicated and dirty and beautiful — and as weird and wonderful as Watts himself.”
Life’s A Gamble: My Life In Penetration & The Invisible Girls
By Pauline Murray
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Life’ s A Gamble is the autobiography of iconic singer-songwriter Pauline Murray. It recounts her journey from a small mining village in northeast England, through to gaining national recognition as the frontwoman of her band, Penetration, and how she became a key member of the punk movement. Emerging onto the punk scene at just 18 years old, inspired by an early encounter with The Sex Pistols, Pauline details how she played alongside the leading bands of the era, navigated the demands of the music industry, conquered the post-punk landscape with The Invisible Girls, opened her own music studios and reformed Penetration in 2001. Highly illustrated with unseen photographs and drawing upon Pauline’ s teenage diaries, interviews and archive material from her personal collection, this book chronicles the life and work of an authentic creative artist and punk rock legend.”
When Does the Mind-Bending Start? The Life And Times Of World Of Twist
By Gordon King
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “World Of Twist: The greatest lost band of all time. While fame, glory and untold riches seemed like an inevitability for World Of Twist at the turn of the ’90s, the universe was simply not ready for a group of retro futurists, psychedelic adventurers and cosmic tunesmiths. Too late for Madchester, too early for Britpop and too much fun to pigeonhole, the band went on to face a demoralising string of near-misses and ‘what could have been’s, ultimately falling apart in a medley of incompatible drugs, musical contretemps, sartorial differences and all-round shoulder-shrugging apathy. But they burned bright and left an indelible mark on everyone who looked deep into their light… Now, in When Does the Mind-Bending Start?, co-founder, guitarist and principal songwriter Gordon King tells the incredible inside story of his time with World Of Twist, revealing the jealousy, anguish and personal demons experienced by the clashing personalities of King and the band’s late singer, Tony Ogden. This is a memoir of tragedy and triumph, comedy and drama, demise and recovery.”
Behind The Hits: Drumma Boy
By Christopher Gholson
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Behind The Hits is an intimate look into the creative mind and behind the music of Grammy-winning producer Christopher James Gholson, professionally known as Drumma Boy. This journey takes you through Drumma Boy’s biggest songs throughout his career and the process behind each song. Best known for producing chart-topping hits like I Put On by Jeezy, Look At My Dab by Migos, Shawty from Plies featuring T-Pain and Waka Flocka Flame’s club banger No Hands featuring Roscoe Dash and Wale, along with others hits including his first platinum R&B record, No Love from August Alsina featuring Nicki Minaj. Drumma continues to produce chart topping records, working with some of the music industry’s hottest acts like Usher, 2Chainz, T.I., Kanye West, Keyshia Cole, Lil Wayne, Drake, Chris Brown and Wiz Khalifa, amongst many others. Drumma Boy has inspired producers, songwriters, and musicians around the globe for nearly two decades. His knowledge and shared stories give us insight into the music business and hidden gems on the best ways to succeed in such a competitive industry.”
Queen Uncovered: Unseen Photographs, Rarities And Insights From Life With A Rock ‘n’ Roll Band
By Peter Hince
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Peter Hince spent 13 years as head roadie for Queen. His collection of photographs and ephemera from the band’s personal and public moments will finally see the light of day for the first time. It’s a unique photographic record of one of the most celebrated rock bands of all time. From concerts in Munich to Japan, Hince follows Queen from studio to street to stage. Facsimiles of handwritten notes from recording sessions, photos of the band in the studio, images of cassettes given to Hince to debut at clubs, Freddie Mercury with and without a moustache… the list goes on. Along with many candid moments are great photos of the various items collected from more than a decade of tours: backstage passes, matchbooks, set lists, and more.”
Behind The Seams: My Life In Rhinestones
By Dolly Parton, Holly George-Warren & Rebecca Seaver
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In Behind The Seams: My Life In Rhinestones, global superstar Dolly Parton shares, for the first time, the full story behind her lifelong passion for fashion, including how she developed her own, distinctly Dolly style, which has defied convention and endeared her to fans around the world. Featuring behind-the-scenes stories from Parton’s life and career, and the largest reveal of her private costume archive, this gorgeously photographed book spotlights her most unforgettable looks from the 1960s to now. The sky-high heels, famous wigs, bold makeup, eye-catching stage clothes — she shares them all. Along the way, Parton discusses memorable outfits from her past, from the clothes her mother would sew out of feed sacks (including her Coat Of Many Colors) and the bold dresses and hairdos that shook up Nashville, to the bunny suit on the cover of Playboy, evening wear at Studio 54, costumes from her most famous film and TV roles, and the daring styles that continue to entertain and inspire today. Filled with candor, humor, and lots and lots of rhinestones, Behind The Seams: My Life In Rhinestones is a shining tribute to one of the most beloved musicians in history, a treasured keepsake for anyone who loves Dolly, and an indispensable guide to forging your own path to beauty and confidence.”
Taylor Swift: And The Clothes She Wears
By Terry Newman
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Taylor Swift is the quintessential millennial. Free-thinking and creative, she navigates pop stardom with boundless charisma and a keen eye on her digital presence. She has become a truly global phenomenon but remains intimately connected with her fans. A born storyteller, her outfits mark the different phases of her whirlwind life every bit as clearly as her songs. From cowboy boots to cottage-core, Saint Laurent to sci-fi, onstage and on the street, her clothes are always carefully chosen to match the moment. These pages reveal those moments in gorgeous photographic detail with reliably astute analysis from the author of Harry Styles: And The Clothes He Wears. The latest in a popular celebrity fashion series, this book charts the style evolution of a hyper-chic superstar at the vanguard of 21st-century culture.”
The Songs He Was Singing Vol. 5 2010-1019
By John Blaney
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Paul McCartney: The Songs He Was Singing Vol. 5 traces the ups-and-downs of a remarkable career. Using facts, figures and anecdotes, it reveals the influences and stories behind every song written by McCartney from 2010 to 2019, who played on them, where and when. Taking an in-depth look at McCartney’s recording sessions, Paul McCartney: The Songs He Was Singing unravels the stimuli of contemporary events, the musical influences that have shaped his life and the studio experimentation that helped fashion his music. The Songs He Was Singing is a fascinating guide to McCartney and his music that maps his journey from ex-Beatle to 21st-century renaissance man. Fully illustrated with hundreds of examples of rare album artwork and record labels, this is the ultimate exploration of the ex-Beatle’s solo recording career.”
The Beatles: Please Please Me to With The Beatles
By Bruce Spizer
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Please Please Me and With The Beatles, along with their associated singles, introduced The Beatles first to England and then to several countries across the world, including Canada and the United States. Although often overlooked due to the excellence of the group’ s later albums, these early albums contain the exciting songs that fueled Beatlemania. These albums showcased the songwriting talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, as well as incredible cover versions of songs from the group’ s stage show. Had The Beatles not evolved and matured, the group would still be well respected for the quality of the recordings on these two albums. In addition to the usual chapters on the British, American and Canadian perspectives, the book contains chapters on the Decca audition and the EMI artists test session. There are also chapters on the recording sessions and album covers, as well as on the news, music and films of the era to place these albums in their proper context.”
This Is Christmas, Song By Song: The Stories Behind 100 Holiday Hits
By Annie Zaleski & Darling Clementine
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “’Tis the season! Break out the eggnog, hang the mistletoe, blast those Christmas songs, and settle down in your favorite armchair with this beautifully illustrated volume exploring well-known and lesser-known behind-the-scenes stories of the 100 most cherished holiday songs of all time and their everlasting impact. From artists such as Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald all the way up to Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande, this all-encompassing collection of holiday favorites is sure to warm your heart during the merriest season of the year. What song was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling single of all time? Which popular Christmas tune was reportedly written to commemorate Thanksgiving? What holiday song led to a special meet-and-greet between the song’s 10-year-old singer and a 700-pound hippopotamus? These questions and many more are answered in This is Christmas, Song By Song.”
High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape
By Marc Masters
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The cassette tape was revolutionary. Cheap, portable, and reusable, this small plastic rectangle changed music history. Make your own tapes! Trade them with friends! Tape over the ones you don’t like! The cassette tape upended pop culture, creating movements and uniting communities. This entertaining book charts the journey of the cassette from its invention in the early 1960s to its Walkman-led domination in the 1980s to decline at the birth of compact discs to resurgence among independent music makers. Scorned by the record industry for “killing music,” the cassette tape rippled through scenes corporations couldn’t control. For so many, tapes meant freedom-to create, to invent, to connect. Marc Masters introduces readers to the tape artists who thrive underground; concert tapers who trade bootlegs; mixtape makers who send messages with cassettes; tape hunters who rescue forgotten sounds; and today’s labels, which reject streaming and sell music on cassette. Their stories celebrate the cassette tape as dangerous, vital, and radical.”
Oh, Didn’t They Ramble: Rounder Records And The Transformation Of American Roots Music
By David Menconi
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “What is American roots music? Any definition must account for a kaleidoscope of genres from bluegrass to blues, western swing to jazz, soul and gospel to rock and reggae, Cajun to Celtic. It must encompass the work of artists as diverse as Alice Gerard and Alison Krauss, George Thorogood and Sun Ra, Bela Fleck and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, The Blake Babies and Billy Strings. What do all these artists and music styles have in common? The answer is Rounder Records, a record label born in the wake of the American folk revival and 1960s movement politics, formed around the eclectic tastes and audacious ideals of three recent college grads who lived, listened, and worked together. For more than 50 years, Rounder has been the world’s leading label for folk music of all kinds. David Menconi’s book is the label’s definitive history, drawing on previously untapped archives and extensive interviews with artists, staff, and founders Ken Irwin, Marian Leighton Levy and Bill Nowlin. Rounder‘s founders blended ingenuity and independence with serendipity and an unfailing belief in the small-d democratic power of music to connect and inspire people, forging creative partnerships that resulted in one of the most eclectic and creative catalogs in the history of recorded music. Placing Rounder in the company of similarly influential labels like Stax, Motown and Blue Note, this story is destined to delight anyone who cares about the place of music in American culture.”
The Hip Hop Family Tree Omnibus
By Ed Piskor
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ed Piskor’s Hip Hop Family Tree has been a global phenomenon and perennial bestseller since the first of four volumes was published in 2013, spawning multiple printings, 14 comic books, and the author’s wildly popular YouTube comics channel Cartoonist Kayfabe (with fellow cartoonist Jim Rugg). Yet the series has never been collected under one cover. Until now. This omnibus collection includes the original 360-page series with over 140 pages of extra material: a cover gallery of every HHFT book and comic book cover and back cover Piskor ever created, pages from the comic book series that have never been collected, new annotations of the entire series by Piskor, and much more. Hip Hop Family Tree is the entertaining, encyclopedic history of the formative years of the music genre that changed global culture. Piskor’s cartooning crackles and takes you from the parks and rec rooms of the South Bronx to the night clubs, recording studios, and radio stations where the scene started to boom, capturing the flavor of late 1970s New York City in panels bursting with obsessively authentic detail. With a vigorous and engaging Ken Burns-meets-Stan Lee approach, the battles and rivalries, the technical innovations, the triumphs and failures are all thoroughly researched and lovingly depicted.”
Rise Up and Sing!: Power, Protest, And Activism In Music
By Andrea Warner & Louise Reimer
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In Rise Up and Sing!, Andrea Warner explores how music has contributed to the fight for social justice. Across eight areas of activism — the climate emergency, Indigenous rights, civil rights, disability rights, 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, gender equality, the peace/anti-war movement, and human rights — Andrea Warner introduces some of the artists, past and present, who have made a difference both on stage and off. Through ground-breaking artists and iconic moments, Rise Up And Sing! shows us that a song is never just a song, and that music really does have the power to change the world.”
The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles
By Steven L. Isoardi
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In the early 1960s, pianist Horace Tapscott gave up a successful career in Lionel Hampton’s band and returned to his home in Los Angeles to found the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, a community arts group that focused on providing community-oriented jazz and jazz training. Over the course of almost 40 years, the Arkestra, together with the related Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension collective, was at the forefront of the vital community-based arts movement in Black Los Angeles. Some three hundred artists-musicians, vocalists, poets, playwrights, painters, sculptors, and graphic artists-passed through these organizations, many ultimately remaining within the community and others moving on to achieve international fame. In The Dark Tree, Steven L. Isoardi draws on one hundred in-depth interviews with the Arkestra’s participants to tell the history of the important and largely overlooked community arts movement of Black Los Angeles. This revised and updated edition brings the story of the Arkestra up to date, as its ethos and aesthetic remain vital forces in jazz and popular music to this day.”
A Curious Mix of People: The Underground Scene of ’90s Austin
By Greg Beets & Richard Whymark
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “It’s 1990 in Austin, Texas. The next decade will be a tipping point in the city’s metamorphosis from sleepy college town to major city. Beneath the increasingly slick exterior, though, a group of like-minded contrarians were reimagining an underground music scene. Embracing a do-it-yourself ethos, record labels emerged to release local music, zines cheered and jeered acts beneath the radar of mainstream media outlets, and upstart clubs provided a home venue for new bands to build their sound. This vibrant scene valued expression over erudition, from the razor-sharp songcraft of Spoon to the fuzzed-out poptones of Sixteen Deluxe, and blurred the boundaries between observer and participant. Evolving in tandem with the city’s emergence on the national stage via the film Slacker and the SXSW conference and festivals, Austin’s musical underground became a spiritual crucible for the uneasy balance between commercial success and cultural authenticity, a tension that still resonates today. The first book about Austin underground music in the ’90s, A Curious Mix Of People is an oral history that tells the story of this transformative decade through the eyes of the musicians, writers, DJs, club owners, record-store employees, and other key figures who were there.”
