I have been taking a break from the music books lately to read Mick Herron’s Slough House / Slow Horses novels — which are just as enjoyable as the TV series, FYI. Even so, I might have to pause that project to check out these new titles on De La Soul, Christine McVie, Paul Whiteman and Cher — not to mention the Coward Brothers audiobook and that coffeetable tome on Neil Peart’s sports cars. Insert your own horsepower joke here:
High And Rising: A Book About De La Soul
By Marcus J. Moore
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “A stunning cultural biography of De La Soul, the era-defining hip-hop trio that touched millions of lives and changed rap forever. De La Soul burst on to the scene with the release of their groundbreaking 1989 album 3 Feet High & Rising, an anything-goes hip-hop masterpiece hailed as a new masterwork from a bygone era of Black experimentation. Formed in Long Island in 1988 by Kelvin “Posdnuos” Mercer, Dave “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur and Vincent “Maseo” Mason, De La Soul rebuked classification and appealed to the Black alternative. Their music was positive and psychedelic, their imagery full of flowers and peace signs. It was rap with a broad sonic palette which set the blueprint for an entire generation of artists who followed. But as quickly as they ascended, they were faced with the pressures of a changing industry and bitter legal battles. Completed in the wake of Dave’s passing and the group’s arrival on streaming platforms after years in digital purgatory, High And Rising tells the story of one of the most influential rap groups of all time. This is a tale about staying the course, and how holding true to your virtue can lead to dynamic results.”
The True Story of The Coward Brothers (Audiobook)
By Elvis Costello & T Bone Burnett
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The True Story of The Coward Brothers follows two musical brothers — one English, one American, both the illegitimate sons of dubious parentage — who may, as they claim to be, “one and half-brothers” (perhaps a reference to the disparity in their height and relative talents). In this satirical audio series directed by Christopher Guest (This Is Spinal Tap, Best in Show), Henry and Howard Coward are lightly grilled by radio host Sterling Lockhart (Harry Shearer) as they bitterly retrace the story of being duped out of their royalties and rightful place in pop history by their cutthroat manager who, among other things, persuaded them to fake their own deaths. Their sometimes poignant and heartrending story reveal an improbable love triangle involving their publisher’s secretary, Phyliss Dandy (Rhea Seehorn), as well as entertaining listeners with tales of their lost music, unsupportable claims of having written titles curiously adjacent to more famous songs, such as A Lotta Money, Tipsy Woman and their failed attempt at Cold War topicality, My Baby Just Whistles (Here Come the Missiles). This audiobook features all-new music from The Coward Brothers and boasts an all-star cast that also includes Edward Hibbert (The Prestige), Stephen Root (Barry, Office Space), and Kathreen Khavari (Big Little Lies).”
Songbird: An Intimate Biography Of Christine McVie
By Lesley-Ann Jones
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In this revealing portrait of keyboardist, lyricist, and vocalist Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac, readers will get an exclusive glimpse of the band’s “mother figure.” Born Christine Perfect, she was the quintessentially English rock star, as both the backbone and the beating heart of Fleetwood Mac. She wrote and performed many of their greatest hits, and was dubbed “the mother” of the band. It was Christine who contained the flock, regrouped them when they went AWOL, and always got them back on track. And yet, as the “engine” of the band during the era of Rumours — an album that charted the romantic disintegration within the band — her personal life was every bit as tempestuous as those of her bandmates. Told by an author who was friends with Christine, and with new contributions from those who knew her best, Songbird offers a true insider’s view and psychological insight into Christine as a both a woman and a musician — the ultimate picture of a rock legend and a national treasure.”
Cher: The Memoir, Part One
By Cher
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The extraordinary life of Cher can be told by only one person: Cher herself. After more than 70 years of fighting to live on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail, in a two-part memoir. Her remarkable career is unique and unparalleled. The only woman to top Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades, she is the winner of an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, and an inductee to the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame who has been lauded by the Kennedy Center. As a dyslexic child who dreamed of becoming famous, Cher was raised in often-chaotic circumstances, surrounded by singers, actors, and a mother who inspired her in spite of their difficult relationship. With her trademark honesty and humor, Cher: The Memoir traces how this diamond in the rough succeeded with no plan and little confidence to become the trailblazing superstar the world has been unable to ignore for more than half a century. Cher: The Memoir, Part One follows her extraordinary beginnings through childhood to meeting and marrying Sonny Bono — and reveals the highly complicated relationship that made them world famous, but eventually drove them apart. Cher: The Memoir reveals the daughter, the sister, the wife, the lover, the mother, and the superstar. It is a life too immense for only one book.”
The Essential… Lady Gaga
By Annie Zaleski
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “As one of the world’s best-selling musicians, Lady Gaga has set the musical bar high. Since her debut album The Fame (2008), she has sold more than 124 million records and scooped numerous awards, including 12 Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards, and 18 MTV Music Video Awards. Yet she is much more than a musician. At the helm of the Haus of Gaga ― a close-knit circle of behind-the-scenes creatives ― Lady Gaga is a performance artist like no other; her forward-thinking fashions and innovations mark her out as the ultimate maverick. Recently, she has reinvented herself as an accomplished jazz performer, dueting with legendary singer Tony Bennett on Cheek to Cheek (2014) and Love For Sale (2021), while also proving herself a consummate actor with lead roles in A Star Is Born (2018) and House of Gucci (2021). And with her advocacy for LGBT rights and active championing of kindness via the Born This Way Foundation, co-founded with her mother Cynthia Germanotta in 2011, it’s clear to see why her fans adore her. The Essential… Lady Gaga is a celebration of a true artist of our time. Illustrated throughout with stunning photography and complementary fashion segments, this comprehensive history follows Lady Gaga’s ever-evolving and often unpredictable career, and is testament to her many talents. A must for Little Monsters everywhere.”
Beyond The Bandstand: Paul Whiteman In American Musical Culture
By W. Anthony Sheppard
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The most successful bandleader of the 1920s, Paul Whiteman was an entertainment icon who played a major role in the mainstreaming of jazz. Whiteman and his band premiered George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Duke Ellington acknowledged his achievements. His astonishing ear for talent vaulted a who’s who of artists toward prominence. But Whiteman’s oversized presence eclipsed Black jazz musicians while his middlebrow music prompted later generations to jettison him from jazz history. W. Anthony Sheppard’s collection of essays confronts the racial implications of Whiteman’s career. The contributors explore Whiteman’s broad impact on popular culture, tracking his work and influence in American marketing, animated films, the Black press, Hollywood, and the music publication industry, and following him behind the scenes with arrangers, into grand concert halls, across the Atlantic, into the courtroom, and on television. Multifaceted and cutting-edge, Beyond The Bandstand explores the racial politics and artistic questions surrounding a controversial figure in popular music.”
Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances: A Life In Mod – From the Revival To Acid Jazz
By Eddie Piller
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This is the memoir of a teenage mod from the East End of London. A journey of discovery for a schoolboy dabbling with punk, funk, record shops, discos and clothes, and then… WHAAAM! An unstoppable wave of like-minded kids fall headlong in love with ’60s mod culture, revived and reformatted for the ’70s and ’80s generation. Eddie Piller was one such kid. His life was changed forever. Written with humour, passion and attention to detail, Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances is perhaps the ultimate mod memoir, taking us from meeting Small Faces as a toddler, to the 1979 mod revival, through the more purist 1980s mod scene and eventually to acid jazz. A born storyteller, Eddie takes us evocatively into a world of scooters, clothes, and music. We run with the crowd to decaying seaside towns, East End backstreet boozers and sweaty teenage gigs, all fizzing with an uncontainable excitement and often exploding into violence. Once mod touched your soul it changed the way you looked at life, unexpectedly broadening your horizons. In Eddie it awakens a can-do attitude that sees him setting up a fanzine, putting on club nights, hustling jobs in the music industry, and eventually setting up a record label. It even takes him to Ireland at the height of the troubles and to Australia where the local mods take him on a military exercise… Visceral and always entertaining, Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances is a standout memoir that relives the thrill of the ’70s and ’80s, and the movement that helped make mod the most enduring and successful British youth culture of all time.”
Cranking Up Stevie Wonder: His Musical Legacy In 11 Songs
By Arthur Lizie
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The volume on a standard amp goes to 10. But, sometimes, that’s just not high enough. Sometimes, you need to rock even harder than that — all the way to 11. Goes to 11 books are short, opinionated introductions to the catalogs of major musical acts through 11 essential songs. Because going over the top is the only answer when it comes to good music. American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder is a trailblazer whose influence can be heard across modern R&B, soul, pop, jazz, and gospel. He’s also an inspiration to disabled artists throughout the world: after going blind as a child, he pursued music passionately and blossomed into one of the most important composers and performers in history. Still going strong after decades in the spotlight, he remains one of the best-selling musical artists of all time. From Superstition to So What the Fuss, Cranking Up Stevie Wonder provides a whirlwind tour of 11 essential tracks. It covers every era of his output — early hits, genre experiments, late-career highlights — exploring the irresistible alchemy that keeps Wonder’s music forever at our fingertips.”
Rebel Sounds: Music As Resistance
By Joe Mulhall
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Joe Mulhall uncovers how music has shaped resistance movements across the globe, from Irish protest songs to Apartheid South Africa to the artists in Ukraine today. While the global history of the dictatorships, oppression, racism and state violence over the last century is well known — the role that music played in people’s lives during these times is less understood. This book is a collection of stories and hidden histories about how music provided light in the darkest of times over the past century. How it steeled souls and inspired resistance to oppression. Rebel Sounds will explore the horror of the Nazi regime, the Soviet Union’s oppression behind the Berlin Wall, authoritarian dictatorships in Brazil and Nigeria, institutionalised racism and police violence in America and South Africa, street violence in Britain, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and musical resistance in war-torn Ukraine. This is a social history of the 20th century but one that takes in the human impulse to create, share and enjoy the one thing that connects cultures and spans generations: Music.”
Recording Broadway: A Life In Cast Albums
By Thomas Z. Shepard & Gayden Wren
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This is a chronicle of the making of 50-plus years’ worth of show albums, featuring up-close-and-personal stories of his work with pretty much everyone who was anyone on Broadway, including Julie Andrews, Leonard Bernstein (“truly awesome but very complicated”), Sheldon Harnick (“as warm and decent as he was talented”), Barbara Cook (“one of my favorites”), Placido Domingo, Gregory Hines, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury (“so gifted and so easy to be with and to work with”), Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Stephen Sondheim (“a genius, and very easily bruised”), Barbra Streisand (“as professional at 24 as any veteran I’ve ever worked with”), Andrew Lloyd Webber, and many more. Alongside this unforgettable saga is the tale of Shepard’s childhood as a small-in-stature piano prodigy from East Orange, N.J., and his emergence into the world as a recording producer of, first, classical music and then cast recordings. Told with verve in Shepard’s inimitable voice — a striking combination of Broadway glitz and classical-music elegance — his journey makes for a uniquely compelling story, whether or not you’re among the millions of musical lovers around the world for whom his recordings are a vital link to Broadway.”
Silver Surfers
By Neil Peart
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For Neil Peart, legendary drummer for Rush, cars were a lifelong passion. Now, in Neil’s final work — a never-before-seen piece completed before his untimely passing in 2020 — he writes about his beloved Silver Surfers collection; the joy of collecting these exquisite, rare, and important sports cars, and the even bigger joy of driving them. He first traces the roots of his auto obsession, taking us back to where it all began, with a 1969 Lotus Europa; through the cars he bought when the band first made it big and even his first “family car,” before taking us on a tour of the Silver Surfers themselves — a rare collection of the best sports cars from the 1960s. From a 1964 Aston Martin DB5 to a classic 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Stingzray, each is a gorgeous silver (with the exception of one: a black 1964 Shelby Cobra whose patina Neil loved so much he wrote, “I am not going to paint it”). Gorgeous images of the cars and photos curated by Neil himself accompany his warm, personal story of building the collection, the friends he made along the way, and what it was like to be behind the wheel of these classics. Neil’s final work is a love letter to these cars that meant so much to him, and to the passion of the road that fueled his life.”
