I am so old that I saw The Band. Well, sorta. I never got a chance to see the classic lineup with Robbie Robertson — they only played my hometown once, when I was seven. But I did see the other four members when they reunited in the early ’80s without Robertson. All of which is a long way to say that the new bio of troubled keyboardist Richard Manuel is at the top of my reading list for the week. Not far behind: My friend Jason Schneider’s book about the classic blues song Hey Joe. Toss in tomes about Carlos Santana, Thin Lizzy, The Beatles, Anthony Phillips, Marvin Gaye, Prince and more, and you’ve got a pretty big week. Read all about ’em:
Richard Manuel: His Life And Music, From The Hawks And Bob Dylan To The Band
By Stephen T. Lewis
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Richard Manuel was a fearless original. Sweetly soulful as a vocalist and endearingly creative as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, he was a vital part of some of rock ’n’ roll’s pivotal moments, including Bob Dylan’s controversial move to electric music, the original Woodstock festival, and the legendary Last Waltz. Through thoughtful research and analysis, this book places Manuel’s troubled yet inspired spirit within a musical and historical context. For the first time, Manuel’s compositions and performances are critiqued with expert commentary — alongside new interviews with family, friends, and fellow musicians, including Eric Clapton and Van Morrison. The story traces Manuel’s journey from Stratford, Ont., to Woodstock, N.Y., and beyond, beginning with his first band, The Revols, then singing the blues with Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson in The Hawks, the group that would later become The Band. Manuel’s influence was profound, his distinctive vocals infusing songs with emotion and depth. His songwriting flourished in classics like Tears of Rage, cowritten with Dylan, and We Can Talk. His keyboard work added a lovable funkiness to the Band’s sound, blending elements of rock, folk, country, and blues into what would become the genesis of Americana. Despite The Band’s successes, Manuel struggled with personal demons, battling addiction and inner turmoil. Looking beyond his human frailty, this book celebrates Manuel’s immeasurable contributions to music, ensuring that memories of his voice and artistry endure.”
That Gun in Your Hand: The Strange Saga Of Hey Joe And Popular Music’s History Of Violence
By Jason Schneider
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This is the story of a song. Yet, it is a song that binds nearly every strand of 20th-century American popular music. Hey Joe was written sometime in the early 1960s by a man named Billy Roberts, an obscure singer and guitarist from South Carolina who moved to New York City, drawn by the burgeoning folk music scene in Greenwich Village. It was a time when new, original material was scarce, leading other singers to quickly adapt songs of quality in the spirit of folk music’s oral traditions. Thus began the long journey of Hey Joe from New York coffeehouses to the bars on L.A.’s Sunset Strip to the ears of a young guitarist named Jimi Hendrix, who launched his career with his radical, electrified interpretation. Extensively researched, That Gun In Your Hand also presents previously unpublished information about the life of Roberts, a shadowy figure whose 2017 death went unreported by all news outlets.”
Carlos Santana: Love, Devotion, Surrender: A Visual Journey
By Jeff Tamarkin
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Take a journey through Carlos Santana’s legendary career, featuring rare photography and ephemera from his archive, documenting more than 50 years of his one-of-a-kind artistry, and his impact on the world of music. Named one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists and one of the 100 Greatest Artists by Rolling Stone, Santana has been an influential musician since his start in 1965. With numerous awards, including nearly a dozen Grammy Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, and his induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, Santana has cemented his name in rock ’n’ roll history. Now, fans can follow Santana through his musical journey with this gorgeous retrospective book, featuring hundreds of pieces from his personal archives such as rare backstage and onstage photography, tour memorabilia, personal art and correspondence, awards, and photographs of old guitars. This is a collection as rare and unique as the music Santana creates, and one that fans will treasure.”
Thin Lizzy: A Visual Biography
By Martin Popoff
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “If any band deserve to have homage paid to them with a lavish, limited edition photographic book, look no further than Thin Lizzy. With their origins going back to the late ’60s, by 1971 with the first album release, Lizzy’s journey really began. Incredibly no one has published a visual biography before, but now that has been rectified. Drawing on several thousand images and items of memorabilia this large format 240-page book is a treasure trove for Thin Lizzy devotees — crammed full of live and offstage shots that portray the band’s journey through the decades. It also includes loads of memorabilia including backstage passes, gig posters, media adverts and much more, all reproduced on high-quality art paper. This is one future collector’s item that every self-respecting Lizzy fan will want to own. Rounding it off, Thin Lizzy: A Visual Biography is topped and tailed with 20,000 words by Lizzy biographer and rock author Martin Popoff.”
The Beatles 1962-1966: Every Album, Every Song
By Andrew Wild & Alberto Bravin
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Other than I Me Mine and some minor overdubs, The Beatles’ entire EMI/Apple catalogue was recorded in fewer than seven years: from Sept. 4, 1962 through to Aug. 20, 1969. That’s 12 albums, 22 singles, and two standalone EPs: 213 songs in all. That in itself is remarkable enough. But the quality of the music, the rapid development of musical complexity and the innovations in studio production lifted The Beatles above every other band. The Fab Four were not always fab. But that some writers take the time and expend energy to point this out and purposefully diss perfect songs such as Yesterday merely serves to remind us that, most of the time, The Beatles were unarguably brilliant. Authors Andrew Wild and Alberto Bravin have listened to, digested and discussed the entire Beatles catalogue to remind them why they love their music. How do they affect us today? Answer: They were bloody good. They still are. This first volume covers the period 1962 to 1966 — from Love Me Do to Tomorrow Never Knows, and from early albums that were different in the U.K. and U.S., to classics like Rubber Soul and Revolver.”
Anthony Phillips 1977-1990: Every Album, Every Song
By Alan Draper
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In the mid-1960s, two notable bands emerged from the rarified cloisters of Charterhouse Public School in rural Surrey: The Anon, with guitarists Anthony Phillips and Mike Rutherford, and The Garden Wall, a unit driven by the duo of Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks. Following the 1966 end-of-term school concert, these two bands merged, leading to the first lineup of Genesis. Phillips remained with Genesis until July 1970, when stage fright and ill health forced him to quit. He embarked on a long course of musical self-improvement that would eventually lead to an impressive technique on both guitar and keyboards, leading to a flourishing solo career, commencing with his first solo album The Geese & The Ghost in 1977. In this book, Alan Draper looks at Phillips’ solo output, from his 1977 debut album through to his most successful long-form work, Slow Dance, in 1990. Also included are the two Archive Collection albums, released after this date, as they contain previously unreleased material from the pre-1990 period. In the 21st century, Phillips’ albums have become widely available via rereleased and beautifully packaged box sets, providing the perfect opportunity to explore his impressive body of work once again.”
Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On? And The Last Days Of The Motown Sound
By Ben Edmonds
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Arguably the greatest soul album ever made, What’s Going On established Motown star Marvin Gaye as a unique and maverick musical talent. His determination and vision resulted in inspirational and pioneering works that, in the era of Vietnam and the civil rights protests, asked America to take a long hard look at itself. Ben Edmonds examines in detail the making of this legendary work — initially rejected by Motown’s quality-control department — interviewing many of the artists and record company employees closest to the singer, to arrive at a deeper understanding of what the album means. It is, without question, one of the greatest stories ever told. With a career that exemplified the maturation of romantic Black pop into a sophisticated form spanning social and sexual polities, Gaye was one of the most consistent and enigmatic of the Motown hit makers. His determination and vision resulted not only in inspirational, pioneering grooves but in an album that challenged America.”
Decade Of Dissent: How 1960s Bob Dylan Changed The World
By Sean Egan
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “During the 1960s — a juncture in history when music was the meeting place for the ideas of the young and questioning — Bob Dylan stood head and shoulders in influence above all others. In telling the story of his first calendar decade as a recording artist, Decade Of Dissent provides a unique angle on an endlessly fascinating and truly peerless career. Dylan’s ’60s recordings constitute a dizzying run that includes such landmark albums as The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde On Blonde, the so-called Basement Tapes and John Wesley Harding, and such classic songs as Blowin’ In The Wind, The Times They Are A-Changin’, Mr. Tambourine Man, Like A Rolling Stone, Just Like A Woman, Quinn The Eskimo, All Along The Watchtower and Lay Lady Lay. They set the template for his genius and encompass the bulk of his greatest work. The career arc they collectively describe saw Dylan effortlessly and repeatedly instigate revolution, by turns reinvigorating folk music, turning protest song mainstream, bringing the intellectualism and social conscience of folk to rock and pop, reasserting roots music over the excesses of psychedelia, and making country music respectable. Through each of his new identities, Dylan’s dazzling lyrics established him as the poet laureate of the counterculture.”
Hardcore Punk in The Age of Reagan: The Lyrical Lashing Of An American Presidency
By Robert Fitzgerald
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Few politicians produced the musical reaction that Ronald Reagan did. His California-branded conservatism inspired countless young people to pick up guitars and thrash out their political angst. Punk bands across the United States took aim at the man, his presidency, and the idea of America he was selling to voters nationwide. Small yet vibrant scenes across the country emerged to challenge the communal norms and social values projected on them by the popular media and consumer culture. Punk enthusiast Robert Fitzgerald argues that these songs’ lyrics aren’t just catchy and fun to scream along with; they also reveal the thoughts and feelings of artists reacting to their political environment in real, forthright, and uncensored time. In candid detail, Fitzgerald shows how these lyrics illustrated what young adults felt and how they reacted to one of the most influential and divisive leaders of the era. Punk lyrics are seemingly simple, the author argues, but they sketch out a complex, musically inspired countermovement that is as canonical in the American songbook as the folk and rock protest music that came before.”
Prince, Musical Genre, And The Construction of Racial Identity
By Griffin Woodworth
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Throughout his career, the Minneapolis musician Prince was known for fusing different musical genres as well as moving between different identities — sexual lothario, devout man of God, androgynous sprite — qualities that fit the postmodernism of the 1980s. This volume takes a fresh look at Prince’s work, arguing that his music was deeply informed by the history and techniques of Black culture, and that his multigenre fluency and changeable image were weapons that he deployed in a career-long fight against the racially segregated structures of the American music industry. Using a methodology that mixes musicology with African American literary theory, queer theory, and gender studies, this book analyzes the ways that Prince mixed and manipulated musical genres that are indexed to racial identities — such as “White” rock or new-wave, and “Black” funk, gospel, or R&B — in order to construct pluralistic identities. Each chapter includes detailed musical analyses and transcriptions of Prince’s songs, focusing on his use of rock guitar, new-wave synthesizers, funk drumming, gospel singing, and R&B horns. By tracking Prince’s transformations of instrumental and vocal idioms derived from specific musical genres, and considering the historical and cultural values embedded within those genres, Griffin Woodworth explores the ways that Prince musically broke down stereotypes of Black masculinity. With its intersectional approach to musical analysis, this book captures the sounds of American racial politics in the 1980s, 90s, and 2000s as heard through the music of one of the era’s most popular artists as he worked to transform and transcend those politics.”
