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‘Liner Notes is, unsurprisingly, as good as its author’s songs, with moments of sharp humor alternating with real-life pain, and vivid reflections on love, death, and the whole damn thing. Loudon Wainwright is a true original: not like anyone else, just as he set out to be.’ Salman Rushdie In the late 1960s, Loudon Wainwright III established himself as a loner, deliberately standing outside the conventional. He recorded his first album in 1969, full of raw, angry poetry, but it was the 1972 novelty song ‘Dead Skunk’ that brought him popular recognition. Wainwright’s songs are as hilarious as they can be painful. In Liner Notes, he details the family history and fractured relation...
A singer-songwriter's heartfelt memoir about growing up in a bohemian musical family and her experiences with love, loss, motherhood, divorce, the music industry, and more. Born into music royalty, the daughter of folk legends Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and sister to the highly-acclaimed and genre-defying singer Rufus Wainwright, Martha grew up in a world filled with such incomparable folk legends as Leonard Cohen; Suzy Roche, Anna McGarrigle, Richard and Linda Thompson, Pete Townsend, Donald Fagan and Emmylou Harris. It was within this loud, boisterous, carny, musical milieu that Martha came of age, struggling to find her voice until she exploded on the scene with her 2005 de...
(Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist Songbook). Features 20 of his best: Dead Skunk * Dreaming * Four Mirrors * Human Cannonball * Overseas Calls * The Picture * Thanksgiving * more. Includes a discography.
Steven Hyden explores nineteen music rivalries and what they say about life in this "highly entertaining" book (Rolling Stone) perfect for every passionate music fan. Beatles vs. Stones. Biggie vs. Tupac. Kanye vs. Taylor. Who do you choose? And what does that say about you? Actually -- what do these endlessly argued-about pop music rivalries say about us? Music opinions bring out passionate debate in people, and Steven Hyden knows that firsthand. Each chapter in Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me focuses on a pop music rivalry, from the classic to the very recent, and draws connections to the larger forces surrounding the pairing. Through Hendrix vs. Clapton, Hyden explores burning out and fading away, while his take on Miley vs. Sinead gives readers a glimpse into the perennial battle between old and young. Funny and accessible, Hyden's writing combines cultural criticism, personal anecdotes, and music history -- and just may prompt you to give your least favorite band another chance.
THE TOP FIVE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA BOOK OF THE YEARROUGH TRADE, THE TIMES, ROLLING STONE, CLASH, MOJO, UNCUTThe memoir of international music icon Richard Thompson, co-founder of the legendary folk rock group Fairport Convention.'I encourage everyone to read this wonderful book.'ELVIS COSTELLO'Thompson could be said to be an English Dylan - only in some ways he's even better than that.'GUARDIAN Richard Thompson came of age during an extraordinary moment in 1960s Britain - as music began to reflect a great cultural awakening, the guitarist and songwriter co-founded Fairport Convention, ushering in the era of folk rock. An intimate memoir of personal discovery and creative intensity, Beeswing vividly captures the life of an international music icon in a world on the cusp of change'Gripping . . . A quiet joy of a memoir.'GUARDIAN'Thompson writes exceptionally well . . . If you love music in all its myriad forms, you'll love this book.'NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS'An intimate, revealing tome, Beeswing is the voice of a figure at the heart of the British counter-culture.'CLASH'Perceptive, lyrical, amiable and seemingly effortless . . . required reading.'CAUGHT BY THE RIVER
What happens when you ask today's top songwriters to apply their talents to prose You get a surprising and diverse collection of writing as penetrating and unforgettable as your most beloved album. Like writers and poets, the best songwriters are storytellers; their words and music inspire, move, and comfort us. This wholly original collection brings together the talents of today's most accomplished songwriters in a compelling and rewarding anthology -- not of songs, but of prose. Although most of the songwriters included here have never before published a work of this kind, their talent for it is undeniable. Between these covers are pieces by David Byrne, Marc Cohn, Paula Cole, Shawn Colvin...
No contemporary pop performer's work mixes innovation and tradition like Rufus Wainwright's. He is the son of singer, songwriter, actor Loudon Wainwright III and legendary Canadian folk singer Kate McGarrigle whose story is one of towering highs and rock bottom lows in which family influences, sexual experimentation, and a crystal meth addiction in the early 2000s have greatly contributed to his creative process. In seeking to explain how Wainwright works and where his place lies in a great tradition, rock journalist Kirk Lake entered into many odd and diverse worlds—Canadian folk, neo-Conservatism, drug addiction, gay liberation, Hollywood musicals—as he followed Wainwright's journey from Van Dyke Parks to rehab to Carnegie Hall. The product of in-depth interviews with musicians, producers, filmmakers, family friends, There Will Be Rainbows is a fascinating, sometimes troubling study of the glorious enigma that is Rufus Wainwright.
A definitive, in-depth, revelatory exploration of John Lennon's intensely personal first major solo album after the breakup of the Beatles. Described by Lennon as "the best thing I've ever done," and widely regarded as his best solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was released on 11 December 1970. With first-hand commentary by Lennon, Ono, and other members of the band, and packed with previously unseen photographs by those who documented their lives, this incisive volume offers new insights into the raw emotions and open mindset of Lennon after marriage to Ono and the breakup of the Beatles, to the making of the album and revealing interview with Jann Wenner in December 1970. Primal therapy had a huge impact on Lennon's songwriting, resulting in the creation of intensely personal, soul-baring tracks. This book takes his lyrics as a starting point and explores Lennon's life, career, and self-perception, from "performing flea" with the Beatles to authenticity as a solo artist.
A Rolling Stone Best Music Book of 2021 “Thompson is a master showman . . . [Beeswing is] everything you’d hope a Richard Thompson autobiography would be . . . It’s both major and minor, dirge and ditty, light on its feet but packing a punch.” —The Wall Street Journal Now Featuring an Interview with Elvis Costello In this moving, immersive, and long-awaited memoir, beloved international music legend Richard Thompson recreates the spirit of his early years, where he found, and then lost, and then found his way again. Considered one of the top twenty guitarists of all time, Thompson also belongs in the songwriting pantheon alongside Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Randy Newman. Here the B...
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