Classic Rock History

Ed Ward covers the first half of the history of rock & roll in this sweeping and definitive narrative - from the 1920s, when the music of rambling medicine shows mingled with the songs of vaudeville and minstrel acts to create the very early sounds of country and rhythm and blues, to the rise of the first independent record labels post-World War II, and concluding in December 1963, just as an immense change in the airwaves took hold and the Beatles prepared for their first American tour.

It's February 1964 and The Beatles just landed in New York City, where the NYPD, swarms of fans, and a crowd of two hundred journalists await their first American press conference. It begins with the question on everyone's mind: "Are you going to get a haircut in America?" and ends with a reporter tugging Paul McCartney's hair in an attempt to remove his nonexistent wig. This is where The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2 kicks off.

"Superbly written, with that sensitivity to sunset and afterglow that has always been Miss Cather's." —The New York Times Willa Cather wrote Shadows on the Rock immediately after her historical masterpiece, Death Comes for the Archbishop. Like its predecessor, this novel of seventeenth-century...

Listen up! Embark on an electrifying journey through rock history with this witty and insightful guide to the albums that shaped the genre. From The Beatles' groundbreaking "Abbey Road" to The Clash's genre-defying "London Calling," author Staci Layne Wilson presents a meticulously curated list of 30 essential rock albums that every music lover should experience. This book isn't just a list—it's a time machine, whisking readers through three decades of musical innovation. Dive deep into the naked emotion of Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush," the conceptual brilliance of Pink Floyd's "The...

This Thomas Paine Classic Collection contains three of Thomas Paine's most notable books: Common Sense, The Age of Reason, and The Rights of Man. Born during the Age of Enlightenment and one of America’s Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine wrote incredible works that continue to resonate with people in the modern world. Inside this collection, you’ll find some of Thomas Paine’s most famous and influential works, from his arguments against the Church to the nature of government and revolution.

The definitive chronicle of underground music in the 1980s tells the stories of Black Flag, Sonic Youth, The Replacements, and other seminal bands whose DIY revolution changed American music forever. Our Band Could Be Your Life is the never-before-told story of the musical revolution that...

The Beatles left an indelible mark not only on music, but on the culture in which they created it. In a time of great and sudden change, they led a generation into new territory, redefining the social landscape as a place where men and women could try on new roles. They led this change through their music, their public personae, and - under scrutiny - their example. The Beatles Guide to Love & Sex examines all three - the songs, the parts they played in public, and the way they led their lives, for better or worse. John, Paul, George and Ringo began their journey as typical working-class ...

The 1960s: The Decade Music Changed and Influenced the Decades That FollowedIt was a time when music felt bigger than ever, changing the way people saw the world and themselves. Artists began experimenting with new sounds, blending different styles. From rock to country, folk to pop, and jazz to Motown, the music of the 1960s captured the energy of a generation that wanted to break free from old traditions and create something new. This was the decade when The Beatles took the world by storm, Bob Dylan made us think with his lyrics, and artists like Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke used their ...

The inspiration for the Play It Loud exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art "Every guitar player will want to read this book twice. And even the casual music fan will find a thrilling narrative that weaves together cultural history, musical history, race, politics, business case studies...

From behind the walls of a handful of well-hidden, unlikely recording studios in the Los Angeles area, legends-in-waiting created masterpiece albums. It was a time of astonishing creativity and unprecedented fame and fortune. It was also a time of unfettered excess that threatened to unravel everything along the way. With access that only a longtime music business insider can provide, Kent Hartman packs Goodnight, L.A. with never-before-told stories about the most prolific time and iconic place in rock 'n' roll history.

From the author's first glimpse of a magical recording studio in the mid-1960s up through a busy career that continues to the present day, this rollicking story can only be told by those that were there. As the young tape operator on sessions for the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and Joe Cocker at the famed Olympic Sound Studios in London, Phill learned the ropes from experienced engineers and producers such as Glyn Johns and Eddie Kramer.

Have you always felt a certain nostalgia to the 1980s even if you didn’t grow up in it? Were you a child, teenager, or young adult in the '80s and want to relive the best years of your life? Well now you can travel back in time and embrace your over the top fashion sense that’s dying to come out!

A compelling narrative biography of the legendary drummer John Bonham, his wild ride with iconic rock band Led Zeppelin, and the highs and lows that made up his wild (and tragically short) life. John Bonham is considered by many to be one of the greatest drummers of all time. He was recruited to...

Unlike all previous versions of rock 'n' roll history, this book omits almost every iconic performer and ignores the storied events and turning points everyone knows. Instead, in a daring stroke, Greil Marcus selects 10 songs recorded between 1956 and 2008 and then proceeds to dramatize how each embodies rock 'n' roll as a thing in itself in the story it tells, inhabits, and acts out - a new language, something new under the sun.

There's Always a Trail When a stranger named Handy offered to track down Cass Bailey's stolen money for a stake in the CB range, Bailey has nothing more to lose. But his pretty hot-tempered daughter, Ann, was certian that Handy couldn't find the money unless he'd had a hand in stealing it. So...

The Story of Rock and Roll an epic tale with a cast of thousands (if you count the crowd at Woodstock), spanning more than a century. It’s also an American story (at least until the Beatles arrived) about music created by individuals clinging to the lowest rung of the social ladder who, nevertheless, invented a musical idea that engulfed the entire world, influencing all aspects of culture, and drawing every other kind of music into its orbit. It’s a story that has everything: scandal, betrayal, big money, murder, tragedy and triumph, long successful careers, and lives unexpectedly cut short.

Were you a child, teenager or young adult in the 80s or 90s and want to relive the best years of your life? Well now you can travel back in time and embrace your over-the-top fashion sense that’s dying to come out! Put on your shoulder pads, oversized jewellery and perm your hair. Or get those baggy jeans and Parker Jackets out once again!

Steely Dan's songs are exercises in fictional world-building. No one else in the classic-rock canon has conjured a more vivid cast of rogues and heroes, creeps and schmucks, lovers and dreamers and cold-blooded operators-or imbued their characters with so much humanity.

From the acclaimed author of Rip It Up and Start Again and Retromania—“the foremost popular music critic of this era (Times Literary Supplement)—comes the definitive cultural history of glam and glitter rock, celebrating its outlandish fashion and outrageous stars, including David Bowie...

Unpacks the twenty-one most common myths and misconceptions about Native Americans In this enlightening book, scholars and activists Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker tackle a wide range of myths about Native American culture and history that have misinformed generations. Tracing how...