Jimmy McDonough – författare

Neil Young is one of rock and roll's most important, influential and enigmatic figures, an intensely reticent artist who has granted no writer access to his inner sanctum - until now. Shakey is the whole story of Young's incredible life and career: from his childhood in Canada to the founding of folk-rock pioneers Buffalo Springfield; the bleary conglomeration of Crazy Horse and the monstrous success of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; to the depths of the Tonight's the Night depravity and the Geffen years; and Young's unprecedented nineties 'comeback'. Shakey (the title refers to one of Young's many aliases) is also the compelling human story of a lonely kid for whom music was the only outlet, a driven yet tortured figure who controlled his epilepsy via 'mind over matter', an oddly passionate model train mogul who, inspired by his own son's struggle with cerebral palsy, became a major activist in the quest to help those with the condition. This long-awaited, unprecedented story of a rock 'n' roll legend is uniquely told through the interwoven voices of McDonough - biographer, critic, historian, obsessive fan - and the ever-cantankerous (but slyly funny) Young himself.

With songs like "Love and Happiness," "I'm Still in Love with You," and "Tired of Being Alone," Al Green is considered by many to be the greatest soul singer of all time. He has sold more than 20 million records, been sampled by countless hip-hop artists, and even had President Obama singing his tunes. One of the most intricate and elusive figures in popular music, Green has never been scrutinized in print successfully-until now.Soul Survivor is the biography of a man whose life is the embodiment of the collision between the sacred and the profane, traversing the tortured road Green roamed from gospel to secular and back again. Readers bear witness to some of the greatest music ever recorded and the never-before-told story of Green's label, Hi Records.

The first full-scale biography of the enduring first lady of country music The twentieth century had three great female singers who plumbed the darkest corners of their hearts and transformed private grief into public dramas. In opera, there was the unsurpassed Maria Callas. In jazz, the tormented Billie Holiday. And in country music, there was Tammy Wynette. "Stand by Your Man," "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," "Take Me to Your World" are but a few highlights of Tammy''s staggering musical legacy, all sung with a voice that became the touchtone for women''s vulnerability, disillusionment, strength, and endurance. In Tammy Wynette, bestselling biographer Jimmy McDonough tells the story of the small-town girl who grew up to be the woman behind the microphone, whose meteoric rise led to a decades-long career full of tragedy and triumph. Through a high-profile marriage and divorce, her dreadful battle with addiction and illness, and the struggle to compete in a rapidly evolving Nashville, Tammy turned a brave smile toward the world and churned out masterful hit songs though her life resembled the most heartbreaking among them. Tammy Wynette is an intimate portrait of a music icon, the Queen of Heartbreak, whose powerful voice simultaneously evoked universal pain and longing even as it belied her own.

Neil Young is one of rock and roll's most important, influential and enigmatic figures, an intensely reticent artist who has granted no writer access to his inner sanctum - until now. Shakey is the whole story of Young's incredible life and career: from his childhood in Canada to the founding of folk-rock pioneers Buffalo Springfield; the bleary conglomeration of Crazy Horse and the monstrous success of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; to the depths of the Tonight's the Night depravity and the Geffen years; and Young's unprecedented nineties 'comeback'. Shakey (the title refers to one of Young's many aliases) is also the compelling human story of a lonely kid for whom music was the only outlet, a driven yet tortured figure who controlled his epilepsy via 'mind over matter', an oddly passionate model train mogul who, inspired by his own son's struggle with cerebral palsy, became a major activist in the quest to help those with the condition. This long-awaited, unprecedented story of a rock 'n' roll legend is uniquely told through the interwoven voices of McDonough - biographer, critic, historian, obsessive fan - and the ever-cantankerous (but slyly funny) Young himself.

June. Ron. Tim. Together they were the Ormond Organization, a Nashville mother-father-son trio who cranked out a wild bunch of movies, from Lash LaRue westerns to the stripper-gore-musical outrage The Exotic Ones, then finally... Baptist extravaganzas.

Neil Young es uno de los músicos más relevantes de la historia del rock. Su prolífico talento ha producido más de cincuenta álbumes y cuatrocientas canciones, entre las que se encuentran algunas de las más imperecederas de todos los tiempos: "Like a Hurricane", "Tonights the Night", "Down by the River", "The Needle and the Damage Done", "Old Man", "Rockin in the Free World", "Southern Man", "Cinnamon Girl", "Cortez the Killer", "Hey Hey, My My", "After the Gold Rush", "Heart of Gold" y un larguísimo etcétera.Jimmy McDonough, admirador a ultranza de Young, consiguió establecer una relación privilegiada con el músico, venciendo infinidad de resistencias y barreras, y se embarcó en un proceso de documentación exhaustivo y meticuloso que le llevaría casi diez años y no pocos quebraderos de cabeza, entre los cuales destaca la reacción adversa de Young al leer la biografía, cuya publicación trató de impedir a toda costa. Alejado de la hagiografía y de la previsible retórica de la mayoría de biografías de músicos, McDonough logró no solo ofrecer un retrato feroz del canadiense mostrando en toda su crudeza tanto su carácter errático, brutal y desconcertante como la esencia de su singular talento para componer canciones y una generosidad nada autocomplaciente, sino que consiguió plasmar de manera apasionada e intensa cuatro décadas de rock por las que brillan con luz propia, además de Young, prácticamente la totalidad de sus allegados, colaboradores y tanto los músicos de su generación como los que recogieron el testigo de su talento.Neil Young, nacido en Canadá en 1945 en el seno de una familia desestructurada, padeció de muy joven la polio, que lo dejaría marcado física y psicológicamente. Muy pronto empezó a aflorar una pasión por la música que lo llevaría a los veinte años a liderar la primera de sus míticas formaciones, Buffalo Springfield. No tardaría en empezar a grabar en solitario y con la superbanda de estrellas Crosby, Stills & Nash, colaboración que lo llevó a la fama mundial, aunque también suscitó innumerables tensiones fruto de la confrontación de egos, muchos de ellos enardecidos por las drogas y la pulsión creativa. Un Young cada vez más ermitaño, esquivo y atormentado por los frecuentes ataques de epilepsia, que lo dejaban destrozado, fue encontrando progresivamente su voz, sobre todo cuando se unió a los erráticos Crazy Horse, banda con la que ha compartido algunos de sus mejores momentos. Sin embargo, más allá de los datos oficiales, de los éxitos sobradamente conocidos, McDonough también desvela la parte más oscura de Young, sus fracasos amorosos, su lucha por ayudar a sus dos hijos con parálisis cerebral o su inveterada tendencia a desaparecer sin dar explicaciones y dejar a todo el mundo colgadoLa heteróclita e imprevisible obra de Young es una de las más originales y arriesgadas de todos los tiempos. Su estilo ha basculado de una obsesiva atención por el detalle y la producción minuciosa a la búsqueda del momento mágico de la interpretación en directo sin apenas filtros de producción o ensayos previos. En 1995 entró en el Salón de la Fama del Rock y sigue al pie del cañón, reinventándose con cada disco, fiel a su máxima "es mejor quemarse que apagarse lentamente".