Backbeat – serie

A rock 'n roll classic, back in print, updated and revised.One of the funniest rock memoirs ever, Al Kooper's legendary Backstage Passes is available again! Al's quirky life, from would-be teenage rocker, to crashing Bob Dylan's recording session and playing the organ on Highway 61, to forming Blood, Sweat, and Tears and masterminding the Super Sessions, it's all here...plus, in this updated version, Al rides with us all the way back to the end of the 20th century. There has never been a more wickedly humorous and honest book by a man who has made such rock history.

Get the inside scoop on breaking into the music industry from the bassist of MEGADETH, David Ellefson.

Learning musical notation can be intimidating. But regardless of instrument or proficiency in reading music, there's hope and help for all musicians in this practical guide. Writing in a friendly manner that puts readers at ease, author Dave Stewart starts with the basics: staves, clefs, and how to find the notes. He then advances step by step through rhythm, key signatures, chords and intervals, and how to write it all down. This book is useful for novices, seasoned players who never learned to read music, and pros seeking a refresher course.

This book gives you vital instruction in metal basics from top guitar teachers, and reveals the secrets of the monsters of metal – often in their own words. Packed with musical examples, charts and photos, this is your complete course for learning metal guitar. In-depth lessons with pros like Andy Ellis, Jesse Gress, Joe Gore, Jude Gold and Dave Whitehill teach you to build your own style while exploring the classic and modern sounds of the metal masters. Covers: tips on altered tunings and 7-string guitar, pros' secrets of tone and recording, discography of the monsters of metal, and free access to audio lessons at an exclusive web page!

The Lives in Music series meshes biography with discography. This debut title profiles the legendary King of Blues, B.B. King. An opening essay charts his life from childhood in the Mississippi Delta up to his first studio session. The author then takes an inside look at his distinguished career, album by album, offering a critical appraisal of each recording and a portrait of the making of each album. First-hand interviews with B.B. King, as well as producers, engineers, arrangers, and key musicians, bring these sessions to life and provide readers a context for understanding B.B. King's recordings in light of his career and life events that shaped them. This definitive book also incudes a complete history of every B.B. King session.

Lyrics sheds light on all aspects of lyric writing for music and will make songwriters feel more confident and creative when they tackle lyrics. It's perfect for all songwriters: those who don't like their own lyrics and find them difficult to write, experienced writers looking for a creative edge, and those offering lyrics to set to music in a partnership. Topics include channeling personal experiences into lyrics, overcoming writer's block, the right lyrics for a bridge, the separation between lyrics and poetry, exploring imagery and metaphor, avoiding clichés, and more. The book also offers tips on the various styles of lyrics, from protests, spirituals, and confessionals to narratives and comic songs.

The Greatest Music Never Sold is a never-before-attempted look at the legendary lost recordings of the pop music world. It reveals the secrets of 20 albums – works by superstars and supergroups such as Mick Jagger, Seal, Chicago, David Bowie, Prince, Sheryl Crow, and the Beastie Boys – that have never been officially released. New interviews with artists, band members, producers, engineers, and label executives shine a light into the darkened studio vaults, revealing the ego battles, politics, and career confusion that have buried work by these pop music greats. Certain to appeal to record collectors, bootleggers, and ardent music fans everywhere, The Greatest Music Never Sold is a rare look into one of pop music's hidden corners.

A wild insider's ride with one of music's most notorious journalists.Here are 15 music profiles, guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat:• Leiber & Stoller, the white fathers of R&B and rock and roll, who possess what is perhaps the last great untold story of the music biz. They created the American songbook of the '50s and '60s, led by Elvis, the Coasters, and the Drifters.• Doc Pomus, the only white blues singer in America making records in the 1940s. Half of the hit songwriting team of Pomus-Shuman during the Brill Building era, Doc had the biggest heart in the music business.• A sad, comic-tragic romance with the Ronettes' Ronnie Spector, dubbed an “oldie” once she left her teens.

The definitive history of the world's most famous 12-string electric guitar.When the Byrds recorded their hit version of Dylan's “Mr. Tambourine Man ” they popularized a new sound in pop music: the electric 12-string guitar.Rickenbacker is the guitar maker that brought the electric 12-string to market and has since been almost single-handedly responsible for establishing what such a guitar should do. The California company gave one of its earliest 12-strings to George Harrison of the Beatles on the group's first tour of the United States in 1964. He immediately used it live and in the studio and showed off the sound of electric jangle to the rest of the world.This book tells the story of those heady days in the '60s, of the competitors who tried and failed to match the sound, and of the instrument's continuing production by Rickenbacker and use by many modern guitarists. Complete with high-quality photos and exclusive interviews with many of the 12-string's leading players, this is the best guide yet to the history of the sound of jingle-jangle.

Buck 'Em! The Autobiography of Buck Owens is the life story of a country music legend. Born in Texas and raised in Arizona, Buck eventually found his way to Bakersfield, California. Unlike the vast majority of country singers, songwriters, and musicians who made their fortunes working and living in Nashville, the often rebellious and always independent Owens chose to create his own brand of country music some 2 000 miles away from Music City – racking up a remarkable twenty-one number one hits along the way. In the process he helped give birth to a new country sound and did more than any other individual to establish Bakersfield as a country music center.In the latter half of the 1990s, Buck began working on his autobiography. Over the next few years, he talked into the microphone of a cassette tape machine for nearly one hundred hours, recording the story of his life.With his near-photographic memory, Buck recalled everything from his early days wearing hand-me-down clothes in Texas to his glory years as the biggest country star of the 1960s; from his legendary Carnegie Hall concert to his multiple failed marriages; from his hilarious exploits on the road to the tragic loss of his musical partner and best friend, Don Rich; from his days as the host of a local TV show in Tacoma, Washington, to his co-hosting the network television show Hee Haw; and from his comeback hit, “Streets of Bakersfield ” to his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.In these pages, Buck also shows his astute business acumen, having been among the first country artists to create his own music publishing company. He also tells of negotiating the return of all of his Capitol master recordings, his acquisition of numerous radio stations, and of his conceiving and building the Crystal Palace, one of the most venerated musical venues in the country.Buck 'Em! is the fascinating story of the life of country superstar Buck Owens – from the back roads of Texas to the streets of Bakersfield.Click here to watch a video extra on YouTube for Buck 'Em.

Music artists, as perceived by the music industry, are akin to a condiment—to be easily replicated, sold in high volume, and enjoyed by the masses. The message is blunt, honest, and necessary. Implicit in it is the reality of an ever-changing music landscape that requires the artists to adapt, and with integrity, lest they become forgotten. It's this essential idea that the Grammy-nominated artist and creative consultant Kokayi shares in You Are Ketchup. With a harmonious blend of narrative and advice, DC native Kokayi walks readers through the golden age of hip hop to the current day, dispensing hard-earned lessons and illuminations from decades of producing and performing music. Kokayi is a teacher inasmuch as he is a musician, and now writes for emerging artists yet to achieve success and veteran artists who might have once had it but are not out. Using stories from life and career as a vehicle, Kokayi covers a range of topics, including art as a commodity and advice about defining your artistic community, knowing when your art is ready to level up, finding a formula that works, distinguishing your art from others, and more.In a music world where an artist's career can too easily become a tale of the past, You Are Ketchup arrives as essential reading for the multitude of creatives hungry for the wisdom and knowledge of a successful insider.

The sounds of new wave pop music and the early days of MTV were defined by the work of a handful of iconic musicians, and few stood taller in that era than Ric Ocasek, frontman and primary songwriter for the Cars. The band charted thirteen Top 40 singles in the U.S. from 1978 to 1987, the music video for their song “You Might Think” won MTV’s first-ever Video of the Year award, and their biggest hit, “Drive,” became a Top 10 hit across the globe. They would ultimately be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Following the band’s breakup in 1988, Ocasek continued to have a lively professional as well as personal life—dating supermodels, publishing poetry, and appearing in movies. He enjoyed enormous success as a producer, working with such bands as Weezer, No Doubt, Guided by Voices, and the Bad Brains.Moving in Stereo: The Life of Ric Ocasek, the Driving Force of the Cars serves as an in-depth guide to Ocasek's life and catalog as a musician. Drawing on interviews, personal reminiscences, and the the journalistic coverage he so reliably inspired, it gives a memorable portrait of one of the most essential voices in pop music during the MTV era and beyond.

In 1974, when young music promoters Allan Pepper and Stanley Snadowsky opened their night club the Bottom Line in an industrial area of Greenwich Village that was all but deserted after 6 pm, no one could have foreseen either its long-term success or its impact on the musical and cultural landscape of New York City. Over the next thirty years, while trends and tastes came and went, the Bottom Line throughout its fabled history remained true to its co-founders’ profoundly simple vision: that if you presented entertainers in an intimate setting where the focus would always be on what transpired onstage, both artists and audiences would treasure the experience.That vision would ultimately translate to, literally, thousands of magical evenings and events featuring both icons and up-and-comers from across the music universe. As the performers, patrons and staffers who passed through its doors all agree, the Bottom Line realized its founders vision as no New York music club, before or after, ever would.The story of the Bottom Line is the tale of childhood friends who turned their shared dream into a reality – and, through determination, hard work, and, most of all, a belief in each other, made entertainment history, and memories, to last a lifetime. Told by co-founder Allan Pepper and award-winning music journalist Billy Altman, as well as scores of on and offstage participants whose exploits helped create its lasting legacy, Positively Fourth and Mercer: The Inside Story of New York’s Iconic Music Club, The Bottom Line is certain to appeal to anyone interested in music, show business and the inner and outer workings of a legendary club that defined its time in the firmament of New York City nightlife. Positively Fourth and Mercer is about a time and place. It is a love story about friendship, romance, and following a dream.

Covering three generations of Hank Williams, Family Tradition is both unique and vast in scope. Beginning in the present day with Hank III – who gave the author unprecedented access – and time-traveling across the years, this examines just what kind of rebel mojo inspired this crazed family of country music, from Hank Sr. – often regarded as one of the most influential of American musicians – to Hank Jr., to this year's model, Hank III, who has somehow found a way to reconcile his legacy's deep-rooted twang and high-lonesome sound with particularly searing strains of punk and heavy metal, launching an all-out war with traditional Nashville in the process.Listen to Susan Masino live at Book Expo America on the BEA Podcast.

Be a fly on the wall of sound: get the inside history and behind-the-scenes events in the making of a masterpiece. In this refreshing book – which focuses solely on Amy Winehouse's musical artistry, stylistic influences, and creative collaborations with great producers and musicians, instead of her personal problems – Donald Brackett explores pertinent questions about the importance of pop music in contemporary culture.In this incisive and fascinating study of Amy Winehouse's second, and last, album (released in 2006), Back to Black, he opens the door not only to the full experience of this great record but also explores the seductive sonic hook that pop artists always strive for and unearths what makes the record unique, influential, and unforgettable. He reveals the creative steps in its inception and production, the technical virtuosity that makes it special, and why it deserves to be considered a pop classic.In an album that continually strips down the branches of popular music to draw from its muscular trunk, Amy Winehouse (with significant help from producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi) used the deep longing of '60s girl-group pop, such as the Ronettes, to fuel the torch sound she perfected in her debut. Brackett fully considers Winehouse's legacy ten years after her multi-Grammy winning album – exploring the origins of a global cultural phenomenon by examining her roots as a storyteller; studying her swift arrival as a demonic pop diva; the crucially important creative role played by her gifted producers in the studio; the historical musical influences on her style; the soul magic of her superb backup band, the Dap-Kings; ; her live performance style onstage; and her magnetic public image as a video star. Back to Black is also explored song by song in an appreciation of its status as a true pop-art artifact.In the end, it's the songs that make up Back to Black which go far beyond our potentially prurient fascination with the unique singer's early demise five years ago and instead bring vibrantly to life the surprising pop majesty she personified.