Legendary Australian showman Dave Graney returns to the page and reveals the lengths he has gone to avoid anything that really feels like work. In his inimitable style, Graney veers from a feckless childhood in blue-collar South Australia, to the punk rock scene of 1980s London, and beer-soaked nights touring Australia where he worked very hard at not working at all.But in slacking off, Graney became one of the hardest working musicians in the industry, constantly evolving, reinven...

David Nichols tells the story of Australian rock and pop music from 1960 to 1985 formative years in which the nation cast off its colonial cultural shackles and took on the world.Generously illustrated and scrupulously researched, Dig combines scholarly accuracy with populist flair. Nichols is an unfailingly witty and engaging guide, surveying the fertile and varied landscape of Australian popular music in seven broad historical chapters, interspersed with shorter chapte...

In Quarterly Essay 53, Paul Toohey looks at one of Tony Abbott’s signature promises: to stop the boats. Has his government succeeded? If so, at what cost? In Java, Toohey observes asylum seekers heading for Australia and reports on the Indonesian response. He tells the stories of individual refugees, looks closely at people- smugglers in action, and witnesses the aftermath of a sinking at sea. Toohey also examines Australian attitudes to refugees, and what politicians have made of them. He...

This insider's account of the lives of Brian Jones, Keith Richard, and Mick Jagger in the sixties and seventies has become legendary in the years since its first publication in 1979. Tony Sanchez worked for Keith Richard for eight years - buying drugs, running errands, and orchestrating cheap thrills - and he records unforgettable accounts of the Stones' perilous misadventures: racing cars along the Cote d'Azur; murder at Altamont; nostalgic nights with the Beatles at the Stones-owned nigh...

Interest in Pink Floyd remains as intense as ever even 40 years after the release of Dark Side of the Moon, with lavish box-sets collecting demos and out-takes, and Roger Waters’ world tours of The Wall playing to packed stadiums.Now, Mark Blake’s superbly comprehensive and engrossing history of the group, rightly acclaimed as the definitive book on the band, has been fully revised and extended with new interviews to bring the story up to date with the recent appearances of David Gi...

A vibrant biography of one of the greatest rock 'n' rollers, the America that made him, and the America he made.Smart and incisive, this unique book takes us through Bruce Springsteen’s life by tracing the cultural, political, and personal forces that shaped his music. Beyond his constant stylistic adaptations, Springsteen developed over the decades from expressing the voice of a guy from working-class New Jersey to writing about the larger issues facing the country, including war,...

From the author of the critically acclaimed Elvis Presley biography: Last Train to Memphis brings us the life of Sam Phillips, the visionary genius who singlehandedly steered the revolutionary path of Sun Records.The music that he shaped in his tiny Memphis studio with artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Ike Turner, Howlin' Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash, introduced a sound that had never been heard before. He brought forth a singular mix of black...

A deeply personal, revealing, and lyrical portrait of Duane Allman, founder of the legendary Allman Brothers Band, written by his daughter“Duane Allman was my big brother, my partner, my best friend. I thought I knew everything there was to know about him, but Galadrielle’s deep and insightful book came as a revelation to me, as it will to everyone who reads it.”—Gregg AllmanGaladrielle Allman went to her first concert as an infant in diape...

A headbanger's treasure with color photos, band histories, memorabilia and more: "Eddie Trunk knows more about most bands than they know about themselves." —Sammy HagarIn the much-anticipated sequel to the bestselling Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, Trunk picks up where he left off by featuring thirty-five new bands, both legendary and forgotten, and sharing his passion for all things metal.Complete with his favorite playlists, ban...

For his 2007 critically acclaimed 33 1/3 series title, Let's Talk About Love, Carl Wilson went on a quest to find his inner Céline Dion fan and explore how we define ourselves by what we call good and bad, what we love and what we hate.At once among the most widely beloved and most reviled and lampooned pop stars of the past few decades, Céline Dion's critics call her mawkish and overblown while millions of fans around the world adore her “huge pipes” and even bigger feeli...

The Byrds - My Way (Volume 1) is a first-hand description of the inner workings of the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers: written by James 'Jimmi' Seiter (Road Manager, and much more). It sets the record and previous assumptions straight as to what was really going on, from detailed personal, first-hand experience. He takes you on his journey which began in 1966; telling his version of events as he lived them in the form of 42 stories. It elaborates on the hard work that went on behind the...

Alan Cross is the preeminent chronicler of popular music.Here he provides a history of Chris Martin and Coldplay.This look at the "rock band that doesn’t rock in the traditional sense" is adapted from the audiobook.