In 1972, David Ackles’s third album, American Gothic, was released to a flurry of press plaudits declaring it to be ‘the Sgt Pepper of folk’ and one of the greatest records ever made. Yet the album, like its two predecessors, failed to sell, and after one more record, its creator simply vanished. He found work, raised a family, and died a couple of decades later, having never made another record.Today, Ackles’s music is largely consigned to the streaming n...

The late Lowell George is best known as the lead singer, slide guitarist, songwriter and producer of Little Feat. George's humor and surreal lyrics became a Little Feat trademark, making songs like “Fat Man in the Bathtub” and “Dixie Chicken” unforgettable. Rock and Roll Doctor explores the genius that animated Little Feat – from George's early bands to his work with Frank Zappa, landmark albums such as Feats Don't Fail Me Now and The Last Record Album, and his l...

New York Times–Bestseller: A "sharp, funny, jaw-dropping" portrait of Warren Zevon told by friends, family, fellow musicians, and his own diaries ( Publishers Weekly, starred review).When Warren Zevon died in 2003, he left behind a rich catalog of dark, witty rock and roll classics, including "Lawyers, Guns and Money," "Excitable Boy," and the immortal "Werewolves of London." He also left behind a fanatical cult following and veritable rock opera o...

An epic joyride through three history-making tours in 1973 that defined rock and roll superstardom—the money, the access, the excess—forevermore.The Who’s Quadrophenia. Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy. Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies. These three unprecedented tours—and the albums that inspired them—were the most ambitious of these artists’ careers, and they forever changed the landscape of rock and roll: the economics, the privile...

One of heavy metal's most iconic figures gives an insider's look into the loud and sordid world of thrash metal—sex, drugs, and rock n' roll included.New York Times Bestseller"Dave Mustaine's memoir is the narrative of a struggling, hard-won music career. It is also a story of survival, redemption and faith. . . . Transcending simple religion and music, Mustaine's Heavy Metal Memoir will leave you moved an...

"Hoskyns brings a genuine love as well as an outsider's keen eye to the rise and fall of the California scene. . . . This is a riveting story, sensitively told."—Anthony DeCurtis, Contributing Editor, Rolling StoneFrom enduring musical achievements to drug-fueled chaos and bed-hopping antics, the L.A. pop music scene in the sixties and seventies was like no other, and journalist Barney Hoskyns re-creates all the excitement and mayhem. Hotel Cali...

“Steven Tyler is one of the giants of American music, who’s been influential for a whole generation of Rock ’n’ Roll fans around the world. Long May He Rock!”—Sir Paul McCartneyDoes the Noise in My Head Bother You? is the rock memoir to end all rock memoirs—the straight-up, no-holds-barred life of Grammy Award-winning, Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and all around superstar legend Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith (and celebrity judge on American Idol...

Frank Zappa's reputation as one of rock's maverick geniuses has continued to grow since his death in 1993. This successful biography has now been revised and reprinted and is still the most comprehensive chronicle of his extraordinary life and career. Neil Slaven has brilliantly brought together the complex strands of Zappa's life and work in a book that will please not just Zappa fans but anyone interested in the history of rock music. Fully illustrated and includes a comprehensive discog...

The basis for the new hit documentary 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything, now streaming on Apple TV+.A rollicking look at 1971, rock’s golden year, the year that saw the release of the indelible recordings of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Who, Rod Stewart, Carole King, the Rolling Stones, and others and produced more classics than any other year in rock history.The Sixties ended a year late. On New Year...

Organised chronologically and spanning seven decades, The MOJO Collection presents an authoritative and engaging guide to the history of the pop album via hundreds of long-playing masterpieces, from the much-loved to the little known.From The Beatles to The Verve, from Duke Ellington to King Tubby and from Peggy Lee to Sly Stone, hundreds of albums are covered in detail with chart histories, full track and personnel listings and further listening suggestions. There's also exhaustiv...

Ambitious and groundbreaking, Electric Shock tells the story of popular music, from the birth of recording in the 1890s to the digital age, from the first pop superstars of the twentieth century to the omnipresence of music in our lives, in hit singles, ringtones and on Spotify.Over that time, popular music has transformed the world in which we live. Its rhythms have influenced how we walk down the street, how we face ourselves in the mirror, and how we handle the outside ...

"[Stanley is] as clear-eyed about music as he is crazy in love with it." —Mikael Wood, Los Angeles TimesA monumental work of musical history, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! traces the story of pop music through songs, bands, musical scenes, and styles from Bill Haley and the Comets’ “Rock around the Clock” (1954) to Beyoncé’s first megahit, “Crazy in Love” (2003). Bob Stanley—himself a musician, music critic, and fan—teases out the connections and tensions tha...