From the start, Lou Reed challenged the conventions of rock music. In 1964 he co-founded The Velvet Underground, the subversive New York cult band.Lou Reed, the self-styled poet and godfather to the punk generation spent over 40 years as a hypnotic performer, unrepentant rebel and scourge of the media.Lou Reed: The Defining Years focuses on the defining period that was to shape the rock ‘n’ roll animal who held out until the very end.

From their 1962 debut single Love Me Do to the most recent remastered albums, this is an album-by-album, track-by-track catalogue of every songs ever released by The BeatlesIncludes:A chronology of key events in the life of the greatest ever rock bandSeparate sections on compilation albums, the Anthology series and non-EMI recordingsEight pages of colour picturesThis is the books th...

For the first time, Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor speaks directly to his fans and shares his worldview about life as a sinner. And Taylor knows how to sin. As a small-town hero in the early '90s, he threw himself into a fierce-drinking, drug-abusing, hard-loving, live-for-the moment life. Soon Taylor's music exploded, and he found himself rich, wanted, and on the road. His new and ever-more extreme lifestyle had an unexpected effect, however; for the first time, he began to...

Clashing together outrageous musical influences and extravagantly visual imagery, Queen's place in history as the greatest glam band of them all is rock solid. Their fan base continues to grow, a decade and a half on from the death of Freddy Mercury, Queen's super-charismatic front man. Georg Purvis's meticulous, session-by-session, song-by-song, album-by-album, tour-by-tour record of the band's progress is the complete reference source that Queen fans have been waiting for. If you love th...

Finding Fogerty: Interdisciplinary Readings of John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival, edited by Thomas M. Kitts, begins to correct the scholarly neglect of John Fogerty, one of America’s great songwriters, one of the rock era’s great vocalists, and one of its underrated guitarists and producers. This essential collection pulls together scholars from a wide range of disciplines and approaches to assess Fogerty’s fifty-year career and to argue for his musical and cultural significanc...

Bernard Sumner pioneered the post-punk movement when he broke onto the scene as a founding member of Joy Division, and later as the front man of New Order. Heavily influencing U2 and The Cure while paving the way for post-punk revivalists like Interpol, Sumner's has left an indelible mark on punk and rock music that endures to this day.Famously reluctant to speak out, for the first time Sumner tell his story, a vivid and illuminating account of his childhood in Manchester, the early...

The most authentic memoir of Freddie Mercury—now in the Remastered Series from Omnibus Press.Peter Freestone was Freddie Mercury’s personal assistant for the last 12 years of his life. He lived with Mercury in London, Munich, and New York, and was by his side when he died.In this book, Freestone paints a striking portrait of the man behind the myth. The result is a compelling, entertaining, and ultimately, very touching memoir. From their first mee...

The definitive biography of Thin Lizzy's charismatic lead singer . Using dozens of interviews with family, friends and band members, Putterford gives a touching and sometimes shocking account of the life of the one and only black Irish rock legend.

Spacemen 3 are the greatest rock band of which you've never heard. This briefly surveys the backgrounds of songwriters Pete 'Sonic Boom' Kember and Jason 'Spacemen' Pierce during their childhood years and adolescent collaborations, from which would forge cult-icons Spacemen 3. It recounts the highs and lows of a backwater band whose history is littered with excess, heroin addiction and ambition. Author Erik Morse also paints a history of the British indie-rock scene of the mid 80s from its...

**"The best book yet about The Doors." --BooklistNow available as an ebook for the first time...the inside story of the Doors, by cofounder and keyboard player Ray Manzarek. Includes 16 pages of photos.**"A refreshingly candid read...a Doors bio worth opening." --Entertainment WeeklyNo other band has ever sounded quite like the Doors, and no other frontman has ever transfixed an audience quite the way Jim Morrison did. Ray Manzarek, the ban...

"A winning look at the stories behind 45 pop, punk, folk, soul and country classics" in the words of Mick Jagger, Stevie Wonder, Cyndi Lauper and more ( The Washington Post).Every great song has a fascinating backstory. And here, writer and music historian Marc Myers brings to life five decades of music through oral histories of forty-five era-defining hits woven from interviews with the artists who created them, including such legendary tunes as the Isley...

The indispensable consumers' guide to the music of Frank Zappa - the genius of the absurd, and one of the most prolific and unpredictable characters of 20th century music.A thorough analysis of Zappa's complete recorded output, from the early days of the Mothers Of Invention, through his more avant-garde compositions and classical projects to the most recent posthumous releases. The guide features:An album by album analysisA full Zappa bibliographyDetails of when an...