Bet My Soul on Rock 'n' Roll


Book Description

The life and career of Haitian American musician Jean Beauvoir, a member of the legendary New York City punk band the Plasmatics Jean Beauvoir joined the Plasmatics in 1979, playing bass and keyboards for the most notorious band to emerge out of the New York City punk scene. By 1982, he was a member of Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, a retro-rock revival act headed by Steven Van Zandt. The Disciples of Soul videos played on MTV during the network's earliest years, making Beauvoir one of the first Black recording artists to cross the start-up music channel's "color line." Beauvoir went on to become a multi-platinum artist, producer, and songwriter. Bet My Soul on Rock 'n' Roll follows his ride through the American music industry, detailing his encounters with rock stars such as Bruce Springsteen, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, and Lita Ford, as well as the actor Sylvester Stallone, the billionaire executive Richard Branson, and even Donald Trump. Beauvoir also considers the manner in which his Haitian heritage has shaped his public image, his music, and his role as an activist for the dispossessed and the poor. Beauvoir's collaborations—and stories—span genres, including work with KISS, Debbie Harry, Lionel Richie, and the Ramones




Solidarity Forever


Book Description

Solidarity Forever is the definitive account of the musical journey of the music legend of Disciples of Soul, Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, and anti-apartheid project Sun City fame, Little Steven Van Zandt. Following Van Zandt’s unforgettable sixty-year (and counting!) career from his beginnings with the Asbury Jukes and Springsteen to leading the Disciples of Soul, from touring, arranging, and producing timeless music to playing an onscreen gangster in The Sopranos and Lilyhammer, Solidarity Forever is packed with a level of detail that will impress devotees and enchant new fans. Every song, every album, every single, live shows; bootlegs, production credits, covers, activism—everything is covered here and presented alongside fascinating interviews of over forty past and present band members and Van Zandt himself. A stunning work of music journalism and love letter to rock ‘n’ roll, Solidarity Forever delivers Little Steven’s story and the timeless messages of his music like never before. “This is no time to be fighting each other What we need, what we need is solidarity.”




Adrianne Geffel: A Fiction


Book Description

This never-before-told story of the life and work of a (fictitious) musical phenomenon is "a revealing?and at times hilarious?satire of the music business, fame, and the cult of personality" (Clea Simon, Boston Globe). Adrianne Geffel was a genius. Praised as the “Geyser of Grand Street” and the “Queen of Bleak Chic,” she was a one-of-a-kind artist, a pianist and composer with a rare neurological condition that enabled her to make music that was nothing less than pure, unmediated emotional expression. She and her sensibility are now fully integrated into the cultural lexicon; her music has been portrayed, represented, and appropriated endlessly in popular culture. But what do we really know about her? Despite her renown, Adrianne Geffel vanished from public life, and her whereabouts remain a mystery to this day. David Hajdu cuts through the noise to tell, for the first time, the full story of Geffel’s life and work, piecing it together through the memories of those who knew her, inspired her, and exploited her—her parents, teachers, best friend, manager, critics, and lovers. Adrianne Geffel made music so strange, so compelling, so utterly unique that it is simply not to be believed. Hajdu has us believing every note of it in this slyly entertaining work of fiction. A brilliantly funny satire, with characters that leap off the page, Adrianne Geffel is a vividly twisted evocation of the New York City avant-garde of the 1970s and ’80s, and a strangely moving portrait of a world both utterly familiar and like none we’ve ever encountered.




Lived Through That


Book Description

90s nostalgia is entering full bloom. Indeed, one of 2021's biggest tours is poised to be Alanis Morrisette with openers Garbage and Liz Phair. This is the music Generation X came of age listening to--the songs that millennials cut their teeth on. In Lived Through This, seasoned photographer and music enthusiast Mike Hipple shares personal and engaging photographic portraits of dozens of the 90s' greatest artists. Each portrait is paired with an interview that reveals the details of each musician's time in the limelight and where their lives have taken them. Their words and images are open, honest, inspiring, and revealing, offering profound and humorous memories and gems of wisdom that will resonate with fans and music lovers alike. From Nivana's Krist Novoselic to Magnapop's Ruthie Morris and Linda Hopper to Arrested Development's Speech, the portraits and stories featured in Lived Through This cover a wide range of rock, rap, and indie stars. Whether they were chart toppers or underground sensations, the artists in Hipple's epic collection tell the story and reawaken the songs of a pivotal generation of musicians.




Do What You Want


Book Description

From their beginnings as teenagers experimenting in a San Fernando Valley garage dubbed "The Hell Hole" to headlining major music festivals around the world, discover the whole story of Bad Religion's forty-year career in irreverent style. Do What You Want's principal storytellers are the four voices that define Bad Religion: Greg Graffin, a Wisconsin kid who sang in the choir and became an L.A. punk rock icon while he was still a teenager; Brett Gurewitz, a high school dropout who founded the independent punk label Epitaph Records and went on to become a record mogul; Jay Bentley, a surfer and skater who gained recognition as much for his bass skills as for his antics on and off the stage; and Brian Baker, a founding member of Minor Threat who joined the band in 1994 and brings a fresh perspective as an intimate outsider. With a unique blend of melodic hardcore and thought-provoking lyrics, Bad Religion paved the way for the punk rock explosion of the 1990s, opening the door for bands like NOFX, The Offspring, Rancid, Green Day, and Blink-182 to reach wider audiences. They showed the world what punk could be, and they continue to spread their message one song, one show, one tour at a time.




Seeing Stevie Ray


Book Description

It may be difficult to say anything about Stevie Ray Vaughan that hasn’t already been said. The skinny kid from Oak Cliff on the south side of Dallas who followed his older brother Jimmie in and out of local blues clubs and eventually to Austin would go on to establish himself as the finest guitar player of his generation and perhaps the best of all time. Vaughan was truly a conduit for the symphony of the universe. The music that flowed through him endeared him to hordes of fans and won him near-divine status among guitarists. Vaughan continues to inspire and enthrall even decades after his passing. What others have attempted to portray in prose, photographer Tracy Anne Hart has expressed in imagery. From 1983 until just before his death in 1990, Hart captured Vaughan as he summoned magic with his passion, his technique, his intensity, and his love and respect for the music. The result is a deeply felt visual portrait of Stevie Ray Vaughan that tells us almost as much about the photographer behind the camera as it does about the musician in front. Through Hart’s eyes and mind, readers will experience his genius in an entirely new way. Hart also provides a glimpse at Vaughan’s legacy, offering evidence of some of the next generation of guitarists who consider Vaughan a principal influence. The sum of her efforts comprises a work that offers a visual feast for guitar enthusiasts and music fans in Texas and beyond. Enjoy the photographs and remember to listen to Stevie’s music as often and as loudly as possible!




Twenty-nine Years from Home


Book Description

The year is 1969, but just yesterday it was 2001. Chuck Elliot is a forty-nine-year-old family man, but in the blink of an eye, he finds himself morphed into a seventeen-year-old, transported back to the sixties along with his brother and three high school buddies. The middle-aged, accidental time travelers are shocked and bewildered by their jump back in time. How did they get there? And more importantly, how do they get back? As they piece together a truly unbelievable reality, Chuck suspects it is somehow related to the translator—a handheld device his eccentric neighbor, Professor Jonathon Cornelius, left him mysteriously upon his death. Now the younger version of the professor is their only hope if they're ever to return to their lives and loved ones. In the meantime, the five friends hatch a plan to try and blend in, reliving their high school days and making the most of their time Twenty-Nine Years from Home. Astounded by their physical transformations from receding hairlines and bulging spare tires to the gangly, long-haired teenagers of their youth, some revel in the opportunity to be young again and right past wrongs, while others, like Chuck, want nothing more than the life left behind. But if their time travel alters the past, will life as he knew it be compromised?




The Trivia Book of Rock 'N' Roll Music


Book Description

From Aaliyah to ZZ Top, author Jimmy Correa covers it all in The Trivia Book of Rock 'N' Roll Music: The 80s and 90s-an essential guide to musical factoids. The easy-to-read multiple choice format makes trivia fun while you learn interesting tidbits about all types of music and artists from the 80s and 90s, including pop, country, R & B, one-hit wonders, and the British and foreign invasions. Enjoy questions such as the following: This romantic song by Chris DeBurgh was featured in the 1988 soundtrack of the movie Working Girl, starring Melanie Griffith Sir Mix-A-Lot, the male rapper, charted this song about the female body part that he likes the most Eric Clapton had a hit with this song in 1992 that was written in tribute to his son LeAnn Rimes, the talented, young country singer, gained her stardom by recording this song about loneliness at the tender age of fourteen Marc Cohn recorded this hit song in 1991 about a journey in the Delta Blues Correa draws on his extensive collection of music paraphernalia to share his love of music with others in The Trivia Book of Rock 'N' Roll Music: The 80s and 90s. Long live rock 'n' roll!




Bette Midler


Book Description

This is a fascinating book that brings that brings to life the dynamic redhead.




TV-a-Go-Go


Book Description

From Elvis and a hound dog wearing matching tuxedos and the comic adventures of artificially produced bands to elaborate music videos and contrived reality-show contests, television--as this critical look brilliantly shows--has done a superb job of presenting the energy of rock in a fabulously entertaining but patently "fake" manner. The dichotomy of "fake" and "real" music as it is portrayed on television is presented in detail through many generations of rock music: the Monkees shared the charts with the Beatles, Tupac and Slayer fans voted for corny American Idols, and shows like" Shindig! "and "Soul Train "somehow captured the unhinged energy of rock far more effectively than most long-haired guitar-smashing acts. Also shown is how TV has often delighted in breaking the rules while still mostly playing by them: Bo Diddley defied Ed Sullivan and sang rock and roll after he had been told not to, the Chipmunks' subversive antics prepared kids for punk rock, and things got out of hand when" Saturday Night Live "invited punk kids to attend a taping of the band Fear. Every aspect of the idiosyncratic history of rock and TV and their peculiar relationship is covered, including cartoon rock, music programming for African American audiences, punk on television, Michael Jackson's life on TV, and the tortured history of MTV and its progeny.