101 Essential Rock Records


Book Description

The story behind rockmusics most famous record covers as told by some of music business' most profilic rockstars.




Records of the Rocks


Book Description

Reprint of the original, first published in 1872. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.




The Worst Rock-and-roll Records of All Time


Book Description

A collection of rock's fifty worst singles and albums




Dust & Grooves


Book Description

A photographic look into the world of vinyl record collectors—including Questlove—in the most intimate of environments—their record rooms. Compelling photographic essays from photographer Eilon Paz are paired with in-depth and insightful interviews to illustrate what motivates these collectors to keep digging for more records. The reader gets an up close and personal look at a variety of well-known vinyl champions, including Gilles Peterson and King Britt, as well as a glimpse into the collections of known and unknown DJs, producers, record dealers, and everyday enthusiasts. Driven by his love for vinyl records, Paz takes us on a five-year journey unearthing the very soul of the vinyl community.




The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll


Book Description

In Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1950s, there was hard-edged blues playing on Beale Street, and hillbilly boogie on the outskirts of town. But at Sam Phillips’ Sun Records studio on Union Avenue, there was something different going on – a whole lotta shakin’, rockin’, and rollin’. This is where rock ’n’ roll was born. Sun Records: the company that launched Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins. The label that brought the world, “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” “Breathless,” “I Walk the Line,” “Mystery Train,” “Good Rockin’ Tonight.” The Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll: 70 Years of Sun Records is the official history of this legendary label, and looks at its story in a unique way: through the lens of 70 of its most iconic recordings. From the early days with primal blues artists like Howlin’ Wolf and B.B. King to long nights in the studio with Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, you will see how the label was shaped and how it redefined American music. Accompanying the recordings is the label’s origin story and a look at the mission of the label today, as well as “Sun Spot” sidebars—a fascinating dive into subjects such as how the iconic logo was created, the legendary Million Dollar Quartet sessions, and how the song “Harper Valley, PTA” funded the purchase of the label. Written by two of the most acclaimed music writers of our time, Peter Guralnick and Colin Escott, and featuring hundreds of rare images from the Sun archives as well as a foreword by music legend Jerry Lee Lewis, this is a one-of-a-kind book for anyone who wants to know where it all started.




The Poetics of Rock


Book Description

This title provides a fascinating exploration of recording consciousness and compositional process from the perspective of those who make records.




The Record Men: The Chess Brothers and the Birth of Rock & Roll (Enterprise)


Book Description

"Brilliant; the best book I have ever read about the recording industry; a classic."--Larry King On the south side of Chicago in the late 1940s, two immigrants; one a Jew born in Russia, the other a black blues singer from Mississippi; met and changed the course of musical history. Muddy Waters electrified the blues, and Leonard Chess recorded it. Soon Bo Diddly and Chuck Berry added a dose of pulsating rhythm, and Chess Records captured that, too. Rock & roll had arrived, and an industry was born. In a book as vibrantly and exuberantly written as the music and people it portrays, Rich Cohen tells the engrossing story of how Leonard Chess, with the other record men, made this new sound into a multi-billion-dollar business; aggressively acquiring artists, hard-selling distributors, riding the crest of a wave that would crash over a whole generation. Originally published in hardcover as Machers and Rockers. About the series: Enterprise pairs distinguished writers with stories of the economic forces that have shaped the modern worlds; the institutions, the entrepreneurs, the ideas. Enterprise introduces a new genre; the business book as literature.




Corporate Rock Sucks


Book Description

A no-holds-barred narrative history of the iconic label that brought the world Black Flag, Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, and more, by the co-author of Do What You Want and My Damage. Greg Ginn started SST Records in the sleepy beach town of Hermosa Beach, CA, to supply ham radio enthusiasts with tuners and transmitters. But when Ginn wanted to launch his band, Black Flag, no one was willing to take them on. Determined to bring his music to the masses, Ginn turned SST into a record label. On the back of Black Flag's relentless touring, guerilla marketing, and refusal to back down, SST became the sound of the underground. In Corporate Rock Sucks, music journalist Jim Ruland relays the unvarnished story of SST Records, from its remarkable rise in notoriety to its infamous downfall. With records by Black Flag, Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, Bad Brains, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, and scores of obscure yet influential bands, SST was the most popular indie label by the mid-80s--until a tsunami of legal jeopardy, financial peril, and dysfunctional management brought the empire tumbling down. Throughout this investigative deep-dive, Ruland leads readers through SST's tumultuous history and epic catalog. Featuring never-before-seen interviews with the label's former employees, as well as musicians, managers, producers, photographers, video directors, and label heads, Corporate Rock Sucks presents a definitive narrative history of the '80s punk and alternative rock scenes, and shows how the music industry was changed forever.




Behind the Boards


Book Description

(Music Pro Guide Books & DVDs). The term "soundtrack of our lives" is one commonly tossed around by artists, fans, critics, and historians in discussing rock 'n' roll's timeless hits, spanning every subgenre, from pop to hard rock, heavy metal to new wave. In the pages of Behind the Boards: The Making of Rock 'n' Roll's Greatest Records Revealed , the first definitive rock record-producers' anthology of its kind, readers are taken inside the studio, into the creation of the generations of classic records that collectively make up that soundtrack of our lives. The book appeals to both fans and academic audiences interested in the art of sound recording/record producing, providing a rich demographic spread of potential niche and mainstream markets. This is the first definitive record-producers' anthology to cross every one of rock's subgenres, featuring intimate, first-hand accounts of how the making of many of rock 'n' roll's greatest hits were created, via exclusive interviews with the producers who recorded them. Some of the songs discussed are "Every Breath You Take" by the Police, "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd, "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins, "Smells like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, "Beautiful Day" by U2, "One" by Metallica, "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC, "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys, "Jane Says" by Jane's Addiction, "Sledge Hammer" by Peter Gabriel, and "Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith, among countless others by legends like Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, the Pixies, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Journey, Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Sting, Tom Waits, Smashing Pumpkins, Pink, John Mellencamp, the Black Crowes, New Order, Ministry, Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, and many more.




Broken Records


Book Description

In 1991, Snezana Zabic lost her homeland and most of her family's book and record collection during the Yugoslav Wars that had been sparked by Slobodan Milosevic's relentless pursuit of power. She became a teenage refugee, forced to flee Croatia and the atrocities of war that had leveled her hometown of Vukovar. She and her family remained refugees in Serbia until NATO bombed Belgrade in 1999. After witnessing the first nights of NATO's bombing, Zabic took flight again. She moved from country to country, city to city, finally settling in Chicago. She realized - reluctantly, because she didn't want to relive the past - that she had to write about what had happened, what she had left behind, and what she had lost. Broken Records is the story of this loss, told with unflinching honesty, free of sentimentality or sensationalism. For the very first time, we learn how it felt to be first a regular teenager during the breakup of Yugoslavia and the ensuing wars, and then a 30-something adult, perennially troubled by one's uprooted existence. Broken Records is not a neat narrative but a bit of everything - part bildungsroman, part memoir, part political poetry, part personal pop culture compendium. And while Zabic represents a Yugoslav diasporan subject, her book also belongs to an international generation whose formative years straddle the Cold War and the global reconfiguration of wealth and power, whose lives were spent shifting from the vinyl/analog era to the cyber/digital era. This generation knows that when they were told about history ending, they were told a lie.