What’s in it
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorBlues All Around Me: The Autobiography of B.B. King
B.B. King, David Ritz · 344 pages
Riley B. King grew up amidst the cotton farms of Mississippi, picking in the fields. At age 21 he wrecked a tractor and took it as a sign that a brighter future awaited him as a musician in Memphis. The rest is history. Recounting his days as a disk jockey and pioneering bluesman on the rhythm and blues circuit, B. B. dramatizes his whirlwind adventures, from the Memphis of the forties to the M
Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul
James McBride · 244 pages
"A product of the complicated history of the American South, James Brown was a cultural shape-shifter who arguably had the greatest influence of any artist on American popular music. Brown was long a figure of fascination for James McBride, a noted professional musician as well as a writer. When he received a tip that promised to uncover the man behind the myth, McBride set off to follow a trail t
Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago's South Side to the World
Robert Palmer · 310 pages
Last Train to Memphis The Rise of Elvis Presley
Peter Guralnick · 578 pages
Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story
Rick Bragg · 505 pages
"A monumental figure on the American landscape, Jerry Lee Lewis spent his childhood raising hell in Ferriday, Louisiana, and Natchez, Mississippi; galvanized the world with hit records like "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls of Fire," that gave rock and roll its devil's edge; caused riots and boycotts with his incendiary performances; nearly scuttled his career by marrying his thirtee
Cash
Johnny Cash, Patrick Carr · 320 pages
He was the "Man in Black," a country music legend, and the quintessential American troubadour. He was an icon of rugged individualism who had been to hell and back, telling the tale as never before. In his unforgettable autobiography, Johnny Cash tells the truth about the highs and lows, the struggles and hard-won triumphs, and the people who shaped him. In his own words, Cash set the record st
Please Be with Me: A Song for My Father, Duane Allman
Galadrielle Allman · 385 pages
Portrait of Duane Allman, founder of the legendary Allman Brothers Band, written by his daughter Galadrielle.
Blues People: The Negro Experience In White America And The Music That Developed From It
LeRoi Jones, Amiri Baraka · 244 pages
"...the first book on jazz by a negro writer...new and highly provocative conclusions bolstered by bothe history and sociology...a must for all who could more knowledgeably appreciate and better comprehend America's most popular music, Negros in origin -Blues based- but now belonging to everybody." Langston Hugues "*Blues people* is not only a fresh, incisively instructive reinterpretation of
The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song
Frank M. Young, David Lasky · 191 pages
This biography is a moving account that reveals the Carter family's rise to success, their struggles along the way, and their impact on contemporary music.
Shout because you're free
Rosenbaum, Art., Art Rosenbaum, Margo Newmark Rosenbaum · 216 pages
Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original
Robin D.G. Kelley · 588 pages
His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of "bebop" and establishing Monk as one of America's greatest composers. Yet throughout much of his life, his musical contribution took a backseat to tales of his reputed behavior. Writers tended to obsess over Monk's hats or his proclivity to dance on stage. To his fans, he was the ultimate
Miles: The Autobiography
Miles Davis, Quincy Troupe · 448 pages
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America
Tricia Rose · 237 pages
Discusses the elements of rap music, including its lyrics, music, culture, and style, and looks at the impact of rap music.
Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong
Terry Teachout · 475 pages
Louis Armstrong was the greatest jazz musician of the twentieth century and a giant of modern American culture. Offstage he was witty, introspective and unexpectedly complex, a beloved colleague with an explosive temper whose larger-than-life personality was tougher and more sharp-edged than his worshipping fans ever knew. Wall Street Journal arts columnist Terry Teachout has drawn on new sources
The Beatles Anthology
The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, George Harrison · 368 pages
"Here, for the first time in print, is the history of the Beatles--by the Beatles. The extraordinary project has been made possible because Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr have agreed to tell their combined story especially for this book. Together with Yoko Ono Lennon, they have also made available the full transcripts (including all the outtakes) of the television and video series
Rip it Up and Start Again
Simon Reynolds · 664 pages
Rip It Up and Start Again is the first book-length exploration of the wildly adventurous music created in the years after punk. Renowned music journalist Simon Reynolds celebrates the futurist spirit of such bands as Joy Division, Gang of Four, Talking Heads, and Devo, which resulted in endless innovations in music, lyrics, performance, and style and continued into the early eighties with the vide
Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles
Geoff Emerick, Howard Massey · 400 pages
A fascinating memoir featuring never-before-told stories from Beatles recording engineer Geoff Emerick—the industry legend who made music history by crafting the groundbreaking sound of the group’s most famous records, including Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, and Abbey Road Geoff Emerick was only fifteen years old when he began working with the Beatles as assistant engineer for their early classics "I Wan
Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America
Jonathan Gould · 661 pages
A cultural and musical history of the 1960s in Britain and America captures the pulse of the era through the music of the Beatles, critically analyzing why the group became a trans-Atlantic phenomenon while discussing the evolution of the group's music.
Everybody's Fly: A Life of Art, Music, and Changing the Culture
Fab 5 Freddy · 336 pages
Life
Keith Richards · 592 pages
Autobiography of the guitarist, songwriter, singer, and founding member of the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards. With the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards lived the original rock and roll life. He tells his story of life in the crossfire hurricane; his listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records, learning guitar and forming a band with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, the Rolling Stones'
Lady Sings the Blues
Billie Holiday, William Dufty · 215 pages
In a memoir that is as poignant, lyrical, and dramatic as her legendary performances, Billie Holiday tells her own story. She recalls a turbulent adolescence in Harlem during the 1920s, the excitement of working in New York City's famous jazz clubs with the musicians who brought jazz to the forefront of American culture, and her own dazzling rise to the top. The darker side of the Holiday legend i