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Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn

David Hajdu · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

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Freddie Mercury: The Definitive Biography

Lesley-Ann Jones · 471 pages

"...In this outstanding biography, former rock journalist Lesley-Ann Jones, who toured with Queen, mines mythology, rumour and gossip to reveal a shy and enchanting individual. From Freddie's birth [as Farook Bulsara] on Zanzibar and his school days in India, to his family's escape to London, Queen's phenomenal success and [his] tragic death from AIDS ..."--Jacket.

MusicMusic HistoryBiographyNonfiction
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Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke

Peter Guralnick · 759 pages

Acclaimed Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick returns with a revealing portrait of Sam Cooke--a black performer who appealed to white audiences, wrote his own songs, and controlled his own business destiny. Fully capturing Cooke's accomplishments, "Dream Boogie" also conveys the astonishing richness of the black America of this era. 55 b/w photos.

Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction
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Never Fade Away: The Kurt Cobain Story

Dave Thompson · 172 pages

Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction
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Robert Plant: A Life

Paul Rees · 368 pages

Robert Plant is a living legend. The front man of Led Zeppelin, one of the biggest and most influential rock bands of all time, Plant defined the very notion of what it means to be a rock god. The sheer scale of Led Zeppelin's success is extraordinary. In the United States alone they have sold seventy million records, a figure surpassed only by the Beatles, while "Stairway to Heaven," the band's m

Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction
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The One: The Life and Music of James Brown

R.J. Smith · 455 pages

A tribute to the life and achievements of the "Godfather of Soul" covers his unconventional youth in a segregated South, his complicated family life, and his work as a civil rights advocate and entrepreneur.

Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction
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Johnny Cash: The Life

Robert Hilburn · 679 pages

A noted music critic who knew him tells the unvarnished truth about Cash, whose personal life was far more troubled and his artistry much more profound than even his most devoted fans have realized.

Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction
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Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic

Jim Derogatis · 341 pages

"Let It Blurt is the biography of Lester Bangs (1949-82) - the gonzo journalist, gutter poet, and romantic visionary of rock criticism. He lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, guzzling booze and Romilar like water, matching its energy in prose that erupted from the pages of Rolling Stone, Creem, and The Village Voice. Bangs agitated in the seventies for sounds that were harsher, louder, more electri

Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction
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Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer

Chris Salewicz · 660 pages

The Clash was--and still is--one of the most important groups of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Indebted to rockabilly, reggae, Memphis soul, cowboy justice, and '60s protest, the overtly political band railed against war, racism, and a dead-end economy, and in the process imparted a conscience to punk. Their eponymous first record and London Calling still rank in Rolling Stone's top-ten best alb

Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction
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Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington

Terry Teachout · 483 pages

Edward Kennedy 'Duke' Ellington was arguably the greatest jazz composer of the twentieth century - and an impenetrably enigmatic personality whom no one, not even his closest friends, claimed to understand. His music, too, was powerful and entirely original. Andre Previn compared him to Stravinsky and Prokofiev, Percy Grainger to Bach and Delius. But in fact he was very much his own man. The grand

Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction
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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

Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction
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Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction
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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.

Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction
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Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction
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Crazy Diamond: Syd Barrett and the Dawn of Pink Floyd

Mike Watkinson, Pete Anderson · 192 pages

Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction
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The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story

Vivek J. Tiwary · 168 pages

"In 1961, twenty-seven-year-old Brian Epstein walked into a dank Liverpool basement to see an unknown rock band perform--and our world was forever changed. The fifth Beatle is Epstein's untold true story: the tale of a genuine visionary who discovered, managed, and guided the Beatles to unprecedented international stardom, rewriting the rule of the pop music business in the process. But Brian Epst

MusicMusic HistoryBiographyNonfiction
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Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend

Stephen Davis · 482 pages

"Jim Morrison's poetic vision, electrifying live performances, and voracious appetite for sexual, spiritual, and psychedelic experience inflamed the spirit and psyche of a generation. During his scorching rise to stardom as the lead singer of the Doors in the 1960s, his voice and lyrics reached out to the darkest thoughts and most passionate desires of fans around the world." "In Jim Morrison, cr

MusicMusic HistoryBiographyNonfiction
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Lennon: The Definitive Biography

Ray Coleman · 784 pages

The long-time friend of John Lennon draws on his personal knowledge and the cooperation of Lennon's family and friends to detail the popular musician's life, career, and influence.

MusicMusic HistoryBiographyNonfiction
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Paul McCartney: The Life

Philip Norman · 864 pages

MusicMusic HistoryBiographyNonfiction
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Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician

Christoph Wolff · 620 pages

Finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Biography. A landmark biography of Bach on the 250th anniversary of the composer's death, written by the leading Bach scholar of our age. Although we have heard the music of J. S. Bach in countless performances and recordings, the composer himself still comes across only as an enigmatic figure in a single familiar portrait. As we mark the 250th anniversar

MusicMusic HistoryBiographyNonfiction
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Skydog - The Duane Allman Story

Randy Poe · 320 pages

MusicMusic HistoryBiographyNonfiction
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Mozart

Paul Johnson · 200 pages

A superb examination of Mozart and his glorious music by eminent historian Paul Johnson.

MusicMusic HistoryBiographyNonfiction
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Mozart

Maynard Solomon · 648 pages

Mozart: A Life is based on an unsurpassed knowledge of the documentary sources, including numerous documents that have not previously appeared in any biography of the composer. It offers a beautifully written and absorbing narrative of Mozart's life, from his birth in 1756 and childhood in Salzburg to the extraordinary decade of acclaimed performances in the capitals of Europe, where he was honore

Music HistoryMusicBiographyNonfiction

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