Rock Art

Nick has been fantastically involved throughout the production of this download, so that it has become something far more than simply an author reading his work. For once, we can genuinely say this illustrated audiobook comes complete with bells and whistles, not to mention some Arctic winds, Venetian canals, telephones, aeroplanes, and a squealing pig or two!

An incisive portrait of a culture unanchored and adrift. In these pieces, veteran MTV commentator and rock journalist Kurt Loder turns his jaundiced eye and trenchant wit on the nature of celebrity as embodied by rock musicians and other pop culture icons. Ride along as Mick Jagger sheds his bad-boy image to embrace the jet-setter lifestyle; ponder the puzzling dichotomy between Prince's racy lyrics and self-proclaimed spirituality; and much more.

When Pete Shelley, lead singer of legendary punk band Buzzcocks, passed away in 2018, we lost one of music's brightest stars - as well as the chance to hear his story. Or so it seemed. Recordings have surfaced of a series of remarkable interviews in which Pete tells the story of his life, his band and his place at the beating heart of the punk explosion in fascinating detail. These remarkable recordings have now been brought back to life by professional actors in this audio edition of Ever Fallen in Love: The Lost Buzzcocks Tapes.

Sex. Drugs. Loud music. Wild costumes. Dazzling light shows. These words can all describe a great rock concert or a hot dance club, but they were also part and parcel of the ancient cultural phenomenon known as the "Mystery religions". In this book, author Christopher Knowles shows how the long-dead Mystery religions got a secular reincarnation when a new musical form called rock 'n' roll burst onto the scene.

Of all the musical developments of rock in the 1960s, one in particular fundamentally changed the music's structure and listening experience: the incorporation of extended improvisation into live performances. While many bands—including Cream, Pink Floyd, and the Velvet Underground—stretched out their songs with improvisations, no band was more identified with the practice than the Grateful Dead. In Get Shown the Light Michael Kaler examines how the Dead's dedication to improvisation stemmed from their belief that playing in this manner enabled them to touch upon transcendence.

Rebellious, headstrong, independent and on her own at 15, Lorelei dreamed of being a model. She made that happen through determination and serendipity; a chance meeting with a '70s Southern California rock star opened the A-list Hollywood doors to a wondrous world, as well as a full-blown romance. Pounding the pavement in L.A. and New York taught her the hard knocks of being a working-class model.

Howard Bloom - called “the greatest press agent that rock and roll has ever known” by Derek Sutton, the former manager of Styx, Ten Years After, and Jethro Tull - is a science nerd who knew nothing about popular music. But he founded the biggest PR firm in the music industry and helped build or sustain the careers of our biggest rock legends, including Michael Jackson, Prince, Bob Marley, Bette Midler, Billy Joel, Billy Idol, Chaka Khan, and 100 more. What was he after? He was on a hunt for the gods inside of you and me.

When Paul McCartney closed Live Aid in July of 1985, we thought he was rock's Grand Old Man. He was forty-three years old. As the forty years since have shown, he—and many others of his generation—were just getting started. This was the time when live performance took over from records. The big names of the '60s and '70s exploited the Age of Spectacle that Live Aid had ushered in to enjoy the longest lap of honor in the history of humanity, continuing to go strong long after everyone else in the business had retired.

Many of our assumptions about empathy, sensual pleasure, and the essence of work, community, country, race, and the divine have germinated in Bob Dylan's need to know what's blowing in the wind and how it feels. Tracing his work and vision through themes that have shaped religious and cultural history for millennia, Stephen Daniel Arnoff uncovers how Bob Dylan has re-enchanted ancient questions of meaning and purpose throughout popular culture, inspiring a pantheon of prophetic musicians along the way.

The Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd helped usher in a new kind of southern music from Jacksonville, Florida. Together, they and fellow bands like Blackfoot, 38 Special, and Molly Hatchet would reset the course of '70s rock. Yet Jacksonville seemed an unlikely hotbed for a new musical movement. Michael FitzGerald blends eyewitness detail with in-depth history to tell the story of how the River City bred this generation of legendary musicians.

Thirty years ago, Chuck Berry starred in the seminal music documentary Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'N' Roll, which profiled the legend during a star-studded concert celebrating his 60th birthday. Now comes the complete story behind one of America's most enduring and embattled icons. Compiled as an oral history by the film's producer, Stephanie Bennett, Johnny B. Bad combines interviews from the film's participants, including its music director - Keith Richards. These unique interviews and accounts paint a vivid and multifaceted picture of the artist.

At its heart, Under A Rock is a love story. The codependent bond between Chris Stein and Debbie Harry carried Blondie through their many tribulations: terribly misogynistic music scenes, greasy record execs, bitter band mates, gruelling schedules, and hard drug abuse abound, and Chris lays it all bare with blunt sincerity and humour. Ultimately, Chris and Debbie broke up, but their bond never dissipated; they remain closest of friends, and continue to tour and promote their various projects together to this day.

The revealing backstory of the album with no name that spawned 'When the Levee Breaks', 'Black Dog,' 'Stairway to Heaven', and 'Rock 'n' Roll'. Four tracks each side; eight killers, no fillers. This is how they did it.

Welcome to the ultimate backstage pass to the afterlife, where the music never stops and the encores are eternal. In this collection of spectral true tales, we'll journey from smoke-filled recording studios to haunted hotel rooms, chasing the ghosts of rock & roll royalty who refuse to let a little thing like death keep them from the spotlight. These aren't your grandmother's ghost stories—unless, of course, your gran was a groupie for The Doors.

The idea for Britain’s first female rock band, The Liverbirds, started one evening in 1962, when Mary McGlory, then age 16, saw The Beatles play live at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, the nightclub famously known as the “cradle of British pop music.” Then and there, she decided she was going to be just like them—and be the first girl to do it.

Jonathan Taplin’s extraordinary journey has put him at the crest of every major cultural wave in the past half century. His is a lifetime marked not only by good timing but by impeccable instincts - from the folk scene of Woodstock, to Hollywood’s rebellious film movement and beyond, Taplin is not just a witness but a lifelong producer, the right-hand man to some of the greatest talents of both pop culture and the underground. The Magic Years is both a rock memoir and a work of cultural criticism from a key player who watched a nation turn from idealism to nihilism.

All You Need Is Myth is a timely philosophical conversation about ancient concepts that continue to reverberate in the modern age of mass media and global communication. Author Steve Wagner proposes that the Beatles and the iconic stars of the classic rock era function as modern forms of classical archetypes familiar in mythologies and religious traditions throughout history.

Can't Give It Away on Seventh Avenue: The Rolling Stones and New York City explores the history of the group through the prism of New York. It is a highly detailed document of the dynamic and reciprocal relationship between the world's most famous band and America's most famous city as well as an absorbing chronicle of the remarkable impact the city has had on the band's music and career.

Spanning three decades worth of astute, acerbic, and overall astounding music writing, Kick Out the Jams is the first large-scale anthology of the work of renowned critic Dave Marsh. Ranging from Elvis Presley to Kurt Cobain, from Nina Simone to Ani DiFranco, from the Beatles to Green Day, the book gives an opinionated, eye-opening overview of 20th-century popular music—offering a portrait not just of an era but of a writer wrestling with the American empire.

Rock balancing is the practice of stacking stones one on top of another, creating structures that range from simple towers to amazingly elaborate edifices that seem to defy gravity. People balance rocks as a way of connecting to nature, to challenge their limits, as a therapeutic mindfulness practice and simply to have fun! This is the first guide to this meditative art, combining technical instructions and mindfulness advice with spectacular photographs of the incredible balances built by Travis Ruskus.