Rock Music Memoirs

Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers is the first book to celebrate the classic-era Motörhead lineup of Lemmy Kilmister, "Fast" Eddie Clarke, and Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor. Through interviews with all of the principal troublemakers, Martin Popoff celebrates the formation of the band and the records that made them legends.

 Somewhere You Feel Free: Tom Petty and Los Angeles explores the artistic life of Tom Petty through his career-long relationship with Los Angeles and the many colorful characters and venues that inspired him and his music - including his work with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, Johnny Cash, Roger McGuinn, Leon Russell, Rick Rubin, and Del Shannon. 

In 1974, at the age of 17, author Glenn Berger served as "schlepper" and apprentice to the legendary recording engineer Phil Ramone at New York City's A&R Studios, and was witness to music history on an almost daily and nightly basis as pop and rock icons such as Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Frank Sinatra, Burt Bacharach, Bette Midler, and James Brown performed their hit-making magic, honed their sound, strutted their stuff, bared their souls, and threw epic tantrums.

With extensive, first-hand reflections from Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart, as well as from family, friends, and fellow musicians, Anthem: Rush in the '70s is a detailed portrait of Canada's greatest rock ambassadors. The first of three volumes, Anthem puts the band's catalog, from their self-titled debut to 1978's Hemispheres (the next volume resumes with the release of Permanent Waves) into both Canadian and general pop culture context.

Crafting smash hits with Van Halen, the Doobie Brothers, Nicolette Larson, and Van Morrison, legendary music producer Ted Templeman changed the course of rock history.

This book not only covers the highlights of Lou Reed's career but explores lesser-known facets of his work, such as his first recordings with doo-wop group the Jades, his key literary influences, the impact of Judaism upon his work, and his engagement with the LGBT movement.

As the influential drummer from iconic rock 'n' roll band The Hollies, Bobby Elliott has six decades' worth of musical anecdotes. Continually touring since 1963, his adventures have seen him beating Keith Moon in a drumming audition for Shane Fenton and the Fentones, being serenaded by Joni Mitchell while she was in bed with Graham Nash, and being offered a job by Paul McCartney to work with Wings.

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.

How can so many people pledge allegiance to punk, something with no fixed identity? Depending on who and where you are, punk can be an outlet, excuse, lifestyle, escapism, conversation, community, ideology, sales category, social movement, punishable offense, badge of authenticity, reason to drink beer forever, or an aesthetic of belligerent incompetence. Sam McPheeters championed many different versions. Over the course of two decades, he fronted Born Against, released dozens of records and fanzines, and toured 17 times across the northern hemisphere.

In a sodden tent at a '70s festival, the teenage Mark Ellen had a dream. He dreamt that music was a rich meadow of possibility, a liberating leap to a sparkling future, an industry of human happiness - and he wanted to be part of it. Thus began his 50-year love affair with rock and roll. From his time at the NME and Smash Hits to Radio One, Old Grey Whistle Test, Live Aid, Q, Select, Mojo, and The Word magazines, he's been at the molten core of its evolution, and watched its key figures from a unique perspective.

I Was There is a memoir by Alan Edwards, the godfather of modern music PR, whose stellar list of clients has ranged over the years from the Rolling Stones to the Spice Girls via the Stranglers, Blondie, Prince, Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse and, outside of music, David Beckham and Naomi Campbell. Edwards describes getting his break in the mid-1970s as a scruffy 20-year-old back from the hippy trail; his encounter with London’s thriving punk scene, which inspired him to set up his own PR company; finding success as his work with the likes of Blondie and Bowie takes him to the US and beyond.

Sonic Warrior is a collection of insane-but-true stories from the career of rock radio legend Lou Brutus. Each chapter is a separate tale that careens around his 40-plus years of covering concerts, interviewing music's biggest stars, and influencing generations of radio listeners. Starting with the first show he attended and continuing to the present day, stops along the way include Live Aid in Philadelphia, the Arctic, Live Earth in London, and the New Jersey Turnpike. 

Leaving school and starting his career at Decca Records in 1958 at the age of sixteen, Tony King would soon find himself becoming close friends with Elton John, rekindling John Lennon and Yoko Ono's relationship, mediating a quarrelsome Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and spending time with Freddie Mercury in his final days - a far cry from his childhood days in Eastbourne. Living in an era of seismic social, technological and cultural transformation, King experienced these defining moments as a stalwart in London and New York's gay scenes.

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 audiobook comes complete with bells and whistles, not to mention some Arctic winds, Venetian canals, telephones, aeroplanes, and a squealing pig or two!

 Along Comes the Association is the story of how Russ Giguere and his fellow band members in the legendary and influential pop group The Association came together to create unparalleled music, unique to the time and place, and never again to be repeated. 

'This could be heaven or this could be hell...' So sings Don Henley on their biggest hit, 'Hotel California', yet for The Eagles their story was one where the dividing line between ultimate Hollywood highs and subterranean LA lows was blurred beyond recognition, blinded by white-powdered double-visions and buried beneath greenback mountains.

In Francis Rossi's explosive new memoir, I Talk Too Much, the Status Quo main man reveals for the first time the true-life stories behind the life and times of one of the best-selling rock singers in the world. With over 100 million records sold worldwide in a career that mirrors the evolution of rock music, from the flower power '60s, with hits like 'Pictures of Matchstick Men', through the denim-clad '70s and classic Quo-tastic anthems such as 'Down Down', 'Rocking All over the World' and 'Whatever You Want', through the turbulent '80s, when they famously opened Live Aid....

In this first of a groundbreaking multivolume set, THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL 1: 1969-73 captures the life of Paul McCartney in the years immediately following the dissolution of the Beatles, a period in which McCartney recreated himself as both a man and a musician. Informed by hundreds of interviews, extensive ground up research, and thousands of never-before-seen documents THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL 1 is an in depth, revealing exploration of McCartney’s creative and personal lives beyond the Beatles.

On June 4, 1984, Columbia Records issued what would become one of the best-selling and most impactful rock albums of all time. An instant classic, Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. would prove itself to be a landmark not only for the man who made it, but rock music in general, and even the larger American culture over the next 40 years.

Without Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen might not be who he is today. The natural follow-up to Springsteen’s hugely successful album The River should have been the hit-packed Born in the U.S.A. But instead, in 1982, he came out with an album consisting of a series of dark songs he had recorded by himself, for himself. But more than forty years later, Nebraska is arguably Springsteen’s most important record—the lasting clue to understanding not just his career as an artist and the vision behind it, but also the man himself.