Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

No One Here Gets Out Alive

by Jerry Hopkins, Daniel Sugerman, Jery Hopkins

Here is Jim Morrison in all his complexity: singer, philosopher, poet, delinquentthe brilliant, charis-matic, and obsessed seeker who rejected authority in any form, the explorer who probed the bounds of reality to see what would happen. Meticulously researched, this definitive biography tells the story of a genius who shot like a rocket across the musical horizon, then fell in burning fragments as his life... (more)

Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation

Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation

by Sheila Weller

A groundbreaking and irresistible biography of three of America's most important musical artists -- Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon -- charts their lives as women at a magical moment in time. Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon remain among the most enduring and important women in popular music. Each woman is distinct. Carole King is the product of outer-borough, middle-class New York City;... (more)

Thinking in Jazz : The Infinite Art of Improvisation (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology Series)

Thinking in Jazz : The Infinite Art of Improvisation (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology Series)

by Paul Berliner

A landmark in jazz studies, Thinking in Jazz reveals as never before how musicians, both individually and collectively, learn to improvise. Chronicling leading musicians from their first encounters with jazz to the development of a unique improvisatory voice, Paul Berliner documents the lifetime of preparation that lies behind the skilled improviser's every idea. The product of more than fifteen years of... (more)

Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought)

Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought)

by Kathleen Krull

It's no secret that Beethoven went deaf, that Mozart had constant money problems, and that Gilbert and Sullivan wrote musicals. But what were these people--and other famous musicians-- really like? What did they eat? What did they wear? How did they spend their time? And--possibly most interesting of all--what did their neighbors think? Discover the fascinating and often humorous stories of twenty famous... (more)

Mysteries of Beethoven's Hair

by Russell Martin

Russell Martin, author of Beethoven's Hair, and his wife, Lydia Nibley, tell the story of how a lock of Ludwig von Beethoven's hair, clipped from the composer's head on his deathbed in Germany in 1827, ended up in Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1943 and was later sold at auction in London in 1994. Learn about this incredible journey through history and the mysteries revealed about Beethoven's deafness and death.... (more)

Doctor Faustus

by John Woods, Thomas Mann

"John E. Woods is revising our impression of Thomas Mann, masterpiece by masterpiece." --The New Yorker "Doctor Faustus is Mann's deepest artistic gesture. . . . Finely translated by John E. Woods." --The New Republic Thomas Mann's last great novel, first published in 1947 and now newly rendered into English by acclaimed translator John E. Woods, is a modern reworking of the Faust legend, in which Germany sells... (more)

Chronicles

by Bob Dylan

This is the first spellbinding volume of the autobiography of a musical and political icon. Circa 1965, arguably the high point of his creative genius, Bob Dylan writes on the beginnings of his music career, his loves - including his very first date - and offers a very personal, anecdotal view of this time of great creativity, innovation and music history. Bob Dylan's autobiography is a publishing and cultural... (more)

Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991

Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991

by Michael Azerrad

Finally in paperback, the story of the musical revolution that happened right under the nose of the Reagan Eighties- when a small but sprawling network of bands, labels, fanzines, radio stations, and other subversives reenergized American rock with punk rock's do-it-yourself credo and created music that was deeply personal, often brilliant, always challenging, and immensely influential. Our Band Could Be Your Life... (more)

Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley

by Timothy White

The classic biography of reggae legend Bob Marley, updated and revised for the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death Bob Marley left an indelible mark on modern music, both as a reggae pioneer and as an enduring cultural icon. Catch a Fire , now a classic of rock biography, delves into the life of the leader of a musical, spiritual, and political explosion that continues today. Under the supervision of the... (more)

A history of western music

by Donald Jay Grout, Claude V. Palisca, J. Peter Burkholder

Renowned for its comprehensive coverage of genres and styles in Western music from antiquity to the present, A History or Western Music has secured its place—through six editions and for almost a half-century—as the definitive resource for every music student. Maintaining the authority and breadth of coverage that have always defined this classic text, J. Peter Burkholder has meticulously revised and... (more)

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

by Alex Ross

The scandal over modern music has not died down. While paintings by Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock sell for a hundred million dollars or more, shocking musical works from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring onward still send ripples of unease through audiences. At the same time, the influence of modern music can be felt everywhere. Avant-garde sounds populate the soundtracks of Hollywood thrillers. Minimalist music... (more)

The Life and Legend of Leadbelly

by Charles K. Wolfe

Huddie Ledbetter (1889–1949), known to millions of fans simply as Leadbelly, was arguably the most famous black singer in American history. His close musical associations included such towering figures as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and John and Alan Lomax. He helped lay the foundations for blues, modern folk music, and rock 'n' roll. This definitive biography draws on a wealth of new... (more)

French Music from the Enlightenment to RomanticismJean Mongrandeacute;dien

French Music from the Enlightenment to Romanticism

by Jean Mongre?dien

Covering the period between the Revolution and the appearance of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, the author discovers an era that produced no masterpieces but set the stage for the flowering of Romanticism.

Roosevelt's Blues: African American Blues and Gospel Songs on FDR (American Made Music Series)

Roosevelt's Blues: African American Blues and Gospel Songs on FDR (American Made Music Series)

by Guido van Rijn

In blues lyrics of the thirties and forties a reflection of FDRÂ’s influence on black America

How Early America Sounded

by Richard Cullen Rath

"My hope is that by attending to sound I have been able to open up parts of these worlds, not to get a glimpse of them but to listen in. These were worlds much more alive with sound than our own, worlds not yet disenchanted, worlds perhaps even chanted into being."—from the Introduction In early America, every sound had a living, willful force at its source. Sometimes these forces were not human or even... (more)

Mimomania: Music and Gesture in Nineteenth-Century Opera (California Studies in 19th Century Music)

Mimomania: Music and Gesture in Nineteenth-Century Opera (California Studies in 19th Century Music)

by Mary Ann Smart

When Nietzsche dubbed Richard Wagner "the most enthusiastic mimomaniac" ever to exist, he was objecting to a hollowness he felt in the music, a crowding out of any true dramatic impulse by extravagant poses and constant nervous movements. Mary Ann Smart suspects that Nietzsche may have seen and heard more than he realized. In Mimomania she takes his accusation as an invitation to listen to Wagner's music--and... (more)

Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!

by Jade Dellinger, David Giffels

With flowerpots on their heads, distinctive post-Kraftwerk imagery, and staggeringly catchy electro-pop riffs, Devo carved an '80s niche setting them apart from the mish-mash of punk, new wave and rock surrounding them. Dellinger interviewed band members and asso-ciates, ransacked their archives to provide illustrations, memorabilia and rare photographs documenting Devo's entire career, and re-evaluated their... (more)

Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture

Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture

by Edward Macan

The first comprehensive study of progressive rock history, Macan draws together cultural theory, musicology, and music criticism, illuminating how progressive rock served as a vital expression of the counterculture of the late 1960s and 1970s. 18 halftones.

Mozart in Vienna, 1781-1791Volkmar Braunbehrens

Mozart in Vienna, 1781-1791

by Volkmar Braunbehrens

That there is still something lively and pertinent to say about Mozart after 200 years and hundreds of books is evident in this translation of a recent German study. Braunbehrens, a music historian and journalist, examines the Viennese social scene, the role that musicians, Jews and Freemasons played in the life of the city, the many apartments in which Mozart lived, how much he earned and how he spent it. His... (more)

A History of Music in Western Civilization: Fascinating Discussions by 15 Prominent Music Authorities, with Musical Examples

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Tags: music history