Rock History

Long before she was one of the Little Rock Nine, Melba Pattillo Beals was a warrior. Frustrated by the laws that kept African Americans separate but very much unequal to whites, she had questions: Why couldn't she drink from a whites-only fountain? Why couldn't she feel safe beyond home - or even within the walls of church? Adults all told her: Hold your tongue. Be patient. Know your place. But Beals had the heart of a fighter - and the knowledge that her true place was a free one.

The soldiers of the Third US Infantry Division in World War I were outnumbered and inexperienced young men facing hardened veterans, but their actions proved to be a turning point during the last German offensive of World War I. In stopping three German divisions from crossing the Marne River, these heroic American soldiers blocked the road to Paris east of Château-Thierry, helped save the French capital, and, in doing so, played a key role in turning the tide of the war.

The '80s were about big ideas writ large - new money, new style, gender fluidity, gay pride, attritional politics, the 'special relationship', nuclear fear, AIDS, cocaine, ecstasy, tabloid royalty, the rise of urban pop and ultimately geopolitical chaos. Using a big narrative approach, Dylan Jones' history of the decade in pop frames the decade through some of its most important and popular hits, choosing records that either epitomised their time or ushered in a new cultural shift.

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.

"The Rock Trenches: Journal of a Music Industry Executive" by Phillip Rauls is the memoir of a Memphis-born music promoter who worked with some of the top rock 'n' roll recording artists of the 1960s-1990s, including the Gentrys, Robert Palmer, Yes, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, the Eagles, and Led Zeppelin, to name a few. The Rock Trenches begins with Phillip as he gains entry into the music business by becoming the road manager for a local band just out of high school, the Gentrys. The Memphis band scored a million selling record in 1965 titled "Keep On Dancing" and Rauls...

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!

The Pixies in Boston. Nirvana in Seattle. The Red Hot Chili Peppers in Los Angeles. While these alt-rock bands are world-renowned today, at the dawn of the '90s they were still largely defined by local music scenes. Before the mediation of MTV, VH1, or Apple Music, fans connected directly to alt-rock groups through word of mouth or via small local radio stations.

When it comes to mastering a foreign language, learning around your interests makes all the difference. But finding books designed for language learners can be hard! This book fixes that. For the first time, you’ll learn to improve your Spanish while learning about the history and theory of rock’n’roll.

In the early 1960s, the nation was on track to fulfill its destiny in what was being called "the American Century." Baby boomers and rock & roll shared the country's optimism and energy. For "one brief, shining moment" in the early 1960s, both President John F. Kennedy and young people across the country were riding high. The dream of a New Frontier would soon give way, however, to a new reality involving assassinations, the Vietnam War, Cold War crises, the civil rights movement, a new feminist movement, and various culture wars.

The Great Book of Rock Trivia contains hundreds of riveting facts about your favorite rock songs. Whether you’re interested in what your favorite musicians like to do in their spare time, where they get the ideas for their music, or which artist had an exorcism in his home, you’re in for a treat. This book will satisfy your curiosity and help you impress your friends with your rock and roll knowledge.

By turns fascinating, funny, and bizarre, this book offers insight into the peculiar choices and idiosyncratic psychologies of hundreds of top musicians from the 1960s to the present. Originally published more than two decades ago to great success, it's been out of print for years and has now been completely updated and expanded to feature dozens of exclusive interviews, including conversations with groups like The Black Keys, The Killers, Twenty One Pilots, Coldplay, Cage the Elephant, and Vampire Weekend.

Jimi Hendrix took the world of rock music to new heights, and it has never really come back down. Meet the man who single-handedly changed the face of modern music. In this book, you will find the story of Hendrix’s life in full detail - from his childhood to his stint in the US military to his time as an international superstar. We will discuss the man, the myth, and the legend, Jimi Hendrix.

EPISODE 7: In 2719, long after Earth is destroyed during a Space War, humanity is scattered all over the galaxy as a minority of homeless refugees. Suffering rejection and mistreatment by xenophobic aliens, warmongers, and all kinds of privateers, the humans will do anything to survive, even go to the extreme. (Standalone version.) Available also in print as part of the STARCALL Anthology, Vol.1, illustrated by the author.

Rock and roll thrives on rhythm, but the drummers who drive that pulse often stay in the shadows. In Backbeats: A History of Rock and Roll in Fifteen Drummers, acclaimed music historian John Lingan brings these unsung heroes into the spotlight, delivering a fascinating journey through six decades of rock history. Lingan’s deep research and vivid storytelling explores the lives of fifteen drummers who didn’t just keep time—they shaped the sound of rock and roll.

When Lalibela, Priest King of Ethiopia, is murdered at the hands of his jealous step-brother and step-sister, and buried in the cleft of a rock face, he has a vision of the Archangel Michael, who instructs him how to build ten churches. Lalibela must rise from the dead in order to fulfill his mission of building the ten rock-hewn churches.

A top-10 list is nobody’s perfect tool, especially when trying to measure up 10 of the most significant and influential bands of the British Invasion. Nevertheless, this book presents 10 biographies of classic bands of the era widely regarded as the best of the best, putting their contributions to music in sharp focus. And what contributions they have made! Over half a century later, their songs still ring out on radios, their names are well-known to many, and songs released today are inspired by the music they produced.

In the mid-1970s, after a decade as the undisputed “greatest rock and roll band in the world,” The Rolling Stones were confronting not only the cold reality of the new punk rock era, but how they could even exist within it in the face of guitarist Keith Richards’ mounting personal problems. Keith’s glorified image as rock’s ultimate outlaw, as a counterpoint to singer Mick Jagger’s image as rock’s ultimate sex symbol, was the basis of the Stones’ mystique. But at the start of 1977, as the band agreed to work on a new album in Toronto and spark the creative process by playing...

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.

The story of Cara and her love for two rockers, Tyr and Declan. Cara I never meant to fall in love with rockers at all, so twice, no. To begin with, I met Tyr at sixteen. I’d be seventeen on the November cusp, just couldn’t wait until I was eighteen for my freedom. Needed out from under the rents. The last thing I’ll needed once I was free to tie myself down to someone else. I’m leaving before I’m 18. I’ve got the grades, I’m graduating early, and I’ve got my full scholarship. I will live my life. So why did the rock gods send me Tyr? And then Declan? And then Tyr again? D*...

No period in the history of rock music offered such an abrupt shift in prevailing tastes as the 1990s. While just a short while before, radio and MTV were clamoring for hair metal bands, suddenly alt-rockers such as Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More, Primus, Smashing Pumpkins, and of course, Nirvana, brought a sea change not just in what the most popular bands sounded like, but also in fashion, politics, and seemingly all aspects of pop culture.