Rock History

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...

First as a music writer and then as an editor, promoter, manager, broadcaster, publicist and author, Stuart Coupe has experienced the giddy highs and crushing lows of a life lived in the creative fast lane. Shake Some Action is your backstage pass to his remarkable story, from starting his first magazine at the age of fourteen to hoovering heroic amounts of cocaine before interviewing Boy Dylan (who asked him where he got his drugs from).

“What are the greatest rock albums of all-time?” Perhaps one of the more common questions examined between music-loving chums, that has led to many a good-natured debate. But if you really dig deeper into the question…is it from the standpoint of the album’s importance in rock history? A classic release that proved significant to an artist’s career? Or perhaps merely a personal favorite, that you just can’t get enough of?

Esta desternillante antología de ensayos, reseñas, autopsias y semblanzas rescata del más inmisericorde de los olvidos algunas de las piezas más delirantes del impenitente grafómano y crítico por antonomasia del rock.

As unconventional a biography as Adler was in his own creative ventures, California Dreamin’ is the first book to show how Adler became the pacesetter of the rock industry along the West Coast, a master tastemaker walking the razor's edge between highbrow and lowbrow, redefining the sound of a whole generation in his wake.

Look to the shadowy corridor between chart-topping hits and the cryptic tales that lurk behind them in “Rock & Roll Nightmares: Blood On The Tracks.” This electrifying true crime tome peels back the curtain on the eerie nexus of melody and morbidity, guiding you through a chilling journey where the anthems of the airwaves meet their macabre muses.

In this new audiobook, broadcaster and music writer Alan Cross narrates the definitive history of Oasis. Cross succeeds once again in revealing the fascinating history behind the music in the same compelling way we've come to expect from his long broadcasting career.

Un concienzudo y emocionante repaso a la historia del rock progresivo, desde sus raíces contraculturales en los años sesenta a la fusión con otros lenguajes musicales, pasando por la veta sinfónica británica o la instrumentación multicultural que marca tendencia en la actualidad. Un audiolibro ideal para entendidos en la materia y para neófitos que quieren iniciarse en el apasionante mundo del rock progresivo.

Two months before he shot himself, Adolf Hitler saw where it had all gone wrong. By failing to seize Gibraltar in the summer of 1940, he lost the war. The Rock of Gibraltar looked formidable but was extraordinarily vulnerable. Though menaced on all sides by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Vichy France and Francoist Spain, every day Gibraltar had to let thousands of people cross its frontier to work, among them spies and saboteurs eager to blow up its 25 miles of secret tunnels.

Rockin' in the Ivory Tower takes a close look at two smaller universities, Drew in New Jersey and Stony Brook on Long Island, to see how the culture of rock music played an integral role in student life in the late 1960s.

In this excerpt from her historically significant autobiography first published in 1889, American suffragette, educator, and president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union Frances Willard gives us a deeper understanding of the ethos of the woman’s temperance movement, as well as the day to day struggles and triumphs of the movement in the US at the time.

Sex, Drugs & Rock Stories. Alles, was ein wahrer Rockfan wissen muss. Warum wollte Axl Rose einst David Bowie verhauen? Was verbindet AC/DC mit einem Serienkiller? Und was haben Faith No More mit dem Fall der Berliner Mauer zu tun? Die Musikgeschichte steckt voller Sonderbarkeiten, aberwitzigen Begebenheiten und wilden Geschichten, die der Journalist und ehemalige Metal Hammer-Chefredakteur Christof Leim in diesem lustig-krachenden Anekdotenreigen für die Ewigkeit festgehalten hat.

Respected broadcaster Alan Cross narrates the definitive history of alternative rock over the last 30 years. He recounts the stories of David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, The Clash, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and Iggy Pop.

Over three decades and more than 150 million albums, AC/DC has established itself as much more than just a great rock band. For millions of fans spanning several generations across the world, they are an ear-bleedingly loud, sweat-soaked religion, courtesy of such classic albums as Highway to Hell and Back in Black. Now, in a book of astonishing breadth and scope, comes, for the very first time, the complete story of AC/DC.

For millions of kids, high school is a tumultuous time, with social highs and lows, academic pressure, and extracurricular wins and losses, but for the Little Rock Nine, the first African American students to attend a previously segregated high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, those years were nightmarish.

In the second of four volumes, Alan Cross reveals the fascinating stories behind the music, focusing on the following top performers: Joy Division, New Order, The Cure, Depeche Mode, U2, Brian Eno, Skinny Puppy, and The Pixies.

Sex, No Drugs & Rock'N'Roll: Memoirs of a Music Junkie is a "balls-to-the-wall" coming of age narrative explicitly told through the eyes of a musical "baby-boomer Holden Caulfield", simultaneously maturing with the country itself. From the 50s' innocent invulnerability following WWII, to the teenage years of rebellion and political unrest in the 60s, to the disillusionment and cynicism of the late 70s, sowing the seeds for the "me" generation to come. The dots connected in two universal languages: music and sex.

This is the fascinating story of music. How it started with a song and became one of our most beloved arts. Learn how early composers added modal rhythm to religious chants and turned them into something greater. Discover how the printing press standardized music and helped it spread across the globe. Witness the birth of musical theater, opera, and classical music and the explosion of popular freeform music such as rhapsodies and preludes.

Toda la estética multicolor y la irreverencia de un género que durante los años 70, marcó una época. Nacido para desafiar la sobriedad del rock progresivo y la seriedad o nihilismo de otros géneros, el movimiento comandado por Davie Bowie, T. Rex, Alice Cooper, Roxy Music y compañía, marcó una huella que aún hoy, nadie ha olvidado.

“What are the greatest rock albums of all-time?” Perhaps one of the more common questions examined between music-loving chums that has led to many a good-natured debate. But if you really dig deeper into the question...is it from the standpoint of the album’s importance in rock history? A classic release that proved significant to an artist’s career? Or perhaps merely a personal favorite, that you just can’t get enough of?