Killing Time: Short Stories From the Long Road Home by Jimmy Barnes

$39.99 AUD

$45.00 (11% off)

Category: Music

*** FREE JIMMY BARNES ALARM CLOCK FOR AS LONG AS STOCK LASTS WHEN YOU PURCHASE THE BOOK*** From the rock legend turned master storyteller, this collection of non-fiction short stories is vintage Jimmy. Stories of adventure, misadventure, love and loss from the #1 bestselling author of the critically ac claimed memoirs Working Class Boy and Working Class Man. Outrageous, witty, warm and wise, Killing Time shares more than 40 yarns from an epic life - a dazzling collection of tall tales, out-takes and B-sides from one of Australia's finest storytellers. ...Show more

David Bowie: Changes - A Life in Pictures 1947-2016 by Chris Welch

$39.99 AUD

Category: Music

David Bowie: Changes \b0 is a celebration of the international figure all starry-eyed hopefuls aspired to be when setting out on a path to fame and fortune in the music industry - whether they know it or not. Through more than 150 stellar photos, it tells the story of an artist the likes of which we'd n ever seen, and may never see again. Bowie had a glittering career fuelled by the spirit of reinvention - he left over 20 albums in his wake - and was as colourful in his style and image as he was in his music. If a picture says a thousand words, this book ranks as the definitive manual on how to leave a lasting legacy in the art scene. }} ...Show more

Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith

$29.99 AUD

Category: Music

From the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids and M Train, a profound, beautifully realized memoir in which dreams and reality are vividly woven into a tapestry of one transformative year. Following a run of New Year's concerts at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland with no design, yet heeding signs--including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding and sparring like the Cheshire Cat. In February, a surreal lunar year begins, bringing with it unexpected turns, heightened mischief, and inescapable sorrow. In a stranger's words, "Anything is possible: after all, it's the Year of the Monkey." For Smith - inveterately curious, always exploring, tracking thoughts, writing - the year evolves as one of reckoning with the changes in life's gyre: with loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America. Smith melds the western landscape with her own dreamscape. Taking us from California to the Arizona desert; to a Kentucky farm as the amanuensis of a friend in crisis; to the hospital room of a valued mentor; and by turns to remembered and imagined places, this haunting memoir blends fact and fiction with poetic mastery. The unexpected happens; grief and disillusionment set in. But as Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope for a better world. Riveting, elegant, often humorous, illustrated by Smith's signature Polaroids, Year of the Monkey is a moving and original work, a touchstone for our turbulent times.   ...Show more

The Wichita Lineman - Searching in the Sun for the World's Greatest Unfinished Song by Dylan Jones

$22.99 AUD

Category: Music

The sound of 'Wichita Lineman' was the sound of ecstatic solitude, but then its hero was the quintessential loner. What a great metaphor he was: a man who needed a woman more than he actually wanted her. Written in 1968 by Jimmy Webb, 'Wichita Lineman' is the first philosophical country song: a heartbre aking torch ballad still celebrated for its mercurial songwriting genius fifty years later. It was recorded by Glen Campbell in LA with a legendary group of musicians known as 'the Wrecking Crew', and something about the song's enigmatic mood seemed to capture the tensions in America at a moment of crisis. Fusing a dribble of bass, searing strings, tremolo guitar and Campbell's plaintive vocals, Webb's paean to the American West describes a telephone lineman's longing for an absent lover, who he hears 'singing in the wire' - and like all good love songs, it's an SOS from the heart. Mixing close-listening, interviews and travelogue, Dylan Jones explores the legacy of a record that has entertained and haunted millions for over half a century. What is it about this song that continues to seduce listeners, and how did the parallel stories of Campbell and Webb - songwriters and recording artists from different ends of the spectrum - unfold in the decades following? Part biography, part work of musicological archaeology, The Wichita Lineman opens a window on to America in the late-twentieth century through the prism of a song that has been covered by myriad artists in the intervening decades. 'Americana in the truest sense: evocative and real.' Bob Stanley 'It's just another song to me. I've written 1,000 of them and it's really just another one.' Jimmy Webb 'When I heard it I cried. It made me cry because I was homesick. It's just a masterfully written song.' Glen Campbell 'I love the song because its as though it's been in my life forever.' Amy Raphael 'It's not just the perfect pop song, it's almost perfect as an idea, existing outside of the song itself.' Stuart Maconie 'I don't really think of 'Wichita Lineman' as easy listening, I just think it's a great song.' Paul Weller ...Show more

Sing Backwards and Weep by Mark Lanegan

$32.99 AUD

Category: Music

"Mark Lanegan-primitive, brutal, and apocalyptic. What's not to love?" Nick Cave, author of The Sick Bag Song and The Death of Bunny Munro From the back of the van to the front of the bar, from the hotel room to the emergency room, onstage, backstage, and everywhere in between, Sing Backwards and Weep r eveals the abrasive reality beneath one of the most romanticized decades in rock history-from a survivor who lived to tell the tale. When Mark Lanegan first arrived in Seattle in the mid-1980s, he was just "an arrogant, self-loathing redneck waster seeking transformation through rock 'n' roll." Within less than a decade, he would rise to fame as the front man of the Screaming Trees, then fall from grace as a low-level crack dealer and a homeless heroin addict, all the while watching some of his closest friends rocket to the pinnacle of popular music. In Sing Backwards and Weep, Lanegan takes readers back to the sinister, needle-ridden streets of Seattle, to an alternative music scene that was simultaneously bursting with creativity and saturated with drugs. He tracks the tumultuous rise and fall of the Screaming Trees, from a brawling, acid-rock bar band to world-famous festival favourites with an enduring legacy that still resonates. Lanegan's personal struggles with addiction, culminating in homelessness, petty crime, and the tragic deaths of his closest friends, is documented with a painful honesty and pathos. Gritty, gripping, and unflinchingly raw, Sing Backwards and Weep is a book about more than just an extraordinary singer who watched his dreams catch fire and incinerate the ground beneath his feet. Instead, it's about a man who learned how to drag himself from the wreckage, dust off the ashes, and keep living and creating. ...Show more

Beethoven - A Life in Nine Pieces by Laura Tunbridge

$39.99 AUD

Category: Music

2020 marks 250 years since Beethoven's birth Ludwig van Beethoven: to some, simply the greatest ever composer of Western classical music. Yet his life remains shrouded in myths, and the image persists of him as an eccentric genius shaking his fist at heaven. Beethoven by Oxford professor Laura Tunbridge cuts through the noise in a refreshing way. Each chapter focuses on a period of his life, a piece of music and a revealing theme, from family to friends, from heroism to liberty. It's a winning combination of rich biographical detail, insight into the music and surprising new angles, all of which can transform how you listen to his works. We discover, for example, Beethoven's oddly modern talent for self-promotion, how he was influenced by factors from European wars to instrument building, and how he was heard by contemporaries. This tour de force - published for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth - provides a fresh overview and a wealth of material that has never been revealed to the wider public before. It's a compelling, human portrayal of Beethoven and a fascinating journey into one of the world's most amazing creative minds. ...Show more

Two Riders Were Approaching: The Life & Death of Jimi Hendrix by Mick Wall

$22.99 AUD

Category: Music

Jimmy was a down-at-heel guitarist in New York, relying on his latest lovers to support him while he tried to emulate his hero Bob Dylan. A black guy playing white rock music, he wanted to be all things to all people. But when Jimmy arrived in England and became Jimi, the cream of swinging London fell under his spell. It wasn't that Jimi could play with his teeth, play with his guitar behind his back. It was that he could really play. Journeying through the purple haze of idealism and paranoia of the sixties, Jimi Hendrix was the man who made Eric Clapton consider quitting, to whom Bob Dylan deferred on his own song 'All Along the Watchtower', who forced Miles Davis to reconsider his buttoned-down ways - and whose 'Star Spangled Banner' defined Woodstock. And when his star, which had burned so brightly, was extinguished far too young, his legend lived on in the music - and the intrigue surrounding his death. Eschewing the traditional rock-biography format, Two Riders Were Approaching is a fittingly psychedelic and kaleidoscopic exploration of the life and death of Jimi Hendrix - and a journey into the dark heart of the sixties. While the groupies lined up, the drugs got increasingly heavy and the dream of the sixties burned in the fire and blood of the Vietnam War, the assassination of Martin Luther King and the election of President Richard Nixon. Acclaimed writer Mick Wall, author of When Giants Walked the Earth, has drawn upon his own interviews and extensive research to produce an inimitable, novelistic telling of this tale - the definitive portrait of the Guitar God at whose altar other guitar gods worship. Jimi Hendrix's is a story that has been told many times before - but never quite like this. ...Show more

Like a Bat Out of Hell: The Larger Than Life Story of Meat Loaf by Mick Wall

$22.99 AUD

Category: Music

'A passionate, pacey tome you should do anything for a copy of' - Kerrang ****"I never wanted to be a big star. I just wanted to be the biggest at what I do Powerful, unstoppable, heavy - when that word still meant something good " - Meat Loaf, as told to Mick Wall Everything in the story of Meat Loaf is big. From the place he was born (Texas); to the family he was born into (his father weighed 22 stone, his uncle weighed over 40 stone, while Meat Loaf himself weighed 17 stone before he was even in his teens); to the sound he made (a colossal collision between Richard Wagner, Phil Spector and Bruce Springsteen); and of course the records he sold - nearly 50 million in Britain and America alone. Now, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Bat Out of Hell, the album that gave rise to Meat Loaf's astonishing career, and the premiere of Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical, Mick Wall, who has interviewed Meat Loaf on numerous occasions throughout his career, pulls back the curtains to reveal the soft-hearted soul behind the larger-than-life character he created for himself. From a tumultuous childhood with an alcoholic father to the relentless abusive bullying from classmates and their parents alike, nobody could have predicted Meat Loaf's meteoric rise to fame. But when the messianic rock opera Bat Out of Hell was released in 1977, it became one of the biggest albums of all time, selling over 45 million copies worldwide to date. Its release marked the start of a rollercoaster ride of incredible highs and seemingly career-ending lows. By the 80s, Meat Loaf was battling with drug and alcohol addiction and escalating money problems that would eventually lead to a nervous breakdown. But just when it seemed like it was all over, the astonishing success of Bat Out of Hell II and the mega-hit 'I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)' marked an extraordinary new wave of success. Now, Mick Wall will bring this extraordinary story up to date, drawing on the hours he spent with Meat Loaf, both in interviews and on tour, as well as offering up a unique insight from those who have known him best. ...Show more

The Dreamer by Cliff Richard

$35.00 AUD

Category: Music

Published to coincide with his 80th birthday, a tour and another new album, national treasure Sir Cliff Richard has emerged stronger than ever after devastating false accusations threatened to ruin his life. As he celebrates 60 years in music, he tells his incredible story in his first, full autobiograp hy. A living history of pop.'Before Cliff Richard and The Shadows there was nothing worth listening to in British music.' John LennonCelebrating sixty years in music, with a hit in every decade since the 1950s, Sir Cliff Richard surely has a story to tell: coming of age in 1950s London, playing at the 2is Cafe where it all began, and now approaching is 80th birthday with record sales of 250m and counting.Cliff Richard was a pioneer - an original, with a new sound style, exploding out of London's post-war skiffle scene. His debut single 'Move It' is widely credited as the record that kick started British rock 'n' roll. Pre-Beatles, Cliff was the teen idol. His story takes us in front of screaming fans across the UK and beyond, onto TV's first pop show Oh Boy!, then through 40 years of Top of the Pops, first with the Kinks and latterly the likes of McFly. He's seen era-defining pop groups and iconic TV shows come and go. He's still making new music, and this summer he's playing to sell-out arenas.His recent struggles have only intensified the devotion of his fans, and spurred him on to a new phase of creativity. He feels the time is right to tell his own story and cement his legacy in the history of pop culture. ...Show more

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine

$16.99 AUD

Category: Music | Series: Faber Social Ser.

SUNDAY TIMES MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR. ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR. MOJO BOOK OF THE YEAR In 1975, Viv Albertine was obsessed with music but it never occurred to her she could be in a band as she couldn't play an instrument and she'd never seen a girl play electric guitar.A year later, she was the guita rist in the hugely influential all-girl band the Slits, who fearlessly took on the male-dominated music scene and became part of a movement that changed music. A raw, thrilling story of life on the frontiers and a candid account of Viv's life post-punk - taking in a career in film, the pain of IVF, illness and divorce and the triumph of making music again - Clothes Music Boys is a remarkable memoir. ...Show more

The Rolling Stones in the Beginning - With Unseen Images by Bent Rej

$79.99 AUD

Category: Music

A unique portrait of a band on the brink of superstardom.From March 1965 to May 1966, photographer Bent Rej enjoyed unparalleled access to the Rolling Stones as one of the trusted inner circle, accompanying the band on its first full European outing: the Satisfaction tour.   The Rolling Stones In the Beginning is Rej's collection of more than 300 intimate photographs of the band on stage, on the road and at home, documenting a year in the life of the Rolling Stones as they enjoyed their first taste of popular success.   This new and updated edition contains never-before-seen photographs newly unearthed from Rej's archive. ...Show more

Paul Kelly: the Man, the Music & the Life in Between by Stuart Coupe

$35.00 AUD

Category: Music

Renowned music journalist Stuart Coupe examines the life of an Australian music icon - honest, revealing and a must-read for Paul Kelly fans and music lovers alike. He's been called Australia's Bob Dylan and likened to Springsteen and Neil Young, but Paul Kelly stands alone as a chronicler of his and ou r times. He is Australia's best-loved singer, songwriter, author and poetic observer and though he has written his own stories, no one has captured the broader life and times of Paul Kelly - until now. Renowned music journalist, author and for many years Kelly's manager, Stuart Coupe takes us from Kelly's family life as the sixth of nine children in Adelaide to his life today. With Paul's blessing and access to friends, family, band mates and musical collaborators, Coupe shows Paul's evolution from a young man who only really picked up a guitar in his late teens, to an Australian music icon. Through hundreds of interviews, Coupe details the way Paul juggled the demands, temptations and excesses of rock'n'roll with real life. Revealing Paul Kelly's personal relationships, his friendships, his generosity and support of other artists, such as Archie Roach, Kasey Chambers, Kev Carmody, Vika and Linda Bull and Courtney Barnett, the force of Kelly's powerful storytelling, his musical creativity, his activism and his work ethic also shines through. ...Show more