It’s November already? Yoiks! The year is running out fast. Wish I could say the same for the list of new books — but that just keeps getting longer. Next week’s additions include tomes by or about Paul McCartney & Wings, Brian Wilson & The Beach Boys, Patti Smith, The Smiths, Roddy Bottum, Bryan Baker and umpteen more. Read all about ’em:
Wings: The Story Of A Band On The Run
Edited by Ted Widmer
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “An engrossing oral history of a band that came to define a generation, Wings: The Story Of A Band On The Run tells the madcap story of Paul McCartney and his newly formed band, from their humble beginnings in the early 1970s to their dissolution barely a decade later. Drawn from over 500,000 words of interviews with McCartney, family and band members, and other key participants, Wings recounts — now with a half-century’s wisdom — the musical odyssey taken by a man searching for his identity in the aftermath of The Beatles. Soon joined by his wife — American photographer Linda McCartney — on keyboard and vocals; drummer Denny Seiwell; and guitarist Denny Laine, McCartney sowed the seeds for a new band that would later provide the soundtrack of the decade. Organized chronologically around McCartney, RAM and nine Wings albums, the narrative begins when a 27-year-old superstar, rumored to be dead, flees with his new wife to a sheep farm in Scotland amid a sea of legal and personal rows. Despite the harsh conditions, the Scottish setting gives McCartney time to create, and it is here where his new band emerges. Wings follows the group as they play unannounced shows at university halls, tour in a sheared-off double-decker bus with their children, survive a robbery on the streets of Nigeria, and eventually perform stadium shows on their world tour, all while producing some of the most enduring music of the time. With extraordinary recollections collected by Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville and edited into a genre-defining oral history by Ted Widmer, Wings transports the reader, as if on a magic carpet, to the grit and glamour of the 1970s. Pushing creative forms to produce a new history, even a Wings bible, the book refracts a bygone era in a totally new light. Introduced with a personal, heartfelt foreword by McCartney, the volume contains 150 photographs, many previously unseen, as well as timelines, a gigography, and a full discography.”
Bread Of Angels: A Memoir
By Patti Smith
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “God whispers through a crease in the wallpaper, writes Patti Smith in this indelible account of her life as an artist. A post–World War II childhood unfolds in a condemned housing complex described in Dickensian detail: Consumptive children, vanishing neighbors, an infested rat house, and a beguiling book of Irish fairy tales. We enter the child’s world of the imagination where Smith, the captain of her loyal and beloved sibling army, vanquishes bullies, communes with the king of tortoises, and searches for sacred silver pennies. The most intimate of Smith’s memoirs, Bread Of Angels takes us through her teenage years when the first glimmers of art and romance take hold. Arthur Rimbaud and Bob Dylan emerge as creative heroes and role models as Smith starts to write poetry, then lyrics, merging both into the iconic recordings and songs such as Horses and Easter, Dancing Barefoot and Because the Night. She leaves it all behind to marry her one true love, Fred “Sonic” Smith, with whom she creates a life of devotion and adventure on a canal in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, with ancient willows and fulsome pear trees. She builds a room of her own, furnished with a pillow of Moroccan silk, a Persian cup, inkwell and fountain pen. The couple spend nights in their landlocked Chris-Craft studying nautical maps and charting new adventures as they start their family. As Smith suffers profound losses, grief and gratitude are braided through years of caring for her children, rebuilding her life, and, finally, writing again — the one constant on a path driven by artistic freedom and the power of the imagination to transform the mundane into the beautiful, the commonplace into the magical, and pain into hope. In the final pages, we meet Patti Smith on the road again, the vagabond who travels to commune with herself, who lives to write and writes to live.”
The Royal We
By Roddy Bottum
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Royal We is a poetic survey of a time set in a magical city that once was and is no more. It is a memoir written by Roddy Bottum, a musician and artist, that documents his coming of age and out of the closet in 1980s San Francisco, a charged era of bicycle messengers, punk rock, street witches, wheatgrass, and rebellion. The book follows his travels from Los Angeles, growing up gay with no role models, to San Francisco, where he formed Faith No More and went on to tour the world relentlessly, surviving heroin addiction and the plight of AIDS, to become a queer icon. The book is an elevated wallop of tongue and insight, much more than a tell-all. There are personal encounters with public figures like Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love and Guns N’ Roses, and recaps of gold records and arena rock — but it’s the testimonies of tragedy and addiction and preposterous life-spins that make this work so unique and intriguing. Bottum writes about his dark and harrowing past in a clear-eyed voice that is utterly devoid of self-pity, and his emboldened and confident pronouncements of achievement and unorthodox heroism flow in an unstoppable train that’s both captivating and inspirational.”
The Road
By Brian Baker
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Road is an illuminating selection of photographs spanning iconic punk rock guitarist Brian Baker’s many years of global touring with Bad Religion, Dag Nasty and other bands. The images are intelligent and arresting, reflecting time spent both inside and outside the bubble of backstages and tour buses. While touring is easily glamorized, all traveling musicians know that 22 hours of every day lack the lights, glitter, and other rock ’n’ roll trappings. For Baker, some of that time is spent photographing what interests him most in his surroundings. As revealed in The Road, his fascinations include bizarre highway signage; unsettling figurines, mannequins, and statuettes; religious iconography that carries extra weight when one considers the ethos of a band called Bad Religion; steaming cups of espresso and classic diner meals; guitars, guitars, and more guitars; and so much more. The Road is designed in collaboration with award-winning photographer and curator Jennifer Sakai. Music lovers across the globe will revel in a Baker’s–eye view of the landscapes he inhabits, and gain insight into the sometimes disquieting and always beautiful imagery that seizes his attention and engages his obsessions.”
The Drums
By Mike Joyce
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “As a band, The Smiths need no introduction. Formed in 1982 and disbanded in 1987, all four of their studio albums reached the top five in the U.K. charts. They are widely lauded as one of the most influential groups of all time. Mike Joyce is the last member of the band to release their autobiography and this is his no-holds-barred story of what it was like to play the drums in The Smiths. Throughout his honest and witty reflections, Mike answers the question he and bassist Andy Rourke used to often ask each other: ‘Where did it all go right?’ A lot of The Smiths’ past is already canonised. Rather than retelling those well-documented iconic moments, in The Drums, Mike conveys ‘the feeling’ of his time in the band. His off-piste, frank and witty perspective allows him to re-contextualise fan favourite moments through a beautifully vulnerable, human insight into his life. The written history of the band is not missing an encyclopedic account of everything that happened over the years, but Mike’s honest, entertaining and deeply human memoir is what Smiths fans have been waiting for.”
Surf’s Up: Brian Wilson & The Beach Boys
By Peter Doggett
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Capturing all the pain and glory of this incredible family saga, Surf’s Up is the definitive tribute to a remarkable band — and the genius who made it all possible. If any man in pop history deserved the tag of genius, it was Brian Wilson. As leader, producer and chief composer of The Beach Boys, he displayed an instinctive command of melody, harmony and arranging skills. The result was a run of hits that included many of the most sparkling and creative records of the 1960s. But there was a dark side to this seemingly effortless success, rooted in his tortured family background. No sooner had Brian masterminded such gems as the Pet Sounds album and Good Vibrations than his psychological demons began to derail his life. The Beach Boys were left struggling for survival. Their story could have ended there, but somehow the band survived. Ahead lay decades of trauma, triumph and tragedy, as the members all developed as songwriters but also found themselves increasingly at odds with each other. Through it all the music survived, as Brian’s younger brother Dennis Wilson emerged as an equally creative but troubled presence. Surf’s Up sees lifelong Beach Boys fan Peter Doggett capture all the glory and pain of this complex family saga. He celebrates the band’s array of musical gems, and also explores many of their passionate obsessions, from surfing and cars to politics and food. Filled with drama and pathos, Surf’s Up is the ultimate tribute to a remarkable band — and the genius who made it all possible.”
Specials | You’re Wondering Now: An Encore
by Paul Williams
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “A new and updated edition of the cult classic You’re Wondering Now, the definitive story of The Specials, one of the U.K.’s best-loved and most culturally significant bands. Following their reunion in 2009, Paul Williams charts the meteoric rise, fall and revival of the band, with unprecedented access to band members and those close to them, a remarkable level of research and an irresistible enthusiasm for both The Specials and the 2-Tone culture which grew up around them. This new and expanded edition of You’re Wondering Now contains over 30,000 words of new material, and takes us around the world several times as the reunited band were rightfully elevated to their position among British pop music royalty. Also including an updated complete discography and gigography, track-by-track detail and analysis and a new foreword from Madness guitarist Chrissy Boy, this is an essential read for those who were there, fans of ska and for anybody with an interest in a band whose political voice — one that often spoke out in isolation for the repressed and the disregarded — grows more relevant year on year. Much loved, much missed and absolutely irreplaceable, The Specials continue to appeal to fans old and new, and You’re Wondering Now provides a perfect accompaniment for anybody on that journey.”
Far Above The World: The Time & Space Of David Bowie
By Paul Morley
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In the 10 years since the death of David Bowie in 2016 there has been no loss of interest in and fascination with his life, music and driven, complex personality. He is definitely one musician, one performer, destined not to be forgotten. The significant grief and sadness that greeted Bowie’s death has evolved into a deeper, enduring love for his music, style, wit, artistic curiosity, sexual energy, flamboyant outsider spirit and insatiable, provocative appetite for life. Far Above the World will document one of the U.K.’s greatest creative artists, through the spectacularly colourful and vibrant journey of a man who constantly reinvented himself and his music. Bowie lived in the future, using the pop song to chronicle overwhelming and dangerous times, searching for the light, and creating a communication channel between post-war 20th century times and where(ever) we are now. This anniversary book will place him in the now and next, as much as is past, and argue that his songs, and his messages, reflections and warnings become ever more relevant and compelling as time passes.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source tinnitist.com ’
