Presents a history of popular music in the United States, profiles the most notable past and present stars, and features song and album suggestions.

Throughout our nation's history, patriotic songs have lifted our spirits during hard times and brought us closer to our heritage and to each other. Behind these "songs sung red, white, and blue" are unforgettable stories that will enrich your appreciation of their unique power. It's hard to imagine a single American who hasn't been touched deeply at one time or another by the songs in these pages. From the soaring chorus of "God Bless America" to...

Outsider musicians can be the product of damaged DNA, alien abduction, drug fry, demonic possession, or simply sheer obliviousness. This book profiles dozens of outsider musicians, both prominent and obscure figures such as The Shaggs, Syd Barrett, Tiny Tim, Jandek, Captain Beefheart, Daniel Johnston, Harry Partch, and The Legendary Stardust Cowboy and presents their strange life stories along with photographs, interviews, cartoons, and discographies....

In The Way You Wear Your Hat, author Bill Zehme presents a masterful assembly of the most personal details and gorgeous minutiae of Frank Sinatra's way of livingmatters of the heart and heartbreak, friendship and leadership, drinking and cavorting, brawling and wooing, tuxedos and snap-brimsall crafted from rare interviews with Sinatra himself as well as many other intimates, including Tony Bennett, Don Rickles, Angie Dickinson, Tony Curtis, and Robert...

By far the most comprehensive book on Dylan's words ever written, including a number of songs that no one has ever heard, this first volume will fundamentally change how these lyrics are interpreted and understood. Arranged in a surprising chronology of when they were actually written rather than when they appeared on albums the middle verse of Blowin' in the Wind was written much later than the first and third verses, and the songs on John Wesley...

In this follow-up to Love is a Mix Tape, a writer for Rolling Stone, after his wife's death, finds solace in music, which leads him to the strangest places and gives him the courage to start over, move on and rock the mike.

The time: 1936-1938. The mood: Hopeful. It wasn't wartime, not yet. The music: The incomparable Count Basie and Benny Goodman, among others. The setting: Living rooms across America and, most of all, New York City. Dream Lucky covers politics, race, religion, arts, and sports, but the central focus is the period's soundtrack-specifically big band jazz-and the big-hearted piano player William "Count" Basie. His ascent is the narrative thread of the...

Every great song has a fascinating backstory. In "Anatomy of a Song", based on the ongoing "Wall Street Journal" column, writer and music historian Marc Myers brings to life five decades of music through oral histories of forty-five transformative songs woven from interviews with the artists who created them. Bringing readers inside the making of a hit, "Anatomy of a Song" includes the Isley Brothers' memorable song Shout, Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta...

Behind the Christmas songs we love to sing lie fascinating stories that will enrich your holiday celebration. Taking you inside the nativity of over thirty favorite songs and carols, Ace Collins introduces you to people you've never met, stories you've never heard, and meanings you'd never have imagined. The next time you and your family sing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," you'll have a new understanding of its message and popular roots. You'll discover...