Memoirs: Music

Prodigiously talented and amazingly protean, Quincy Jones has led one of the most musically influential American lives of this century. In Q, he finally tells it all, from the glamour and string of glittering achievements to the private pain, revealed for the first time with stunning honesty.

"Turn Around Bright Eyes" is an emotional journey of hilarity and heartbreak with a karaoke soundtrack. It's a story about finding the courage to move on, clearing your throat, and letting it rip. It's a story about
navigating your way through adult romance. And it's a story about how songs get tangled up in our deepest emotions, evoking memories of the past while inspiring hope for the future.

It was a time of heightened awareness, when the worlds of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual politics were colliding and exploding. In this milieu, two kids made a pact to take care of each other. Scrappy, romantic, committed to create, and fueled by their mutual dreams and drives, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe would prod and provide for one another during the hungry years. "Just Kids" begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late sixties and seventies and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame.

The long-awaited autobiography of the guitarist, songwriter, singer, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. With his trademark disarming honesty, Keith Richards brings us the story of a life we have all longed to know more of, unfettered, fearless, and true.

The first volume in a series of memoirs by a musical and political icon. Circa 1965, arguably the high point in his creative genius, Bob Dylan writes about the beginning of his music career, his early loves, and offers a very personal, anecdotal view of this time of creativity, innovation and music history.

"Play It Again" deals with focus, discipline, and desire but is, above all, about the sanctity of one's inner life in a world dominated by deadlines and distractions.

"The Train in the Night" explores the world in which a music critic must cope with a world that has abruptly lost its most important element, sound. But Coleman opens more than his struggle; he delves back into his past to examine how music defined his identity, how that identity must be reshaped by its loss, and how at time the memory of the music can be just as powerful as the music itself.

The haunting memoir of a girl growing up in the Moso country in the Himalayas--a unique matrilineal society. But even in this land of women, familial tension is eternal. Namu is a strong-willed daughter, and conflicts between her and her rebellious mother lead her to break the taboo that holds the Moso world together--she leaves her mother's house.

A world-renowned composer of symphonies, operas, and film scores, Philip Glass has, almost single-handedly, crafted the dominant sound of late-twentieth-century classical music. Yet here in "Words Without Music", he creates an entirely new and unexpected voice, that of a born storyteller and an acutely insightful chronicler, whose behind-the-scenes recollections allow readers to experience those moments of creative fusion when life so magically merged with art.

From the man who invented rock criticism, a splashy personal account of 60's counterculture. "Another Little Piece of My Heart" is the intimate memoir of the writer as a young man with profound ambition. It is also a sweeping personal account of a decade that no one else could provide--a deeply moving, unparalleled document of rock and revolution in America.

An unforgettable odyssey of a legendary artist, told through the prism of the cafés and haunts she has worked in around the world. It is a book Patti Smith has described as "a roadmap to my life."

Legendary influential performer Grace Jones offers a revealing account of her spectacular career and turbulent life, charting the development of a persona that has made her one of the world's most recognizable artists.

In this surprising and moving memoir, the legendary rap star and co-founder of Run D.M.C. keeps it a hundred percent, speaking out about his battle with depression and overcoming suicidal thoughts, one of the most devastating yet little known health issues plaguing the black community today. In this riveting memoir, DMC speaks openly about his emotional and psychological struggles and the impact on his life, and addresses the many reasons that led him, and thousands of others, to consider suicide.

From the legendary front man of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd. comes the complete, unvarnished story of his life in his own words In "Anger Is an Energy", which also features rare and never-before-seen photographs, Lydon looks back on a life full of incident, from his start as a sickly child of Irish immigrants growing up in post-war London to his present status as a vibrant, alternative hero.

This is the story of my life, told as clear as a Texas sky and in the same rhythm that I lived it. It's a story of restlessness and the purity of the moment and living right. Of my childhood in Abbott, Texas, to the Pacific Northwest, from Nashville to Hawaii and all the way back again. Of selling vacuum cleaners and encyclopedias while hosting radio shows and writing song after song, hoping to strike gold. It's a story of true love, wild times, best friends, and barrooms, with a musical sound track ripping right through it. My life gets lived on the road, at home, and on the road again, tried and true, and I've written it all down from my heart to yours.

A searing memoir of love, drugs, sex, and old-school R&B, from the former wife of the legendary soul icon Marvin Gaye. Unsparing in its honesty and insight, "After the Dance" reveals what it's like to be in love with an artistic genius, a man whose words and music have touched the world and made him a legend.

Accessibly raw, honest and heartfelt, this book captures the experience of being a young woman, a born performer and an outsider, and ultimately finding one's true calling through hard work, courage and the intoxicating power of rock and roll.

"Decoded" is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time.

Long acknowledged as one of rock music's most intelligent and literary performers, Pete Townshend -- guitarist, songwriter, singer and founding member of The Who -- at last tells his wild story in this candid and immersive autobiography.

In "Girl in a Band", the famously reserved superstar speaks candidly about her past and the future. From her childhood in the sunbaked suburbs of Southern California, growing up with a mentally ill sibling who often sapped her family of emotional capital, to New York's downtown art and music scene in the eighties and nineties and the birth of a band that would pave the way for acts like Nirvana, as well as help inspire the Riot Grrl generation, here is an edgy and evocative portrait of a life in art. Exploring the artists, musicians, and writers who influenced Gordon, and the relationship that defined her life for so long, "Girl in a Band" is filled with the sights and sounds of a pre-Internet world and is a deeply personal portrait of a woman who has become an icon.

"Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys." is a raw chronicle of music, fashion, love, sex, feminism, and more that connects the early days of punk to the Riot Grrl movement and beyond. But even more profoundly, Viv Albertine's remarkable memoir is the story of an empowered woman staying true to herself and making it on her own in the modern world.

Universally acclaimed as a musical genius, Miles Davis was one of the most important and influential musicians in the world. The man who gave us some of the most exciting music of the twentieth century here gives us a compelling and fascinating autobiography, featuring a concise discography and thirty-two pages of photographs.

From one of the greatest rock guitarists of our era comes a memoir that redefines sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Slash survived it all: lawsuits, rehab, riots, notoriety, debauchery, and destruction, and ultimately found his creative evolution.

From one of the most interesting and iconic musicians of our time, a piercingly tender, funny, and harrowing account of the path from suburban poverty and alienation to a life of beauty, squalor and unlikely success out of the NYC club scene of the late '80s and '90s.

"I Am Brian Wilson" reveals as never before the man who fought his way back to stability and creative relevance, who became a mesmerizing live artist, who forced himself to reckon with his own complex legacy, and who finally completed Smile, the legendary unfinished Beach Boys record that had become synonymous with both his genius and its destabilization. Today Brian Wilson is older, calmer, and filled with perspective and forgiveness. Whether he's talking about his childhood, his bandmates, or his own inner demons, Wilson's story, told in his own voice and in his own way, unforgettably illuminates the man behind the music, working through the turbulence and discord to achieve, at last, a new harmony.

As one of the greatest rock icons of all time, Gregg Allman has lived it all and then some. For almost fifty years, he's been creating some of the most recognizable songs in American rock, but never before has he paused to reflect on the long road he's traveled. Now, he tells the unflinching story of his life, laying bare the unvarnished truth about his wild ride that has spanned across the years.

Dave Van Ronk was one of the founding figures of the 1960's folk revival, but he was far more than that. A pioneer of modern acoustic blues, a fine songwriter and arranger, a powerful singer, and one of the most influential guitarists of the 1960's, he was also a marvelous storyteller, a peerless musical historian, and one of the most quotable figures on the Greenwich Village scene. "The Mayor of MacDougal Street" will appeal not only to folk and blues fans but to anyone interested in the music, politics, and spirit of a revolutionary period in American culture.

"Mo' Meta Blues" is a punch-drunk memoir in which Questlove tells his own story while tackling some of the lates, the greats, the fakes, the philosophers, the heavyweights, and the true originals of the music world. He digs deep into the album cuts of his life and unearths some pivotal moments in black art, hip hop, and pop culture.

The long-awaited memoir from John Fogerty, the legendary singer-songwriter and creative force behind Creedence Clearwater Revival. "Fortunate Son" takes readers from Fogerty's Northern California roots, through Creedence's success and the retreat from music and public life, to his hard-won revival as a solo artist who finally found love.

Born Declan Patrick MacManus, Elvis Costello was raised in London and Liverpool, grandson of a trumpet player on the White Star Line and son of a jazz musician who became a successful radio dance-band vocalist. Costello went into the family business and before he was twenty-four took the popular music world by storm. Costello continues to add to one of the most intriguing and extensive songbooks of our day. The idiosyncratic memoir of a singular man, "Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink" is destined to be a classic.

Chrissie Hynde, for nearly four decades the singer/songwriter/ undisputed leader of the Pretenders, is a justly legendary figure. Few other rock stars have managed to combine her swagger, sexiness, stage presence, knack for putting words to music, gorgeous voice and just all-around kick-assedness into such a potent and alluring package. Her mesmerizing presence radiates from every line and page of this book.

With refreshing candor, "Sounds Like Me" reveals Sara Bareilles, the artist--and the woman--on songwriting, soul searching, and what's discovered along the way. More than a privileged view inside the experience of a remarkable musical talent--this is a moving tribute to the universal search for growth, healing, and self-acceptance.

Returning triumphantly from addiction and homelessness to sing, write songs, and act, Marianne Faithfull tells of her rise, fall, and redemption in the music business--beginning with her childhood and continuing through her tumultuous relationship with Mick Jagger. 32 photos.

The sharp, lyrical, and no-holds-barred autobiography of the iconoclastic writer and musician Richard Hell, charting the childhood, coming of age, and misadventures of an artist in an indelible era of rock and roll.

"Tranny" is the intimate story of Against Me!'s enigmatic founder, weaving the narrative of the band's history, as well as Grace's, with dozens of never-before-seen entries from the piles of journals Grace kept. More than a typical music memoir about sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll-although it certainly has plenty of that- "Tranny" is an inside look at one of the most remarkable stories in the history of rock.

In her 20 years behind the mic at New York City's two biggest hip-hop stations, Angie Martinez has become an entertainment legend. From one-time presidential hopeful Barack Obama to JayZ and Beyonc, to post-prison Tupac, her intimate and candid interviews with the leading names in the music business have grabbed headlines and changed the conversation. In the same no-holds-barred style of her radio show, Angie shares stories from behind-the-scenes of her most controversial interviews and opens up about her personal life.