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Blues books galore! Everything from blues history to biographies of blues musicians available at our affiliates will be listed here for convenience. Blues music arrangements, sheet music, scores and accompanying cds, are listed in each individual instruments book page. This section is constantly under construction, so please call back often for updates.
2stoned
Andrew Loog Oldham
'Playing God was just my sideline, actually. Getting records cut was my principal business.' In 1963, in a south London hotel, Andrew Loog Oldham discovered an unknown blues band called the Rolling Stones and became their manager and producer. 2Stoned is the remarkable story of how his radical strategies transformed them into the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band That Ever Drew Breath.
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Stoned
Andrew Loog Oldham
In the 1960s, there were only two bands that really mattered: the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. And there were only two managers that mattered, too. The Beatles had the suave, charming, but ultimately conservative Brian Epstein, who persuaded them out of their Hamburg black leather gear and into suits. The Stones had Andrew Loog Oldham, who took them on when he was only 19. He did everything he could to provoke, outrage and disgust--one realises how Malcolm McLaren created the Sex Pistols according to the formula first devised by Oldham. He also had a powerful formative influence on the Stones as pop artists.
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According to the Rolling Stones: The Autobiography
by Mick Jagger
Their group autobiography, by the current members of the band, to coincide with their farewell world tour. Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie describe how music affected and changed their lives and those of at least two generations, and how their own lives - and lifestyles - have in turn helped, or hindered, their music-making. The text, largely in the form of first-person narrative is, in turn, insightful, funny, sardonic, surprising, but above all very personal and intimate. A reference section including discography, gigography and chronology is shot through with the band's eye view of their history and punctuated by pithy comments and views on album and single releases on memorable or famed performances and other newsworthy events.
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Alexis Korner: Blues Is Where You Hear It
Harry Shapiro
Paperback
By the time Alexis Korner died, aged 55, on New Years Day 1984, he had secured himself a place in history. Dubbed "the father of British blues", he had become a mentor to generations of musicians. Out of Blues Incorporated, Korner's original band, came bands, such as the Rolling Stones, Cream...
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Alexis Korner: Blues Is Where You Hear It
Harry Shapiro
Hardcover
By the time Alexis Korner died, aged 55, on New Years Day 1984, he had secured himself a place in history. Dubbed "the father of British blues", he had become a mentor to generations of musicians. Out of Blues Incorporated, Korner's original band, came bands, such as the Rolling Stones, Cream, the...
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All Music Guide to the Blues
The Definitive Guide to the Blues
Vladimir Bogdanov (Editor)
Paperback
From 1920s Delta blues to 1990s electric, this is the authoritative guide to the blues on vinyl, tape, and CD. Fully updated to reflect today's revitalized blues world, this guide is any blues fan's lifeline to the best blues past and present. It reviews and rates 7,000 recordings in all major...
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All Music Guide to the Blues
Michael Erlewine
Paperback
The second edition of this acclaimed critical compendium doubles the number of albums reviewed, and features capsule biographies of hundreds more musicians, also expanding its scope to cover gospel performers and recordings as well. Multiple authors for biographies
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All Music Guide to the Blues: The Experts' Guide to the Best Blues
Michael Erlewine (Editor)
Reviews and rates the best recordings of more than 560 blues artists and groups, provides biographies of the artists, and charts the evolution of the blues.
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Bessie
Chris Albertson
Hardcover
Leonard Feather, Los Angeles Times
"The most devastating, provocative, and enlightening work of its kind ever contributed to the annals of jazz literature." Considered by many to be the greatest blues singer of all time, Bessie Smith was also a successful vaudeville entertainer who became the highest paid African-American performer of the roaring twenties. This book—a revised and expanded edition of the classic biography of this extraordinary woman.
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Billie Holiday
Stuart Nicholson
‘The best biography of the star called Lady Day’ Daily Express. A biography of the jazz vocalist, Billie Holiday, who died from a drug overdose in 1959. As well as a discussion of her music, this text covers her drug addiction, masochistic promiscuity and alcoholism, and examines the racial prejudice and legal harassment she suffered all her life.
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Bird's Diary: The Life of Charlie Parker
Ken Vail
Paperback
This is a month-by-month chronology of Charlie Parker's life from the revolutionary bebop recordings with Dizzy Gillespie in 1945 to his death only ten years later. The book lists his club and concert appearances and details all of his recording sessions as well as his long battles with authority in...
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Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s
Daphne Duval Harrison
Paperback
A contribution to the history of the blues in particular and of Afro-American culture in general, new information about a remarkable set of assertive, creative women as well as new insights into the musical heritage they have left behind. Sippie Wallace, Edith Wilson, Victoria Spivey and Alberta...
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Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the Blues
Paul Oliver
Print on Demand (Paperback)
This is a new, thoroughly revised edition of Paul Oliver's classic study of the blues. First published in 1960, this remarkable book has not been superseded and its reappearance will be welcomed by all who wish to understand the complexity of meaning in the blues
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Blues for Dummies (For Dummies)
Lonnie Brooks
Get your mojo working as you take a musical trip from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago's gritty South Side and points beyond with Blues For Dummies, an insightful, toe-tappin', music lovers' guide to the blues. Popular blues guitarist Lonnie Brooks serves as your tour guide through the life and...
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Blues Legacies and Black Feminism
Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday
by Angela Y. Davis
The female blues singers of the 1920s, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, and Bessie Smith, not only invented a musical genre, but they also became models of how African American women could become economically independent in a culture that had not previously allowed it. Both Smith and Rainey composed, arranged, and managed their own road bands. Angela Y. Davis's study emphasizes the impact that these singers, and later Billie Holiday, had on the poor and working-class communities from which they came.
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Blues Legends
Charles K. Cowdery
Hardcover - 14 December, 1995
A collection of twenty two profiles of the most important and influential blues legends of our time, accompanied by a compilation CD.
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Blues Singers
Biographies of 50 Legendary Artists of the Early 20th Century
Davie L. Dicaire
Paperback
A reference providing basic, but lively, biographical essays about 50 of the most influential blues singers covering five generations: the Mississippi Delta bluesmen; the Chicago blues school; the Texas blues tradition; women of the blues; and blues outside the Delta. Includes substantial discography.
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Brother Ray: Ray Charles' Own Story
Ray Charles, David Ritz
Paperback
Ray Charles has led one of the most extraordinary lives of any popular musician. Overcoming poverty, blindness, the loss of his parents, and the prevailing racism of the time, by the age of 32 Ray Charles was acclaimed worldwide as a genius. By combining the influences of gospel, jazz, blues, and...
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Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters
Keith Richards (Foreword), Robert Gordon
Paperback
Jay McInerney: ‘Gordon gets the deep lowdown on the original Rolling Stone. A major feat of research and a fascinating read.’
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Chasin' That Devil Music: Searching for the Blues
Gayle Dean Wardlow
Paperback
Traces the development and characteristics of the Delta blues, and describes the most influential blues musicians and recordings of the 1920s and 1930s.
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Chicago Blues (NFSC/UK)
by Raebum Flerlage, Lisa Day, Raeburn Flerlage
When Raeburn Flerlage was asked to take a picture of Memphis Slim in 1959, he began a career that would produce some of the most fascinating and important photos ever taken of blues musicians. By shooting concert performances, studio sessions, interviews, and club shows, he became a fixture of the Chicago blues scene during the 1960s and early 70s, and captured some of America's greatest blues artists at the pinnacle of their careers: Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Otis Spann, James...
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Crossroads: Eric Clapton
Michael Schumacher
Paperback
CROSSROADS is the story of Eric Clapton - the man, his magnificent music and his tragedy-marred life. Clapton is the million-selling Grammy-winning master of the blues guitar - and his popularity has hit new heights since his 'Unplugged' album sold over 6 million copies.
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Dazzling Stranger
Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival
Colin Harper
Paperback
The guitarists' guitarist and the songwriters' songwriter, Bert Jansch has been admired by stars as diverse as Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Marr, Bob Dylan and Jarvis Cocker. Others who have recorded his songs, befriended him or acknowledged his influence include: Paul Simon, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake,...
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Dazzling Stranger
Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival
Colin Harper
Hardcover
Profiles the life and work of Bert Jansch, guitarists' guitarist and songwriters' songwriter. He has been admired by stars as diverse as Bob Dylan, Johnny Marr and Jarvis Cocker, and this book looks at his life from his early days in Scotland to his 1995 album "When the Circus Comes to Town".
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Deep Blue
David Niall Wilson expands on the online novellette Deep Blue about Brandt, the band and the blues. This adult read has a cast packed with pathos and surreality... musicians will recognise a part of themselves or someone they know within the characters in this book about blues, music and musicians. Visit the site to read the novellette online and Pre-Order Deep Blue
Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker
James Gavin
Paperback
'The definitive biography' Mail on Sunday. James Gavin gives the reader a full account of the dark journey that was trumpet-player Chet Baker's life, from his emergence in the 1950s on the West Coast, to his becoming, virtually overnight, a giant of "cool" jazz, until his mysterious death in Amsterdam in 1988.
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Down Home Guide to the Blues
Paperback
A discographical guide to more than 3,000 blues and gospel LPs, CDs, and cassettes with information on the featured artists, and the quality and availability of the recordings.
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Ella Fitzgerald
Stuart Nicholson
Paperback
This biography of Ella Fitzgerald provides an account of a poor black girl's determination to realize the American Dream, in the face of constant racial and sexual prejudice. It also examines the influences of bandleader Chick Webb and her manager Norman Granz, and the happiness she found with a Norwegian called Thor Larsen, after two failed marriages. Through interviews with Ella Fitzgerald herself, and the musicians with whom she worked, the book reflects the remarkable paradoxes in her life. It also celebrates her music, analyzing and discussing her finest work, and the author's analysis is illuminated with the co-operation of the singer Mel Torme, who provides insights into her technique, style and musicianship. Stuart Nicholson is a journalist and former jazz musician, and the author of "Jazz: The Modern Resurgence".
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Gallagher, Marriott, Derringer & Trower: Their Lives And Music
Book
A candid look at the lives of four men whose combined catalogues have sold tens of millions of copies.
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Get a Shot of Rhythm and Blues: The Arthur Alexander Story
Richard Younger
Paperback
This biography chronicles the rise, fall and rebirth of Arthur Alexander, an African American singer-songwriter whose music influenced many of the rock and soul musicians of the 1960s. Although his name is not well known today, Alexander's musical legacy is vast. His 1962 song "You Better Move On"...
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Gibson Electrics: The Classic Years
Book
This book presents a factual account of all the models designed during what is often referred to as the "Golden Years". It features the many classics that have made history and recaps their origins.
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Gibson Guitars: 100 Years Of An American Icon (Hard Cover)
Book
Gibson Guitars: 100 Years Of An American Icon is the definitive book on the world's leading maker of stringed instruments as well as a breath-taking stroll through America's musical heritage.
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Gibson Guitars: 100 Years Of An American Icon
Book
Gibson Guitars: 100 Years Of An American Icon is the definitive book on the world's leading maker of stringed instruments as well as a breath-taking stroll through America's musical heritage.
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Girl Groups: Fabulous Females That Rocked the World
John Clemente
Paperback
This guide profiles 60 of the most influential girl groups of the 1950s to the 1980s and their respective record labels. There is a discography for all listed groups, pricing and an A-Z listing of the 60 groups. Groups featured include The Supremes, the Ronettes, The Orlons and The Go-Go's.
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"Guitar World" Presents: Stevie Ray Vaughan
'Guitar World' Magazine
Paperback
This is the tragic story of blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. All of Vaughan's conversations with "Guitar World Magazine" are presented in this book, which details his rise to fame, his songwriting and performing, his battle with drink and drugs and his death in a helicopter crash in 1990.
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Hellhound on My Trail: The Life of Robert Johnson, Bluesman Extraordinaire
Robert Wolf
Hardcover
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James Brown: The Godfather of Soul
Al Sharpton (Foreword)
Paperback
The autobiography Godfather of Soul was originally published before James Brown's late-'80s brushes with the law, so those looking for the man's thoughts on his drug problems and subsequent incarceration will walk away empty-handed. Seekers after the fine blend of social responsibility, cranked-up ego, and pronouncements on his own music and its place in the world, however, will be amply rewarded. Fascinating tidbits--from the claim that Elvis Presley once hoped to record with the JBs to the story of being able to find only white and Asian kids in a last-minute recruiting effort for the shout-along on "Say It Loud--I'm Black and I'm Proud"--abound. But you probably guessed as much of the auteur of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," Live at the Apollo, and "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto." --Rickey Wright
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James Brown: The Godfather of Soul (1987) Biography - VHS
James Brown, the venerable "Godfather of Soul," has the mountainous highs and cavernous lows of his life examined in this lively installment from the A&E Biography series. From the poorest of beginnings in South Carolina, Brown went on to be the first black entertainer to fly to gigs in his own jet, although it was never easy for the singer who became known as "the hardest working man in show business." Archival photographs illustrate Brown's ascent in the nightclub circuits, where he first gained fame before hitting his peak in the 1960s, when he sold out Harlem's famed Apollo Theatre, had chart-topping hits, and appeared on the covers of major magazines. A particular highpoint of the video is film clips from Brown's stunningly energetic performances in the 1960s. Interviews with fellow musicians Stevie Wonder and B.B. King place Brown's profound musical influence in context, and provide a contrast to interviews with family members that illuminate the troubled life that led to two years in prison for drug-related crimes when Brown was a grandfather. This is a fascinating and lively look at a man whose life was as different as his music. --Robert J. McNamara
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Joe Cocker: The Authorised Biography
Joe Cocker (Foreword), J.P. Bean
Hardcover
Joe Cocker is a rock legend. A gas fitter who went from playing Sheffield pubs to the stadiums of the world, he was the man who no one - not even himself - expected to survive the age of 30. Now, approaching his 60s and having recovered his life and career, he has co-operated with the full and frank...
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Jimi Hendrix: 'Talking'
Because I didn't have a cent in my pocket, I walked into the first recruitment office I saw and went into the army .....
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Learn to Play Blues (Learn to Play)
K. Elliott
Hardcover
A collection of over 25 graded pieces in a variety of blues styles for the young musician, with technical hints and concise definitions of musical terms. The book also contains a history of blues development from its African origins, biographies of musicians and a selective discography.
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Lil' Choo-Choo Johnson, Bluesman
by Bryan Krull is a work of historical fiction about a young Mississippi boy who becomes a blues guitar legend. Earl Lil’ Choo-Choo Johnson left home at the age of 10, with only his father’s guitar, and stepped into the world of the Delta blues. A guitar prodigy, his music led him to play with blues legends like Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Son House, Howlin’ Wolf, and Muddy Waters. Lil’ Choo-Choo’s story is a history of the blues, from sharecropper’s shacks on Dockery’s Plantation and whiskey-soaked juke joints in Depression-era Mississippi to the swinging clubs of post-war Memphis and Chicago. It encompasses the heyday of the Delta blues, the birth of rock and roll, the British invasion, the blues revival of the 1960s, and beyond. It is also the story of a man who overcomes adversity to become a successful musician and family man.
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Michael Bloomfield: If You Love These Blues
Jan Mark Wolkin, Bill Keenom
Hardcover
Drawing on over 80 interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, music journalist Wolkin and longtime fan and musician Keenom recreate the life of the blues musician who died in 1981 at age 37. He was an influential guitarist of the 1960s who achieved gold records and was elected to The Blues Fou
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Miles: The Autobiography
Miles Davis, Quincy Troupe
Paperback
A frank autobiography of the jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. This book records his life - the music, the women and the drugs. It talks about the white promotors and producers who exploited black musicians as well as the critics.
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Mister Jelly Roll
Kingsley Amis (Foreword), Alan Lomax
Paperback
This is a biography of the New Orleans jazz pianist, based on recordings which the author made at the Library of Congress Archive of America, with Jelly Roll Morton playing the piano and talking about himself.
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More Blues Singers
Biographies of 50 Artists from the Later 20th Century
David Dicaire
Paperback
This work is dedicated to 50 blues singers born after 1940 who have continued the traditions of earlier blues influences. Each entry provides biographical information on the artist and an analysis of his/her contribution to the blues. The first book by David Dicaire, Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Legendary Artists of the Early 20th Century, (McFarland, 1999), included pioneers, innovators, superstars, and cult heroes of blues music born before 1940. This second work covers those born after 1940 who have continued the tradition.
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Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey
Sandra Lieb
Paperback
Briefly portrays the life of the influential blues singer, Ma Rainey, discuss the development of her music, and analyzes the theme of love in her music.
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Music Festivals from Bach to Blues: A Traveller's Guide
Tom Clynes
Paperback
This is a comprehensive guide to 1,001 music festivals in the U.S. and Canada. Over 200 entries discuss the biggest and best festivals and provide full descriptions of the artistic focus, who's performing, and what festival-goers can expect. All entries give the particulars like dates, times, prices, contact information, location and transport details, and resources for nearby lodging. Includes maps and indexes. Photos.
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MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide (Revised And Updated)
Leland Rucker (Editor)
Paperback
Revised and updated, this album guide covers the gamut of regional and historical blues styles - from the deep country blues of the Mississippi Delta to the classic blues of Chicago, the big-band jump blues of the 1940s and the blues-rock of the 21st century. The guide offers reviews and ratings of...
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My Boy Elvis: The Colonel Tom Parker Story
Sean O'Neal
Paperback
Traces the life of the stowaway from Holland who reinvented himself into Colonel Tom Parker and became Elvis Presley's manager.
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Blues Books, Biographies, Tuition, Reference (Amazon UK)
With over 1348 books to browse on blues alone we thought you might like a jump link that takes you directly to the full range of blues books! covering everything from educational books with video and audio help for all standards to biographies, autoiographies, theory, practial and more in all blues styles, genres and artists its worth spending time to browsing just to see these gems at such cheap prices!
Books - Music, Stage & Screen (Amazon UK)
Includes styles, scores, songbooks, lyrics, composers, musicians, audio biographies, business, digital music, guides to music history, instruments, learning to play, write & record music, musical theory and composition, reference and general interest.
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