Author: Robert Dean Lurie
Publisher: Verse Chorus Press
ISBN: 1891241699
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
Robert Dean Lurie’s biography is the first completely researched and written since R.E.M. disbanded in 2011. It offers by far the most detailed account of their formative years—the early lives of the band members, their first encounters with one another, their legendary debut show, touring out of the back of a van, initial recordings, their shrewdly paced rise to fame. The people and places of ‘the South’ are crucial to the R.E.M. story in ways much more complex and interesting than have been presented thus far, says Lurie, who explores the myriad ways in which the band’s adopted hometown of Athens, Georgia, and the South in general, have shaped its members and the character and style of their art. The South is more than the background to this story; it plays a major role: the creative ferment that erupted in Athens and gripped many of its young inhabitants in the late 70s and early 80s drew on regional traditions of outsider art and general cultural out-thereness, and gave rise to a free-spirited music scene that produced the B-52’s and Pylon, and laid the ground for R.E.M.’s subsequent breakout success. Lurie has tracked down and interviewed numerous figures in the band’s history who were under-represented in or even absent from earlier biographies, and they contribute previously undocumented stories as well as casting a fresh light on the familiar narrative.
Begin the Begin
Author: Robert Dean Lurie
Publisher: Verse Chorus Press
ISBN: 1891241699
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
Robert Dean Lurie’s biography is the first completely researched and written since R.E.M. disbanded in 2011. It offers by far the most detailed account of their formative years—the early lives of the band members, their first encounters with one another, their legendary debut show, touring out of the back of a van, initial recordings, their shrewdly paced rise to fame. The people and places of ‘the South’ are crucial to the R.E.M. story in ways much more complex and interesting than have been presented thus far, says Lurie, who explores the myriad ways in which the band’s adopted hometown of Athens, Georgia, and the South in general, have shaped its members and the character and style of their art. The South is more than the background to this story; it plays a major role: the creative ferment that erupted in Athens and gripped many of its young inhabitants in the late 70s and early 80s drew on regional traditions of outsider art and general cultural out-thereness, and gave rise to a free-spirited music scene that produced the B-52’s and Pylon, and laid the ground for R.E.M.’s subsequent breakout success. Lurie has tracked down and interviewed numerous figures in the band’s history who were under-represented in or even absent from earlier biographies, and they contribute previously undocumented stories as well as casting a fresh light on the familiar narrative.
Publisher: Verse Chorus Press
ISBN: 1891241699
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
Robert Dean Lurie’s biography is the first completely researched and written since R.E.M. disbanded in 2011. It offers by far the most detailed account of their formative years—the early lives of the band members, their first encounters with one another, their legendary debut show, touring out of the back of a van, initial recordings, their shrewdly paced rise to fame. The people and places of ‘the South’ are crucial to the R.E.M. story in ways much more complex and interesting than have been presented thus far, says Lurie, who explores the myriad ways in which the band’s adopted hometown of Athens, Georgia, and the South in general, have shaped its members and the character and style of their art. The South is more than the background to this story; it plays a major role: the creative ferment that erupted in Athens and gripped many of its young inhabitants in the late 70s and early 80s drew on regional traditions of outsider art and general cultural out-thereness, and gave rise to a free-spirited music scene that produced the B-52’s and Pylon, and laid the ground for R.E.M.’s subsequent breakout success. Lurie has tracked down and interviewed numerous figures in the band’s history who were under-represented in or even absent from earlier biographies, and they contribute previously undocumented stories as well as casting a fresh light on the familiar narrative.
Perfect Circle: The Story of R.E.M.
Author: Tony Fletcher
Publisher: Omnibus Press
ISBN: 1787590836
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 534
Book Description
R.E.M., the most acclaimed American group of their generation, disbanded in September 2011 with their idealism and dignity intact. In this, the final edition of his best-selling R.E.M. biography, Tony Fletcher brings their story to a conclusion and explains what led this unique group to draw a curtain on their career. This Omnibus Enhanced digital edition of Perfect Circle includes a bonus multimedia discography charting every album and single of R.E.M’s career, presented in chronological order through audio, video and imagery. Drawing on interviews with band members, friends, associates and business partners, the book follows R.E.M.’s upward trajectory from the seminal debut Murmur in 1983 to the 1990s when their albums Out Of Time, Automatic For The People and Monster sold tens of millions, making them one of the world’s biggest groups, to their final years together. Granted access to the group throughout their career, Tony Fletcher delves beyond R.E.M.s renowned humility and social awareness, discussing fame, fortune and sexuality with the same keen eye he casts on the group’s astonishing career and musical catalogue. The result is neither blind fan worship nor jaundiced critical cynicism, but a balanced and thorough telling of one of the most compelling rock stories of our time.
Publisher: Omnibus Press
ISBN: 1787590836
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 534
Book Description
R.E.M., the most acclaimed American group of their generation, disbanded in September 2011 with their idealism and dignity intact. In this, the final edition of his best-selling R.E.M. biography, Tony Fletcher brings their story to a conclusion and explains what led this unique group to draw a curtain on their career. This Omnibus Enhanced digital edition of Perfect Circle includes a bonus multimedia discography charting every album and single of R.E.M’s career, presented in chronological order through audio, video and imagery. Drawing on interviews with band members, friends, associates and business partners, the book follows R.E.M.’s upward trajectory from the seminal debut Murmur in 1983 to the 1990s when their albums Out Of Time, Automatic For The People and Monster sold tens of millions, making them one of the world’s biggest groups, to their final years together. Granted access to the group throughout their career, Tony Fletcher delves beyond R.E.M.s renowned humility and social awareness, discussing fame, fortune and sexuality with the same keen eye he casts on the group’s astonishing career and musical catalogue. The result is neither blind fan worship nor jaundiced critical cynicism, but a balanced and thorough telling of one of the most compelling rock stories of our time.
Sonic Boom
Author: Peter Ames Carlin
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 1250301572
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
From journalist Peter Ames Carlin, Sonic Boom captures the rollicking story of the most successful record label in the history of popular music, Warner Bros. Records, and the remarkable secret to its meteoric rise. The roster of Warner Brothers Records and its subsidiary labels reads like the roster of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Prince, Van Halen, Madonna, Tom Petty, R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers, and dozens of others. But the most compelling figures in the Warner Bros. story are the sagacious Mo Ostin and the unlikely crew of hippies, eccentrics, and enlightened execs. Ostin and his staff transformed an out-of-touch company, revolutionized the industry, and, within just a few years, created the most successful record label in the history of the American music industry. How did they do it? One day in 1967, the newly tapped label president Mo Ostin called his team together to share his grand strategy: he told them to stop trying to make hit records/ "Let’s just make good records and turn those into hits.” With that, Ostin ushered in a counterintuitive model that matched the counterculture. His offbeat crew recruited outsider artists and gave them free rein, while rejecting out-of-date methods of advertising, promotion, and distribution. And even as they set new standards for in-house weirdness, the upstarts’ experiments and innovations paid off, to the tune of hundreds of legendary hit albums. Warner Bros Records conquered the music business by focusing on the music rather than the business. Their story is as raucous as it is inspiring—pure entertainment that also maps a route to that holy grail: love and money. Includes black-and-white photographs
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 1250301572
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
From journalist Peter Ames Carlin, Sonic Boom captures the rollicking story of the most successful record label in the history of popular music, Warner Bros. Records, and the remarkable secret to its meteoric rise. The roster of Warner Brothers Records and its subsidiary labels reads like the roster of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Prince, Van Halen, Madonna, Tom Petty, R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers, and dozens of others. But the most compelling figures in the Warner Bros. story are the sagacious Mo Ostin and the unlikely crew of hippies, eccentrics, and enlightened execs. Ostin and his staff transformed an out-of-touch company, revolutionized the industry, and, within just a few years, created the most successful record label in the history of the American music industry. How did they do it? One day in 1967, the newly tapped label president Mo Ostin called his team together to share his grand strategy: he told them to stop trying to make hit records/ "Let’s just make good records and turn those into hits.” With that, Ostin ushered in a counterintuitive model that matched the counterculture. His offbeat crew recruited outsider artists and gave them free rein, while rejecting out-of-date methods of advertising, promotion, and distribution. And even as they set new standards for in-house weirdness, the upstarts’ experiments and innovations paid off, to the tune of hundreds of legendary hit albums. Warner Bros Records conquered the music business by focusing on the music rather than the business. Their story is as raucous as it is inspiring—pure entertainment that also maps a route to that holy grail: love and money. Includes black-and-white photographs
Bruce
Author: Peter Ames Carlin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471112357
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 781
Book Description
'Wonderful...Carlin's book never shies from the details of this most enduring of American heroes. The divorces, cruelties, years in therapy and his antidepressant fuelled comeback of 2003 are all here' Sunday Times This sweeping biography of one of America's greatest musicians is the first in twenty-five years to be written with the cooperation of Springsteen himself. With unfettered access to the artist, his family and band members, acclaimed music writer Peter Ames Carlin presents an intimate and vivid portrait. 'A readable, expansive portrait of the New Jersey rocker that delves into his family background and personal life more than previous biographies' Sunday Telegraph 'The first serious Bruce Springsteen biography for 25 years. Carlin was granted unprecedented access to family, friends, management, even the Boss himself, enabling him to paint a vivid picture of the man, warts and all' Sunday Express 'A revealing portrait of a rock colossus… Peter Ames Carlin's new book is the first in 25 years to have been written with the co-operation of Springsteen. Previous biographies have tended towards closely argued adulation but Carlin has not been blinded by his access to Springsteen' Daily Telegraph 'One for the regular fan on the street...well written and jaw-dropping in its research...Weighty, fact focused, readable' Metro 'Painstakingly researched and based on - for the first time - interviews with Springsteen's family and friends as well as the Boss himself. To that extent it is the first authorised account for a decade...This is a warts-and-all account that includes Springsteen's flashes of temper when things didn't go his way…' Sunday Times
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471112357
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 781
Book Description
'Wonderful...Carlin's book never shies from the details of this most enduring of American heroes. The divorces, cruelties, years in therapy and his antidepressant fuelled comeback of 2003 are all here' Sunday Times This sweeping biography of one of America's greatest musicians is the first in twenty-five years to be written with the cooperation of Springsteen himself. With unfettered access to the artist, his family and band members, acclaimed music writer Peter Ames Carlin presents an intimate and vivid portrait. 'A readable, expansive portrait of the New Jersey rocker that delves into his family background and personal life more than previous biographies' Sunday Telegraph 'The first serious Bruce Springsteen biography for 25 years. Carlin was granted unprecedented access to family, friends, management, even the Boss himself, enabling him to paint a vivid picture of the man, warts and all' Sunday Express 'A revealing portrait of a rock colossus… Peter Ames Carlin's new book is the first in 25 years to have been written with the co-operation of Springsteen. Previous biographies have tended towards closely argued adulation but Carlin has not been blinded by his access to Springsteen' Daily Telegraph 'One for the regular fan on the street...well written and jaw-dropping in its research...Weighty, fact focused, readable' Metro 'Painstakingly researched and based on - for the first time - interviews with Springsteen's family and friends as well as the Boss himself. To that extent it is the first authorised account for a decade...This is a warts-and-all account that includes Springsteen's flashes of temper when things didn't go his way…' Sunday Times
R.E.M: HELLO
Author:
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 9780811865104
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
Released to coincide with R.E.M.'s world tour and new album, this gorgeous photo book captures the band on and offstage with rare and intimate access for the first time.
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 9780811865104
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
Released to coincide with R.E.M.'s world tour and new album, this gorgeous photo book captures the band on and offstage with rare and intimate access for the first time.
Cool Town
Author: Grace Elizabeth Hale
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469654881
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Book Description
In the summer of 1978, the B-52’s conquered the New York underground. A year later, the band’s self-titled debut album burst onto the Billboard charts, capturing the imagination of fans and music critics worldwide. The fact that the group had formed in the sleepy southern college town of Athens, Georgia, only increased the fascination. Soon, more Athens bands followed the B-52’s into the vanguard of the new American music that would come to be known as “alternative,” including R.E.M., who catapulted over the course of the 1980s to the top of the musical mainstream. As acts like the B-52’s, R.E.M., and Pylon drew the eyes of New York tastemakers southward, they discovered in Athens an unexpected mecca of music, experimental art, DIY spirit, and progressive politics — a creative underground as vibrant as any to be found in the country’s major cities. In Athens in the eighties, if you were young and willing to live without much money, anything seemed possible. Cool Town reveals the passion, vitality, and enduring significance of a bohemian scene that became a model for others to follow. Grace Elizabeth Hale experienced the Athens scene as a student, small-business owner, and band member. Blending personal recollection with a historian’s eye, she reconstructs the networks of bands, artists, and friends that drew on the things at hand to make a new art of the possible, transforming American culture along the way. In a story full of music and brimming with hope, Hale shows how an unlikely cast of characters in an unlikely place made a surprising and beautiful new world.
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469654881
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Book Description
In the summer of 1978, the B-52’s conquered the New York underground. A year later, the band’s self-titled debut album burst onto the Billboard charts, capturing the imagination of fans and music critics worldwide. The fact that the group had formed in the sleepy southern college town of Athens, Georgia, only increased the fascination. Soon, more Athens bands followed the B-52’s into the vanguard of the new American music that would come to be known as “alternative,” including R.E.M., who catapulted over the course of the 1980s to the top of the musical mainstream. As acts like the B-52’s, R.E.M., and Pylon drew the eyes of New York tastemakers southward, they discovered in Athens an unexpected mecca of music, experimental art, DIY spirit, and progressive politics — a creative underground as vibrant as any to be found in the country’s major cities. In Athens in the eighties, if you were young and willing to live without much money, anything seemed possible. Cool Town reveals the passion, vitality, and enduring significance of a bohemian scene that became a model for others to follow. Grace Elizabeth Hale experienced the Athens scene as a student, small-business owner, and band member. Blending personal recollection with a historian’s eye, she reconstructs the networks of bands, artists, and friends that drew on the things at hand to make a new art of the possible, transforming American culture along the way. In a story full of music and brimming with hope, Hale shows how an unlikely cast of characters in an unlikely place made a surprising and beautiful new world.
The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.
Author: Peter Ames Carlin
Publisher: Doubleday
ISBN: 0385546971
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 410
Book Description
An electrifying cultural biography of the greatest and last American rock band of the millennium, whose music ignited a generation—and reasserted the power of rock and roll "[Carlin's] unique gift for capturing the sweep and tenor of a cultural moment...is here on brilliant display." —Michael Chabon In the spring of 1980, an unexpected group of musical eccentrics came together to play their very first performance at a college party in Athens, Georgia. Within a few short years, they had taken over the world – with smash records like Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster and Green. Raw, outrageous, and expressive, R.E.M.’s distinctive musical flair was unmatched, and a string of mega-successes solidified them as generational spokesmen. In the tumultuous transition between the wide-open 80s and the anxiety of the early 90s, R.E.M. challenged the corporate and social order, chasing a vision and cultivating a magnetic, transgressive sound. In this rich, intimate biography, critically acclaimed author Peter Ames Carlin looks beyond the sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll to open a window into the fascinating lives of four college friends – Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry – who stuck together at any cost, until the end. Deeply descriptive and remarkably poetic, steeped in 80s and 90s nostalgia, The Name of This Band is R.E.M. paints a cultural history of the commercial peak and near-total collapse of a great music era, and the story of the generation that came of age at the apotheosis of rock.
Publisher: Doubleday
ISBN: 0385546971
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 410
Book Description
An electrifying cultural biography of the greatest and last American rock band of the millennium, whose music ignited a generation—and reasserted the power of rock and roll "[Carlin's] unique gift for capturing the sweep and tenor of a cultural moment...is here on brilliant display." —Michael Chabon In the spring of 1980, an unexpected group of musical eccentrics came together to play their very first performance at a college party in Athens, Georgia. Within a few short years, they had taken over the world – with smash records like Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster and Green. Raw, outrageous, and expressive, R.E.M.’s distinctive musical flair was unmatched, and a string of mega-successes solidified them as generational spokesmen. In the tumultuous transition between the wide-open 80s and the anxiety of the early 90s, R.E.M. challenged the corporate and social order, chasing a vision and cultivating a magnetic, transgressive sound. In this rich, intimate biography, critically acclaimed author Peter Ames Carlin looks beyond the sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll to open a window into the fascinating lives of four college friends – Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry – who stuck together at any cost, until the end. Deeply descriptive and remarkably poetic, steeped in 80s and 90s nostalgia, The Name of This Band is R.E.M. paints a cultural history of the commercial peak and near-total collapse of a great music era, and the story of the generation that came of age at the apotheosis of rock.
R.E.M.'s Murmur
Author: J. Niimi
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9780826416728
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 164
Book Description
R.E.M.'s debut album, released in 1983, was so far removed from the prevailing trends of American popular music that it still sounds miraculous and out of time today. J. Niimi tells the story of the album's genesis - with fascinating input from Don Dixon and Mitch Easter. He also investigates Michael Stipe's hypnotic, mysterious lyrics, and makes the case for Murmur as a work of Southern Gothic art. EXCEPRT: In the course of an interview that took place some twenty years ago, Michael Stipe made passing reference to an essay that had a deep impact on him. It's what came to his mind when, after having been harangued by fans and journalists alike about Murmur's lyrics, already grown weary from having to continually entertain their broad speculations, he finally threw up his hands. "Anyone who really wants to figure out the words to our songs should probably read this essay, then go back and listen," Stipe told the interviewer. "It talks about how people misinterpret something that's being said, and come up with a little phrase or word that actually defines the essence of what the original was better than the original did." What Stipe was trying to say is that if you want answers to R.E.M., you're not only looking in the wrong place, you're also asking the wrong questions.
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9780826416728
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 164
Book Description
R.E.M.'s debut album, released in 1983, was so far removed from the prevailing trends of American popular music that it still sounds miraculous and out of time today. J. Niimi tells the story of the album's genesis - with fascinating input from Don Dixon and Mitch Easter. He also investigates Michael Stipe's hypnotic, mysterious lyrics, and makes the case for Murmur as a work of Southern Gothic art. EXCEPRT: In the course of an interview that took place some twenty years ago, Michael Stipe made passing reference to an essay that had a deep impact on him. It's what came to his mind when, after having been harangued by fans and journalists alike about Murmur's lyrics, already grown weary from having to continually entertain their broad speculations, he finally threw up his hands. "Anyone who really wants to figure out the words to our songs should probably read this essay, then go back and listen," Stipe told the interviewer. "It talks about how people misinterpret something that's being said, and come up with a little phrase or word that actually defines the essence of what the original was better than the original did." What Stipe was trying to say is that if you want answers to R.E.M., you're not only looking in the wrong place, you're also asking the wrong questions.
Rock Band Name Origins
Author: Greg Metzer
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786455314
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
This book details the origins of the names of 240 musical acts, focusing on the most popular groups (and a few individual performers) from the 1960s through today. Even casual music fans will recognize almost all of the acts discussed. A few one-hit wonders are included simply because their name is so unusual (Mungo Jerry, for example) that they warrant a place in the study. Each entry focuses on the meaning and/or origin of the act's name, what it had been called previously, and any other names that were considered and rejected during the naming process. Also included are facts and figures about the act's history and place in the rock music pantheon, the year the act was formed, the names of original members and later members of note and the act's best known hit. The book lists bands alphabetically to give the casual reader the opportunity to open it to any page and read at leisure, the historian the ability to easily pinpoint the subject of his or her research, or the die-hard rock fan the chance to learn from A to Z the name origins of the biggest acts in rock and pop music history.
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786455314
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
This book details the origins of the names of 240 musical acts, focusing on the most popular groups (and a few individual performers) from the 1960s through today. Even casual music fans will recognize almost all of the acts discussed. A few one-hit wonders are included simply because their name is so unusual (Mungo Jerry, for example) that they warrant a place in the study. Each entry focuses on the meaning and/or origin of the act's name, what it had been called previously, and any other names that were considered and rejected during the naming process. Also included are facts and figures about the act's history and place in the rock music pantheon, the year the act was formed, the names of original members and later members of note and the act's best known hit. The book lists bands alphabetically to give the casual reader the opportunity to open it to any page and read at leisure, the historian the ability to easily pinpoint the subject of his or her research, or the die-hard rock fan the chance to learn from A to Z the name origins of the biggest acts in rock and pop music history.
R.E.M. Fiction
Author: David Buckley
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448132460
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 408
Book Description
R.E.M.'s public image has always been tightly controlled. Icons of anti-celebrity rock, who bacame huge celebrity rock stars, they were, according to the story, the first U.S. post new-wave band who were both commercially successful and cool. Drawing on exclusive interviews with Mike Mills, Peter Buck and other members of R.E.M.'s nuclear family, Fiction re-evaluates the music and career of a group who sold almost no records for the first half of their existence, then became 'the biggest rock group in the world' in the second half.
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448132460
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 408
Book Description
R.E.M.'s public image has always been tightly controlled. Icons of anti-celebrity rock, who bacame huge celebrity rock stars, they were, according to the story, the first U.S. post new-wave band who were both commercially successful and cool. Drawing on exclusive interviews with Mike Mills, Peter Buck and other members of R.E.M.'s nuclear family, Fiction re-evaluates the music and career of a group who sold almost no records for the first half of their existence, then became 'the biggest rock group in the world' in the second half.