Lonnie Donegan and the Birth of British Rock & Roll

Lonnie Donegan and the Birth of British Rock & Roll PDF Author: Patrick Humphries
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
ISBN: 184954476X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Get Book Here

Book Description
When Lonnie Donegan first burst onto the scene early in 1956, his energetic brand of skiffle galvanised a generation and transformed the face of music. Before Elvis Presley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, there was Lonnie, guitar in hand, ready to kick-start the British pop and rock scene. From the traditional jazz bands of his early career to the blues and folk songs that secured his popularity, the sound of Lonnie Donegan was immediate and infectious, a long-awaited call to arms for those coming of age after the dark days of the Second World War. During a successful seven-year run, Lonnie racked up twenty-six Top 20 singles, became the first British act to have an LP enter the charts, the first to have a hit EP and the first ever to have a single enter the charts at no. 1. Here was a talent to emulate - and the youth of the 1950s did just that. Including exclusive interviews with music royalty, from Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney and Mark Knopfler to Brian May, Bill Wyman and the late John Peel, as well as Lonnie's first wife and daughter, Patrick Humphries reveals the extraordinary story of the skiffle king and godfather of British rock & roll.

Lonnie Donegan and the Birth of British Rock & Roll

Lonnie Donegan and the Birth of British Rock & Roll PDF Author: Patrick Humphries
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
ISBN: 184954476X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Get Book Here

Book Description
When Lonnie Donegan first burst onto the scene early in 1956, his energetic brand of skiffle galvanised a generation and transformed the face of music. Before Elvis Presley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, there was Lonnie, guitar in hand, ready to kick-start the British pop and rock scene. From the traditional jazz bands of his early career to the blues and folk songs that secured his popularity, the sound of Lonnie Donegan was immediate and infectious, a long-awaited call to arms for those coming of age after the dark days of the Second World War. During a successful seven-year run, Lonnie racked up twenty-six Top 20 singles, became the first British act to have an LP enter the charts, the first to have a hit EP and the first ever to have a single enter the charts at no. 1. Here was a talent to emulate - and the youth of the 1950s did just that. Including exclusive interviews with music royalty, from Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney and Mark Knopfler to Brian May, Bill Wyman and the late John Peel, as well as Lonnie's first wife and daughter, Patrick Humphries reveals the extraordinary story of the skiffle king and godfather of British rock & roll.

Roots, Radicals and Rockers

Roots, Radicals and Rockers PDF Author: Billy Bragg
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571327761
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 357

Get Book Here

Book Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZERoots, Radicals & Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World is the first book to explore this phenomenon in depth - a meticulously researched and joyous account that explains how skiffle sparked a revolution that shaped pop music as we have come to know it. It's a story of jazz pilgrims and blues blowers, Teddy Boys and beatnik girls, coffee-bar bohemians and refugees from the McCarthyite witch-hunts. Billy traces how the guitar came to the forefront of music in the UK and led directly to the British Invasion of the US charts in the 1960s.Emerging from the trad-jazz clubs of the early '50s, skiffle was adopted by kids who growing up during the dreary, post-war rationing years. These were Britain's first teenagers, looking for a music of their own in a pop culture dominated by crooners and mediated by a stuffy BBC. Lonnie Donegan hit the charts in 1956 with a version of 'Rock Island Line' and soon sales of guitars rocketed from 5,000 to 250,000 a year. Like punk rock that would flourish two decades later, skiffle was a do-it-yourself music. All you needed were three guitar chords and you could form a group, with mates playing tea-chest bass and washboard as a rhythm section.

Britpop and the English Music Tradition

Britpop and the English Music Tradition PDF Author: Jon Stratton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317171225
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Get Book Here

Book Description
Britpop and the English Music Tradition is the first study devoted exclusively to the Britpop phenomenon and its contexts. The genre of Britpop, with its assertion of Englishness, evolved at the same time that devolution was striking deep into the hegemonic claims of English culture to represent Britain. It is usually argued that Britpop, with its strident declarations of Englishness, was a response to the dominance of grunge. The contributors in this volume take a different point of view: that Britpop celebrated Englishness at a time when British culture, with its English hegemonic core, was being challenged and dismantled. It is now timely to look back on Britpop as a cultural phenomenon of the 1990s that can be set into the political context of its time, and into the cultural context of the last fifty years - a time of fundamental revision of what it means to be British and English. The book examines issues such as the historical antecedents of Britpop, the subjectivities governing the performative conventions of Britpop, the cultural context within which Britpop unfolded, and its influence on the post-Britpop music scene in the UK. While Britpop is central to the volume, discussion of this phenomenon is used as an opportunity to examine the particularities of English popular music since the turn of the twentieth century.

The Cambridge Companion to the Rolling Stones

The Cambridge Companion to the Rolling Stones PDF Author: Victor Coelho
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107030269
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Get Book Here

Book Description
The first collection of academic essays focused entirely on the musical, historical, cultural and media impact of the Rolling Stones.

The Routledge Companion to Popular Music and Humor

The Routledge Companion to Popular Music and Humor PDF Author: Thomas M. Kitts
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351266624
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 642

Get Book Here

Book Description
An essential part of human expression, humor plays a role in all forms of art, and humorous and comedic aspects have always been part of popular music. For the first time, The Routledge Companion to Popular Music and Humor draws together scholarship exploring how the element of humor interacts with the artistic and social aspects of the musical experience. Discussing humor in popular music across eras from Tin Pan Alley to the present, and examining the role of humor in different musical genres, case studies of artists, and media forms, this volume is a groundbreaking collection that provides a go-to reference for scholars in music, popular culture, and media studies. While most scholars, when considering humor’s place in popular music, tend to focus on more "literate" forms, the contributors in this collection seek to fill in the gaps by surveying all kinds of humor, critical theories, and popular musics. Across eight parts, the essays in this collection explore topics both highbrow and low, including: Parody and satire Humor in rock and global music Gender, sexuality, and politics The music mockumentary Novelty songs Humor has long been a fixture of the popular music soundscape, whether on stage, in performance, on record, or on film. The Routledge Companion to Popular Music and Humor covers it all, presenting itself as the most comprehensive treatment of the topic to date.

Elvis Memories

Elvis Memories PDF Author: Michael Freedland
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
ISBN: 1849545642
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 195

Get Book Here

Book Description
The man, the music, the mythology - everyone knows Elvis, right? From the swinging hips and tempestuous love life to the peanut butter and banana sandwiches. But how do the iconic snapshots and the snippets of rumour match up with the truth about the man behind the legend? Michael Freedland's Elvis Memories sets out to answer precisely that question - and succeeds in grand style, giving us a rare and privileged glimpse into the intimate recollections of the people who really knew him. On a journey that spans the United States, Freedland introduces us to Presley's friends, family and followers, taking in the kids who competed against him in childhood talent shows, the members of the 'Memphis Mafia' who went everywhere with him and the maid who prepared those infamous sandwiches and watched him line up the girls he wanted to take to his bed. Thirty-five years after the death of the man we still call 'The King', Elvis Memories offers a unique chance to see the real Elvis Presley through the eyes of those who shared his life.

Rock 'n' Roll Unravelled

Rock 'n' Roll Unravelled PDF Author: Derek Shelmerdine
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780993589409
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 704

Get Book Here

Book Description


Paul Simon

Paul Simon PDF Author: Robert Hilburn
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 1501112139
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Get Book Here

Book Description
Acclaimed music writer Robert Hilburn’s “epic” and “definitive” (Rolling Stone) biography of music icon Paul Simon, written with Simon’s full participation—but without his editorial control—that “reminds us how titanic this musician is” (The Washington Post). For more than fifty years, Paul Simon has spoken to us in songs about alienation, doubt, resilience, and empathy in ways that have established him as one of the most beloved artists in American pop music history. Songs like “The Sound of Silence,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Still Crazy After All These Years,” and “Graceland” have moved beyond the sales charts and into our cultural consciousness. But Simon is a deeply private person who has said he will not write an autobiography or talk to biographers. Finally, however, he has opened up for Robert Hilburn—for more than one hundred hours of interviews—in this “brilliant and entertaining portrait of Simon that will likely be the definitive biography” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Over the course of three years, Hilburn conducted in-depth interviews with scores of Paul Simon’s friends, family, colleagues, and others—including ex-wives Carrie Fisher and Peggy Harper, who spoke for the first time—and even penetrated the inner circle of Simon’s long-reclusive muse, Kathy Chitty. The result is a deeply human account of the challenges and sacrifices of a life in music at the highest level. In the process, Hilburn documents Simon’s search for artistry and his constant struggle to protect that artistry against distractions—fame, marriage, divorce, drugs, record company interference, rejection, and insecurity—that have derailed so many great pop figures. “As engaging as a lively American tune” (People), Paul Simon is a “straight-shooting tour de force…that does thorough justice to this American prophet and pop star” (USA TODAY, four out of four stars). “Read it if you like Simon; read it if you want to discover how talent unfolds itself” (Stephen King).

Springsteen on Springsteen

Springsteen on Springsteen PDF Author: Jeff Burger
Publisher:
ISBN: 161374434X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 450

Get Book Here

Book Description
An extensive collection of Springsteen's spoken words over the past 40 years. It includes interviews, speeches, and features.

Adult Responses to Popular Music and Intergenerational Relations in Britain, c. 19551975

Adult Responses to Popular Music and Intergenerational Relations in Britain, c. 19551975 PDF Author: Gillian A. M. Mitchell
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1783089024
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 346

Get Book Here

Book Description
‘Adult Reactions to Popular Music and Inter-generational Relations in Britain, 1955–1975’ challenges stereotypes concerning a post-war ‘generation gap’, exacerbated by rebellion-inducing popular music styles, by demonstrating the considerable variety which frequently characterized adult responses to the music, whilst also highlighting that the impact of the music on inter-generational relations was more complex than is often assumed. [NP] Utilizing extensive primary evidence, from first-person accounts to newspapers, television programmes, surveys and archive collections, the book adopts a thematic approach, identifying three key arenas of British society in which adult responses to popular music, and the impact of such reactions upon relations between generations, seem particularly revealing and significant. The book examines in detail the place of popular music within family life and Christian churches and their engagement with popular music, particularly within youth clubs. It also explores ‘encounters’ between the worlds of traditional Variety entertainment and popular music while providing broader perspectives on this most dynamic and turbulent of periods.