19 Best Individual Composer & Musician Books
Individual Composer & Musician is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Individual Composer & Musician audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 19 Individual Composer & Musician audiobooks below.
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Look at Me!
- By: Jonathan Reiss
- Narrator: Jonathan Reiss
- Length: 10 hours 50 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: June 09, 2020
- Language: English
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4.66(78 ratings)
4.66(78 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.98 USDA compelling biography of SoundCloud sensation and rising star XXXTENTACION — from his candid songwriting and connection with fans to his tragic death.At the age of twenty, rapper Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy-aka XXXTENTACION-was gunned down during anA compelling biography of SoundCloud sensation and rising star XXXTENTACION — from his candid songwriting and connection with fans to his tragic death.
At the age of twenty, rapper Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy-aka XXXTENTACION-was gunned down during an attempted robbery on the streets of Deerfield Beach, Florida, mere months after signing a $10 million record deal with Empire Music. A rising star in the world of SoundCloud rap, XXXTENTACION achieved stellar levels of success without the benefit of a major label or radio airtime, and flourished via his passionate and unfettered connection to his fans. In Look at Me!, journalist Jonathan Reiss charts the tumultuous life and unguarded songwriting of the SoundCloud sensation. Unlike most rap on the platform, XXXTENTACION’s music didn’t dwell on money, partying, and getting high. He wrote about depression, suicide, and other mental health issues, topics that led to an outpouring of posthumous appreciation from his devoted fanbase. It was XXXTENTACION’s vulnerability that helped him stand apart from artists obsessed with being successful and “cool.” Yet these insecurities also stemmed from-and contributed to-his fair share of troubles, including repeated run-ins with the law during his teen years, a disturbing proclivity toward violence, and a prison sentence that overlapped with the release of his first single. Through the memories of the people who knew him best, Look at Me! maps out the true story of an unlikely cultural icon and elucidates what it was about him that touched the post-millennial generation so deeply.... Read more -
Dilla Time
- By: Dan Charnas
- Narrator: Dan Charnas
- Length: 14 hours 52 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: February 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.58(1188 ratings)
4.58(1188 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0032.99 USDThis program contains examples of J Dilla’s music performed in the studio by drummer Nate Smith and is accompanied by a bonus PDF of maps, photos, guides, and more. “This book is a must for everyone interested in illuminating the ideaThis program contains examples of J Dilla’s music performed in the studio by drummer Nate Smith and is accompanied by a bonus PDF of maps, photos, guides, and more.
“This book is a must for everyone interested in illuminating the idea of unexplainable genius.” –QUESTLOVE
Equal parts biography, musicology, and cultural history, Dilla Time chronicles the life and legacy of J Dilla, a musical genius who transformed the sound of popular music for the twenty-first century.He wasn’t known to mainstream audiences, even though he worked with renowned acts like D’Angelo and Erykah Badu and influenced the music of superstars like Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson. He died at the age of thirty-two, and in his lifetime he never had a pop hit. Yet since his death, J Dilla has become a demigod: revered by jazz musicians and rap icons from Robert Glasper to Kendrick Lamar; memorialized in symphonies and taught at universities. And at the core of this adulation is innovation: a new kind of musical time-feel that he created on a drum machine, but one that changed the way “traditional” musicians play.
In Dilla Time, Dan Charnas chronicles the life of James DeWitt Yancey, from his gifted childhood in Detroit, to his rise as a Grammy-nominated hip-hop producer, to the rare blood disease that caused his premature death; and follows the people who kept him and his ideas alive. He also rewinds the histories of American rhythms: from the birth of soul in Dilla’s own “Motown,” to funk, techno, and disco. Here, music is a story of Black culture in America and of what happens when human and machine times are synthesized into something new. Dilla Time is a different kind of book about music, a visual experience with graphics that build those concepts step by step for fans and novices alike, teaching us to “see” and feel rhythm in a unique and enjoyable way.
Dilla’s beats, startling some people with their seeming “sloppiness,” were actually the work of a perfectionist almost spiritually devoted to his music. This is the story of the man and his machines, his family, friends, partners, and celebrity collaborators. Culled from more than 150 interviews about one of the most important and influential musical figures of the past hundred years, Dilla Time is a book as delightfully detail-oriented and unique as J Dilla’s music itself.
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Me and Paul
- By: Willie Nelson
- Length: 4 hours 48 minutes
- Publisher: Harper Horizon
- Publish date: September 20, 2022
- Language: English
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4.4(113 ratings)
4.4(113 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0018.99 USDDiscover the untold stories and unbreakable bond between country music icon Willie Nelson and his longtime drummer, Paul English. Immortalized in Willie Nelson‚Äôs road song “Me and Paul,” Paul English was the towering figure who forDiscover the untold stories and unbreakable bond between country music icon Willie Nelson and his longtime drummer, Paul English.
Immortalized in Willie Nelson‚Äôs road song “Me and Paul,” Paul English was the towering figure who for 70 years acted as Willie‚Äôs drummer, bodyguard, accountant, partner in crime, and right-hand man.
Together, the two men roamed the country by:
- putting on shows, getting into a few scrapes,
- raising money for good causes,
- and bringing the joy of their music to fans worldwide.
Stories of Willie and Paul‚Äôs misadventures became legendary, but many have gone untold–until now.
Set against the backdrop of the exploding Americana music scene and told in Willie’s inimitable, colorful style, Me and Paul follows the two performers through their decades-long careers.
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Forever and Ever, Amen
- By: Randy Travis
- Narrator: Randy Travis
- Length: 9 hours 46 minutes
- Publisher: Thomas Nelson
- Publish date: May 14, 2019
- Language: English
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4.36(822 ratings)
4.36(822 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDA riveting tale of unfathomable success great joy deep pain, and redemption that can come only from above. From a working-class background in North Carolina to a job as a cook and club singer in Nashville to his “overnight success”A riveting tale of
- unfathomable success
- great joy
- deep pain, and
- redemption that can come only from above.
From a working-class background in North Carolina to a job as a cook and club singer in Nashville to his “overnight success” with his smash 1986 album Storms of Life–which launched the neotraditional movement in country music–Randy’s first three decades are a true rags-to-riches story. But in 2009, this seemingly charmed life began a downward spiral. His marriage dissolved, he discovered that his finances had unraveled, and his struggles with anger led to alcohol abuse, public embarrassment, and even police arrest in 2012.
Then, just as he was putting his life back together, Randy suffered a devastating viral cardiomyopathy that led to a massive stroke which he was not expected to survive. Yet he not only survived but also learned to walk again and, in 2016, accepted his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame by singing the hymn that explains his life today: “Amazing Grace.”
Filled with never-before-told stories, Forever and Ever, Amen is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at dizzying success and the miraculous road to restoration.
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John Lennon 1980
- By: Kenneth Womack
- Narrator: Paul Woodson
- Length: 10 hours 32 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.32(218 ratings)
4.32(218 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThe story of the legendary musician’s incredible last year. John Lennon 1980 traces the powerful, life-affirming story of the former Beatle’s remarkable comeback after five years of self-imposed retirement. Lennon’s final pivotalThe story of the legendary musician’s incredible last year.
John Lennon 1980 traces the powerful, life-affirming story of the former Beatle’s remarkable comeback after five years of self-imposed retirement. Lennon’s final pivotal year would climax in several moments of creative triumph as he rediscovered his artistic self in dramatic fashion. With the bravura release of the Double Fantasy album with wife Yoko Ono, he was poised and ready for an even brighter future only to be wrenched from the world by an assassin’s bullets. John Lennon 1980 isn’t about how the gifted songwriter died; but rather, about how he lived.
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Johnny Cash
- By: Robert Hilburn
- Narrator: Charles Pittard
- Length: 21 hours 42 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: October 29, 2013
- Language: English
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4.28(2984 ratings)
4.28(2984 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDThe national bestseller celebrated as “the ultimate Johnny Cash biography . . . Rock writer great Robert Hilburn goes deep.” — Rolling Stone In this, the definitive biography of an American legend, Robert Hilburn conveys theThe national bestseller celebrated as “the ultimate Johnny Cash biography . . . Rock writer great Robert Hilburn goes deep.” — Rolling Stone... Read moreIn this, the definitive biography of an American legend, Robert Hilburn conveys the unvarnished truth about a musical superstar. Johnny Cash’s extraordinary career stretched from his days at Sun Records with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis to the remarkable creative last hurrah, at age 69, that resulted in the brave, moving “Hurt” video.
As music critic for the Los Angeles Times, Hilburn knew Cash throughout his life: he was the only music journalist at the legendary Folsom Prison concert in 1968, and he interviewed both Cash and his wife June Carter just months before their deaths. Drawing upon a trove of never-before-seen material from the singer’s inner circle, Hilburn creates an utterly compelling, deeply human portrait of a towering figure in country music, a seminal influence in rock, and an icon of American popular culture. Hilburn’s reporting shows the astonishing highs and deep lows that marked the journey of a man of great faith and humbling addiction who throughout his life strove to use his music to lift people’s spirits.
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Waylon
- By: Waylon Jennings
- Narrator: Waylon Jennings
- Length: 2 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: April 01, 2006
- Language: English
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4.23(729 ratings)
4.23(729 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.98 USDWaylon Jennings relates the story of his life as a country music star. His beginnings were poor but he became Buddy Holly’s protege before sinking into drug abuse and 3 failed marriages. His success came when he met his present wife, JessiWaylon Jennings relates the story of his life as a country music star. His beginnings were poor but he became Buddy Holly’s protege before sinking into drug abuse and 3 failed marriages. His success came when he met his present wife, Jessi Colter.
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The Hag
- By: Marc Eliot
- Narrator: Marc Eliot
- Length: 17 hours 50 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: January 18, 2022
- Language: English
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4.19(171 ratings)
4.19(171 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0038.99 USDThe definitive biography of country legend Merle Haggard by the New York Times bestselling biographer of Clint Eastwood, Cary Grant, The Eagles, and more.Merle Haggard was one of the most important country music musicians who ever lived. HisThe definitive biography of country legend Merle Haggard by the New York Times bestselling biographer of Clint Eastwood, Cary Grant, The Eagles, and more.
Merle Haggard was one of the most important country music musicians who ever lived. His astonishing musical career stretched across the second half of the 20th Century and into the first two decades of the next, during which he released an extraordinary 63 albums, 38 that made it on to Billboard’s Country Top Ten, 13 that went to #1, and 37 #1 hit singles. With his ample songbook, unique singing voice and brilliant phrasing that illuminated his uncompromising commitment to individual freedom, cut with the monkey of personal despair on his back and a chip the size of Monument Valley on his shoulder, Merle’s music and his extraordinary charisma helped change the look, the sound, and the fury of American music.
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The Hag tells, without compromise, the extraordinary life of Merle Haggard, augmented by deep secondary research, sharp detail and ample anecdotal material that biographer Marc Eliot is known for, and enriched and deepened by over 100 new and far-ranging interviews. It explores the uniquely American life of an angry rebellious boy from the wrong side of the tracks bound for a life of crime and a permanent home in a penitentiary, who found redemption through the music of “the common man.”
Merle Haggard’s story is a great American saga of a man who lifted himself out of poverty, oppression, loss and wanderlust, to catapult himself into the pantheon of American artists admired around the world. Eliot has interviewed more than 100 people who knew Haggard, worked with him, were influenced by him, loved him or hated him. The book celebrates the accomplishments and explore the singer’s infamous dark side: the self-created turmoil that expressed itself through drugs, women, booze, and betrayal. The Hag offers a richly anecdotal narrative that will elevate the life and work of Merle Haggard to where both properly belong, in the pantheon of American music and letters.
The Hag is the definitive account of this unique American original, and will speak to readers of country music and rock biographies alike. -
Open Book
- By: Jessica Simpson
- Narrator: Jessica Simpson
- Length: 11 hours 22 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: February 04, 2020
- Language: English
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4.12(67030 ratings)
4.12(67030 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0028.99 USDThe #1 New York Times Bestseller Includes six new songs by Jessica Simpson, available exclusively in the Open Book audiobook. Performed by the author featuring her music throughout. Jessica reveals for the first time her inner monologue and mostThe #1 New York Times Bestseller
Includes six new songs by Jessica Simpson, available exclusively in the Open Book audiobook.
Performed by the author featuring her music throughout.
Jessica reveals for the first time her inner monologue and most intimate struggles. Guided by the journals she’s kept since age fifteen, and brimming with her unique humor and down-to-earth humanity, Open Book is as inspiring as it is entertaining.
This was supposed to be a very different book. Five years ago, Jessica Simpson was approached to write a motivational guide to living your best life. She walked away from the offer, and nobody understood why. The truth is that she didn’t want to lie.
Jessica couldn’t be authentic with her readers if she wasn’t fully honest with herself first.
Now America’s Sweetheart, preacher’s daughter, pop phenomenon, reality tv pioneer, and the billion-dollar fashion mogul invites readers on a remarkable journey, examining a life that blessed her with the compassion to help others, but also burdened her with an almost crippling need to please. Open Book is Jessica Simpson using her voice, heart, soul, and humor to share things she’s never shared before.
First celebrated for her voice, she became one of the most talked-about women in the world, whether for music and fashion, her relationship struggles, or as a walking blonde joke. But now, instead of being talked about, Jessica is doing the talking. Her book shares the wisdom and inspirations she’s learned and shows the real woman behind all the pop-culture cliche’s — “chicken or fish,” “Daisy Duke,” “football jinx,” “mom jeans,” “sexual napalm…” and more. Open Book is an opportunity to laugh and cry with a close friend, one that will inspire you to live your best, most authentic life, now that she is finally living hers.
Includes the songs “Heartbeat,” “Practice What You Preach,” “Sweet Temptation,” “Your Fool”(featuring Willie Nelson), “Party of One,” and “Free Will” by Jessica Simpson.
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John Lennon: The Life
- By: Philip Norman
- Narrator: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 12 hours 52 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 28, 2008
- Language: English
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4.02(10730 ratings)
4.02(10730 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.99 USDFor more than a quarter century, biographer Philip Norman’s internationally bestselling Shout! has been unchallenged as the definitive biography of the Beatles. Now, at last, Norman turns his formidable talent to the Beatle for whom being aFor more than a quarter century, biographer Philip Norman’s internationally bestselling Shout! has been unchallenged as the definitive biography of the Beatles. Now, at last, Norman turns his formidable talent to the Beatle for whom being a Beatle was never enough. Drawing on previously untapped sources, and with unprecedented access to all the major characters, Norman presents the comprehensive and most revealing portrait of John Lennon ever published.
This masterly biography takes a fresh and penetrating look at every aspect of Lennon’s much-chronicled life, including the songs that have turned him, posthumously, into a near-secular saint. In three years of research, Norman has turned up an extraordinary amount of new information about even the best-known episodes of Lennon folklore–his upbringing by his strict Aunt Mimi; his allegedly wasted school and student days; the evolution of his peerless creative partnership with Paul McCartney; his Beatle-busting love affair with a Japanese performance artist; his forays into painting and literature; his experiments with Transcendental Meditation, primal scream therapy, and drugs. The book’s numerous key informants and interviewees include Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin, Sean Lennon–whose moving reminiscence reveals his father as never seen before–and Yoko Ono, who speaks with sometimes shocking candor about the inner workings of her marriage to John.
“[A] haunting, mammoth, terrific piece of work.” –New York Times
Honest and unflinching, as John himself would wish, Norman gives us the whole man in all his endless contradictions–tough and cynical, hilariously funny but also naive, vulnerable and insecure–and reveals how the mother who gave him away as a toddler haunted his mind and his music for the rest of his days.
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Paul Simon
- By: Robert Hilburn
- Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 12 hours 20 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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3.92(1202 ratings)
3.92(1202 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.99 USDA publishing event from music legend Paul Simon: an intimate, candid, and definitive biography written with Simon’s full participation–but without his editorial control–by acclaimed biographer and music writer Robert Hilburn.ForA publishing event from music legend Paul Simon: an intimate, candid, and definitive biography written with Simon’s full participation–but without his editorial control–by acclaimed biographer and music writer Robert Hilburn.
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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 resisted speaking to us outside of his music. He has said he will not write an autobiography or memoir, and he has refused to talk to previous biographers.
Finally, Simon has opened up–for more than one hundred hours of interviews–to Robert Hilburn, whose biography of Johnny Cash was named by Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times as one of her ten favorite books of 2013. The result is a landmark book that will take its place as the defining biography of one of America’s greatest artists.
It begins in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, where, raised by a bandleader father and schoolteacher mother, Simon grew up with the twin passions of baseball and music. The latter took over at age twelve when he and schoolboy chum Art Garfunkel became infatuated with the alluring harmonies of doo-wop. Together, they became international icons, and then Simon went on to even greater artistic heights on his own. But beneath the surface of his storied five-decade career is a roller coaster of tumultuous personal and professional ups and downs. From his remarkable early success with Garfunkel to their painfully acrimonious split; from his massive early hits as a solo artist to the wrenching commercial failures of One-Trick Pony and Hearts and Bones; from the historic comeback success of Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints to the star-crossed foray into theater with The Capeman and a late-career creative resurgence–his is a musical life unlike any other.
Over the past three years, Hilburn has 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.
Paul Simon is an intimate and inspiring narrative that helps us finally understand Paul Simon the person and the artist. “With train-wreck moments and tender interludes alike, it delivers a sharply detailed Kodachrome of a brilliant musician” (Kirkus Reviews). -
Kansas City Lightning
- By: Stanley Crouch
- Narrator: Kevin Kenerly
- Length: 9 hours 56 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
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3.9(629 ratings)
3.9(629 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDKansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker is the first installment in the long-awaited portrait of one of the most talented and influential musicians of the twentieth century, from Stanley Crouch, one of the foremost authorities onKansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker is the first installment in the long-awaited portrait of one of the most talented and influential musicians of the twentieth century, from Stanley Crouch, one of the foremost authorities on jazz and culture in America.
Throughout his life, Charlie Parker personified the tortured American artist: a revolutionary performer who used his alto saxophone to create a new music known as bebop even as he wrestled with a drug addiction that would lead to his death at the age of thirty-four. Drawing on interviews with peers, collaborators, and family members, Kansas City Lightning re-creates Parker’s Depression-era childhood; his early days navigating the Kansas City nightlife, inspired by lions like Lester Young and Count Basie; and on to New York, where he began to transcend the music he had mastered. Crouch reveals an ambitious young man torn between music and drugs, between his domineering mother and his impressionable young wife, whose teenage romance with Charlie lies at the bittersweet heart of this story.
With the wisdom of a jazz scholar, the cultural insights of an acclaimed social critic, and the narrative skill of a literary novelist, Stanley Crouch illuminates this American master as never before.
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Mercury
- By: Lesley-Ann Jones
- Narrator: Jane Collingwood
- Length: 12 hours 10 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2012
- Language: English
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3.87(2267 ratings)
3.87(2267 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.95 USDRevealing and intimate, based on more than 100 interviews with key figures in his life, this is the definitive biography of Queen front man Freddie Mercury, one of pop music’s best-loved and most complex figures.A revealing, intimate look atRevealing and intimate, based on more than 100 interviews with key figures in his life, this is the definitive biography of Queen front man Freddie Mercury, one of pop music’s best-loved and most complex figures.
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A revealing, intimate look at the man who would be Queen.
As lead vocalist for the iconic rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury’s unmatched skills as a songwriter and his flamboyant showmanship made him a superstar and Queen a household name. But despite his worldwide fame, few people ever really glimpsed the man behind the glittering facade.
Now, more than twenty years after his death, those closest to Mercury are finally opening up about this pivotal figure in rock ‘n’ roll. Based on more than a hundred interviews with key figures in his life, Mercury offers the definitive account of one man’s legendary life in the spotlight and behind the scenes. Rock journalist Lesley-Ann Jones gained unprecedented access to Mercury’s tribe, and she details Queen’s slow but steady rise to fame and Mercury’s descent into dangerous, pleasure-seeking excesses–this was, after all, a man who once declared, “Darling, I’m doing everything with everyone.”
In her journey to understand Mercury, Jones traveled to London, Zanzibar, and India–talking with everyone from Mercury’s closest friends to the sound engineer at Band Aid (who was responsible for making Queen even louder than the other bands) to second cousins halfway around the world. In the process, an intimate and complicated portrait emerges. Meticulously researched, sympathetic yet not sensational, Mercury offers an unvarnished look at the extreme highs and lows of life in the fast lane. At the heart of this story is a man…and the music he loved. -
Mozart
- By: Marcia Davenport
- Narrator: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 10 hours 50 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 1991
- Language: English
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3.86(765 ratings)
3.86(765 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.95 USDRealistic, moving, engrossing, and positively brilliant, this biography recreates Mozart, the man and his music, against the background of the world he lived in. For Marcia Davenport, the research and writing of Mozart was truly a labor of love,Realistic, moving, engrossing, and positively brilliant, this biography recreates Mozart, the man and his music, against the background of the world he lived in. For Marcia Davenport, the research and writing of Mozart was truly a labor of love, during which she retraced every journey he made, saw every dwelling (then extant) in which he had ever lived, every theater where his works were first performed, and every library and museum where his manuscripts were then to be seen. In this eloquent work of historical reconstruction, Davenport lets her characters tell their own stories. She builds from Mozart’s infancy toward the climactic meeting in 1787 of Mozart, Lorenzo Da Ponte, and Casanova in Prague, when Don Giovanni was being written, to Mozart’s tragically early death. The result is a biography of such commanding stature that it has remained unassailable since its publication in 1932.
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Famous Father Girl
- By: Jamie Bernstein
- Narrator: Jamie Bernstein
- Length: 10 hours 49 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: June 12, 2018
- Language: English
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3.85(727 ratings)
3.85(727 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.005.99 USDThe oldest daughter of revered composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein offers a rare look at her father on the centennial of his birth in a deeply intimate and broadly evocative memoir. The composer of On the Town and West Side Story, chief conductorThe oldest daughter of revered composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein offers a rare look at her father on the centennial of his birth in a deeply intimate and broadly evocative memoir.
The composer of On the Town and West Side Story, chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic, television star, humanitarian, friend of the powerful and influential, and the life of every party, Leonard Bernstein was an enormous celebrity during one of the headiest periods of American cultural life, as well as the most protean musician in twentieth century America.
But to his eldest daughter, Jamie, he was above all the man in the scratchy brown bathrobe who smelled of cigarettes; the jokester and compulsive teacher who enthused about Beethoven and the Beatles; the insomniac whose 4 a.m. composing breaks involved spooning baby food out of the jar. He taught his daughter to love the world in all its beauty and complexity. In public and private, Lenny was larger than life.
In Famous Father Girl, Bernstein mines the emotional depths of her childhood and invites us into her family’s private world. A fantastic set of characters populates the Bernsteins’ lives, including: the Kennedys, Mike Nichols, John Lennon, Richard Avedon, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, and Betty (Lauren) Bacall.
An intoxicating tale, Famous Father Girl is an intimate meditation on a complex and sometimes troubled man, the family he raised, and the music he composed that became the soundtrack to their entwined lives. Deeply moving and often hilarious, Bernstein’s beautifully written memoir is a great American story about one of the greatest Americans of the modern age.
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Didn’t We Almost Have It All
- By: Gerrick D. Kennedy
- Narrator: Leon Nixon
- Length: 9 hours 14 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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3.79(343 ratings)
3.79(343 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDA candid exploration of the genius, shame, and celebrity of Whitney Houston a decade after her passing On February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston was found submerged in the bathtub of her suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. In the decade since, the worldA candid exploration of the genius, shame, and celebrity of Whitney Houston a decade after her passing
On February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston was found submerged in the bathtub of her suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. In the decade since, the world has mourned her death amid new revelations about her relationship to her Blackness, her sexuality, and her addictions. Didn’t We Almost Have It All is author Gerrick Kennedy’s exploration of the duality of Whitney’s life as both a woman in the spotlight and someone who often had to hide who she was. This is the story of Whitney’s life, her whole life, told with both grace and honesty.
Long before that fateful day in 2012, Whitney split the world wide open with her voice. Hers was a once-in-a-generation talent forged in Newark, New Jersey, and blessed with the grace of the church and the wisdom of a long lineage of famous gospel singers. She redefined “The Star-Spangled Banner.” She became a box-office powerhouse, a queen of the pop charts, and an international superstar. But all the while, she was forced to rein in who she was amid constant accusations that her music wasn’t Black enough, original enough, honest enough.
Kennedy deftly peels back the layers of Whitney’s complex story to get to the truth at the core of what drove her, what inspired her, and what haunted her. He pulls the narrative apart into the key elements that informed her life–growing up in the famed Drinkard family; the two romantic relationships that shaped the entirety of her adult life, with Robyn Crawford and Bobby Brown; her fraught relationship to her own Blackness and the ways in which she was judged by the Black community; her drug and alcohol addiction; and, finally, the shame that she carried in her heart, which informed every facet of her life.
Drawing on hundreds of sources, Kennedy takes readers back to a world in which someone like Whitney simply could not be and explains in excruciating detail the ways in which her fame did not and could not protect her.
In the time since her passing, the world and the way we view celebrity have changed dramatically. A sweeping look at Whitney’s life, Didn’t We Almost Have It All contextualizes her struggles against the backdrop of tabloid culture, audience consumption, mental-health stigmas, and racial divisions in America. It explores exactly how and why we lost a beloved icon far too soon.
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Unmasked
- By: Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Narrator: Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Length: 16 hours 34 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: March 06, 2018
- Language: English
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3.78(776 ratings)
3.78(776 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.005.99 USD“You have the luck of Croesus on stilts (as my Auntie Vi would have said) if you’ve had the sort of career, ups and downs, warts and all that I have in that wondrous little corner of show business called musical theatre.” One of“You have the luck of Croesus on stilts (as my Auntie Vi would have said) if you’ve had the sort of career, ups and downs, warts and all that I have in that wondrous little corner of show business called musical theatre.”
One of the most successful and distinguished artists of our time, Andrew Lloyd Webber has reigned over the musical theatre world for nearly five decades. The winner of numerous awards, including multiple Tonys and an Oscar, Lloyd Webber has enchanted millions worldwide with his music and numerous hit shows, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera–Broadway’s longest running show–and most recently, School of Rock. In Unmasked, written in his own inimitable, quirky voice, the revered, award-winning composer takes stock of his achievements, the twists of fate and circumstance which brought him both success and disappointment, and the passions that inspire and sustain him.
The son of a music professor and a piano teacher, Lloyd Webber reveals his artistic influences, from his idols Rodgers and Hammerstein and the perfection of South Pacific‘s “Some Enchanted Evening,” to the pop and rock music of the 1960s and Puccini’s Tosca, to P. G. Wodehouse and T. S. Eliot. Lloyd Webber recalls his bohemian London youth, reminiscing about the happiest place of his childhood, his homemade Harrington Pavilion–a make-believe world of musical theatre in which he created his earliest entertainments.
A record of several exciting and turbulent decades of British and American musical theatre and the transformation of popular music itself, Unmasked is ultimately a chronicle of artistic creation. Lloyd Webber looks back at the development of some of his most famous works and illuminates his collaborations with luminaries such as Tim Rice, Robert Stigwood, Harold Prince, Cameron Mackintosh, and Trevor Nunn. Taking us behind the scenes of his productions, Lloyd Webber reveals fascinating details about each show, including the rich cast of characters involved with making them, and the creative and logistical challenges and artistic political battles that ensued.
Lloyd Webber shares his recollections of the works that have become cultural touchstones for generations of fans: writings songs for a school production that would become his first hit, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; finding the coterie of performers for his classic rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar; developing his first megahit, Evita, which would win seven Tonys Awards, including Best Musical; staking his reputation and fortune on the groundbreaking Cats; and making history with the dazzling The Phantom of the Opera.
Reflecting a life that included many passions (from architecture to Turkish Swimming Cats), full of witty and revealing anecdotes, and featuring commentary written by numerous celebrities–Elaine Paige, Sarah Brightman, David Frost, Julie Covington, Judi Dench, Richard Branson, A.R. Rahman, Mandy Patinkin, Patti LuPone, Richard Rodgers, Norman Jewison, Milos Forman, Placido Domingo, Barbra Streisand, Michael Crawford, Gillian Lynne, Betty Buckley, and more–Unmasked at last reveals the true face of the extraordinary man beneath the storied legend.
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Who Is That Man?
- By: David Dalton
- Narrator: Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 12 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: December 06, 2016
- Language: English
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3.72(223 ratings)
3.72(223 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDNow available as an audiobook and with a new foreword, a kaleidoscopic look at the many faces of Bob Dylan, legendary folk singer-songwriter and winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.For almost half a century, Bob Dylan has been a primaryNow available as an audiobook and with a new foreword, a kaleidoscopic look at the many faces of Bob Dylan, legendary folk singer-songwriter and winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.... Read more
For almost half a century, Bob Dylan has been a primary catalyst in rock’s shifting sensibilities. Few American artists are as important, beloved, and endlessly examined, yet he remains something of an enigma. Who, we ask, is the “real” Bob Dylan? Is he Bobby Zimmerman, yearning to escape Hibbing, Minnesota, or the Woody Guthrie wannabe playing Greenwich Village haunts? Folk Messiah, Born-Again Bob, Late-Elvis Dylan, Jack Fate, or Living National Treasure? In Who Is That Man? David Dalton–cultural historian, journalist, screenwriter, and novelist–paints a revealing portrait of the rock icon, ingeniously exposing the three-card monte games he plays with his persona.Guided by Dalton’s cutting-edge insights and myth-debunking point of view, Who Is That Man? follows Dylan’s imaginative life, integrating actual events with Dylan’s words and those of the people who know him most intimately. Drawing upon Dylan’s friends and fellow eyewitnesses–including Marianne Faithfull, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Stampfel , Larry “Ratso” Sloman, Eric Andersen, Nat Hentoff, Andrew Oldham, Nat Finkelstein, and others–this book will provide a new perspective on the man, the myth, and the musical era that forged them both.
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Into the Black
- By: Paul Brannigan
- Narrator: Ray Porter
- Length: 8 hours 54 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
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3.71(222 ratings)
3.71(222 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThe final chapter of Paul Brannigan and Ian Winwood’s in-depth coverage of Metallica details the latter half of the band’s extraordinary, decades-long career. The second volume of Metallica’s definitive biography opens as the bandThe final chapter of Paul Brannigan and Ian Winwood’s in-depth coverage of Metallica details the latter half of the band’s extraordinary, decades-long career.
The second volume of Metallica’s definitive biography opens as the band breaks through to mainstream with its fifth album, Metallica (a.k.a. The Black Album), topping the Billboard charts and its hit single “Enter Sandman” dominating the airwaves. By 1993, after a two-year tour, Metallica had become the biggest hard-rock band in the world. Success naturally brought new challenges, and the band ran the risk of alienating its original fans. It was beset by controversy over stylistic shifts, concessions to the mainstream, its stance on file sharing (in Metallica v. Napster), even the band members’ haircut decisions. By the end of the century, they were a band teetering on the brink of self-destruction. A stunning return to form awaited, however.
Brilliantly chronicled by top UK music writers Paul Brannigan and Ian Winwood, this is a masterful conclusion to an epic rock tome.
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Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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