Publisher: Henry Holt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/10/2013
ISBN-13: 9780805098204
ISBN-10: 0805098208

Billy Crystal has been hard to miss, what with gigs hosting major awards shows, time spent on television shows like Soap and Saturday Night Live, and roles in blockbuster movies like When Harry Met Sally and The Princess Bride. He's also released stand-up albums, made guest appearances on countless shows, and appeared on Broadway; he even played baseball for the New York Yankees (ok, for a day). But his memoir, although it touches on his accomplishments, also reflects on his disappointments, and, more humorously, catalogs the indignities of aging. Crystal's trademark wit and genuine warmth is evident throughout, making this a can't-miss for fans -- and fellow baby boomers.

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Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/20/2013
ISBN-13: 9781451640502
ISBN-10: 1451640501

With the advent of video and Internet games, you'd be forgiven if you thought that interest in Dungeons & Dragons had petered out in the early 1990s. But the role-playing game with the multi-sided dice still retains tens of millions of fans -- and author David M. Ewalt is clearly one of them, despite several years away from the game. In Of Dice and Men, he traces D&D's creation in the 1970s, the hysteria that linked it to satanic rituals and teen suicides, and its decline and recent renaissance. He also writes of his own experiences with the game as a teenager and an adult. Whether you're a fan or always wondered what the appeal was, Ewalt's take is "witty and absorbing" (Booklist).

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Publisher: HarperCollins
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/10/2013
ISBN-13: 9780062131720
ISBN-10: 0062131729

Though the last couple years have seen individual memoirs from KISS members (Ace Frehley's No Regrets and Peter Criss' Make Up to Break Up come to mind), fans won't want to miss this oral history of the band's early years. Black and white pictures play well with the highly detailed content that author Ken Sharp (with the help of constant KISS members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons) has drawn from more than 200 interviews with everyone from band members, management, costume designers, critics, rivals, and fans. "Rollicking," says Kirkus Reviews.

Publisher: It Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/06/2013
ISBN-13: 9780062207623
ISBN-10: 0062207628

In this follow-up to Love is a Mix Tape, which ended with the unexpected death of author Rob Sheffield's wife, the music lover and Rolling Stone writer picks up where he left off. Having moved from Virginia to NYC, he wanders around aimlessly and grief-stricken until he discovers karaoke's power to heal. Despite being a terrible singer and unable to play an instrument, Sheffield nevertheless comes to feel completely at home on stage and within the karaoke community. Each chapter shares its name with a meaningful song title and mixes tales of the karaoke underground with Sheffield's own musings on overcoming grief and falling in love again.

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Publisher: Da Capo Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/31/2011
ISBN-13: 9780306818509
ISBN-10: 0306818507

What's so special about the year 1970? Well, you'll have to read Fire and Rain to find out the details, but author David Browne's basic thesis is that the fracturing of certain big name groups was just one part of a shifting cultural ethos. The '60s were over and the '70s just beginning -- and as the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young fell apart, a very different singer, James Taylor, began to represent a new era. In addition to examining rock history (utilizing both interviews and documents), Browne also looks at the larger cultural context, digging up little-known stories along the way.

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Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/07/2009
ISBN-13: 9781592404834
ISBN-10: 1592404839

Danny Goldberg has worked with Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, and Stevie Nicks, and has managed record companies Atlantic, Mercury, and Warner Bros. With nearly 40 years in the music business, Goldberg has collected a lot of entertaining stories, many of which he shares here. Bumping Into Geniuses is also a great look at how the music industry really operates, and while the picture isn't always complimentary, it's a thoughtful and well-told story. Try Robert Greenfield's The Last Sultan for another detailed look at a head of the music industry, Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun.

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Publisher: W.W. Norton
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/18/2011
ISBN-13: 9780393076523
ISBN-10: 0393076520

From the late 1930s to the early 1940s, something called the "chitlin' circuit" was developing in the back rooms of clubs and juke joints across the southern U.S. Catering to black audiences, these were the places where Little Richard and James Brown got their start, along with countless others -- some of whom crossed over into mainstream rock 'n' roll, and plenty who didn't. Combining firsthand reporting with historical research, music journalist Preston Lauterbach provides insight into the history of the circuit and the birth of rock 'n' roll, and into the promoters, club owners, and musicians who made it happen. "A rocking read," says Publishers Weekly.

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/01/2009
ISBN-13: 9780195341546
ISBN-10: 0195341546

Praised by reviewers from singer/songwriter Tom Waits to Newsweek to The Onion's A.V. Club, this provocatively titled book is really about how the way that we produce and listen to music changed in the 20th century. One of the theories that author Elijah Wald presents is that advances in recording technology made popular music less something you danced to and more something you listened to; he also discusses the contributions of musicians who, though influential in their day, have now fallen out of favor. If you consider yourself a music historian, you'll want to give this alternative history a try.

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