Download or read book The Confessions of Rick James written by Rick James and published by Amber Communications Group, Incorporated. This book was released on 2007 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rick James is a pop-culture icon, unforgettable for his outrageous style, drug and legal problems who passed away in 2004 after being blessed with new cool in an infamous sketch by comedian Dave Chapelle.
Download or read book Glow written by Rick James and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best known for his 1980s hit songs “Super Freak,” “Give it to Me Baby,” and “Mary Jane,” the late singer and funk music pioneer Rick James collaborated with acclaimed music biographer David Ritz in this posthumously published, no-holds-barred memoir of a rock star’s life and soul. He was the nephew of Temptations singer Melvin Franklin; a boy who watched and listened, mesmerized from underneath cocktail tables at the shows of Etta James and Miles Davis. He was a vagrant hippie who wandered to Toronto, where he ended up playing with Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, and he became a household name in the 1980s with his hit song “Super Freak.” Later in life, he was a bad boy who got caught up in drug smuggling and ended up in prison. But since his passing in August 2004, Rick James has remained a legendary icon whose name is nearly synonymous with funk music—and who popularized the genre, creating a lasting influence on pop artists from Prince to Jay-Z to Snoop Dogg, among countless others. In Glow, Rick James and acclaimed music biographer David Ritz collaborated to write a no-holds-barred memoir about the boy and the man who became a music superstar in America’s disco age. It tells of James’s upbringing and how his mother introduced him to musical geniuses of the time. And it reveals details on many universally revered artists, from Marvin Gaye and Prince to Nash, Teena Marie, and Berry Gordy. James himself said, “My journey has taken me through hell and back. It’s all in my music—the parties, the pain, the oversized ego, the insane obsessions.” But despite his bad boy behavior, James was a tremendous talent and a unique, unforgettable human being. His “glow” was an overriding quality that one of his mentors saw in him—and one that will stay with this legendary figure who left an indelible mark on American popular music.
Download or read book Super Freak written by Peter Benjaminson and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2017-03-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rick James played with Neil Young, self-produced his first album (later picked up by Motown), crossed rock and funk to come up with one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s, became one of the biggest pop stars of the era, turned a young white woman named Teena Marie into an R&B superstar, displayed an outrageously sex- and drug-filled lifestyle, was tried and found guilty of assaulting and imprisoning a young woman, went on to record new music that was compared to the Beatles' White Album, and ended his life as a punch line for Dave Chappelle. James attempted to tell his own story—in two different books—but left out many incidents that reflected badly on his character. Now, based on court records, newspaper archives, and extensive interviews with dozens of family members, band members, friends, and lovers, here is the definitive biography of Motown's most controversial superstar.
Download or read book China Watcher written by Richard Baum and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This audacious and illuminating memoir by Richard Baum, a senior China scholar and sometime policy advisor, reflects on forty years of learning about and interacting with the People’s Republic of China, from the height of Maoism during the author’s UC Berkeley student days in the volatile 1960s through globalization. Anecdotes from Baum’s professional life illustrate the alternately peculiar, frustrating, fascinating, and risky activity of China watching — the process by which outsiders gather and decipher official and unofficial information to figure out what’s really going on behind China’s veil of political secrecy and propaganda. Baum writes entertainingly, telling his narrative with witty stories about people, places, and eras. China Watcher will appeal to scholars and followers of international events who lived through the era of profound political and academic change described in the book, as well as to younger, post-Mao generations, who will enjoy its descriptions of the personalities and political forces that shaped the modern field of China studies.
Download or read book The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner written by James Hogg and published by . This book was released on 1824 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published anonymously in 1824, this gothic mystery novel was written by Scottish author James Hogg. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner was published as if it were the presentation of a century-old document. The unnamed editor offers the reader a long introduction before presenting the document written by the sinner himself.
Download or read book Confessions of a Street Addict written by James J. Cramer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2003-06-06 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cramer takes readers on a no-holds-barred tour of life on Wall Street--revealing how the game is played, who breaks the rules, and who gets hurt.
Download or read book Confessions of a Bipolar Firefighter written by James L Nutt and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2012-03-27 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life never seemed so good. Well, at least that’s how you’ll feel after completing Confessions of a Bipolar Firefighter. Strap in. From the mountainous highs to the bottomless lows, this adventurous autobiography travels through the mind and experiences of a tremendously controversial, besieged, introspective and tormented man named James L. Nutt. It begins through the eyes of a child who endures extreme physical, sexual and emotional abuse and then transitions into his impoverished and naturally destructive teenager years accented by his proclivity for violence. After a tumultuous young adulthood, he grows into a working class firefighter who daringly climbs the ranks to chief. Normalcy appears to be attained as James and his newfound family gain a strong relationship with God. But the ebbs quickly return as James discovers his church pastor has embezzled thousands of dollars from offerings, and his wife passes from skin cancer leaving him to raise four children on his own. All the while, he continues to wage battles against his own bipolar disorder along with the vices of alcohol, drug abuse, sex and violence. Everything culminates to a fight with his own demons as a God-fearing man with an agenda to avenge those who have betrayed him. His mental illness exacerbates and his relationship with the Lord wavers as he struggles with completing his own vengeance versus allowing God to take the lead. Whether you believe him to be crazy or sane, right or wrong, you will certainly remain on the edge of your seat as you take a ride with this truly original character who provides insight into his real-life tale for the ages.
Download or read book Too Much Tuscan Sun written by Dario Castagno and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004-09-01 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past several years, "the American in Tuscany" has become a literary subgenre. Launched by the phenomenal success of Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun, bookstores now burgeon with nimble, witty accounts of this clash in cultures-Americans trying to do American things in Italy and bumping against a brick wall of tradition.Too Much Tuscan Sun is Dario's, a Tuscan guide whose client base is predominantly American, account of some of his more remarkable customers, from the obsessive and the oblivious to the downright lunatic.
Download or read book Confessions of a Barefaced Woman written by Allison Joseph and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The poems in Allison Joseph's latest collection are smart, shameless, and empowered confessions of the best kind. In semi-autobiographical verse highlighting in turns light-hearted and harsh realities of modern black womanhood, these poems take the reader down "A History of African-American Hair," visit with both Grace Jones and the Venus de Milo, send Janis Joplin to cheerleading camp, bemoan a treacherous first pair of high heels, and discuss "vagina business." Funny, but never flippant, and always forthcoming about the author's own flaws and foibles, Confessions of a Barefaced Woman is sure to keep readers entranced, entertained, and enlightened.
Download or read book Confess written by Rob Halford and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The legendary frontman of Judas Priest, one of the most successful heavy metal bands of all time, celebrates five decades of heavy metal in this tell-all memoir. Most priests hear confessions. This one is making his. Rob Halford, front man of global iconic metal band Judas Priest, is a true "Metal God." Raised in Britain's hard-working, heavy industrial heartland, he and his music were forged in the Black Country. Confess, his full autobiography, is an unforgettable rock 'n' roll story-a journey from a Walsall council estate to musical fame via alcoholism, addiction, police cells, ill-fated sexual trysts, and bleak personal tragedy, through to rehab, coming out, redemption . . . and finding love. Now, he is telling his gospel truth. Told with Halford's trademark self-deprecating, deadpan Black Country humor, Confess is the story of an extraordinary five decades in the music industry. It is also the tale of unlikely encounters with everybody from Superman to Andy Warhol, Madonna, Jack Nicholson, and the Queen. More than anything else, it's a celebration of the fire and power of heavy metal. Rob Halford has decided to Confess. Because it's good for the soul. Named one of the Best Music Books of 2020 by Rolling Stone and Kirkus Reviews
Download or read book The House of Broken Angels written by Luis Alberto Urrea and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this "raucous, moving, and necessary" story by a Pulitzer Prize finalist (San Francisco Chronicle), the De La Cruzes, a family on the Mexican-American border, celebrate two of their most beloved relatives during a joyous and bittersweet weekend. "All we do, mija, is love. Love is the answer. Nothing stops it. Not borders. Not death." In his final days, beloved and ailing patriarch Miguel Angel de La Cruz, affectionately called Big Angel, has summoned his entire clan for one last legendary birthday party. But as the party approaches, his mother, nearly one hundred, dies, transforming the weekend into a farewell doubleheader. Among the guests is Big Angel's half brother, known as Little Angel, who must reckon with the truth that although he shares a father with his siblings, he has not, as a half gringo, shared a life. Across two bittersweet days in their San Diego neighborhood, the revelers mingle among the palm trees and cacti, celebrating the lives of Big Angel and his mother, and recounting the many inspiring tales that have passed into family lore, the acts both ordinary and heroic that brought these citizens to a fraught and sublime country and allowed them to flourish in the land they have come to call home. Teeming with brilliance and humor, authentic at every turn, The House of Broken Angels is Luis Alberto Urrea at his best, and cements his reputation as a storyteller of the first rank. "Epic . . . Rambunctious . . . Highly entertaining." -- New York Times Book Review"Intimate and touching . . . the stuff of legend." -- San Francisco Chronicle"An immensely charming and moving tale." -- Boston GlobeNational Bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award finalistA New York Times Notable BookOne of the Best Books of the Year from National Public Radio, American Library Association, San Francisco Chronicle, BookPage, Newsday, BuzzFeed, Kirkus, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Literary Hub
Download or read book Cad written by Rick Marin and published by . This book was released on 2004-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You know him. He's the funny, sweet guy with the great eyes who asks you a million questions and seems mesmerized by every reply. He takes you on the greatest, longest date of your life. He swears he loves cats and cuddling. And his apartment is so clean. He just might be the One. Then he doesn't call, doesn't write. He sees you coming down the street and he hides behind a tree. He's a cad. And this is his story. After all the girl's guides to sex in the city, here - at last - is the view from the other side of the bed. In Cad: Confessions of a Toxic Bachelor, Rick Marin offers himself up for an in-depth look at man's superficial nature. In this rollicking, frequently insensitive and ultimately poignant memoir, Marin proves a master of the light touch even in his darkest hours. Part Hugh Hefner, part Hugh Grant, his tale is a rake's progress (in spite of himself) from incorrigible cad to reconstructed romantic. It is one man's story but many men will read it as their own. And for any woman who has ever wondered What was he thinking? This is what he was thinking. Laugh out loud funny' ElleMove over Bridget Jones' The Week'A very good, intelligent and funny book' Evening Standard
Download or read book After the Dance written by Jan Gaye and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting cautionary tale about the ecstasy and dangers of loving Marvin Gaye, a performer passionately pursued by all—and a searing memoir of drugs, sex, and old school R&B from the wife of legendary soul icon Marvin Gaye. After her seventeenth birthday in 1973, Janis Hunter met Marvin Gaye—the soulful prince of Motown with the seductive liquid voice whose chart-topping, socially conscious album What’s Going On made him a superstar two years earlier. Despite a seventeen-year-age difference and Marvin’s marriage to the sister of Berry Gordy, Motown’s founder, the enchanted teenager and the emotionally volatile singer began a scorching relationship. One moment Jan was a high school student; the next she was accompanying Marvin to parties, navigating the intriguing world of 1970s-‘80s celebrity; hanging with Don Cornelius on the set of Soul Train, and helping to discover new talent like Frankie Beverly. But the burdens of fame, the chaos of dysfunctional families, and the irresistible temptations of drugs complicated their love. Primarily silent since Marvin’s tragic death in 1984, Jan at last opens up, sharing the moving, fervently charged story of one of music history’s most fabled marriages. Unsparing in its honesty and insight, illustrated with sixteen pages of black-and-white photos, After the Dance reveals what it’s like to be in love with a creative genius who transformed popular culture and whose artistry continues to be celebrated today.
Download or read book Howling at the Moon written by Walter Yetnikoff and published by Crown. This book was released on 2004-03-02 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Show biz memoir at its name-dropping, bridge-burning, profane best: the music industry’s most outspoken, outrageous, and phenomenally successful executive delivers a rollicking memoir of pop music’s heyday. During the 1970s and '80s the music business was dominated by a few major labels and artists such as Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Barbra Streisand and James Taylor. They were all under contract to CBS Records, making it the most successful label of the era. And, as the company’s president, Walter Yetnikoff was the ruling monarch. He was also the most flamboyant, volatile and controversial personality to emerge from an industry and era defined by sex, drugs and debauchery. Having risen from working-class Brooklyn and the legal department of CBS, Yetnikoff, who freely admitted to being tone deaf, was an unlikely label head. But he had an uncanny knack for fostering talent and intimidating rivals with his appalling behavior—usually fueled by an explosive combination of cocaine and alcohol. His tantrums, appetite for mind-altering substances and sexual exploits were legendary. In Japan to meet the Sony executives who acquired CBS during his tenure, Walter was assigned a minder who confined him to a hotel room. True to form, Walter raided the minibar, got blasted and, seeing no other means of escape, opened a hotel window and vented his rage by literally howling at the moon. In Howling at the Moon, Yetnikoff traces his journey as he climbed the corporate mountain, danced on its summit and crashed and burned. We see how Walter became the father-confessor to Michael Jackson as the King of Pop reconstructed his face and agonized over his image while constructing Thriller (and how, after it won seven Grammies, Jackson made the preposterous demand that Walter take producer Quincy Jones’s name off the album); we see Walter, in maniacal pursuit of a contract, chase the Rolling Stones around the world and nearly come to blows with Mick Jagger in the process; we get the tale of how Walter and Marvin Gaye—fresh from the success of “Sexual Healing”—share the same woman, and of how Walter bonds with Bob Dylan because of their mutual Jewishness. At the same time we witness Yetnikoff’s clashes with Barry Diller, David Geffen, Tommy Mottola, Allen Grubman and a host of others. Seemingly, the more Yetnikoff feeds his cravings for power, sex, liquor and cocaine, the more profitable CBS becomes—from $485 million to well over $2 billion—until he finally succumbs, ironically, not to substances, but to a corporate coup. Reflecting on the sinister cycle that left his career in tatters and CBS flush with cash, Yetnikoff emerges with a hunger for redemption and a new reverence for his working-class Brooklyn roots. Ruthlessly candid, uproariously hilarious and compulsively readable, Howling at the Moon is a blistering You’ll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again of the music industry.
Download or read book In Desperation written by Rick Mofina and published by MIRA. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A superbly written thriller...Timely, tense, and terrifying."—Brad Thor "A blisteringly paced story that cuts to the bone. It left me ripping through pages deep into the night."—James Rollins Eleven-year-old Tilly Martin is dragged from her suburban bedroom. Her mother, Cora, pleads for mercy but the kidnappers are clear: if they don't get their $5 million back in five days, Tilly dies. If anyone contacts police, Tilly dies. Journalist Jack Gannon's estranged sister, Cora, disappeared without a trace decades ago. Now she is frantically reaching out to him for help. Cora tells him about the shameful mistakes she's made—but she guards the one secret that may be keeping her daughter alive. A twenty-year-old assassin, haunted by the faces of the people he's executed, seeks absolution as he sets out to commit his last murders as a hired killer. In the U.S. and Mexico, police and the press go flat out on Tilly's case. But as Gannon digs deeper into his anguished sister's past, the hours tick down on his niece's life and he faces losing a fragment of his rediscovered family forever. Originally published in 2011
Download or read book Jesus Without Religion written by Rick James and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2009-09-20 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Great. Another book about Jesus. Whose agenda will the author be lugging along this time? Author Rick James begins by clearing his throat. Free of creeds, quarrels and specialized theologies, he speaks of Jesus. No dogma, no politics, no moral at the end. Jesus. What he said. What he did. And what, exactly, was the point. The answers about Jesus, according to Rick James, are in the context. In his own unconventional way, James recalls the specific contexts that color Jesus' story, bringing forward this man you've heard so much—and so little—about.
Download or read book Rick Rubin in the Studio 16pt Large Print Edition written by Jake Brown and published by . This book was released on 2012-11-27 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is no greater enigma than Rick Rubin working in record production today. As mysterious personally as the Buddhist religion he practices, Rubin has made one thing crystal clear: the records he produces are sonically and stylistically beyond reproach. MTV has called Rubin ''the most important producer of the last 20 years, '' while Rolling Stone ventured even further, deeming Rubin the most successful ''of any genre.'' Without a niche, Rubin has taken greater risks than any producer in the record industry over the past quarter century. Pushing his artists into new territory has garnered Rubin seven Grammys, including Producer of the Year in 2007, and made him the most in - demand record producer working today. Now for the first time, Rick Rubin: In the Studio offers the behind - the - scenes stories of how Rubin created hit albums with such diverse legends as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Run DMC, Johnny Cash, the Beastie Boys, Audioslave, Tom Petty, Metallica, Danzig, Slayer, LL Cool J, The Cult, Weezer, the Dixie Chicks, Linkin Park, System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine, Jay Z, Neil Diamond, Sheryl Crow, and Slipknot. This book chronicles his meteoric rise, from his early days as DJ Double R in the early '80s, founding and running Def Jam Records alongside Russell Simmons from an NYU dorm room, discovering and producing the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J, to his transition in the early '90s into a successful independent record executive, signing and producing the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Johnny Cash, to his role as the most influential producer of all time (currently as the co - head of Columbia Records), and his continued successes with rock/metal supergroups Audioslave, Linkin Park, and Metallica. This in - depth look at the life and times of Rick Rubin - in the studio and beyond - is a must - have for any music fan
