Download or read book Life of a Song written by Jan Dalley and published by Nicholas Brealey. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who knew that Paul McCartney originally referred to Yesterday as 'Scrambled Eggs' because he couldn't think of any lyrics for his heart-breaking tune? Or that Patti LaBelle didn't know what 'Voulez-vous couches avec moi ce soir?' actually meant? These and countless other fascinating back stories of some of our best-known and best-loved songs fill this book, a collection of the highly successful weekly The Life of a Song columns that appear in the FT Weekend every Saturday. Each 600-word piece gives a mini-biography of a single song, from its earliest form (often a spiritual, or a jazz number), through the various covers and changes, often morphing from one genre to another, always focusing on the 'biography' of the song itself while including the many famous artists who have performed or recorded it. The selection covers a wide spectrum of the songs we all know and love - rock, pop, folk, jazz and more. Each piece is pithy, sparkily written, knowledgeable, entertaining, full of anecdotes and surprises. They combine deep musical knowledge with the vivid background of the performers and musicians, and of course the often intriguing social and political background against which the songs were created.
Download or read book A Song to Sing a Life to Live written by Don Saliers and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Celebrating the spirit of song In A Song to Sing, a Life to Live, Don and Emily Saliers help readers see the connections between Saturday night music and Sunday morning music by exploring the spiritual dimensions of music itself. They tell the stories of their own lives in music, and they share what they have learned and observed about the power of music in human life. They help us appreciate the joy of music and also how music carries us into places of sorrow, where we must go if we are to live with honesty about ourselves and compassion for others. This book is for churchgoers and spiritual seekers alike. Music is described in terms of spiritual practice; it has the power to embrace those who are deeply immersed in the life of Christian faith and speak to those who are spiritual but may question formal religion. The book explores a wide variety of musical traditions and offers an invitation to embrace a broader and deeper vision of the power of music and the spiritual dimensions of attentive listening. "This is a beautiful expression of music as many things--healer, gift, symbol of freedom and community, and agent of change" (Mary Chapin Carpenter).
Download or read book Your Song Changed My Life written by Bob Boilen and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-04-12 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the beloved host and creator of NPR’s All Songs Considered and Tiny Desk Concerts comes an essential oral history of modern music, told in the voices of iconic and up-and-coming musicians, including Dave Grohl, Jimmy Page, Michael Stipe, Carrie Brownstein, Smokey Robinson, and Jeff Tweedy, among others—published in association with NPR Music. Is there a unforgettable song that changed your life? NPR’s renowned music authority Bob Boilen posed this question to some of today’s best-loved musical legends and rising stars. In Your Song Changed My Life, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), St. Vincent, Jónsi (Sigur Rós), Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Cat Power, David Byrne (Talking Heads), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), Jenny Lewis, Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia, Sleater-Kinney), Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), Trey Anastasio (Phish), Jackson Browne, Valerie June, Philip Glass, James Blake, and other artists reflect on pivotal moments that inspired their work. For Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, it was discovering his sister’s 45 of The Byrds’ “Turn, Turn, Turn.” A young St. Vincent’s life changed the day a box of CDs literally fell off a delivery truck in front of her house. Cat Stevens was transformed when he heard John Lennon cover “Twist and Shout.” These are the momentous yet unmarked events that have shaped these and many other musical talents, and ultimately the sound of modern music. A diverse collection of personal experiences, both ordinary and extraordinary, Your Song Changed My Life illustrates the ways in which music is revived, restored, and revolutionized. It is also a testament to the power of music in our lives, and an inspiration for future artists and music lovers. Amazing contributors include: Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney, Portlandia, Wild Flag), Smokey Robinson, David Byrne (Talking Heads), St. Vincent, Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), James Blake, Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), Trey Anastasio (Phish), Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Sturgill Simpson, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Cat Power, Jackson Browne, Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), Philip Glass, Jónsi (Sigur Rós), Hozier, Regina Carter, Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes, and others), Courtney Barnett, Chris Thile (Nickel Creek, Punch Brothers), Leon Bridges, Sharon Van Etten, and many more.
Download or read book This Song Will Save Your Life written by Leila Sales and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR). This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski's strong suit. All throughout her life, she's been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, Elise nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where she meets Vicky, a girl in a band who accepts her; Char, a cute, yet mysterious disc jockey; Pippa, a carefree spirit from England; and most importantly, a love for DJing. Told in a refreshingly genuine and laugh-out-loud funny voice, Leila Sales' THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE is an exuberant novel about identity, friendship, and the power of music to bring people together.
Download or read book Mad Girl s Love Song written by Andrew Wilson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-01-31 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 25 February 1956, twenty-three-year-old Sylvia Plath walked into a party and immediately spotted Ted Hughes. This encounter - now one of the most famous in all literary history - was recorded by Plath in her journal, where she described Hughes as a 'big, dark, hunky boy'. Sylvia viewed Ted as something of a colossus, and to this day his enormous shadow has obscured Plath's life and work. The sensational aspects of the Plath-Hughes relationship have dominated the cultural landscape to such an extent that their story has taken on the resonance of a modern myth. After Plath's suicide in February 1963, Hughes became Plath's literary executor, the guardian of her writings, and, in effect responsible for how she was perceived. But Hughes did not think much of Plath's prose writing, viewing it as a 'waste product' of her 'false self', and his determination to market her later poetry - poetry written after she had begun her relationship with him - as the crowning glory of her career, has meant that her other earlier work has been marginalised. Before she met Ted, Plath had lived a complex, creative and disturbing life. Her father had died when she was only eight, she had gone out with literally hundreds of men, had been unofficially engaged, had tried to commit suicide and had written over 200 poems. Mad Girl's Love Songwill trace through these early years the sources of her mental instabilities and will examine how a range of personal, economic and societal factors - the real disquieting muses - conspired against her. Drawing on exclusive interviews with friends and lovers who have never spoken openly about Plath before and using previously unavailable archives and papers, this is the first book to focus on the early life of the twentieth century's most popular and enduring female poet. Mad Girl's Love Songreclaims Sylvia Plath from the tangle of emotions associated with her relationship with Ted Hughes and reveals the origins of her unsettled and unsettling voice, a voice that, fifty years after her death, still has the power to haunt and disturb.
Download or read book Musically Speaking written by Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-03-25 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Music, I have come to realize, is for me a kind of golden thread running through my life. It has helped maintain my connection with the past that otherwise might have been severed by catastrophe and time. I am often asked—indeed, I often wonder myself—why it is that I should always have had such joie de vivre in the face of the losses and dislocations I had to endure in my early years. The answer I always gave was that the warmth and security of my early childhood had a remarkable power and influence. This is certainly true. But now I have realized that there is another part to the answer. And that is music."—from the introduction Who among us does not have a song that triggers vivid memories—of jubilation, of belonging, of sorrow, of love? In Musically Speaking, Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, one of America's most beloved personalities, has written a warm and contemplative book about the role music has played in her life and the ineradicable traces it has left on her thoughts, emotions, her very being. In this memoir through song, Dr. Ruth invites us to share her story from a uniquely musical perspective. By the time she was thirty, Ruth Westheimer had lived in five countries, each with a distinctive musical culture, each with a different hold on her sensibility. For the first ten years of her life, the comforting melodies of childhood helped drown out the anthems of Nazism to be heard elsewhere in her native Germany; as an adolescent refugee in Switzerland, she came to be aware that, however loudly she sang the patriotic songs of the land that gave her shelter, she could never truly be at home there. Present at the creation of the modern state of Israel, she sang and danced to the new music of a new nation; as a young woman eagerly absorbing all that Paris had to offer in the way of romance and worldliness in the early 1950s, the songs of Edith Piaf, Mouloudji, and Yves Montand were her tutors. An almost accidental emigration to America brought new challenges and new stability, as she became a wife, mother, and professional; tremendous and unforeseen celebrity came later, and with it the giddy opportunity to indulge her love of music as never before. Always, the classical repertoire of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Brahms has drawn Westheimer to a German culture that has belonged—and not belonged—to her throughout her life. And always, the music of the Jewish tradition has given her strength and comfort beyond words. Affording a view of Dr. Ruth from a rare private vantage point, Musically Speaking offers wondrous testimony to the resilience of the human spirit. This is a book full of color, verve, humor, and wisdom, unfolding gracefully through the beloved music of the Jewish holidays, the lullabies of childhood, the songs that sustained an orphan and roused the courage of a young woman, the melodies that enable a widow grieving for her husband to recall, from deep within the years of love, companionship, and happiness.
Download or read book A Scots Song written by James MacMillan and published by Birlinn Ltd. This book was released on 2019-07-18 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sir James MacMillan first burst into prominence in 1990 with The Confessions of Isobel Gowdie. A steady stream of works has followed, with commissions from many of the world's major orchestras. A prominent part of his work is his religious composition, which includes settings of both the John and Luke passions, Tu Es Petrus (for the 2010 papal visit to Britain) and numerous smaller choral pieces. His works are heard all around the world – Seven Last Words from the Cross has been performed in 24 countries since its premiere in 1994, and his Stabat Mater received a private performance at the Sistine Chapel in 2018. He is a trenchant commentator on a wide range of political, social and theological issues, many of which spring from his commitment to the cultural life of Scotland. He is a passionate advocacy of community involvement in music and set up the burgeoning music festival The Cumnock Tryst in 2013. Much of his music reflects his strong Scottish roots and interest in all aspects of musical tradition.
Download or read book A Song to Sing A Life to Live written by Don Saliers and published by Jossey-Bass. This book was released on 2006-04-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this rich exploration of music, authors Don and Emily Saliers interweave their own stories as well as those of others to reflect on the what, the how, and the why of music as a key aspect of spirituality in our lives. As an Indigo Girl, folk-rock singer-songwriter, Emily performs in primarily secular settings, while her father, Don - composer, cantor, and church musician - writes and arranges for church congregations. Their audiences may differ but both father and daughter understand the profound spirituality of music and have personally witnessed how their music brings healing to people no matter what the setting or circumstance. A Song to Sing, A Life to Live bridges two generations, two approaches to spirituality, and two genres of music - the music of Saturday night and Sunday morning. Don and Emily Saliers reflect on such topics as music and justice, music and grief, music and delight, and music and hope. They open the way for those who seek to embrace new spiritual practices by creating music, sharing music, and developing their musical skills as a spiritual practice.
Download or read book Orpheus written by Ann Wroe and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-07-14 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For at least two and a half millennia, the figure of Orpheus has haunted humanity. Half-man, half-god, musician, magician, theologian, poet and lover, his story never leaves us. He may be myth, but his lyre still sounds, entrancing everything that hears it: animals, trees, water, stones, and men. In this extraordinary work Ann Wroe goes in search of Orpheus, from the forests where he walked and the mountains where he worshipped to the artefacts, texts and philosophies built up round him. She traces the man, and the power he represents, through the myriad versions of a fantastical life: his birth in Thrace, his studies in Egypt, his voyage with the Argonauts to fetch the Golden Fleece, his love for Eurydice and journey to Hades, and his terrible death. We see him tantalising Cicero and Plato, and breathing new music into Gluck and Monteverdi; occupying the mind of Jung and the surreal dreams of Cocteau; scandalising the Fathers of the early Church, and filling Rilke with poems like a whirlwind. He emerges as not simply another mythical figure but the force of creation itself, singing the song of light out of darkness and life out of death.
Download or read book Sounds Like Me written by Sara Bareilles and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Check out Little Voice on Apple TV+! Little Voice is inspired by a lost song from Sara Bareilles’s first studio album. This updated New York Times bestselling collection of essays by seven-time Grammy nominated singer songwriter Sara Bareilles “resonates with authentic and hard-won truths” (Publishers Weekly)—and features new material on the hit Broadway musical, Waitress. Sara Bareilles “pours her heart and soul into these essays” (Associated Press), sharing the joys and the struggles that come with creating great work, all while staying true to yourself. Imbued with humor and marked by Sara’s confessional writing style, this essay collection tells the inside story behind some of her most popular songs. Well known for her chart-topper “Brave,” Sara first broke through in 2007 with her multi-platinum single “Love Song.” She has since released seven albums that have sold millions of copies and spawned several hits. “A breezy, upbeat, and honest reflection of this multitalented artist” (Kirkus Reviews), Sounds Like Me reveals Sara Bareilles, the artist—and the woman—on songwriting, soul searching, and what’s discovered along the way.
Download or read book Song Without Words written by Gerald Shea and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2013-02-26 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At age 34, Shea discovered that he had been deaf since childhood despite somehow maintaining a prestigious legal career.
Download or read book One Last Song written by Mike Ayers and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ironically upbeat book that asks some of today’s most inimitable musicians which song they would choose to be the last one they ever hear Variety Best Music Book of 2020 TIME Best Book of Fall 2020 Selection If you could choose the last song you’d hear before you died, what would it be and why? Your favorite song of all time? Perhaps the one you danced to at your wedding? The song from that time you got super stoned and just let the chords speak to you? It’s a hard question that Mike Ayers has thought about for years. In One Last Song, Ayers invites 30 musicians to consider what song they would each want to accompany them to those pearly white gates. Weaving together their explanations with evocative illustrations and poignant interludes—what your song to die to says about you, what songs famous people have died to, and more. The book offers insight into the minds of famous artists and provides an entry point for considering how integral music is to our own personal narratives. Artists Featured: Jim James of My Morning Jacket, André 3000, Killer Mike, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Phoebe Bridgers, Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire, Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, Colin Meloy of the Decemberists, Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, Lauren Mayberry of CHVRCHES, A.C. Newman of The New Pornographers, Courtney Barrett, Bobb Bruno of Best Coast, Angel Olsen, Regina Spektor, Kevin Morby, Will Oldham, Julia Holter, Margo Price, Sonny Rollins, Ryley Walker, Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs, Yannis Phillippakis of Foals, Bettye Lavette, M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger, Wanda Jackson, Roseanne Cash, Lucinda Williams, and Beth Orton.
Download or read book Always a Song written by Ellen Harper and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2021-01-26 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Always a Song is a collection of stories from singer and songwriter Ellen Harper—folk matriarch and mother to the Grammy-winning musician Ben Harper. Harper shares vivid memories of growing up in Los Angeles through the 1960s among famous and small-town musicians, raising Ben, and the historic Folk Music Center. This beautifully written memoir includes stories of Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, The New Lost City Ramblers, Doc Watson, and many more. • Harper takes readers on an intimate journey through the folk music revival. • The book spans a transformational time in music, history, and American culture. • Covers historical events from the love-ins, women's rights protests, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the popularization of the sitar and the ukulele. • Includes full-color photo insert. "Growing up, an endless stream of musicians and artists came from across the country to my family's music store. Bess Lomax Hawes, Joan Baez, Sonny Terry, and Brownie McGee—all the singers, organizers, guitar and banjo pickers and players, songwriters, painters, dancers, their husbands, wives, and children—we were all in it together. And we believed singing could change the world."—Ellen Harper Music lovers and history buffs will enjoy this rare invitation into a world of stories and song that inspired folk music today. • A must-read for lovers of music, history, and those nostalgic for the acoustic echo of the original folk music that influenced a generation • Harper's parents opened the legendary Folk Music Center in Claremont, California, as well as the revered folk music venue The Golden Ring. • A perfect book for people who are obsessed with folk music, all things 1960s, learning about musical movements, or California history • Great for those who loved Small Town Talk: Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Friends in the Wild Years of Woodstock by Barney Hoskyns; and Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—and the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller.
Download or read book A Song for You written by Robyn Crawford and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times Bestseller! After decades of silence, Robyn Crawford, close friend, collaborator, and confidante of Whitney Houston, shares her story. Whitney Houston is as big a superstar as the music business has ever known. She exploded on the scene in 1985 with her debut album and spent the next two decades dominating the charts and capturing the hearts of fans around the world. One person was there by her side through it all—her best friend, Robyn Crawford. Since Whitney’s death in 2012, Robyn has stayed out of the limelight and held the great joys, wild adventures, and hard truths of her life with Whitney close to her heart. Now, for the first time ever, Crawford opens up in her memoir, A Song for You. With warmth, candor, and an impressive recall of detail, Robyn describes the two meeting as teenagers in the 1980s, and how their lives and friendship evolved as Whitney recorded her first album and Robyn pursued her promising Division I basketball career. Together during countless sold-out world tours, behind the scenes as hit after hit was recorded, through Whitney’s marriage and the birth of her daughter, the two navigated often challenging families, great loves, and painful losses, always supporting each other with laughter and friendship. Deeply personal and heartfelt, A Song for You is the vital, honest, and previously untold story that provides an understanding of the complex life of Whitney Houston. Finally, the person who knew her best sets the record straight.
Download or read book Jarmila Novotn written by Jarmila Novotná and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2018-10-19 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A legendary beauty, hailed as one of the greatest singing actors of her time, Jarmila Novotná (1907--1994) was an internationally known opera soprano from the former Czechoslovakia. Best known for her performances in Der Rosenkavalier, The Marriage of Figaro, and La Traviata, she was a celebrated performer at the Metropolitan Opera and other theaters across Europe and the United States. A "natural screen actress," Novotná also appeared in Hollywood hits such as The Search (1948) with Montgomery Clift (with whom she shared an enduring friendship) and The Great Caruso (1951) with Mario Lanza. She was also considered a pioneering "crossover" star who performed on Broadway, and worked in radio and television with Bing Crosby and Abbott and Costello. This gifted artist captivated audiences worldwide, and while she was still a young woman, the Czech government treated her as a national heroine and its cultural ambassador. In Jarmila Novotná: My Life in Song, editor William V. Madison brings Novotná's own English-language version of her best-selling memoir to readers for the first time. The memoir details how, following her debut in 1925 at the National Theater in Prague, her fame quickly evolved into a tremendous musical career at a time of unprecedented political upheaval. Novotná provides eyewitness accounts of the Nazi takeovers of Germany and Austria, the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia, and the aftermath of the Velvet Revolution in 1989, as well as her extensive travels in the United States during and after World War II. Throughout the memoir, lavishly illustrated with photos from her personal collection, Novotná shares entertaining stories about her time in Hollywood, an "unending stream of parties" -- including those hosted by Louis B. Mayer, co-founder of MGM Studios -- alongside such stars as Jimmy Stewart and Elizabeth Taylor. Novotná also offers revealing profiles of many notable artistic figures of the time, including director Max Reinhardt, composer Cole Porter, and conductor Arturo Toscanini, and dignitaries such as Dwight Eisenhower and Tomá Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia. This fascinating self-portrait offers a window on history and the reflections of a captivating and supremely talented figure who left an indelible mark on the performing arts.
Download or read book Siren Song written by Seymour Stein and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2018-06-12 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The autobiography of America’s greatest record man: the founder of Sire Records and spotter of rock talent from the Ramones to Madonna. Seymour Stein was America's greatest record man. Not only did he sign and nurture more important artists than anyone alive, after over sixty years in the game, he was still the hippest label head, travelling the globe in search of the next big thing. Since the late fifties, he had been wherever was happening: Billboard, Tin Pan Alley, The British Invasion, CBGB, Studio 54, Danceteria, the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, the CD crash. Along that winding path, he discovered and broke out a skyline full of stars: Madonna, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, Madonna, The Smiths, The Cure, Ice-T, Lou Reed, Seal, and many others. Brimming with hilarious scenes and character portraits, Siren Song’s wider narrative is about modernity in motion, and the slow acceptance of diversity in America – thanks largely to daring pop music. Including both the high and low points in his life, Siren Song touches on everything from his discovery of Madonna to his wife Linda Stein's violent death. Ask anyone in the music business, Seymour Stein was a legend. Sung from the heart, Siren Song will etch his story in stone.
Download or read book I m Going to Live the Life I Sing about in My Song written by Jen Delos Reyes and published by . This book was released on 2016-04-18 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
