Download or read book The Beatles from A to Zed written by Peter Asher and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “At last, I finally understand the alphabet! I also love this book: secret Beatles knowledge from one of the closest insiders.” —Steve Martin Peter Asher met the Beatles in the spring of 1963, the start of a lifelong association with the band and its members. He had a front-row seat as they elevated pop music into an art form, and he was present at the creation of some of the most iconic music of our times. Asher is also a talented musician in his own right, with a great ear for what was new and fresh. He was asked by Paul McCartney to help start Apple Records; the first artist Asher discovered and signed up was a young American singer-songwriter named James Taylor. Before long he would be not only managing and producing Taylor but also working with Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond, Robin Williams, Joni Mitchell, and Cher, among others. The Beatles from A to Zed grows out of his popular radio program “From Me to You” on SiriusXM’s The Beatles Channel, where he shares memories and insights about the Fab Four and their music. Here he weaves his reflections into a whimsical alphabetical journey that focuses not only on songs whose titles start with each letter, but also on recurrent themes in the Beatles’ music, the instruments they played, the innovations they pioneered, the artists who influenced them, the key people in their lives, and the cultural events of the time. Few can match Peter Asher for his fresh and personal perspective on the Beatles. And no one is a more congenial and entertaining guide to their music.

Download or read book Advancing Your Photography written by Marc Silber and published by Mango Media Inc.. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of Create presents “an all-in-one, easily accessible handbook . . . [that] will show you how the pros do it. Study this and take your best shot” (Chase Jarvis, award-winning photographer). In Advancing Your Photography, Marc Silber provides the definitive handbook that will take you through the entire process of becoming an accomplished photographer. From teaching you the basics to exploring the stages of the full “cycle of photography,” Silber makes it easy for you to master the art form and create stunning pictures. From thousands of hours of interviews with professional photography masters, you will learn valuable insights and tips on beginner, amateur, landscape, wedding, lifestyle, sports, animal, portrait, still life, and iPhone photography. Advancing Your Photography features: · Top tips for making outstanding photographs from iconic photographers and many other leading professional photography masters of today · Numerous step-by-step examples · Guidance on training your eye to see composition with emotional impact · Tips on mastering the key points of operating your camera like a pro · Secrets to processing your images to professional standards Photography and the technology associated with it are constantly evolving, but the fundamentals remain the same. Advancing Your Photography will help to bring you the joy and satisfaction of a lifetime of pursuing the art of photography.

Download or read book Peter Asher written by David Jacks and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-11-15 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spanning more than fifty years of modern music history, Peter Asher: A Life in Music highlights every turn in Peter Asher's amazing career. Over a dozen years of research has gone into telling his story, with numerous interviews conducted with Asher, along with first-hand observations of him at work in various recording studios around Los Angeles. The author also had access to Asher's archives, which offered rare photographs and other career memorabilia to help illustrate this biography. Over one hundred artists, friends, and colleagues agreed to be interviewed, and they help to provide insight into Asher's personality and working methodology. Included are singers Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Marianne Faithfull, Carole King, Kenny Loggins, Graham Nash, Aaron Neville, Randy Newman, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, JD Souther, and James Taylor; producers Lou Adler, Mike Curb, Richard Perry, Al Schmitt, and Sir George Martin; musicians Hal Blaine, Andrew Gold, Danny Kortchmar, Paul Shaffer, and Waddy Wachtel; and actors Kevin Kline and Robin Williams. Many of these participants also provided previously unseen photographs. Asher was also one of the first producers to list the musicians that played on his sessions, realizing how important they were to the success of each project. These mini-portraits not only contribute to the telling of his story, they ultimately give the reader a history lesson on the last fifty years of popular music. Of course, Asher's life and work did not occur in a vacuum, and David Jacks places his progress in context with what was occurring in the culture that surrounded him, from the pervasive doldrums that America was experiencing right before the Beatles (and Peter and Gordon) exploded upon its shores to the civil rights tensions that surrounded the interracial tour Dick Clark sent through the Southern US in 1965, to the end of the 1960s and the public's need for a soothing confessional tone in their music after a decade of turmoil, which artists like James Taylor provided. Asher has also had a unique insider's view into the changing world of the music business—from the mid-1960s explosion of British artists to the 1970s corporate takeovers of independent labels, from the MTV era of the mid-1980s to the modern era of 360 degree deals and digital streaming. He is practically alone in his success as a hit-making artist, a hit-making producer, and a manager for hit-making talent. His ability to produce projects with such a broad range—rock, pop, folk, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, dance, Latin, classical, comedy, and Broadway and movie soundtracks—is almost unheard of. And in a business rife with shady characters, his intelligence, honesty, and business sense has earned the respect of all he's worked with. Still producing exciting work in the entertainment industry, Peter Asher has quite a story to tell.

Download or read book What Happens at Night written by Peter Cameron and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A couple find themselves at a fading, grand European hotel full of eccentric and sometimes unsettling patrons in this "faultlessly elegant and quietly menacing" allegorical story that examines the significance of shifting desires and the uncertainty of reality (Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness). An unnamed American couple travels to a strange, snowy European city to adopt a baby. It’s a difficult journey that leaves the wife, who is struggling with cancer, desperately weak, and her husband worries that her illness will prevent the orphanage from releasing their child. On arrival, the couple checks into the cavernous and eerily deserted Borgarfjaroasysla Grand Imperial Hotel where the bar is always open and the lobby populated with an enigmatic cast of characters ranging from an ancient, flamboyant chanteuse to a debauched businessman to an enigmatic faith healer. Nothing is as it seems in this baffling, frozen world, and the more the couple struggles to claim their baby, the less they seem to know about their marriage, themselves, and life itself. For readers of Ian McEwan, Elizabeth Strout, and Iris Murdoch, What Happens at Night is a "masterpiece" (Edmund White) poised on the cusp of reality, told by "an elegantly acute and mysteriously beguiling writer" (Richard Eder, The Boston Globe).

Download or read book The Zapple Diaries written by Barry Miles and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2016-09-27 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revealing history of the Beatles’ experimental record label, as told by the label’s manager. In August 1968, the Beatles launched their greatest business enterprise, Apple Records, to international fanfare. The less well-known story is the introduction of their Zapple label about nine months later. If Apple represented artists with new, commercial opportunities, Zapple offered more cutting-edge freedom; its mission was to distribute experimental music and spoken word recordings from the leading avant-garde figures of the time. The brainchild of Paul McCartney, the label captured the counterculture spirit of the 1960s by collaborating with Yoko Ono alongside John Lennon, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Brautigan, Charles Bukowski, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Charles Olson. The Zapple Diaries is the first full-length look at the enterprise, as well as a true insider account from Barry Miles, the label’s manager who went on to become a leading authority and chronicler of ‘60s culture. He provides insight into the colorful lives and working methods of the artists and discloses the fascinating story of the experimental venture, ultimately offering up a revealing and engaging account of this little-known chapter of Beatles history.

Download or read book Reinventing Pink Floyd written by Bill Kopp and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-02-09 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In celebration of the 45th anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon, Bill Kopp explores the ingenuity with which Pink Floyd rebranded itself following the 1968 departure of Syd Barrett. Not only did the band survive Barrett’s departure, but it went on to release landmark albums that continue to influence generations of musicians and fans. Reinventing Pink Floyd follows the path taken by the remaining band members to establish a musical identity, develop a songwriting style, and create a new template for the manner in which albums are made and even enjoyed by listeners. As veteran music journalist Bill Kopp illustrates, that path was filled with failed experiments, creative blind alleys, one-off musical excursions, abortive collaborations, general restlessness, and—most importantly—a dedicated search for a distinctive musical personality. This exciting guide to the works of 1968 through 1973 highlights key innovations and musical breakthroughs of lasting influence. Kopp places Pink Floyd in its historical, cultural, and musical contexts while celebrating the test of fire that took the band from the brink of demise to enduring superstardom.

Download or read book High on Arrival written by Mackenzie Phillips and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-08-04 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not long before her fiftieth birthday,Mackenzie Phillips walked into Los Angeles International Airport. She was on her way to a reunion for One Day at a Time, the hugely popular 70s sitcom on which she once starred as the lovable rebel Julie Cooper. Within minutes of entering the security checkpoint, Mackenzie was in handcuffs, arrested for possession of cocaine and heroin. Born into rock and roll royalty, flying in Learjets to the Virgin Islands at five, making pot brownies with her father's friends at eleven, Mackenzie grew up in an all-access kingdom of hippie freedom and heroin cool. It was a kingdom over which her father, the legendary John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, presided, often in absentia, as a spellbinding, visionary phantom. When Mackenzie was a teenager, Hollywood and the world took notice of the charming, talented, precocious child actor after her star-making turn in American Graffiti. As a young woman she joinedthe nonstop party in the hedonistic pleasure dome her father created for himself and his fellow revelers, and a rapt TV audience watched as Julie Cooper wasted away before their eyes. By the time Mackenzie discovered how deep and dark her father's trip was going, it was too late. And as an adult, she has paid dearly for a lifetime of excess, working tirelessly to reconcile a wonderful, terrible past in which she succumbed to the power of addiction and the pull of her magnetic father. As her astounding, outrageous, and often tender life story unfolds, the actor-musician-mother shares her lifelong battle with personal demons and near-fatal addictions. She overcomes seemingly impossible obstacles again and again and journeys toward redemption and peace. By exposing the shadows and secrets of the past to the light of day, the star who turned up High on Arrivalhas finally come back down to earth -- to stay.

Download or read book Even a Geek Can Speak written by Joey Asher and published by Persuasive Speaker Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether you're seeking investors for the latest start-up or simply looking for that competitive edge, this book will help you articulate and sell the complex ideas that dominate our technology-driven business environment.

Download or read book Paul McCartney written by Peter Ames Carlin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-11-03 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed biographer who brought you the rock biography of Bruce Springsteen comes the life of musician Paul McCartney—from his groundbreaking years with the Beatles to Wings to his work as a solo artist and activist. More than a rock star, more than a celebrity, Paul McCartney is a cultural touchstone who helped transform popular music as one half of the legendary Lennon-McCartney songwriting duo. In this definitive biography, Peter Ames Carlin examines McCartney’s entire life, casting new light not just on the Beatles era but also on his years with Wings and his thirty-year relationship with his first wife, Linda McCartney. He takes us on a journey through a tumultuous couple of decades in which Paul struck out on his own as a solo artist, reached the top of the charts with a new band, and once again drew hundreds of thousands of screaming fans to his concerts. Carlin presents McCartney as a musical visionary but also as a layered and conflicted figure as haunted by his own legacy—and particularly his relationship with John Lennon—as he was inspired by it. Built on years of research and fresh, revealing interviews with friends, bandmates, and collaborators spanning McCartney’s entire life, Carlin’s lively biography captures the many faces of the living legend.

Download or read book And in the End written by Ken McNab and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Ken McNab's in-depth look at The Beatles' acrimonious final year is a detailed account of the breakup featuring the perspectives of all four band members and their roles. A must to add to the collection of Beatles fans, And In the End is full of fascinating information available for the first time. McNab reconstructs for the first time the seismic events of 1969, when The Beatles reached new highs of creativity and new lows of the internal strife that would destroy them. Between the pressure of being filmed during rehearsals and writing sessions for the documentary Get Back, their company Apple Corps facing bankruptcy, Lennon's heroin use, and musical disagreements, the group was arguing more than ever before and their formerly close friendship began to disintegrate. In the midst of this rancour, however, emerged the disharmony of Let It Be and the ragged genius of Abbey Road, their incredible farewell love letter to the world"--

Download or read book Gridlinked written by Neal Asher and published by Start Publishing LLC. This book was released on 2018-02-27 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In outer space you can never feel sure that your adversary is altogether human. The runcible buffers on Samarkand have been mysteriously sabotaged, killing many thousands and destroying a terraforming project. Agent Cormac must reach it by ship to begin an investigation. But Cormac has incurred the wrath of a vicious psychopath called Pelter, who is prepared to follow him across the galaxy with a terrifying android in tow. Despite the sub-zero temperature of Samarkand, Cormac discovers signs of life: they are two 'dracomen', alien beasts contrived by an extra-galactic entity calling itself 'Dragon', which is a huge creature consisting of four conjoined spheres of flesh each a kilometre in diameter. Caught between the byzantine wiles of the Dragon and the lethal fury of Pelter, Cormac needs to skip very nimbly indeed to rescue the Samarkand project and protect his own life. Gridlinked is the first sci-fi thriller in Neal Asher's compelling Agent Cormac series.

Download or read book Year of the Dunk written by Asher Price and published by Crown. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By embarking on a quest to dunk a basketball at the age of 34, journalist Asher Price investigates the limits of human potential—starting with his own. We all like to think that (with a little practice) we could run faster, learn another language, or whip up a perfect soufflé. But few of us ever put those hopes to the test. In Year of the Dunk, Asher Price does, and he seizes on basketball’s slam dunk--a feat richly freighted with distinctly American themes of culture, race, and upward mobility--as a gauge to determine his own hidden potential. The showmanship of the dunk mesmerized Asher as a child, but even with his height (six foot plus) and impressive wingspan, he never pushed himself to try it. Now, approaching middle age, Asher decides to spend a year remaking his body and testing his mind as he wonders, like most adults, what untapped talent he still possesses. In this humorous and often poignant journey into the pleasures and perils of exertion, Asher introduces us to a memorable cast of characters who help him understand the complexity of the human body and the individual drama at the heart of sports. Along the way he dives into the history and science of one of sports' most exuberant acts, examining everything from our genetic predisposition towards jumping to the cultural role of the slam dunk. The year-long effort forces him to ask some fundamental questions about human ability and the degree to which we can actually improve ourselves, even with great determination.

Download or read book Music Lessons written by Norbert Putman and published by . This book was released on 2016-08-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History of iconic recording involving Norbert Putman

Download or read book The White Book written by Ken Mansfield and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2007-10-30 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through exclusive photos and personal stories, former US manager of Apple Records and Grammy Award winning producer Ken Mansfield offers a compelling memoir that delves into his life in the 1960s and '70s and his unique partnership with the Beatles and other musicians who orbited their world. As observer, friend, and colleague, Mansfield sat in their recording sessions, partied in their swimming pools, took their irate calls, and publicized their successes. Entertaining, historically accurate, and illuminating a side of the Fab Four known only to a few like Mansfield, The White Book shines fresh light on the true characters behind the cultural phenomena that revolutionized a generation. As the former Head of Apple Records International, Jack Oliver, has said of Ken, "He is one of the few insiders left that bore witness to the highs and lows of those insane days when we ruled the world." "Ken has a unique gift. He can take you in the room and have you sit with the folk he knows and make you one of the gang, part of the plan. and considering these folk include the Beatles, Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, the Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, David Cassidy and a whole host more that is some doing. I really enjoyed sitting in on his world and I respect the affection he has for our game, and what he brought to it, will get you." ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM Rolling Stones Manager and Producer "Ken Mansfield brings us a new and closely personal perspective not only on the Beatles, but on a whole cast of musical characters from Brian Wilson to Don Ho. An observant and perceptive man in the centre of the storm; a contradictory man, both ambitious and spiritual, but at the heart of the record industry during its most exciting years and enjoying every minute of it. I lived through those years with Ken and we became friends. It is a pleasure to experience so much of it all again through the accuracy of his story telling and the clarity of his memory." PETER ASHER Peter and Gordon/A&R Chief Apple Records/Producer-Manager (James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King et al) "Journalism is normally a very inexact science. Many of the countless books about the Beatles have been written by researchers-not by people who were actually there. Everyone has experienced reading a book or article where one's own inside knowledge about a particular person or event shows up inaccuracies on the part of the writer that totally distort the truth. This book is an exception-I know because I was there for some of it myself. Ken Mansfield and I unknowingly shared the experience of the famous Apple rooftop session where I was nervously adjusting mikes and cables for the sound recording of that unforgettable day. Ken was not only working for the Beatles through their heyday, he was also their trusted friend. There is no one better equipped to tell the Beatles' story-truthfully-and more importantly-factually, from the inside." ALAN PARSONS Engineer to the Beatles/Pink Floyd, Multi Platinum Producer, Alan Parsons Project "Unlike many people claiming a Beatles connection, Ken Mansfield doesn't have an agenda or try to elevate his role or importance. Ken comes across as a man who knows how lucky he was to be where he was and enjoys sharing his stories with us. Ken was there and that is why The White Book is informative, fresh and entertaining without being ego-driven." BRUCE SPIZER Author, Beatle Historian

Download or read book Piper written by Jay Asher and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-10-31 with total page 75 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 international bestselling author of Thirteen Reasons Why Jay Asher and co-author Jessica Freeburg brilliantly reimagine the classic Pied Piper legend as a powerful graphic novel about loneliness, love, and vengeance. Fans of Through the Woods by Emily Carroll will devour this eerie, atmospheric retelling. “A moving graphic novel about isolation, love, and retribution, this dark version of a familiar tale will remain with readers long after the last page is turned.”—School Library Journal Long ago, in a small village in the middle of a deep, dark forest, there lived a lonely, deaf girl named Maggie. Shunned by her village because of her disability, her only comfort comes from her vivid imagination. Maggie has a gift for inventing stories and dreams of one day finding her fairy-tale love. When Maggie meets the mysterious Piper, it seems that all her wishes are coming true. Spellbound, Maggie falls hard for him and plunges headfirst into his magical world. But as she grows closer to the Piper, Maggie discovers that he has a dark side. The boy of Maggie’s dreams might just turn out to be her worst nightmare… With striking illustrations from Eisner-nominated artist Jeff Stokely, mixed with Jessica Freeburg's work on historic and legendary horrors, Piper is an exciting new departure for Jay Asher that deftly touches on the same themes of truth, guilt, and redemption that made Thirteen Reasons Why a beloved bestseller.

Download or read book The Line of Polity written by Neal Asher and published by Start Publishing LLC. This book was released on 2013-12-18 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outlink station Miranda has been destroyed by a nanomycelium, and the very nature of this sabotage suggests that the alien bioconstruct Dragon - a creature as untrustworthy as it is gigantic - is somehow involved. Sent out on a titanic Polity dreadnought, the Occam Razor, agent Cormac must investigate the disaster. Meanwhile, on the remote planet Masada, the long-term rebellion can never rise above-ground, as the slave population is subjugated by orbital laser arrays controlled by the Theocracy in their cylinder worlds, and by the fact that they cannot safely leave their labour compounds. For the wilderness of Masada lacks breathable air ... and out there roam monstrous predators called hooders and siluroynes, not to mention the weird and terrible gabbleducks.

Download or read book Jack Four written by Neal Asher and published by Night Shade Books. This book was released on 2021-06-10 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This high-octane adventure is set in the same world as Neal Asher's acclaimed Polity universe. It's a thrilling, fast-paced standalone novel, perfect for fans of Alastair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter. Created to die–determined to live . . . Jack Four–one of twenty human clones–has been created to be sold. His purchasers are the alien prador and they only want him for their experimentation program. But there is something different about Jack. No clone should possess the knowledge that’s been loaded into his mind. And no normal citizen of humanity’s Polity worlds would have this information. The prador’s king has been mutated by the Spatterjay virus into a creature even more monstrous than the prador themselves. And his children, the King’s Guard, have undergone similar changes. They were infected by the virus during the last humans-versus-prador war, now lapsed into an uneasy truce. But the prador are always looking for new weapons – and their experimentation program might give them the edge they seek. Suzeal trades human slaves out of the Stratogaster Space Station, re-engineering them to serve the prador. She thinks the rewards are worth the risks, but all that is about to change. The Station was once a zoo, containing monsters from across known space. All the monsters now dwell on the planet below, but they aren’t as contained as they seem. And a vengeful clone may be the worst danger of all. ‘Neal Asher’s books are like an adrenaline shot targeted directly for the brain’ John Scalzi, author of the Old Man’s War series 'Magnificently awesome. Then Asher turns it up to eleven' Peter F. Hamilton, author of Salvation and others, on Asher's The Soldier