Download or read book I ve Always Kept a Unicorn written by Mick Houghton and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2015-03-03 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I've Always Kept a Unicorn tells the story of Sandy Denny, one of the greatest British singers of her time and the first female singer-songwriter to produce a substantial and enduring body of original songs. Sandy Denny laid down the marker for folk-rock when she joined Fairport Convention in 1968, but her music went far beyond this during the seventies. After leaving Fairport she formed Fotheringay, whose influential eponymous album was released in 1970, before collaborating on a historic one-off recording with Led Zeppelin - the only other vocalist to record with Zeppelin in their entire career - and releasing four solo albums across the course of the decade. Her tragic and untimely death came in 1978. Sandy emerged from the folk scene of the sixties - a world of larger-than-life characters such as Alex Campbell, Jackson C. Frank, Anne Briggs and Australian singer Trevor Lucas, whom she married in 1973. Their story is at the core of Sandy's later life and work, and is told with the assistance of more than sixty of her friends, fellow musicians and contemporaries, one of whom, to paraphrase McCartney on Lennon, observed that she sang like an angel but was no angel.
Download or read book No More Sad Refrains The Life and Times of Sandy Denny written by Clinton Heylin and published by Omnibus Press. This book was released on 2011-09-23 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Clinton Heylin's biography No More Sad Refrains, draws on hours of interviews with Sandy's closest friends and musical collaborators, access to her diaries and unreleased work, to produce a moving portrait of a complex, driven, but fatally flawed genius, who remains the finest female singer-songwriter this country has ever produced.About The Artist Sandy Denny provided the original vocals, alongside Robert Plant, for the classic Led Zeppelin song The Battle Of Evermore. Island Records released a limited edition nineteen CD retrospective of Denny's work in 2010."She was a perfect British folk voice" - Pete Townshend."My favourite singer out of all the British girls that ever were" - Robert Plant About The Author Clinton Heylin is one of the most respected rock historians writing today. He is the author of acclaimed biographies of Bob Dylan, Sandy Denny and Van Morrison. He was nominated for the Ralph J. Gleason award for his Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions.
Download or read book Sandy Denny written by Philip Ward and published by Troubador Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For all the accolades, Sandy Denny (1947-1978) remains curiously elusive. Yet, with growing media interest and the reissue of her entire back catalogue on CD, the signs are that Denny's talent is burning brighter than ever. She emerged in the mid-Sixties while still a teenager, performing on the folk revival scene where she displayed her mastery of traditional singing before moving onto her own compositions and contemporary material. She was a leader of the folk-rock movement, a sound she was instrumental in creating. Whether in her solo recordings or as a member of bands such as the Strawbs, Fotheringay or - most famously - Fairport Convention, her voice speaks to us still in all its resonant purity. In this book Philip Ward, who has made a close study of the artist, presents a series of personal 'reflections' on her life and work. He fills in details overlooked by her biographers, surveys recent reissues of her recordings and offers the first in-depth analysis of her songwriting. He looks back to the public events marking the thirtieth anniversary of her death and assesses her alongside some of her contemporaries. In the author's words, the book is 'a series of experiments' in how to write about the subject. It concludes with a detailed essay arguing the case that, long before Amy Winehouse or Kate Bush, Denny was the first British female 'singer-songwriter' of international stature. The book is illustrated throughout, including previously unseen photos.
Download or read book Sandy Denny written by Philip Ward and published by Troubador Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twice voted Top British Female Singer by readers of Melody Maker, name-checked in a Kate Bush song, photographed by David Bailey, she is the only guest vocalist ever to appear on a Led Zeppelin album, and was described by Zeppelin’s Robert Plant as ‘my favourite singer out of all the British girls that ever were’.
Download or read book Beeswing written by Richard Thompson and published by . This book was released on 2022-03-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beeswing is the autobiography from world-renowned artist Richard Thompson, co-founder of the legendary folk rock group Fairport Convention.
Download or read book Beeswing written by Richard Thompson and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Rolling Stone Best Music Book of 2021 “Thompson is a master showman . . . [Beeswing is] everything you’d hope a Richard Thompson autobiography would be . . . It’s both major and minor, dirge and ditty, light on its feet but packing a punch.” —The Wall Street Journal Now Featuring an Interview with Elvis Costello In this moving, immersive, and long-awaited memoir, beloved international music legend Richard Thompson recreates the spirit of his early years, where he found, and then lost, and then found his way again. Considered one of the top twenty guitarists of all time, Thompson also belongs in the songwriting pantheon alongside Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Randy Newman. Here the British folk musician takes us back to the late 1960s, a period of great change and creativity for both him and the world at large. During the pivotal years of 1967 to 1975, just as he was discovering his passion for music, he formed the band Fairport Convention with some schoolmates and helped establish the genre of British folk rock. It was a thrilling period of massive tours, where Thompson was on the road in both the UK and the US, crossing paths with the likes of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix, as well as a time of heady and explosive creativity for Thompson, who wrote some of his most famous songs during this time. But as Thompson reveals, those eight years were also marked by upheaval and tragedy. Honest, moving, and compelling, Beeswing vividly captures the life of a remarkable man and musician during a period of artistic intensity, in a world on the cusp of change. “An absorbing, witty, often deliciously biting read, as all rock memoirs should be.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
Download or read book All in the Downs written by Shirley Collins and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-06-26 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A memoir from one of Britain's legendary singers, folklorists, and music historians. A legendary singer, folklorist, and music historian, Shirley Collins has been an integral part of the folk-music revival for more than sixty years. In her new memoir, All in the Downs, Collins tells the story of that lifelong relationship with English folksong—a dedication to artistic integrity that has guided her through the triumphs and tragedies of her life. All in the Downs combines elements of memoir—from her working-class origins in wartime Hastings to the bright lights of the 1950s folk revival in London—alongside reflections on the role traditional music and the English landscape have played in shaping her vision. From formative field recordings made with Alan Lomax in the United States to the “crowning glories” recorded with her sister Dolly on the Sussex Downs, she writes of the obstacles that led to her withdrawal from the spotlight and the redemption of a new artistic flourishing that continues today with her unexpected return to recording in 2016. Through it all, Shirley Collins has been guided and supported by three vital and inseparable loves: traditional English song, the people and landscape of her native Sussex, and an unwavering sense of artistic integrity. All in the Downs pays tribute to these passions, and in doing so, illustrates a way of life as old as England, that has all but vanished from this land. Generously illustrated with rare archival material.
Download or read book Wylding Hall written by Elizabeth Hand and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Shirley Jackson Award–winning novel is “a true surreal phantasmagoria . . . [a] gothic supernatural” horror story set in the decadent world of British rock (Chelsea Quinn Yarbro). When the young members of a British acid-folk band are compelled by their manager to record their unique music, they hole up at Wylding Hall, an ancient country house with dark secrets. There they create the album that will make their reputation, but at a terrifying cost: Julian Blake, the group’s lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen or heard from again. Now, years later, the surviving musicians, along with their friends and lovers—including a psychic, a photographer, and the band’s manager—meet with a young documentary filmmaker to tell their own versions of what happened that summer. But whose story is true? And what really happened to Julian Blake?
Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars written by Jeremy Simmonds and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This encyclopedia reveals the truth behind thousands of fascinating stories about the industry's biggest departed stars, including strange facts, lucky escapes, and top-ten death discs.
Download or read book King of Morning Queen of Day written by Ian McDonald and published by Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.. This book was released on 2019-04-05 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Philip K Dick Award “Filled with wondrous language, marvelous events.” —Science Fiction Chronicle In Ireland, three generations of young women fight to control the powers coursing through their blood: the power to bring the mystical Otherworld into our world, and change it. Emily, Jessica and Enye must each face their dark side of human mythoconsciousness–and their own personal histories. But the forces of faerie are ever treacherous... Filled with vivid, passionate characters you will never forget, King of Morning, Queen of Day is a spellbinding fantasy of the real Ireland. “McDonald’s power as a storyteller lies in his stylistic versatility and intensity of language as well as in his capacity to create vivid and memorable characters. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal “A brilliant book.” —Charles de Lint
Download or read book The Late Voice written by Richard Elliott and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-10-22 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular music artists, as performers in the public eye, offer a privileged site for the witnessing and analysis of ageing and its mediation. The Late Voice will undertake such an analysis by considering issues of time, memory, innocence and experience in modern Anglophone popular song and the use by singers and songwriters of a 'late voice'. Lateness here refers to five primary issues: chronology (the stage in an artist's career); the vocal act (the ability to convincingly portray experience); afterlife (posthumous careers made possible by recorded sound); retrospection (how voices 'look back' or anticipate looking back); and the writing of age, experience, lateness and loss into song texts. There has been recent growth in research on ageing and the experience of later stages of life, focussing on physical health, lifestyle and psychology, with work in the latter field intersecting with the field of memory studies. The Late Voice seeks to connect age, experience and lateness with particular performers and performance traditions via the identification and analysis of a late voice in singers and songwriters of mid-late twentieth century popular music.
Download or read book White Bicycles written by Joe Boyd and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2010-07-09 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Muddy Waters came to London at the start of the '60s, a kid from Boston called Joe Boyd was his tour manager; when Dylan went electric at the Newport Festival, Joe Boyd was plugging in his guitar; when the summer of love got going, Joe Boyd was running the coolest club in London, the UFO; when a bunch of club regulars called Pink Floyd recorded their first single, Joe Boyd was the producer; when a young songwriter named Nick Drake wanted to give his demo tape to someone, he chose Joe Boyd. More than any previous '60s music autobiography, Joe Boyd's White Bicycles offers the real story of what it was like to be there at the time. His greatest coup is bringing to life the famously elusive figure of Nick Drake - the first time he's been written about by anyone who knew him well. As well as the '60s heavy-hitters, this book also offers wonderfully vivid portraits of a whole host of other musicians: everyone from the great jazzman Coleman Hawkins to the folk diva Sandy Denny, Lonnie Johnson to Eric Clapton, The Incredible String Band to Fairport Convention.
Download or read book Meet on the Ledge written by Patrick Humphries and published by Virgin Books Limited. This book was released on 1997 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1982, this book has been revised and updated. It charts the rise of Fairport Convention from its early days, to world-wide recognition and success.
Download or read book Electric Eden written by Rob Young and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2010-08-19 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rob Young's Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music is a seminal book on British music and cultural heritage, that spans the visionary classical and folk tradition from the nineteenth-century to the present day. 'A thoroughly enjoyable read and likely to remain the best-written overview for a long time.' GUARDIAN 'A perfectly timed, perfectly pitched alternative history of English folk music . . . wide-ranging, insightful, authoritative, thoroughly entertaining.' NEW STATESMAN 'A stunning achievement.' SIMON REYNOLDS 'A masterpiece.' CAUGHT BY THE RIVER 'Excellent . . . blissfully quotable.' NEW YORK TIMES 'An authoritative account.' THE TIMES 'Consistently absorbing.' INDEPENDENT 'An impassioned and infectious rallying cry of a book.' SUNDAY TIMES In this groundbreaking survey of more than a century of music making in the British Isles, Rob Young investigates how the idea of folk has been handed down and transformed by successive generations - song collectors, composers, Marxist revivalists, folk-rockers, psychedelic voyagers, free festival-goers, experimental pop stars and electronic innovators. In a sweeping panorama of Albion's soundscape that takes in the pioneer spirit of Cecil Sharp; the pastoral classicism of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Peter Warlock; the industrial folk revival of Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd; the folk-rock of Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, Shirley Collins, John Martyn and Pentangle; the bucolic psychedelia of The Incredible String Band, The Beatles and Pink Floyd; the acid folk of Comus, Forest, Mr Fox and Trees; The Wicker Man and occult folklore; the early Glastonbury and Stonehenge festivals; and the visionary pop of Kate Bush, Julian Cope and Talk Talk, Electric Eden maps out a native British musical voice that reflects the complex relationships between town and country, progress and nostalgia, radicalism and conservatism. An attempt to isolate the 'Britishness' of British music - a wild combination of pagan echoes, spiritual quest, imaginative time-travel, pastoral innocence and electrified creativity - Electric Eden will be treasured by anyone interested in the tangled story of Britain's folk music and Arcadian dreams. 'A treat.' TIME OUT 'Young is a fine writer.' MOJO 'Young's immense narrative is both educative and gripping.' UNCUT 'A multitudinous, fascinating and beautifully written account.' TLS
Download or read book The Blue Moment written by Richard Williams and published by Faber & Faber Classical Music & Dance. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History.
Download or read book Singing from the Floor written by JP Bean and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In smoky rooms above pubs, bare rooms with battered stools and beer-stained tables, where the stage was little more than a scrap of carpet and sound systems were unheard of, an acoustic revolution took place in Britain in the 1950s and '60s. This was the folk revival, where a generation of musicians, among much drink and raucous cheer, would rediscover the native songs of their own tradition, as well as the folk and blues coming from across the Atlantic by artists such as Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie and Big Bill Broonzy. Singing from the Floor is the story of this remarkable movement, faithfully captured in the voices of those who formed it by JP Bean. We hear from luminaries such as Shirley Collins, Martin Carthy, Peggy Seeger and Ralph McTell, alongside figures such as Billy Connolly, Jasper Carrott and Mike Harding, who all started their careers on the folk circuit. The book charts the revival's improvised beginnings and its ties to the CND movement, through the heyday of the '60s and '70s, when every university, town and many villages across the country boasted a folk club, to the fallow years of the '80s and '90s. The book finishes on a high note, with the recent resurgence of interest in folk, through such artists as the Lakemans, Sam Lee and Eliza Carthy. It is a joyous, boisterous and hugely entertaining book, and an essential document of our recent history stretching into the past.
Download or read book I Told You I Wasn t Perfect written by Denny McLain and published by . This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few characters soar to such dizzying heights and then plunge to the depths of despair like McLain did. But it is his ability to finally reflect on his mistakes and self centeredness that makes a compelling story. From the World Series to prison, join one of the most interesting athletes of the 20th Century. Watch a brash young pitcher become a whole person.
