Hachette Books: 1744 books

“I don't think I'm easy to talk about. I've got a very irregular head. And I'm not anything that you think I am anyway.”—Syd Barrett’s last interview, Rolling Stone, 1971   Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett (1946–2006) was, by all accounts, the very definition of a golden boy....

This exhaustively researched, revised edition of Ian Carr's classic biography throws new light on Davis' life and career: from the early days in New York with Charlie Parker; to the Birth of Cool; through his drug addiction in the early 1950s and the years of extraordinary achievements (1954-1960),...

Jane's Addiction's 1988 breakthrough album, Nothing's Shocking, had a seismic impact. With a bracing combination of metal, punk, and psychedelia, coupled with lead singer Perry Farrell's banshee-ina- wind-tunnel vocals, Jane's Addiction helped put alternative music on the map. The band helped pave...

The first narrative biography of the Bee Gees, the phenomenally popular vocal group that has sold more than 200 million records worldwide—sales in the company of the Beatles and Michael Jackson. The Bee Gees is the epic family saga of brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb, and it's riddled with...

One of the most original, influential, and commercially successful American songwriters, Doc Pomus (1927-1991) was a role model for several generations of composers, renowned for his mastery of virtually every popular style, and for the numerous hits he wrote during rock 'n' roll's first decade. But...

Celebrating the dark origins of our most American music, Country reveals a wild shadowland of history that encompasses blackface minstrels and yodeling cowboys; honky-tonk hell and rockabilly heaven; medieval myth and musical miscegenation; sex, drugs, murder; and rays of fierce illumination on Elvis,...

Born in Cleveland in 1925, "Little" Jimmy Scott lost his mother at age thirteen, the same year he was diagnosed with Kallman's syndrome. The disease stunted his growth and earned him his nickname, but it also left him with a haunting voice, a mesmerizing voice. He soon built a following...

The Velvet Underground, among the most influential bands of all time, are credited with creating a streetwise, pre-punk sensibility that has become inseparable from the popular image of downtown New York. "Discovered" by Andy Warhol in 1966, the VU - with their original line-up of Lou Reed,...

A collection of interviews-some vintage, some recent, and some brand-new-Conversations with the Dead is the first (and only) book in which the Grateful Dead speak in their own words about their music and their lives. David Gans, a self-professed Deadhead and host of "The Grateful Dead Hour,"...

Told against the backdrop of the American landscape of the late '80s to the mid-'90s, Growing Up Dead is the story of Peter Conners's journey from straight-laced suburban kid to touring Deadhead. Peter discovered the Grateful Dead in 1985, at the age of 15, through friends who exchanged bootleg tapes...

The bestselling author of Shakey: Neil Young's Biography presents the first in-depth biography of the legendary soul singer Al Green. Al Green has blessed listeners with some of the biggest hits of the past fifty years. "Love and Happiness," "I'm Still in Love with You,"...

Considering the range of stars that have claimed Bill Monroe as an influence-Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and Jerry Garcia are just a few-it can be said that no single artist has had as broad an impact on American popular music as he did. For sixty years, Monroe was a star at the Grand Ole Opry, and...

He Is...I Say examines Neil Diamond's singular place in the pantheon of popular music. David Wild-who has written about Diamond for Rolling Stone, penned the liner notes to a number of Diamond's anthologies, and produced Diamond's scandal-free episode of Behind the Music. Now he dares to turn on his...

A smart, scathing look at the most hell-bent performers of our time: Here are profiles of everyone you'd expect (and a few you wouldn't)-Brian Wilson, Miles Davis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Sid Vicious, and Kurt Cobain. "Kent matters because he wrote about rock better than anyone before or since." -Tony Parsons, The Daily Telegraph