"Metallica: The $24.95 Book" features an in-depth look at Metallica's cultural significance with chapters devoted to each member, each album, touring, fashion, books, film, influences, fandom, and more, exploring the band's ideologies along the way. With over 125 million records sold worldwide, Metallica is the biggest metal band of all time. Four decades into their unparalleled career, Metallica is a massive cultural force who drastically changed the sound of popular music by creating their own...
Sep 18, 2021•56 min
From their earliest gig in a Denmark school gymnasium on September 7, 1968, through to the last gig that Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones ever performed with John Bonham, in Berlin on July 7, 1980, this is the Led Zeppelin story told from where their legend was forged—live on stage. Deploying impeccable research spread over many years, Dave Lewis and Mike Tremaglio bring clarity, authority, and perspective to the band's unique story. "Evenings with Led Zeppelin The Complete Concert ...
Sep 12, 2021•1 hr 51 min
Was John Lennon meeting Paul McCartney more significant than John Lennon meeting Yoko Ono? 'Rubber Soul' or 'Revolver'? Which Wings album was Paul McCartney’s solo pinnacle? In 100 brief chapters, John M. Borack discusses and ranks the greatest moments in Beatles history. An avid Fab Four fan since childhood and a music journalist for more than thirty-five years, Borack has created a book to agree with and disagree with, and one that is sure to spark conversations. A love letter to the greatest ...
Sep 11, 2021•1 hr 6 min
Throughout the 1990s, Dave Thompson was the Seattle-based contributing editor to Alternative Press magazine—America's biggest-selling and most influential alternative rock monthly—and a regular contributor to other publications both nationally and internationally. Throughout this decade, grunge music ruled the world and Seattle was its birthplace and focal point. Thompson was an eyewitness to it all. His writings and interviews chronicled the entire history of grunge—from its roots in the earlie...
Sep 06, 2021•1 hr 19 min
If Genesis, according to British comedian and fan, Al Murray "were the progressive rock band who progressed", then Peter Gabriel, once solo, would be the one who progressed the most. Who would have thought listening to early Genesis would eventually take the listener to Senegal, Armenia, South Africa and beyond via the artistic endeavors of their former vocalist? This is a journey through Peter Gabriel's solo albums, his live recordings and soundtrack compositions. During his forty-year plus sol...
Sep 04, 2021•45 min
It all started in London. More than fifty years ago, a generation of teens created something that would change the face of music forever. London, Reign Over Me immerses us in the backroom clubs, basement record shops, and late-night faint radio signals of 1960s Britain, where young hopefuls like Peter Frampton, Dave Davies, and Mick Jagger built off American blues and jazz to form a whole new sound. Author Stephen Tow weaves together original interviews with over ninety musicians and movers-and-...
Aug 26, 2021•1 hr 3 min
There is a common misconception about KISS, one of the greatest hard-rock/heavy metal-bands of all-time: that their ‘non-makeup’ era of 1983-1996 is not as enduring as the period when they stalked stages as the Starchild, the Demon, the Spaceman, and the Cat. This is untrue. In fact, this period helped resuscitate KISS’s career, as they reestablished themselves in arenas, on the charts, and via MTV, and yielded some of their most popular songs – including "Lick It Up", "Heaven’s On Fire", "Tears...
Aug 19, 2021•52 min
At the Hollywood Bowl, California on September 25th 2017 the final song of the final concert of the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 40th Anniversary tour was, almost inevitably, "American Girl", the classic from the bands 1976 debut album. Seven days later Thomas Earl Petty was dead. When Petty died, we lost one of the great singer-songwriters of our era. His songs touch people of all ages and possess a timeless quality which will ensure they will live on for years to come. Petty’s music speak...
Aug 12, 2021•1 hr 40 min
Prince Rogers Nelson was a musical phenomenon who constantly reinvented himself throughout his long and colorful career, changing his style and even his name to keep his artistic output fresh and funky. Eccentric and flamboyant with an impressive vocal range, Prince influenced many other musicians with his trademark mix of funk, rock and R&B. In addition to his remarkable musical output, Prince helped other performers on their path to stardom, written songs for a variety of artists and even ...
Aug 06, 2021•1 hr 21 min
The Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet from 1968 is one of the seminal albums in rock history. Arguably it not only marks the advent of the ‘mature’ sound of the Rolling Stones but lays out a new blueprint for an approach to blues-based rock music that would endure for several decades. From its title to the dark themes that pervade some of its songs, "Beggars Banquet" reflected and helped define a moment marked by violence, decay, and upheaval. It marked a move away from the artistic sonic flourish...
Jul 31, 2021•1 hr 42 min
"Two Steps Forward, One Step Back" tells the extraordinary story of a maverick manager, promoter, label owner, and all-round legend of the music industry. It opens in the Middle East, where Miles grew up with his father, a CIA agent who was stationed in Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon. It then shifts to London in the late 60s and the beginnings of a career managing bands like Wishbone Ash and Curved Air—only for Miles’s life and work to be turned upside down by a disastrous European tour. From the ash...
Jul 24, 2021•1 hr 34 min
The 1970s was the decade that saw the arrival of Alice Cooper as a major force across the media. In "Alice Cooper in the 1970s" Chris Sutton explores the story of Alice Cooper the band and Alice the solo performer from their early years through to the end of the decade. A roller-coaster ride of classic albums and singles, the songs recorded in the 1970s still dominate his live sets to this day. The book features all new interview material from key figures including Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway ...
Jul 17, 2021•1 hr 34 min
George Harrison and Eric Clapton embarked upon a singular personal and creative friendship that impacted rock's unfolding future in resounding and far-reaching ways. "All Things Must Pass Away: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Other Assorted Love Songs" will trace the emergence of their relationship from 1968 though the early 1970s. In particular, authors Womack and Kruppa devote close attention to the climax of Harrison and Clapton's shared musicianship—the November 1970 releases of 'All Thin...
Jul 08, 2021•1 hr 10 min
In this behind-the-scenes look at the making of Fleetwood Mac’s epic, platinum-selling double album, 'Tusk', producers and engineers Ken Caillat and Hernan Rojas tell their stories of spending a year with the band in their new million-dollar studio trying to follow up 'Rumours', the biggest rock album of the time. Following their massive success, the band continued its infamous soap opera when its musical leader and guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham, threatened to quit if he didn’t get things his wa...
Jul 01, 2021•1 hr 31 min
"Leonard, Marianne, and Me" chronicles forty years of Judy Scott's frequent summers on the Greek island of Hydra with a diverse artistic community and her friendship with singer-songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen and his legendary muse Marianne Ihlen. This memoir, based on Scott’s notebooks and journals, includes incidents in their lives and their relationship to one another—at a point when it was changing forever—that have never been discussed before. As Cohen himself observed of this book when ...
Jun 23, 2021•1 hr 1 min
"Chairman at the Board" is an intimate, funny, and absorbing look at the music business by an insider who has recorded a host of the greatest musical artists from the 1970s to today. Bill Schnee takes the reader inside the studio—behind the curtain—and through the decades with a cavalcade of famous artists as he helped them to realize their vision. After his high school band was dropped by Decca Records, Schnee began his quest to learn everything he could about making records. Mentored by techni...
Jun 19, 2021•1 hr 22 min
"Hold On World" revisits John Lennon and Yoko Ono's love affair and startling collaborations. 'John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band' was arguably the most emotionally honest album ever made. It wasn't merely another record but more like a sonic exorcism, a spiritual, public bloodletting. Lennon's album drove a stake through the heart of the Beatles' myth while confronting everything else in John's life, from Dylan to God to his glorified status as a "Working Class Hero." Determined to rid himself of p...
Jun 17, 2021•1 hr 29 min
In "Babysitting A Band On The Rocks", G.D. Praetorius tells the story of a chaotic youth producing concerts during the late 1970s and early 1980s, the summit of rock god excess. He offers humorous and insightful reflections on the excitement and insanity of the era from the eyes and ears of a fan who hit the jackpot, leaping from the back row to backstage, promoting, pacifying and occasionally partying with some of the world's biggest names. Praetorius' adolescent infatuation with music and musi...
Jun 11, 2021•54 min
The year 1979 was an amazing time for UK post-punk pop. At the end of March, a fresh new sound entered the British top 20. "Sultans of Swing", a very wordy song with lots of driving guitar, a tight rhythm section and some killer musicianship. Dire Straits, unlikely pop stars led by a balding 29-year-old Geordie who could play guitar brilliantly, had finally arrived. Six years later, they were, for a time, the biggest band in the world. 'Brothers in Arms' sold by the truckload, one of the first m...
Jun 05, 2021•1 hr 22 min
The conclusion to the definitive biography of the rock ’n’ roll kings of the North. "Rush In The 90s" includes two full-colour photo inserts, with unearthed photos of the band. In this conclusion to his trilogy of authoritative books on Canada’s most beloved and successful rock band, Martin Popoff takes us through three decades of “life at the top” for Rush’s Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart. Though this era begins with the brisk-selling 'Roll the Bones' and sees throngs of fans sell out ...
Jun 01, 2021•1 hr 3 min
This week the late great Levon Helm of The Band would have turned 81. He was born May 26th, 1940 in Elaine Arkansas. He sadly passed away in April of 2012. This is an interview I did for my last podcast DISCovery. It’s with author Sandra B. Tooze, who released a book last summer on Levon. The book is called "Levon: From Down in the Delta to the Birth of The Band and Beyond". He sang the anthems of a generation: "The Weight," "Up on Cripple Creek," and "Life Is a Carnival." Levon Helm's story––to...
May 29, 2021•30 min
Throughout the remarkable twenty-two-year career of the Ramones the seminal punk rock band, Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famers, Recording Academy Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners and inductees into The Library of Congress' National Recording Registry, Monte A. Melnick saw it all. He was the band's tour manager from their 1974 CBGB debut to their final show in 1996. In his book "On The Road With The Ramones" Monte, along with co-author Frank Meyer, tell that story. Full of insider perspectives...
May 22, 2021•55 min
Few rock drummers remain as universally praised as Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham. Listen to any Zeppelin album, and you will hear a virtual showcase on expert rock drumming – while never getting in the way of the group’s other members and their contributions, singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, and bassist John Paul Jones. But sadly, one of rock’s all-time greats died tragically young – he was only 32 years old – resulting in the end of one of rock’s most celebrated bands. To mark 40 years s...
May 15, 2021•1 hr 12 min
For the debut episode of Booked On Rock we talk with Frank Meyer, author of two great books on the Ramones! ON THE ROAD WITH THE RAMONES: Throughout the remarkable twenty-two-year career of the Ramones the seminal punk rock band Monte A. Melnick saw it all. He was with the band for over 2,200 shows, from their very early CBGB dates to their final show in 1996 working his way up to be the bands tour manager. Monte tells his story of what it is like to be on and off the road with the band. Full of...
May 13, 2021•1 hr 18 min
Hello rock fans! I've got a brand new podcast called Booked On Rock. If you enjoyed listening to my podcast DISCovery, I think you’re gonna enjoy this one too. Join me for deep dive discussions of the greatest artists, albums and songs in rock history with the authors who've written all about them. There are so many great books that have been written about rock music and so many that continue to come out every week. This will be the place for both those who’ve written books about rock and those ...
May 08, 2021•31 sec
