Lonely Avenue

Author: Alex Halberstadt
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0786732296
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Book Description
One of the most original, influential, and commercially successful American songwriters, Jerome Felder, aka Doc Pomus (1925-1991), gave the world a dazzling legacy of musical hits during rock 'n' roll's first decade. A role model for generations of writers and performers, Doc was renowned for his mastery of virtually every popular style, from the gutbucket rhythm and blues of "Lonely Avenue" to the symphonic soul of "Save the Last Dance for Me" to the pure pop of "Viva Las Vegas." His songs-"This Magic Moment," "A Teenager in Love," "Hushabye," "Little Sister," "Turn Me Loose," and many others-have been recorded by everyone from Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, and B. B. King to Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, and Bruce Springsteen, with sales exceeding 100 million. Doc was ready-made for literature. His collaborator Mort Shuman once described him as an "entire rollicking soul neighborhood rolled into one man." Garrulous, profane, hilarious, and Rabelaisian, Doc was never inhibited about offering his opinions and his friendship. His confidants, collaborators, and discoveries included Duke Ellington, John Lennon, Dr. John, Jimmy Scott, Bette Midler, and Lou Reed. In the words of renowned producer Jerry Wexler, "If the music industry had a heart, it would be Doc Pomus." Despite, or more likely because of, his successes, few acquaintances knew that this writer of jukebox hits led one of the most dramatic and unlikely lives of his time. Spanning extravagant wealth and desperate poverty, suburban domesticity and the depths of New York's underworld, worldwide fame and near-total obscurity, enduring love and persistent loneliness, Doc's story remains one of the great untold American lives. Its chapters comprise a back-room history of rock 'n' roll, touching on more than a half-century of American popular music-from the blues Doc performed with Lester Young to his collaborations with the luminaries of New York's punk scene, shot through with vivid portraits of virtually every major player. Lonely Avenueis the first biography of this American original, so elegantly rendered that it reads like a novel, and fortified by full, exclusive access to Doc Pomus's family, friends, voluminous journals, and archives.

Ray Charles

Author:
Publisher: PediaPress
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description

Everything Now

Author: Rosecrans Baldwin
Publisher: MCD
ISBN: 0374721076
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER. NAMED A BEST CALIFORNIA BOOKS OF 2021 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES A provocative, exhilaratingly new understanding of the United States’ most confounding metropolis—not just a great city, but a full-blown modern city-state America is obsessed with Los Angeles. And America has been thinking about Los Angeles all wrong, for decades, on repeat. Los Angeles is not just the place where the American dream hits the Pacific. (It has its own dreams.) Not just the vanishing point of America’s western drive. (It has its own compass.) Functionally, aesthetically, mythologically, even technologically, an independent territory, defined less by distinct borders than by an aura of autonomy and a sense of unfurling destiny—this is the city-state of Los Angeles. Deeply reported and researched, provocatively argued, and eloquently written, Rosecrans Baldwin's Everything Now approaches the metropolis from unexpected angles, nimbly interleaving his own voice with a chorus of others, from canonical L.A. literature to everyday citizens. Here, Octavia E. Butler and Joan Didion are in conversation with activists and astronauts, vampires and veterans. Baldwin records the stories of countless Angelenos, discovering people both upended and reborn: by disasters natural and economic, following gospels of wealth or self-help or personal destiny. The result is a story of a kaleidoscopic, vibrant nation unto itself—vastly more than its many, many parts. Baldwin’s concept of the city-state allows us, finally, to grasp a place—Los Angeles—whose idiosyncrasies both magnify those of America, and are so fully its own. Here, space and time don’t quite work the same as they do elsewhere, and contradictions are as stark as southern California’s natural environment. Perhaps no better place exists to watch the United States’s past, and its possible futures, play themselves out. Welcome to Los Angeles, the Great American City-State.

Love Street

Author: Susan Perly
Publisher: The Porcupine's Quill
ISBN: 9780889842243
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Book Description
You have never read a book like Susan Perly's first novel Love Street. Open it anywhere, and out comes the voice of Miss Mercy, late-night radio DJ in New Orleans with her jive talk and old vinyl platters. Sam Cooke, Percy Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Van Morrison, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, war, art, peacetime -- Miss Mercy talks to the lonely. She swings, she bebops, growls, prays, plays blues, soul, jazz, R&B. Miss Mercy is the modern woman of all ages. She is lo-fi, urban, mysterious. She is wacky, she cascades sheets of sound. Remember when you used to listen to a radio under your pillow? Love Street is a radio novel from that world. Miss Mercy -- the sultry vinyl pirate, the Mistress of the Mike -- aims to seduce you. To remind you of the fun of words, to woo you back to the love of reading.

The Lonely Phone Booth

Author: Peter Ackerman
Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher
ISBN: 1567925057
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Book Description
Remember the days when phone booths stood on every street corner? If you had to make a call, you'd step inside the little booth, lift the phone off the hook, put a coin in the slot, listen for the click, push the buttons, and hear it ring? And for only 25 cents, in the quiet of the booth, you could call your grandmother, or let the office know you were running late, or get directions for a birthday party. . . This is the story of one of the last remaining phone booths in New York City, the Phone Booth on the corner of West End Avenue and 100th. Everyone used it — from ballerinas and girl scouts, zookeepers and birthday clowns, to cellists and even secret agents! The Phone Booth was so beloved that people would sometimes wait in line to use it. Kept clean and polished, the Phone Booth was proud and happy . . . until, the day a businessman strode by and shouted into a shiny silver object, "I'll be there in ten minutes!" Soon everyone was talking into these shiny silver things, and the Phone Booth stood alone and empty, unused and dejected. How the Phone Booth saved the day and united the neighborhood to rally around its revival is the heart of this soulful story. In a world in which objects we love and recognize as part of the integral fabric of our lives are disappearing at a rapid rate, here is a story about the value of the analog, the power of the people's voice, and the care and respect due to those things that have served us well over time. With his delightful, witty, and boldly colored illustrations that evoke Miroslav Sasek's mid-century modern aesthetic, Max Dalton simply and elegantly captures the energy and diversity of New York City and its inhabitants. A beauty to behold and a pleasure to read, The Lonely Phone Booth is sure to be a favorite among children and parents alike, and the real Phone Booth, which is still standing at West End Avenue and 100th Street, is worth a field trip!

The Song Index of the Enoch Pratt Free Library

Author: Ellen Luchinsky
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135659265
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 1384

Book Description
The Song Index features over 150,000 citations that lead users to over 2,100 song books spanning more than a century, from the 1880s to the 1990s. The songs cited represent a multitude of musical practices, cultures, and traditions, ranging from ehtnic to regional, from foreign to American, representing every type of song: popular, folk, children's, political, comic, advertising, protest, patriotic, military, and classical, as well as hymns, spirituals, ballads, arias, choral symphonies, and other larger works. This comprehensive volume also includes a bibliography of the books indexed; an index of sources from which the songs originated; and an alphabetical composer index.

Hurricane of Thoughts

Author: catrina
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1450265391
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 109

Book Description
Catrina was born and raised in a small country town located in southern Ohio. She now resides in Columbus, OH working as an office manager for a graphic installation company. She started writing poetry about a year and a half ago with hopes to publish one day. This is the second of five volumes to be printed for publication. This book contains a wide variety of subjects ranging from life, love, suicide, heartbreak, nature, hurt and pain.

Lonely Road

Author: Lonely Road Nevil Shute
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 184

Book Description
Malcolm Stevenson, a wealthy ex-naval officer haunted by his memories of the war, finds his lonely life turned upside down one night when he runs into trouble on a road near the coast. What at first appears to be an accident leads him to discover an international conspiracy against his country--and to fall in love with a dance hostess who seems to have something to do with it. Malcolm's determination to expose the plot will put his life--and that of the only person who has brought him any happiness--in grave danger.

Rolling Stones Gear

Author: Andy Babiuk
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493083171
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 673

Book Description
Rolling Stones Gear is the first book to historically document all of the Rolling Stones' musical equipment. It's also the story of the Rolling Stones, but with a new twist: their history as told through the instruments they used. This book covers not only the group's personal background, but also every tour and studio session from their inception in 1962 to date, with detailed documentation illustrating what instruments and equipment were used during these periods. Every song recorded by the band, including demos and out-takes are also documented, with input from within the Stones' ranks as well as from people who were involved with the band. This lavishly illustrated book contains hundreds of photographs and rare images, many of which have never been published, including the Rolling Stones' actual guitars and equipment, which were specially photographed for this book and are seen here for the first time. Whether you are a musician, a Stones fan or just the casual reader, you will learn many new facts about the band from their monumental fifty-year existence. Win the brands of the Rolling Stones!Check out this fabulous Guitar Player Magazine contest!

Rock Song Index

Author: Bruce Pollock
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135462968
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 698

Book Description
The Rock Song Index, Second Edition, is a new version of a well-received index to the classic songs of the rock canon, from the late '40s through the end of the 20th century. The study of the history of rock music has exploded over the last decade; all college music departments offer a basic rock-history course, covering the classic artists and their songs.