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Music Books in this online selection represent only a sliver of what we offer in the store. If you've got a particular book in mind and want to check on its availability, call us at 415-362-8193.

<<< 1 2 3 4 >>>     sort list by title | author The Dozens A History of Rap's Mama Elijah Wald In tracing the form and its variations over more than a century of African American culture and music, The Dozens sheds fascinating light on schoolyard games and rural work songs, serious literature and nightclub comedy, and pop hits from ragtime to rap No Regrets The Life of Edith Piaf Carolyn Burke The iconic French singer comes to life in this enthralling, definitive biography, which captures Edith Piaf's immense charisma along with the time and place that gave rise to her unprecedented international career. Raised by turns in a brothel... The Grey Album On the Blackness of Blackness Kevin Young Taking its title from Danger Mouse's pioneering mashup of Jay-Z's The Black Album and the Beatles' The White Album, Kevin Young’s encyclopedic book combines essay, cultural criticism, and lyrical chorus to illustrate the African American tradition of... Keystone Korner Portrait of a Jazz Club Kathy Sloane During the 1970s, when jazz clubs all over America were folding under the onslaught of rock and roll and disco, San Francisco's Keystone Korner was an oasis for jazz musicians and patrons. Tucked next to a police... The Anthology of Rap Adam Bradley, Andrew DuBois From the school yards of the South Bronx to the tops of the Billboard charts, rap has emerged as one of the most influential cultural forces of our time. In "The Anthology of Rap", editors Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois demonstrate that rap is also a... Out of the Vinyl Deeps Ellen Willis on Rock Music Ellen Willis, Nona Willis Aronowitz Ellen Willis captures the excitement, danger and kicks inherent in the 60s and 70s NY music scene, creating a passageway back to a long gone era with insights that are disarming, politically charged, and hilarious, while at the same time transmitting... The Cello Suites J. S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece Eric Siblin Thelonious Monk The Life and Times of an American Original Robin D.G. Kelley Thelonious Monk is the critically acclaimed, gripping saga of an artist's struggle to "make it" without compromising his musical vision. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the twentieth... Just Kids Patti Smith Winner of the National Book Award. Just Kids illuminates the impressive lover of literature that Patti Smith is. Her memoir will be of particular interest to City Lights enthusiasts as she is our quintessential reader, a fan of the Surrealists... Quadrivium The Four Classical Liberal Arts of Number, Geometry, Music, & Cosmology Anthony Ashton, Miranda Lundy, John Martineau,Dr. Jason Martineau, Daud Sutton The quadrivium—the classical curriculum—comprises the four liberal arts of number, geometry, music, and cosmology. It was studied from antiquity to the Renaissance as a way of glimpsing the nature of reality. Geometry is number in space; music is... Head Hunters The Making of Jazz's First Platinum Album Steven F. Pond ". . . [a] very readable dissection of all the different ways in which Herbie Hancock's 1973 album Head Hunters broke the mould. . . . An entertaining and thought-provoking read." ---Jazzwise Magazine "An important and timely book. Pond's work... The Vulture Gil Scott-Heron Digging the rhythms of the street, where the biggest deal life has to offer is getting high, this hip, fast-moving thriller relates the strange story of the murder of a teenage boy called John Lee... Perfecting Sound Forever An Aural History of Recorded Music Greg Milner In 1915, Thomas Edison proclaimed that he could record a live performance and reproduce it perfectly, shocking audiences who found themselves unable to tell whether what they were hearing was an Edison Diamond Disc or a flesh-and-blood musician... Lipstick Traces A Secret History of the Twentieth Century, Twentieth Anniversary Edition Greil Marcus Greil Marcus, author of Mystery Train, widely acclaimed as the best book ever written about America as seen through its music, began work on this new book out of a fascination with the Sex Pistols: that scandalous antimusical group, invented in... <<< 1 2 3 4 >>>