Music
drummer for every one of their more than
2,300 concerts has written an unflinching,
wild account of his personal journey of
sonic discovery and thrilling experiences.
ST. MARTIN’S/DUNNE
The Living Years: The First Genesis
Memoir by Mike Rutherford (Feb. 10,
hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-1-250-
06068-6). In the band Genesis, Rutherford
pioneered the pomp and theatricality of
1970s progressive rock before the band
became a household name in the 1980s,
but in the background—and sometimes in
the audience—was Mike’s father, Captain
Rutherford, a naval officer whose life at
first seemed nothing like his son’s. It was
only after Mike discovered his father’s
unpublished memoir did he discover how
similar their lives had been.
1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in
Music by Andrew Grant Jackson (Feb. 3,
hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-
05962-8) combines fascinating and often
surprising personal stories with a panoramic historical narrative of the music and
epic social change of 1965, a defining year
for Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling
Stones, the Who, James Brown, and John
Coltrane.
Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs!:
My Adventures in The Alice Cooper
Group by Dennis Dunaway and Chris
Hodenfield (June 9, hardcover, $26.99,
ISBN 978-1-250-04808-0). Dunaway, the
bassist and co-songwriter for the Alice
Cooper group, tells a story just as over-the-top crazy as the group’s (in)famous shows
in a backstage memoir of the band’s creation in the ’60s, strange glory in the ’70s,
and the legendary characters they met
along the way.
UNIV. OF CHICAGO
Say No to the Devil: The Life and
Musical Genius of Rev. Gary Davis by
Ian Zack (Apr. 6, hardcover, $30, ISBN
978-0-226-23410-6) relates the life of
bluesman Gary Davis, whose unclassifiable
music was a major inspiration for key fig-
ures in the early 1960s New York folk
scene, including Dave Van Ronk and Bob
Dylan. Zack chronicles Davis’s difficult
beginning as the blind son of sharecroppers
in the Jim Crow South to his time as a Bap-
tist minister and on to music that influ-
enced a generation.
A City Called Heaven: Chicago and
the Birth of Gospel Music by Robert
Marovich (Mar. 15, paper, $29.95, ISBN
978-0-252-08069-2). Music historian
Marovich tells the story of how gospel
music found a public voice and broke into
the mainstream, following gospel music
from early hymns and camp meetings
through the Great Migration that brought
it to Chicago.
UNIV. OF KENTUCKY
UNIV. OF NORTH CAROLINA
UNIV. OF TEXAS
John Prine: In Spite of Himself by
Eddie Huffman (Mar. 15, hardcover,
$24.95, ISBN 978-0-292-74822-4) traces
the long arc of Prine’s musical career,
beginning with his early, seemingly effortless successes, which led not to stardom but
to a rich and varied career writing songs
that other people have made famous. |Here
are the stories behind Prine’s best-known
songs and all of Prine’s albums.
VIKING
Billie Holiday: A Musical Biography
by John Szwed (Mar. 31, hardcover,
$28.95, ISBN 978-0-670-01472-9).
Published in celebration of Holiday’s
centenary, the first biography to focus on
the singer’s extraordinary musical talent
stays close to the music, to her performance style, and to the self she created
and put into print, on record and on
stage, based on a vast amount of new
material that has surfaced in the last
decade.
Your Band Sucks: What I Saw at
Indie Rock’s Failed Revolution (but
Can No Longer Hear) by Jon Fine (May
19, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0-670-
02659-3). A memoir charting 30 years of
American indie rock by a musician at its
center, this is an insider’s look at the fascinating, outrageous culture of indie
rock’s pre-Internet glory days. Fine discusses how the scene emerged and evolved,
how it grappled with the mainstream and
vice versa, and its odd rebirth in recent
years.
VOYAGEUR
Dylan: Disc by Disc by Jon Bream
(July 1, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-0-
7603-4659-4) provides thoughtful analyses of all 35 Bob Dylan studio releases,
presented in chronological order and illustrated with LP art, period photography,
seven-inch picture sleeves from around the
world, as well as sidebars exploring as film
and soundtrack appearances, session players, notable tours, pop culture references,
live releases, and more.
YALE UNIV.
Béla Bartók by David Cooper (May 26,
hardcover, $40, ISBN 978-0-300-14877-
0). Cooper’s deeply researched biography
of Béla Bartók (1881–1945) provides a
comprehensive view of the innovative
Hungarian musician, tracing Bartók’s
international career as an ardent ethnomusicologist and composer, teacher, and pianist, while providing a detailed discussion
of most of his works. The author explores
how Europe’s political and cultural tumult
affected Bartók’s work, travel, and reluctant emigration to the safety of America in
his final years.
