The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee presents reflections on her inner life from the unique perspectives of the cafes and cultural haunts she has visited and worked in around the world. --Publisher's description. An unforgettable odyssey of a legendary artist. It begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in her notebook. Woven...

"Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, Afro-punk before that term existed. Coming of age in Detroit, she can't imagine settling for a 9-to-5 job--despite her unusual looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar's amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington...

Musician, actor, activist, and the iconic face of New York City cool, Debbie Harry is the frontwoman of Blondie, a band that forged a new sound that brought together the worlds of rock, punk, disco, reggae and hip-hop to create some of the most beloved pop songs of all time. As a muse, she collaborated with some of the boldest artists of the past four decades. The scope of Debbie Harry's impact on our culture has been matched only by her reticence...

"A memoir about the year 2016 in which dreams and reality are interwoven" -- Provided by publisher. Following a run of New Year's concerts at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland with no design, yet heeding signs--including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding and...

In little over a year, Stefani Germanotta, a struggling performer in New York' s Lower East Side burlesque scene, became the global pop icon Lady Gaga. She is a once-in-a-decade artist, a gifted singer, composer, designer, and performance artist who mixes high and low culture, the avant-garde with the accessible, authenticity with artifice. Who is Lady Gaga? A 24-year-old woman whose stage persona is the polar opposite of who she is offstage: isolated,...

"Everything you need to know to turn your love of music--and desire to play it--into something real"--P. [4] of cover.

"An unprecedented celebration of the evolution, influence, and power of women in popular music. From Bessie Smith to The Supremes, Joan Baez, Madonna, Selena, Beyoncé, Amy Winehouse, Dolly Parton, Sleater-Kinney, Taylor Swift, and scores more, women have played an essential and undeniable role in the evolution of modern music including blues, rock and roll, country, folk, glam rock, punk, and hip hop. Today, in a world once traditionally dominated...

"Gal, a rock star for a hot minute twenty years ago, is back in Boston to play a memorial for her late drummer/best friend when she finds herself freezing on stage at the sight of a face in the crowd. The next day, the middle-aged musician learns that the man she saw has been killed--beaten to death behind the venue--and her friend's widower is being charged in connection with his death. When the friend refuses to defend himself, Gal wonders why and,...

As a writer and musician, Holly Knight worked hard and played hard with the likes of KISS, Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, and Heart. She showed the boys how it was done when many women were still struggling to get a foot in the door. Starting in the late 1970s in post-punk New York, Knight, a gifted keyboardist, joined the band Spider-which quickly ascended to buzzworthy status before things began to disintegrate. Fortunately, her song "Better...

"Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor burst onto the pop scene in 1987 with her album The Lion and the Cobra, and followed it with the Grammy-winning I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got (1990), which featured a cover of Prince's song "Nothing Compares 2 U." In 1992, she infamously tore a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live to protest the sexual abuse committed by priests and covered up by church authorities. O'Connor was immediately...