Devil's Music, Holy Rollers and Hillbillies

Devil's Music, Holy Rollers and Hillbillies
Author: James A. Cosby
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2016-05-23
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1476662290

Rock music today is universal and its popular history is well known. Yet few know how and why it really came about. Taking a fresh look at events long overlooked or misunderstood, this book tells how some of the most disenfranchised people in a free and prosperous nation strove to make themselves heard--and changed the world. Describing the genesis of rock and roll, the author covers everything from its deep roots in the Mississippi Delta, key early figures, like deejay "Daddy-O" Dewey Phillips and gospel star Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and the influence of so-called "holy rollers" of the Pentecostal church who became crucial performers--Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.

Devil's Music, Holy Rollers and Hillbillies

Devil's Music, Holy Rollers and Hillbillies
Author: James A. Cosby
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2016-06-05
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1476625387

Rock music today is universal and its popular history is well known. Yet few know how and why it really came about. Taking a fresh look at events long overlooked or misunderstood, this book tells how some of the most disenfranchised people in a free and prosperous nation strove to make themselves heard--and changed the world. Describing the genesis of rock and roll, the author covers everything from its deep roots in the Mississippi Delta, key early figures, like deejay "Daddy-O" Dewey Phillips and gospel star Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and the influence of so-called "holy rollers" of the Pentecostal church who became crucial performers--Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.

Rock Music, Authority and Western Culture, 1964-1980

Rock Music, Authority and Western Culture, 1964-1980
Author: James A. Cosby
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2024-01-26
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1476651353

The history of rock and roll music can be seen in a long arc of Western civilization's struggle for both greater individual expression and societal stability. In the 1960s, the West's relationship with authority ruptured, in part due to the rock revolution. The lessons and implications of this era have yet to be fully grasped. This book examines the key artists, music, and events of the classic rock era--defined here as 1964 to 1980--through a virtual psychoanalysis of the West. Over these years, important truths unfold in the stories of British Invaders, hippies, proto-punks, and more, as well as topics to include drugs, primal scream therapy, the occult, spirituality, and disco and its detractors, to name just a few. Through a narrative that is equal parts entertaining, scholarly, and even spiritual, readers will gain a greater appreciation for rock music, better understand the confusing world we live in today, and see how greater individuality and social stability may be better reconciled moving forward.

Jazz and Death

Jazz and Death
Author: Walter van de Leur
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2023-05-12
Genre: Music
ISBN: 135137317X

Jazz and Death: Reception, Rituals, and Representations critically examines the myriad and complex interactions between jazz and death, from the New Orleans "jazz funeral" to jazz in heaven or hell, final recordings, jazz monuments, and the music’s own presumed death. It looks at how fans, critics, journalists, historians, writers, the media, and musicians have narrated, mythologized, and relayed those stories. What causes the fascination of the jazz world with its deaths? What does it say about how our culture views jazz and its practitioners? Is jazz somehow a fatal culture? The narratives surrounding jazz and death cast a light on how the music and its creators are perceived. Stories of jazz musicians typically bring up different tropes, ranging from the tragic, misunderstood genius to the notion that virtuosity somehow comes at a price. Many of these narratives tend to perpetuate the gendered and racialized stereotypes that have been part of jazz’s history. In the end, the ideas that encompass jazz and death help audiences find meaning in a complex musical practice and come to grips with the passing of their revered musical heroes -- and possibly with their own mortality.

Do You Believe in Rock and Roll?

Do You Believe in Rock and Roll?
Author: Raymond I. Schuck
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2012-10-06
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1476600368

Since its release in 1971, Don McLean's song "American Pie" has become an indelible part of U.S. culture. It has sparked countless debates about the references within the lyrics; been celebrated as a chronicle of American life from the late 1950s through the early 1970s; and has become iconic itself as it has been remade, parodied, and referenced within numerous texts and forums. This volume offers a set of new essays that focus on the cultural and historical significance of the song. Representing a variety of perspectives and fields of study, the essays address such topics as historical and literary interpretations of the song's lyrics, its musical qualities, the commentary the song offers on rock and roll history, the continuing significance of the song, and the ways in which the song has been used by various writers and artists. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Music at the Extremes

Music at the Extremes
Author: Scott A. Wilson
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2015-06-08
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1476620067

Away from the spotlight of the pop charts and the demands of mainstream audiences, original music is still being played and audiences continue to engage with innovative artists. This collection of fresh essays gathers together critical writing on such genres as Power Electronics, Black Metal, Neo-Folk, Martial Industrial, Hard-Core Punk and Horrorcore. The contributors report from the periphery of the music world, seeking to understand these new genres, how fans connect with artists and how artists engage with their audiences. Diverse music scenes are covered, from small-town New Zealand to Washington, D.C., and Ljubljana, Slovenia. Artists discussed include Coil, Laibach, Whitehouse, Insane Clown Posse, Wolves in the Throne Room, Turisas, Tyr, GG Allin and many others.

When She Was Good

When She Was Good
Author: Philip Roth
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2011-04-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307788601

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Pastoral comes a funny, chilling novel set in a small town in the 1940s Midwest, featuring a young woman whose moral goodness may destroy her. "High, careful tragedy, nasty as life, and Roth emerges ... as a Dreiser who can write!" —Stanley Elkin When she was still a child, Lucy Nelson had her alcoholic failure of a father thrown in jail. Ever since then she has been trying to reform the men around her, even if that ultimately means destroying herself in the process. With his unerring portraits of Lucy and her hapless, childlike husband, Roy, Roth has created an uncompromising work of fictional realism, a vision of provincial American piety, yearning, and discontent that is at once pitiless and compassionate.

Roots, Radicals and Rockers

Roots, Radicals and Rockers
Author: Billy Bragg
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2017-05-30
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0571327761

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZERoots, Radicals & Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World is the first book to explore this phenomenon in depth - a meticulously researched and joyous account that explains how skiffle sparked a revolution that shaped pop music as we have come to know it. It's a story of jazz pilgrims and blues blowers, Teddy Boys and beatnik girls, coffee-bar bohemians and refugees from the McCarthyite witch-hunts. Billy traces how the guitar came to the forefront of music in the UK and led directly to the British Invasion of the US charts in the 1960s.Emerging from the trad-jazz clubs of the early '50s, skiffle was adopted by kids who growing up during the dreary, post-war rationing years. These were Britain's first teenagers, looking for a music of their own in a pop culture dominated by crooners and mediated by a stuffy BBC. Lonnie Donegan hit the charts in 1956 with a version of 'Rock Island Line' and soon sales of guitars rocketed from 5,000 to 250,000 a year. Like punk rock that would flourish two decades later, skiffle was a do-it-yourself music. All you needed were three guitar chords and you could form a group, with mates playing tea-chest bass and washboard as a rhythm section.

Brothers Emanuel

Brothers Emanuel
Author: Ezekiel J. Emanuel
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2013-03-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1588369935

NATIONAL BESTSELLER For years, people have been asking Ezekiel “Zeke” Emanuel, the brash, outspoken, and fiercely loyal eldest brother in the Emanuel clan, the same question: What did your mom put in the cereal? Middle brother Rahm is the mayor of Chicago, erstwhile White House chief of staff, and one of the most colorful figures in American politics. Youngest brother Ari is a Hollywood superagent, the real-life model for the character of Ari Gold on the hit series Entourage. And Zeke himself, whom the other brothers consider to be the smartest of them all, is one of the world’s leading bioethicists and oncologists, and a former special advisor for health policy in the Obama administration. How did one family of modest means produce three such high-achieving kids? Here, for the first time, Zeke provides the answer. Set amid the tumult of Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s, Brothers Emanuel recounts the intertwined histories of these three rambunctious, hypercompetitive Jewish American boys, each with his own unique and compelling life story. But ultimately, this is the story of the entire Emanuel family: the tough, colorful Old World grandparents; a mischievous, loving father who immigrated to the United States with twenty-five dollars and who enthralled his boys with tales of his adventures in Israel’s war for independence; and a proud, politically engaged mother who took the boys with her to rallies and protests—including a civil rights march through the streets of Chicago led by Martin Luther King himself. Even as the Emanuels distinguished themselves as individuals, the bond of brotherhood that tied them together was never broken. Brothers Emanuel is a wry, rollicking, and often poignant narrative of how one American family succeeded in raising three extraordinary children. Praise for Brothers Emanuel “An endearing, honest and gripping account of an American success story.”—San Francisco Chronicle “A beautiful portrait of growing up Jewish in an urban environment during an era of profound social change.”—Publishers Weekly “This delightful memoir is a deeply personal tale of one family, but it’s also about much larger things: America and tribal identity, love and rivalry, and the moral lessons to be learned as you grow up.”—Walter Isaacson “Fascinating . . . a classic tale of an immigrant family.”—Chicago Tribune “Mighty entertaining.”—The Hollywood Reporter “A clear-eyed, candid memoir that is unique and yet quintessentially American.”—BookPage “A fun read.”—The Forward