Music (and Music CDs)

After working as a film actor, Peter Grant found himself managing Led Zeppelin in the 1960s and, through a fierce determination to protect the musicians and improve their earnings and conditions, is credited with revolutionizing the profession.

In 1982 Michael Jackson made a demo of a song called Starlight for his new album but it was judged inadequate until a new lyric transformed it into Thriller, his career-defining recording. This highly illustrated book tells the story of all Jackson’s songs from the first hits of the Jackson 5 to songs released since the singer’s death in 2009, and includes profiles of key producers and collaborators. Slightly off-mint and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge

Philip Norman's history of the Beatles, Shout!, and his biography of John Lennon seemed to take a largely anti-McCartney stance so it was a surprise when Paul gave tacit approval to Norman to write this biography, enabling access to family members and close friends. The result redresses the balance, describing the importance of McCartney's creative leadership in the Beatles and exploring his later career and personal life from the early death of his mother to his highly publicized marriages. Slightly off-mint and felt-tip mark on upper trimmed edge.

Founder and lead guitarist of the Sex Pistols, Steve Jones has a good claim to be one of the most influential figures in rock history. His autobiography reveals how he went from petty crime in West London to pop stardom, and most recently, radio host.

The bass player in the tartan-clad pop sensation from Edinburgh, Alan Longmuir was the first to tire of the endless touring and screaming teenagers and leave the band. His biography describes how the Rollers got to the top and gives his views on the acrimonious bust-ups and financial wranglings that followed.

A household name since his prodigious childhood, the violinist and conductor Sir Yehudi Menuhin (1916–99) strove to use his fame to draw attention to many humanitarian issues. Humphrey Burton, who knew Menuhin for 40 years, compiled this biography with full access to his subject’s personal archive; it offers a rounded portrait of his family life and his wide-ranging activities as performer, teacher and ‘musical diplomat’. The preface to this centenary edition highlights Menuhin’s continuing legacy.

On hearing a starling whistling his latest concerto in a Vienna shop, Mozart was so enchanted that he bought the bird as a family pet. Haupt interweaves the story of the composer’s songbird with her own experiences as a naturalist caring for a rescued nestling.

Raphael Terroni, piano; Phillida Bannister, contralto; Vadim Peaceman, piano.

Dame Evelyn Glennie, percussion; Hila Plitmann, soprano; Albany Symphony; David Alan Miller

This illustrated memoir celebrates the friendship and innovative collaboration between David Bowie and the artist Edward Bell. It explains how they met, describes Bowie’s involvement in the creative process and explores the unique qualities that made him a cultural icon.

David Matthews, the fellow-composer who worked for several years as Benjamin Britten’s assistant, combines an account of the great musician’s life with comments on works ranging from Peter Grimes and the War Requiem to pieces written while their composer was still at school. Revised edition.

Acclaimed director Michael Hampe presents ‘useful rules’ for staging opera, giving examples from his work with singers and conductors. He discusses such questions as how to move on stage and how to convey comedy, aiming to help performers realize the art form’s full potential.

At the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, Otis Redding’s set was one of the performances that made the festival legendary; by the end of the year he was dead, killed when his tour’s private plane crashed in Wisconsin. With the cooperation of the Redding family, friends and fellow musicians, Jonathan Gould presents a biography of ‘the king of soul’ and an appreciation of his immense contribution to popular music. Off-mint with felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge..

With the characteristic XFM focus on music from alternative and indie bands and artists, and arranged alphabetically (no favouritism) from AC/DC to the Zutons, this compendium explains the stories, inspirations and sometimes the scandals behind the ‘tracks that resonate the most with XFM DJs and listeners’. With a foreword by the Killers’ Brandon Flowers.

Aimed at amateur players, for whom much of the chamber repertoire was written, this guide covers music by 50 significant composers, from the 17th century (Purcell and Corelli) to the 20th (including Britten and Shostakovich). Information is provided on each work’s instrumentation, duration and technical difficulty, together with comments on special points of interest. Pieces particularly suitable for inexperienced players are identified; an appendix suggests less familiar composers whose music will also be of interest. Slightly off-mint.

From street poet in 1962 to international celebrity performing an evening of nostalgie at the Palais de Congrès in Paris, 2009, this volume covers Bob Dylan’s career in 34 interviews, including conversations with Rolling Stone journalists, with Robert Shelton during the documentary No Direction Home, with Sam Shepard for Esquire and with many others who braved Dylan’s warning, ‘Don’t ask me nothin’ about nothin’/I might just tell you the truth’.

This succinct biography of the jazz legend describes how from the Colored Waif's Home for Boys in New Orleans, where the harsh conditions were mitigated by the opportunity to play in the band, Louis Armstrong came to dominate the new art form from the 1920s to the 1960s. Slightly off-mint.

Presented in scrapbook format with archive photographs, memorabilia and quotations from contemporary musicians, this history of the Ramones assesses the band's entire career, musical output and cultural impact, and includes a foreword by CJ Ramone.

‘Even in his own lifetime Handel passed from being an individual to an institution’: in this acclaimed biography the conductor Christopher Hogwood assembles documentary evidence to take us back to the original Handel. After tracing the composer’s career from his early years in Germany to fame as an opera composer in London, Hogwood ends the book by surveying the posthumous development of the Handel legend. This revised edition features a new afterword that provides analysis of recent advances in Handelian scholarship. (First published in 1984.)

Sibylla Rubens, soprano; Stefanie Iranyo, mezzo-soprano; Thomas E Bauer, baritone; Uta Hielscher, piano.

Sir Thomas Allen, baritone; Ty Jackson, boy soprano;, John Tessier, tenor; Nashville Symphony Chorus; Nashville Symphony Orchestra; Leonard Slatkin

Born in Moscow in 1971, Evgeny Kissin made his concert debut at the age of ten and is now internationally renowned for his interpretation of the classical and Romantic piano repertoire. In this collection of reminiscences he answers some of the questions that he is most often asked – about his childhood, his early teachers and his encounters with the world’s great musicians – and muses on topics including fame, inspiration and his favourite composers. Slightly off-mint.

This review of Bowie's output during the 1970s tells the stories behind the writing and recording of all his songs of the period, including the Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Scary Monsters albums.

This exploration of the meaning of and inspiration for every track in Led Zeppelin’s ten-album canon charts the band’s movements during their decade at the top and recounts the circumstances of the writing and recording of each of their celebrated tracks.

After describing the instrument’s history and anatomy, two restoration experts introduce the tools and techniques of the violin repair shop. Their illustrated, step-by-step instructions guide violinists through maintenance routines at basic, intermediate and advanced level, from changing a string to re-gluing a whole plate.

The popular image of Billie Holiday emphasizes the tragedy and notoriety of her life, her experiences of racism, drug addiction and abusive relationships, as much as the distinctive singing voice which conveyed such raw emotion. Drawing on recent academic work and a wealth of material rediscovered during the last decade, this centenary portrait ‘attempts to widen our sense of who Billie Holiday was’ by stripping away the accumulation of myths to reveal her strengths and insecurities, wit and warmth. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

This compact guide is an informative resource for everyone seeking to discover more about opera. An introduction charting the development of the genre from 1600 to the present is followed by an alphabetical guide to the characters, plots and theatrical history of hundreds of operas from Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppaea to John Adams’s Nixon in China, composer biographies and a glossary of operatic terms. This expanded second edition includes access to 130 tracks online.

NBC Symphony Orchestra; Arturo Toscanin. Toscanini Concert Edition

Alessandro Marangoni, piano.

Dietmar Berger; viola da Gamba

The clarinet is a popular instrument but its complex mechanism requires careful maintenance. As well as providing advice on buying the right model and accessories, this manual demonstrates how to clean and care for your instrument and how to diagnose and troubleshoot common problems.

Drawing on the author’s experience as a player and audio engineer, this manual explains how guitars work and how they can be kept in peak condition. Step-by-step instructions guide the guitarist through the process of stringing, adjusting and repairing acoustic instruments, as well as the installation of amplification. Thirteen case studies illustrate the features and maintenance of different varieties of guitar, with photographs showing both outer and inner details.

Released on Columbia Records in 1946, The Voice of Frank Sinatra consisted of eight love songs which, though known by the public for years, were given a new musical treatment by the singer’s arranger, Axel Stordahl. The runaway success of this approach set the standard for a new genre of pop and jazz vocal album, the best 57 of which are analysed here, including classic records by Chet Baker, Nina Simone and Sarah Vaughan. Slightly off-mint with felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Elvis's career began to take off in 1955 when he was picked up by the shady Dutch-born promoter ’Colonel' Tom Parker, who secured a major recording deal. The contract sent to Elvis's parents (as the singer's guardians) to authorize Parker as manager is one of the items of memorabilia reproduced in this celebration of Elvis's career, which includes many concert and promotional photographs, film stills and posters as well as private snaps and personal documents.

Lonnie Donegan’s energetic renditions of American folk and blues songs inspired thousands of teenagers to start skiffle bands in the mid 1950s. Billie Bragg’s analysis of this uniquely British craze shows how it led to the Beatles, British blues and the transformation of Western popular music.

The son of a big band singer, Declan McManus emerged from the post Punk era as one of the most significant British songwriters of his generation. This thoughtful memoir discusses his long career and many collaborations with other artists including Paul McCartney and Burt Bacharach. Felt tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Jann Wenner created a new type of magazine with Rolling Stone in 1967, mixing politics with serious pop-music journalism. This biography was written with extensive access to the controversial editor as well as interviews with leading rock stars.

This compendium of the popular Wall Street Journal column tells the stories of 45 hits by artists including Elvis, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell and The Clash, based on interviews with the songs’ writers and performers. Off-mint.

An enforcer of a manager, a private Boeing 707, drugs, booze, sex and Satanism are all part of the tale of rock success and personal excess in Stephen Davis's classic biography of Led Zeppelin.

After firing a revolver in the street at the age of 12, Louis Armstrong was sent to the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys in New Orleans, where the harsh conditions were mitigated by the opportunity to play in the band. This succinct biography of the jazz legend describes how he came to dominate the new art form from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Faced with the prejudice and segregation of post-war America, Sammy Davis Jr established himself as a mainstream entertainer, famously teaming up alongside Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin as part of the Rat Pack. His life was extremely eventful and his experiences included a near-fatal car accident, conversion to Judaism and a prominent interracial marriage. This biography, illustrated with photographs from the family archive, has been compiled from conversations between the star and his daughter.

For centuries female composers have been unjustly ignored and patronized, since they worked within a male-dominated musical culture that sought to exclude them, even to the extent of questioning their music’s authorship. The eight composers profiled here all challenged this prejudice with courage and pragmatism, from Francesca Caccini, who manipulated the gender politics of the Medici court, to Vaughan Williams’ pupil Elizabeth Maconchy, who fought back against sexism by working with ‘rigid self-discipline’.

Verdi’s 1853 opera tells the story of a courtesan who abandons her lavish Parisian lifestyle for the love of a penniless youth. This performance, conducted by Aldo Ceccato, stars Beverley Sills (Violetta) and Nicolai Gedda (Alfredo).

During the last decade of his life Leoš Janá?ek sent hundreds of passionate letters to Kamila Stösslová, a married woman half his age. Selections from their correspondence are translated in this volume, with linking commentary, photographs and a decoding of the lovers’ erotic references. Their words reveal how much this relationship inspired the composer’s final, greatest works – including the String Quartet ‘Intimate Letters’ – and shed valuable light on his personality.

A prototype tragic hero for the rock generation to follow, Hank Williams struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse and died before he was 30 on New Year's Day, 1953. This new biography of the country legend describes his childhood of rural poverty, tracing his musical roots to the street corner bluesman he befriended in Alabama, and explores the powerful influence in his life and career of his domineering mother, Millie, and fiery wife, Audrey. Off-mint.

Otis Redding (1941–1967) made a seismic impact on American popular culture, and his recordings for the STAX label during the 1960s helped to define the sound of soul music and bring it to the mainstream. Based on interviews and extensive archival research, this chronicle of his life traces his rise from an unknown rural gospel singer to a superstar capable of selling out huge venues across the world. American-cut pages.

An empire was dying, but the band played on, reeling out one intoxicating waltz after another: Voices of Spring, Tales from the Vienna Woods, The Blue Danube… This absorbing narrative tells the story of the two Waltz Kings, Johann Strauss father and son, whose melodies beguiled Europe even as the family was riven with tension, jealousy and feuds, mirroring the dysfunction of the Austrian Empire as it danced and drank its way to catastrophe.

The 'Mighty Handful' of five Russian composers who came together in St Petersburg in the 1860s had little musical education, but they created some of the most popular music in the classical repertoire, including Borodin's Prince Igor and Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade. Walsh's study analyses how this rare example of a creative musical collective worked and reveals the crucial role played by their mentor, the art historian Vladimir Stasov, in fostering a Russian nationalist music. Slightly off-mint and American-cut pages.

Including John Peel, Grandmaster Flash, Paul Oakenfield and Tiësto, this compilation of interviews with pioneering disc jockeys from the website DJhistory.com describes how dance music evolved and shaped popular culture from the 1950s to the present.

This light-hearted ‘horrible history’ of Western music tells an assortment of tragic, macabre and often apocryphal tales involving composers and musicians from ancient to modern times. Among stories of thieves and murderers are accounts of cursed songs, a dream of the devil and the ‘after-death adventures’ of two famous skulls. Part one focuses on composers, while part two explores ‘dark and weird musical miscellany’ with references to rock, folk and jazz.

Mozart's music has enthralled listeners for centuries. In this concise biography, the historian Paul Johnson charts the composer's life from the age of three, when he first recognized chords, to the creation of his mature masterpieces Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro. Dispelling popular myths, it explores his relationships with his father, his wife and the royal court of Vienna, and highlights the intelligence, wit, charisma and drive of this extraordinarily gifted man.

The spread of jazz beyond its American birthplace in the 1920s had a profound effect on art and culture, with leading artists such as Otto Dix, Piet Mondrian and Henri Matisse taking inspiration from performers, dances and songs. With essays and reproductions of more than 120 works, this dual-language exhibition catalogue from the Stuttgart art museum celebrates almost a century of art produced in response to jazz, from Max Beckmann to Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol.

Jerry Dantzic was commissioned to photograph Billie Holiday during a week-long engagement at Sugar Hill jazz club in Newark, New Jersey, in 1957. Allowed into her inner circle, Dantzic was able to capture intimate moments backstage and at the singer's Manhattan apartment, as well as atmospheric shots of her performances. The 100 images in this portfolio present a poignant portrait of the troubled star two years before her death at the age of 44.

Tom Wiggins (1849–1908) was born a slave; blind and probably autistic, he soon displayed a remarkable memory for sound. This biography traces his career as an international piano virtuoso and shows how attitudes to celebrity, race and disability intersected in the response to his skills. Slightly off-mint.

Originally written in 1975, when Rolling Stone hailed it as ‘probably the best book ever written about rock’, Mystery Train remains an astute and engrossing analysis of popular music and American culture. The book is structured around six artists: the ‘ancestors’, blues men Harmonica Frank and Robert Johnson, and the ‘inheritors’, The Band, Sly Stone, Randy Newman and Elvis Presley. Now fully half the book, the ‘Notes and Discographies’ has been revised and expanded over the years. This is the sixth edition.

After working as a film actor, Peter Grant found himself managing Led Zeppelin in the early 1960s and, through a fierce determination to protect the musicians and improve their earnings and conditions, is credited with revolutionizing the profession.

Based on one-to-one interviews with Elton John and his associates, this biography documents the star’s highs and lows during the 1970s – the decade during which the contrast between his flamboyant public and conflicted private personas was at its most pronounced.

From ragtime pianist, Tony Jackson, who lived as an openly gay man in Chicago in the 1910s, to Dusty Springfield, Boy George and beyond, this musical history explores how LGBT artists have coped with prejudice and considers their influence on the development of popular music.

Adding ticket stubs, posters and other period ephemera to a collection of archive photographs, this celebration of the Rolling Stones chronicles their rise from the London blues scene of the early 1960s to world fame and profiles each of the band members. Organized around their 22 album releases, each chapter discusses the progress of their recording and live career as well as telling the story of each of the songs.

Perhaps the most aggressive expression of the pop culture of the 1960s, The Who were powerful exponents of early British rock and their reputation as an unrivalled live act kept audiences flocking to their concerts well into the 21st century. This photographic portfolio presents many previously unpublished images of the group from early promotional portraits and London pub gigs of the mid 1960s to their Live 8 performance of 2005. Felt-tip mark on the upper trimmed edge.

One of the most significant figures in American popular music, Hank Williams (1923–1953) rose to fame in the late 1940s, but alcohol and drug abuse made him difficult to work with and contributed to his untimely death. This definitive biography, updated with new information about the singer that has emerged in recent years, forms the basis of the 2015 film of the same title.

Described by Borodin as ‘an elegant piano-playing dilettante’, Mussorgsky (1839–81) was a prodigy who performed a concerto at the age of nine and later became one of ‘The Mighty Handful’ of Russian composers. His famous Pictures at an Exhibition is included in this compilation of piano music, together with a further 18 pieces, four of which are presented in both their first and second versions.

Lead singer and lyricist on many of the Beach Boys' biggest hits, Mike Love has often been blamed for the quarrels that divided the group. In this autobiography he offers his side of the story. Off-mint with felt-tip mark on the lower trimmed edge.

Writers from the American magazine Keyboard profile 20 pioneering synthesizer musicians and technicians – including Dr Robert Moog, Brian Eno, Vangelis and Edgar Winter – who have influenced generations of musicians.

Beginning with the composer’s final stage work, Mark Berry traces the impact of Wagner on 20th-century opera. In particular he identifies how music drama, staging and political engagement intersect in the work of five composers with very different conceptions of a Wagnerian tradition.

As a virtuoso pianist, Beethoven composed sonatas for his instrument throughout his career, developing the Classical style into a new Romantic idiom through such popular and revolutionary works as the Pathétique, Moonlight and Hammerklavier sonatas. This urtext performing edition contains the full cycle of 32 works, from the early Op. 2 set of 1795, which Beethoven dedicated to his teacher Haydn, to the great C-minor Op. 111 written in 1822.

The celebrated photographer Brian Duffy collaborated with David Bowie during the 1970s, helping to create his highly influential album artwork. The images in this catalogue, which was inspired by the V&A’s ‘David Bowie is’ exhibition, are supported by the recollections of people who worked on the shoots.

The daughter of the founder of the Simon and Schuster publishing empire, Carly Simon, explores her privileged childhood and the experiences of her rise to musical stardom in this memoir of her early life.

Born in New Jersey in 1915, Frank Sinatra began singing with various dance bands from the 1930s and in a six-decade career became one of the most influential musical artists of the 20th century as well as an Oscar-winning actor. Marking the centenary of his birth, this large-format celebration draws on the Sinatra family archive to present unseen photographs and ephemera from his life, and includes contributions from Tony Bennett and Sinatra’s children: Nancy, Tina and Frank Jr.

Marijuana was part of the scene for the early jazzmen of New Orleans, and the arrival of heroin in Harlem in the 1940s hooked the bebop players and helped create the culture that influenced writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. This social history examines the connection between drug use and the evolution of jazz music and discusses its influence in shaping American culture in the 20th century. Slightly off-mint with a felt-tip mark on upper trimmed edge.

The music writer Rod Chapman takes ‘the scenic route’ in his exploration of the history and cultural impact of LSD in the mid 1960s. Starting with earlier experiments with drugs by poets, painters and musicians, Chapman describes what was really going on, from Haight-Ashbury hippies to Charles Manson in the USA, and from ‘Love Me Do’ to the trajectory of the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones ‘from blues purist to experimentalist to crushed spirit’.

Beethoven’s compositional sketchbooks preserve his incipient and laconic ideas for many symphonic movements, some of which grew into the nine completed works. Presenting a movement-by-movement analysis, Professor Lockwood uses evidence from these documents to trace the symphonies’ historical, biographical and creative origins. He reveals how they evolved slowly in Beethoven’s mind – the earliest ideas for the Fifth and Sixth appear with sketches for the Third – and how they relate to major compositions in other genres.

The year 1790 brought the death of Haydn's patron Nicolaus Esterházy and the subsequent sacking of his music staff; the impresario Johann Peter Salomon seized this moment to lure the celebrity composer to London for two visits in 1791–2 and 1794–5. Hogwood makes extensive use of contemporary documents – such as newspaper reports and Haydn's own notebooks and letters – to examine the English public's Haydn-mania and the composer's own reactions to new people and experiences. No jacket.

Alexander von Zemlinsky; Lyric Symphony; Alban Berg's Three Pieces from the Lyric Suite arranged for string orchestra. Roman Trekel, baritone. Twyla Robinson, soprano, Houston Symphony, Hans Graf.

Raphael Wallfisch, cello; Raphael Terroni, piano.

John Corigliano: The Red Violin Caprices, Sonata for Violin and Piano. Virgil Thomson: Three Portraits, Five Ladies, Eight Portraits - . Philippe Quint, violin; William Wolfram, piano.

One of the first internationally famous conductors, Richter (1843–1916) premiered works by Wagner, Brahms and Elgar. Fifield’s detailed biography draws on the letters and diaries of Richter and other prominent musicians; this expanded edition also features his complete ‘conducting books’ documenting 4,351 public performances. (Previously published as True Artist and True Friend.)

These eight essays elucidate a significant moment in the renaissance of English music-theatre. Focusing particularly on Vaughan Williams, they show how Wagner’s ideas influenced English composers who were reimagining dramatic traditions going back to Mummers’ plays, 17th-century masques and the music of Purcell.

Many of the great operatic singers of the 20th century led lives as extraordinary as the characters they portrayed on stage. In this refreshingly readable survey, acclaimed tenor and BBC presenter Nigel Douglas assesses the lives and careers of 14 great singers, from Enrico Caruso to Kirsten Flagstad, from Lotte Lehmann to Fritz Wunderlich. The book provides anecdotes and recollections from those who knew them, and also recommends the best CDs of their work.

From Purcell and Arne to Vaughan Williams and Maxwell Davies, British composers have often made use of maritime tropes. These twelve essays examine how their music reflects changes in Britons’ relationship with the sea, focusing on three themes: the sea as landscape, profession and metaphor. Slightly off-mint.

Dave Stewart’s career as songwriter, performer and producer has spanned four decades. In this memoir he shares the stories behind his creative partnerships with a host of musicians and his rise to global stardom with Annie Lennox as Eurythmics. Foreword by Mick Jagger. Off-mint and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Written to mark Beethoven’s centenary, this long essay forms the principal aesthetic statement of Wagner’s later years and influenced the young Nietzsche. Allen’s new English translation faces the German original; his introduction places the essay within its historical, political and philosophical contexts.

Celebrated now as a composer, Gustav Mahler was best known to his contemporaries as a conductor. This meticulously researched volume documents more than 320 concerts in which he participated as conductor or pianist, and briefly surveys his 2,025 opera performances.

This biography of Dusty Springfield, one of the most celebrated pop stars of the 1960s, not only discusses her musical development and lasting legacy, but also delves beyond the professional persona to explore her somewhat troubled private life. Interviews with friends, lovers, employees and other confidants shed light on Springfield's relationships, addictions and struggles with her sexuality. Through it all, however, is the music that brought so much joy to so many.

A vast amount of symphonic music survives from the 18th century, when Haydn, Mozart and many ‘minor’ composers across Europe created the formal conventions that would long govern the writing of symphonies. In chapters organized by country to reflect the development of regional styles, this volume’s 22 contributors address issues such as the correct attribution of works, the importance of patronage, orchestration techniques and early performance contexts. The book comes with a CD featuring recordings of music by eight little-known composers.

Anthony Burton’s extended essay surveys a millennium of British music, illustrating its distinctive features through the pieces assembled on the accompanying pair of CDs. These 47 tracks range from an anonymous motet honouring St Thomas of Canterbury (c.1300), via such composers including Boyce, Bax and Britten, to Colin Matthews’ Pluto, the Renewer, written in 2000 to complement Holst’s The Planets.

The blues, and specifically the electric Chicago blues of the 1950s and 1960s, were hugely influential in the development of popular music, but not until the Ann Arbor Blues Festival of 1969 had the genre been presented to a mainstream American audience. This atmospheric photographic record of the legendary inaugural festivals in 1969 and 1970 includes images of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, BB King and Howlin' Wolf, among many others.

Growing up in a humble shack in America’s poorest state, Elvis Presley dreamed that success would free him from poverty. So how did he become dependent on bank loans even after achieving huge worldwide fame, and why did he despise his own movies and songs, even fearing that he would be forgotten after his death? This biography focuses on identifying the origins of the contradictions and frailties that lay behind Elvis’s charming, confident onstage persona.