Music and musicians / Cerddoriaeth a cherddorion
By Penrallt Gallery Bookshop / Siop Lyfrau Senedd-dy, Machynlleth, Wales
Music and musicians / Cerddoriaeth a cherddorion
By Penrallt Gallery Bookshop / Siop Lyfrau Senedd-dy, Machynlleth, Wales
Jazz/Rock/Soul/Minimalism/Folk/Welsh/Contemporary
Fear of Music (2nd Edition): Why People Get Rothko but Don't Get Stockhausen
David Stubbs
£10.99 £10.44
You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico
Jennifer Otter Bickerdike
£12.99 £12.34
Kraftwerk: Future Music from Germany
Uwe Schutte
£10.99 £10.44The most influential band ever? So says Uwe Schutte. Their music has stood the test of time and makes quite a story.
A Love Supreme: The Creation Of John Coltrane's Classic Album
Ashley Kahn
£12.99 £12.34A Love Supreme or Kind of Blue? Books on both albums and this is an authorised classic.
Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany
David (Associate Editor) Stubbs
£14.99 £14.24An amazing era for European music, from the late 60s onwards, influencing so many British bands, maybe not punk though ...
Brian Eno: Visual Music
Christopher Scoates
£21.99 £20.89Once available in a beautiful hardback, now going for £150 plus, this compact paperback version is a great alternative, in fact the only one.
How Music Works
David Byrne
£18.99 £18.04Classic, unique and indispensable take on how a band works, although not without its ups and downs during the Eno era (3 best albums though!)
Year of the Monkey
Patti Smith
£10.99 £10.44Poet or musician? I saw her in 1976 performing the Horses album. Forty five years later and she's one of our bestsellers.
I Put A Spell On You: The Autobiography Of Nina Simone
Nina Simone
£14.99 £14.24In these times, this is such an important story, about one of the greatest singers of all time and sounding better and better. Most influential voice ever.
Something of his Art: Walking to Lubeck with J. S. Bach
Horatio Clare
£10.00 £9.50Great first on Radio 3, the book idea a must and another beautiful Little Toller publication.
Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin
David Ritz
£16.99 £16.14Another story for our times, the title says it all. David Ritz gives us the definitive life of one of the greatest talents in all American culture
Miles: The Autobiography
Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe
£14.99 £14.24Performed in 6 decades and always moving with the time, he kickstarted the careers of dozens of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, including Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Jack de Johnette, Bill Evans etc. etc.
Patti Smith Collected Lyrics, 1970–2015
Patti Smith
£25.00 £23.75Poet first, musician second here, although the divide is hard to identify. Again, over 40 years of work from a true legend.
To Throw Away Unopened
Viv Albertine
£12.99 £12.34Ex-member of the, I think it's fair to say, seminal Slits, who ended (the first and real time) almost 40 years ago, Viv Albertine has now been publishing books (this is her latest) since 2014 and what a unique perspective she has.
Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys.
Viv Albertine
£12.99 £12.34"A raw, thrilling story of life on the frontiers and a candid account of Viv's life post-punk" ... Not hard to imagine.
Girl in a Band
Kim Gordon
£10.99 £10.44Great to hear so much more from women (aka girls) in bands and bands don't get any bigger than Sonic Youth (greatest band name ever?) " Girl in a Band is a moving, evocative chronicle of an extraordinary artist."
All in the Downs: Reflections on Life, Landscape, and Song
Shirley Collins
£18.99 £18.04All the way from the time of Anthems In Eden and John Peel's Top Gear, Shirley has been true to her art. Now Dolly has departed, we are blessed with a personal account of times past and present. The face and voice of C21st. folk
Just Kids: the National Book Award-winning memoir
Patti Smith
£12.99 £12.34Just a classic, prize winning account of her time with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. "And an unforgettable portrait of New York, her rich and poor, hustlers and hellions, those who made it and those whose memory lingers near."
Nothing is Real: The Beatles Were Underrated And Other Sweeping Statements About Pop
David Hepworth
£8.99 £8.54David Hepworth has the uncanny knack of turning out classics and this is another. "He's interested in how people make the stuff and, more importantly, what it means to us. In this collection of essays written throughout his career, Hepworth shows how it is possible to take music seriously and, at the same time, not drain the life out of it."
M Train
Ms Patti Smith
£12.99 £12.34Singular memories of Smith's life in Michigan and the irremediable loss of her husband, Fred Sonic Smith (MC5). Braiding despair with hope and consolation, illustrated with her signature Polaroids, M Train is a meditation on travel, detective shows, literature and coffee. It is a powerful, deeply moving book by one of the most remarkable artists at work today.
The Last Holiday: A Memoir
Gil Scott-Heron
£10.99 £10.44Maybe the grandfather of rap now, part Scottish too and never to be forgotten. A scarecrow that scared not the birds. The revolution will NOT etc. He wrote fiction too.
Henry Cow: The World Is a Problem
Benjamin Piekut
£26.99Once voted the UK's worst band (I think 1973, probably because of their name, they were superb musicians from the off), that only spurred Peel to give them a session. Possibly the coolest, artiest set of album covers ever. " Drawing on ninety interviews with Henry Cow musicians and crew, letters, notebooks, scores, journals, and meeting notes, Piekut traces the group's pursuit of a political and musical collectivism, offering up its history as but one example of the vernacular avant-garde that emerged in the decades after World War II."
The Lost Pianos of Siberia: A Sunday Times Paperback of 2021
Sophy Roberts
£18.99"Dotted throughout this remote and beautiful landscape are pianos created during the boom years of the nineteenth century. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood. How these pianos made the journey into this snow-bound wilderness in the first place is remarkable."
The Lady from Arezzo: My Musical Life and Other Matters
Alfred Brendel
£14.99 £14.24"The title of this collection of essays refers to a tailor's mannequin that Alfred Brendel spotted in a shop window in Arezzo, a small Tuscan town. Who is this strange lady? What is she looking at? And why is she carrying an egg on her head? The mannequin now graces a room in the attic of Brendel's house in Hampstead. Her features convey great artistic seriousness in combination with absurd comedy: the epitome of his own musical and literary preferences."
The Lyrics of Syd Barrett
Rob Chapman and Syd Barrett
£14.99 £14.24Not sure "lyrics" and Syd Barrett can co-exist. Words, well yeah, lyrics is a bit Juke Box Jury, quite cool then. Strangely Syd and JBJ just about crossed over in 1967. "Compiled in collaboration with the Syd Barrett estate, and featuring a foreword from former Pink Floyd manager Peter Jenner and a comprehensive introduction by biographer Rob Chapman, The Lyrics of Syd Barrett delves deep into one of rock'n'roll's most imaginative and searing minds."
Music Then and Now