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Lennon-McCartney: The Story of Music's Greatest Songwriting Duo
- Narrated by: Robin McKay
- Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins
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Publisher's summary
Beatlemania had struck North America, creating a musical and pop culture phenomenon unlike anything the world had ever seen. At the center of it all was John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the principal songwriting duo who were instrumental in creating the soundtrack of the 1960s, while producing some of the world's most timeless classics. Together with George Harrison and Ringo Starr, Lennon and McCartney propelled The Beatles to unprecedented heights, experimenting with their sound in ways that revolutionized rock and inspired bands across various musical genres.
Through it all, Lennon became one of the world's most interesting and outspoken men, a complex figure who survived a turbulent upbringing, addictions to drugs, and unstable relationships, only to be tragically killed just as he was settling into a serene, comfortable life. His loss is as widely felt today as it was in December 1980, as people remain in awe of his music and continue to grapple with the contradictory nature of his life and work, which at any given moment could oscillate from his notoriously acerbic wit to the endless optimism of Imagine.
McCartney lacked the controversy of Lennon, the spirituality of Harrison, and the silliness of Starr, but he was unquestionably one of the driving forces behind the Beatles' most productive recording periods, especially on the Beatles' seminal Revolver album. It was also McCartney who tried hardest to keep the Beatles together from 1968-1970, even while his perfectionist attention to detail frequently drove his bandmates crazy. Ultimately, it was McCartney who was the first to publicly announce his departure from the Beatles.
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Shining Star
- Braving the Elements of Earth, Wind & Fire
- By: Philip Bailey, Keith Zimmerman, Kent Zimmerman
- Narrated by: Philip Bailey
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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With more than 90 million records sold and eight Grammy Awards throughout its 40-year history, Earth, Wind & Fire has staked its claim as one of the most successful, influential, and beloved acts in music history. Now, for the first time, its dynamic lead singer, Philip Bailey, chronicles the group's meteoric rise to stardom and his own professional and spiritual journey. Never before had a musical act crossed multiple styles and genres with a quixotic blend of astrology, universalism, and Egyptology as Earth, Wind & Fire (EWF) did when it exploded into the public's conscience during the 1970s.
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Great book, but needed pro narrator
- By Wayne on 03-23-16
By: Philip Bailey, and others
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John Lennon
- The Life
- By: Philip Norman
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
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Philip Norman turns his formidable talent to the Beatle for whom belonging to the world's most beloved pop group was never enough. Drawing on previously untapped sources, and with unprecedented access to all the major characters, here is the definitive portrait of John Lennon. This biography takes a fresh and penetrating look at Lennon's much-chronicled life, including the songs that have turned him, posthumously, into almost a secular saint.
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Really Bad Abridgement Job (slash job)
- By Let's Be Reasonable on 12-04-08
By: Philip Norman
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Being John Lennon
- A Restless Life
- By: Ray Connolly
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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What was it like to be John Lennon? What was it like to be the castoff child, the clown at school, the middle-class suburban boy who pretended to be a working-class hero? How did it feel to have one of the most recognizable singing voices in the world but to dislike it so much he always wanted to disguise it? Being John Lennon is not about the whitewashed Prince of Peace of “Imagine” legend - because that was only a small part of him. The John Lennon depicted in this book is a much more kaleidoscopic figure, sometimes almost a collision of different characters.
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Stars taken off for inclusion of MDC’s story
- By rob on 12-09-22
By: Ray Connolly
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Beatles '66
- The Revolutionary Year
- By: Steve Turner
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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The year that changed everything for the Beatles was 1966 - the year of their last concert and of Revolver, their first album created to be listened to rather than performed. This was the year the Beatles risked their popularity by retiring from live performances, recording songs that explored alternative states of consciousness, experimenting with avant-garde ideas, and speaking their minds on issues of politics, war, and religion. Music journalist and Beatles expert Steve Turner investigates the enormous changes that took place in the Beatles' lives and work during 1966.
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Great listen
- By Tad Davis on 07-28-18
By: Steve Turner
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Fornication
- The Red Hot Chili Peppers Story
- By: Jeff Apter
- Narrated by: Adrian Mulraney
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Despite an epic reputation for exhibitionism, drug taking, and drunkenness, through it all the Chili Peppers have continued to produce records that shock, challenge, and intrigue their fans. Jeff Apter tells the complete Red Hot Chili Peppers story, from their first meeting at a Los Angeles high school to the creation of such career-defining albums as BloodSugarSexMagik, Californication and By The Way.
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Cabron
- By Amazon Customer on 10-02-19
By: Jeff Apter
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Somebody to Love
- The Life, Death and Legacy of Freddie Mercury
- By: Matt Richards, Mark Langthorne
- Narrated by: Tim Bruce
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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When Freddie Mercury died in 1991, aged just 45, the world was rocked by the vibrant and flamboyant star's tragic secret that he had been battling AIDS. That Mercury had even been diagnosed came as a shock to his millions of fans, with his announcement coming less than 24 hours before his death. In Somebody to Love, biographers Mark Langthorne and Matt Richards skilfully weave Freddie Mercury's incredible pursuit of musical greatness with Queen, his upbringing and his endless search for love with the story of a terrible disease.
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Stunning dual biography of Freddie and AIDS
- By tru britty on 07-19-18
By: Matt Richards, and others
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Dig If You Will the Picture
- Funk, Sex, God and Genius in the Music of Prince
- By: Ben Greenman
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Ben Greenman, New York Times best-selling author, contributing writer to The New Yorker, and owner of thousands of recordings of Prince and Prince-related songs, knows intimately that there has never been a rock star as vibrant, mercurial, willfully contrary, experimental, or prolific as Prince. Uniting a diverse audience while remaining singularly himself, Prince was a tireless artist, a musical virtuoso and chameleon, and a pop-culture prophet.
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Reads like a indepth career review & analysis
- By herb on 05-18-17
By: Ben Greenman
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The History of Rock & Roll
- Volume 1: 1920-1963
- By: Ed Ward
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Ed Ward covers the first half of the history of rock & roll in this sweeping and definitive narrative - from the 1920s, when the music of rambling medicine shows mingled with the songs of vaudeville and minstrel acts to create the very early sounds of country and rhythm and blues, to the rise of the first independent record labels post-World War II, and concluding in December 1963, just as an immense change in the airwaves took hold and the Beatles prepared for their first American tour.
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Author's blindspots mar this book
- By Mark Clark on 03-28-17
By: Ed Ward
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1965
- The Most Revolutionary Year in Music
- By: Andrew Grant Jackson
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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During 12 unforgettable months in the middle of the turbulent '60s, America saw the rise of innovative new sounds that would change popular music as we knew it. In 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music, music historian Andrew Grant Jackson (Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of The Beatles' Solo Careers) chronicles a groundbreaking year of creativity fueled by rivalries between musicians and continents, sweeping social changes, and technological breakthroughs.
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Seems like a good overview
- By wylie smith on 01-12-23
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Who I Am
- By: Pete Townshend
- Narrated by: Pete Townshend
- Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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From the voice of a generation: the most highly anticipated autobiography of the year, and the story of a man who wanted The Who to be called The Hair; wanted to be a sculptor, a journalist, a dancer and a graphic designer; became a musician, composer, librettist, fiction writer, literary editor, sailor; drank too much and nearly died; detached from his body in an airplane, on LSD, and nearly died; planned to write his memoir when he was 21; and published this book at 67.
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Glad To Meet You
- By Mel on 10-12-12
By: Pete Townshend
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Brian Jones
- The Making of the Rolling Stones
- By: Paul Trynka
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Brian Jones is a forensic, thrilling account of Jones' life, which for the first time details his pioneering achievements and messy unraveling. With more than 120 new interviews, Trynka offers countless new revelations and sets straight the tall tales that have long marred Jones' legacy. His story is a gripping battle between creativity and ambition, between self-sabotage and betrayal. It's all here: the girlfriends, the drugs, and some of the greatest music of all time.
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Great story, exceptionally well narrated
- By M. Graham on 11-17-15
By: Paul Trynka
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King of the Blues
- The Rise and Reign of B.B. King
- By: Daniel De Visé
- Narrated by: Cary Hite
- Length: 17 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Riley “Blues Boy” King (1925-2015) was born into deep poverty in Jim Crow Mississippi. Wrenched away from his sharecropper father, B.B. lost his mother at age 10, leaving him more or less alone. Music became his emancipation from exhausting toil in the fields. Inspired by a local minister’s guitar and by the records of Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone Walker and encouraged by his cousin, the established blues man Bukka White, B.B. taught his guitar to sing in the unique solo style that, along with his relentless work ethic and humanity, became his trademark.
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Excellent
- By Sonny Garcia on 01-02-24
By: Daniel De Visé