Literature - A

A Long Strange Trip - Dennis McNally
(ISBN-13 : 978-0552171977)

The Grateful Dead were one of the most fascinating rock bands and cultural phenomena of the twentieth century. Despite having few mainstream hits, from 1965 to 1995 the Dead blazed an extraordinary incendiary trail across the rock firmament. Exploding from the roots and folk scene of the early 1960s, the Dead went on to provide the soundtrack to the Dionysiac revels of the burgeoning counterculture. Their history is the history of the modern American Revolution in the years of rage and rebellion, which were to change the country forever.

Here is the band's full story. Not just a brilliant rock biography, it forms a compelling portrait of America's West Coast from the halcyon days of Magic Buses and Merry Pranksters to the corporate dawn of the twenty-first century.

Aces Back to Back: The History of the Grateful Dead (1965 - 2016) - Scott W. Allen
(ISBN-13 : 978-1478719434)

Aces Back to Back is the most comprehensive, fun, fact-filled and up-to-date history of the Grateful Dead ever written - now updated through August, 2016 !! From the band's inception, through the death of Jerry Garcia, and on to their incarnations as the Other Ones, the Dead, RatDog, Phil Lesh and Friends, the Mickey Hart Band, 7 Walkers, and Furthur - a replete history complemented by never-before-penned Grateful Dead stories, anecdotes and tales.

Our biography features a Foreword from Grateful Dead lyricist and renowned civil libertarian John Perry Barlow. The cover is drawn by acclaimed poster artist Steve Johannsen (Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh and Friends, RatDog, Furthur, Gov't Mule) and the interior features 18 original illustrations by Steve and the gifted Lauren Kroutil. In his brand-new, updated 2nd edition, available September 1, Scott has added several new, amazing stories to the Grateful Dead canon, never-before-published tales that add to his already fantastic and exacting account of the Dead's history, which is told from their earliest roots - the spring, 1961 introduction of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter - and detailed right up to the Gathering of the Vibes festival in Connecticut in August, 2014.

Few moments in the band's history in-between are missed !! Aces Back to Back celebrates the most minute - Weir gets to sing almost all of the songs at two '78 shows because Jerry is ill - and doesn't forget any of the glory: the Acid Tests, the Sixties, the Haight-Ashbury, Woodstock, Watkins Glen, the Wall of Sound, the band's late-career success with In the Dark, the Warlocks shows in '89, the Deadheads, and so on. All the key players are here, too: Dr. Albert Hofmann, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, the Family Dog, the Mime Troupe, Augustus Owsley Stanley III, Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm, Tom Constanten, Winterland, lyricists Robert Hunter and John Barlow, Bill Graham, Mouse and Kelley, Betty Cantor-Jackson, Dan Healy, Bill Walton, Jerry's guitar history with luthier Doug Irwin, the Egypt shows, Bob Bralove, John Cutler, et. al. Today, the Grateful Dead's music continues to reverberate within the hearts and souls of their fans - faithful, long-time Deadheads and younger audiences drawn to the band's legendary, magical appeal, making Aces Back to Back a must-read for fans of all ages !! Scott W. Allen wrote for Relix magazine from 1983 until 1992, serving as Senior Writer, columnist ("Fragments"), and feature article writer. He is a veteran of nearly 250 Grateful Dead concerts and has taught on the high school and college levels for more than 25 years. Mr. Allen was commissioned by the Library of Congress to write the essay that accompanied the enshrinement into the National Recording Registry of the Grateful Dead's show on May 8, 1977 at Barton Hall on the campus of Cornell University.

Acid Drops: Adventures in Psychedelia - Andy Roberts (ISBN-13 : 978-0992808860)

Acid Drops is a collection of essays, interviews, and fiction by renowned historian Andy Roberts, author of Albion Dreaming: A Popular History of LSD in Britain. Historical articles on the banning of LSD in Britain and Welsh Psilocybin festivals, are coupled with intimate interviews with such figures as LSD chemist Casey Harrison, Jeff Dexter, Andy Munro, and Liz Elliot.

As well as being an extraordinary record of British psychedelic culture over the last sixty years, the book is a very frank account of the author's personal experiences of LSD and the world of the counterculture. It includes a Foreword by MDMA researcher Dr Ben Sessa, and an Afterword by the occultist Julian Vayne.

All Gates Open: The Story of Can - Rob Young, Irmin Schmidt
(ISBN-13 : 978-0571311491)

All Gates Open presents the definitive story of arguably the most influential and revered avant-garde band of the late twentieth century: CAN. It consists of two books.

In Book One, Rob Young gives us the full biography of a band that emerged at the vanguard of what would come to be called the Krautrock scene in late sixties Cologne. With Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay - two classically trained students of Stockhausen - at the heart of the band, CAN's studio and live performances burned an incendiary trail through the decade that followed: and left a legacy that is still reverberating today in hip hop, post rock, ambient, and countless other genres. Rob Young's account draws on unique interviews with all founding members of CAN, as well as their vocalists, friends and music industry associates. And he revisits the music, which is still deliriously innovative and unclassifiable more than four decades on. All Gates Open is a portrait of a group who worked with visionary intensity and belief, outside the system and inside their own inner space.

Book Two, Can Kiosk, has been assembled by Irmin Schmidt, founding member and guiding spirit of the band, as a 'collage - a technique long associated with CAN's approach to recording. There is an oral history of the band drawing on interviews that Irmin made with musicians who see CAN as an influence - such as Bobby Gillespie, Geoff Barrow, Daniel Miller, and many others. There are also interviews with artists and filmmakers like Wim Wenders and John Malkovitch, where Schmidt reflects on more personal matters and his work with film. Extracts of Schmidt's notebook and diaries from 2013-14 are also reproduced as a reflection on the creative process, and the memories, dreams, and epiphanies it entails. Can Kiosk offers further perspectives on a band that have inspired several generations of musicians and filmmakers in the voices of the artists themselves.

CAN were unique, and their legacy is articulated in two books in this volume with the depth, rigour, originality, and intensity associated with the band itself. It is illustrated throughout with previously unseen art, photographs, and ephemera from the band's archive.

A Gathering of Promises: The Battle for Texas's Psychedelic Music, from The 13th Floor Elevators to The Black Angels and Beyond - Ben Graham (ISBN-13 : 978-1782790945)

A Gathering of Promises is a history of acid rock and psychedelic music in and from the state of Texas, focusing largely on its mid-1960s origins with the 13th Floor Elevators and contemporaries such as the Golden Dawn, the Red Crayola and Bubble Puppy, and following its development to the present day and the popularity of the annual Austin Psych Fest.

Grounded in a strong social, cultural and historical context, the book asks how Texas produced some of the most extreme and influential psych of any era despite a prevailing social ethos of Christian conservatism and the strictest drug laws of any American state. It looks at how this environment shaped and affected the music, alongside the Texan frontier spirit and its championing of expansion, freedom and individualism.

A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock & the 1970s - Mike Barnes
(ISBN-13 : 978-1780389202)

Progressive rock a genre formed out of a creative surge in the late Sixties and throughout the Seventies originated and flowered most spectacularly in the UK. Made by young musicians for a young audience, prog music looked towards new horizons by synthesising rock, jazz, folk, classical and other styles.

While prog has always divided critical opinion, in its heyday it had a large and devoted fanbase, and the era s biggest acts from Pink Floyd to Genesis went on to enjoy long-lasting international and commercial success. Although the scene fragmented in the late Seventies, new generations of young listeners continue to discover the unique sounds of prog today.

Examining the myths and misconceptions surrounding the genre, music journalist Mike Barnes (MOJO, The Wire, Prog, and author of the acclaimed biography Captain Beefheart) paints a vivid, colourful picture of the Seventies based on his own interviews with the musicians, music business insiders, journalists and DJs, and the personal testimonies of fans of that extraordinary decade.

Offering something new for even the keenest of prog enthusiasts, A New Day Yesterday is an entertaining and in-depth study of both the music itself and the cultural conditions and attitudes that fed into, and were affected by, this remarkable musical phenomenon.

An American Rock History, Part One: California the Golden State (1963-1985) - Hugh MacLean and Vernon Joynson (ISBN 13: 9780951287507)

This book, the first in a series of US regional discographies, was a detailed study of artists and groups from California with discographies, band personnel details, and in most cases some comment about the artists and the music. Rock, pop, jazz=rock, country-rock, folk-rock, punk, new wave, garage, psychedelia, heavy rock, new country, all are covered

An American Rock History: Part Two: Texas, Arizona and New Mexico: A Southwestern Pilgrimage (1960-1989) - Hugh MacLean, Vernon Joynson
(ISBN-13 : 978-0951287521)

Covers Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico 1960-1989. Each area has its own section. Bands, artist and titles are listed along with in depth information, and background information that is very interesting

The Acid Trip: A Complete Guide to Psychedelic Music - Vernon Joynson
(ISBN-13 : 978-0907188247)

What social and political factors helped create the Hippy culture of the late 60s? How influential was LSD on pychedelic music? Has psychedelia a future in the 80s?

Find out in The Acid Trip, which also contains discographies and musical analyses of some 200 bands, and is illustrated throughout with over 250 LP cover reproductions and photographs.

Adrift in the Ether: The Current State of the British Underground - Christopher Williams
(ISBN-13 : 978-1899855056)

From the Author
A guide to UK psychedelic music in the 1990s

This was a labour of love for me. I was so excited by the psychedelic music being made in the UK in the early 1990s (e.g. Ozric Tentacles, Porcupine Tree, Mandragora) that I felt I had to spread the good news. It gives you pretty much the full lowdown on over 200 bands from the relatively well known to the impossibly obscure (not to mention one of the longest accounts of Hawkwind you'll ever read).

There are a couple of gaps (e.g. no Man or Spacemen 3), it only goes up to the end of 1996 and the price is a bit high (not my doing) but if you are at all interested in the music it's pretty much essential.

Albion Dreaming: A popular history of LSD in Britain - Andy Roberts
(ISBN-13 : 978-9814382168)

The first book to explore the influence and history of LSD in British culture and society. Contrary to popular belief, LSD is much more connected to Britain than it is to the USA. This engaging book looks at the use of LSD in British society, from its arrival in 1952 to the present day. It provides a hidden history of a controversial drug and how it permeated British culture. The author explores LSD s use by the medical profession in treating a variety of psychological and mental problems.

At the same time, The Ministry of Defence believed they were on the brink of harnessing LSD as a battlefield incapacitation drug which would enable wars to be won without loss of life. But LSD s popularity rose with its use among the British counterculture, from the 1950s beatniks through to the late 80s acid house parties. At its height, when it was legal, LSD affected the lives and philosophies of significant individuals (politicians, scientists, writers, educators, entertainers, artists, journalists) as well as ordinary people for good and bad. This book is the first to explore LSD s amazing influence on British culture and society.

Album Cover Album, Volume 2 - Roger Dean
(ISBN-13 : 978-0905895710)

Album Cover Album: Volume 2

Album Cover Album, Volume 3 - Roger Dean
(ISBN13: 9780905895994)

Shows jazz, classical, new wave, and rock album covers from Japan, England and the United States and discusses developments in cover design.

Album Cover Album, Volume 6 - Roger Dean
(ISBN 13: 9781850282136)

Album Cover Album: Volume 6

A Pretty Smart Way to Catch a Lobster (The Alice in Wonderland Years) - Christian Paris (SBN-13 :  978-1849142151)

In 1983, 24-year old Christian Paris, bored and with nothing to do and nowhere to go, came up with the idea to start the Alice In Wonderland nightclub in London's Soho. Loosely based on 1960's psychedelia the club was a phenomenal success that lasted virtually a whole decade and led on to the legendary Magical Mystery Trips, records, a film, film festivals, the bizarre Planet Alice shops in London and Los Angeles, their very own Number One pop group and a disastrous partnership with a Beatles daughter. Doctor And The Medics, The Damned, The Cult, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Zodiac Mindwarp, Daisy Chainsaw, The Mission, Alice Cooper, Kylie Minogue, Lemmy, Nico, Prince, Chrissie Hynde, Screaming Lord Sutch, Vic Reeves, Siouxie Sioux, Johnny Thunders, Primal Scream, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Nigella Lawson, The Troggs, Bob Geldof, Wayne Sleep and Ringo Starr are just some of the well known people who feature as well a bunch of lesser known weird and wonderful characters.

So who were the Sex Bitch Goddesses, the Alien Green Jelly Girl, the Exploding Vicar, the Flower Children, the Hoover Davidson, the Nappy Twins, the Angriest Plumber In The World, Lady Posh Knickers, the Smeg Monster and the Weirdo Terrapin Girl?

Welcome to the weird, wild, wonderful world of Alice In Wonderland.

The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk: A Spectacular Visual and Oral History - Paul Grushkin
(ISBN-13 : 978-3283012984)

The best-selling visual history of the rock concert poster, now available at an irresistible price Electric, outrageous, erotic, rebellious--rock concert posters are the visual equivalent of the music they advertise. The Art of Rock traces the history of this energizing art form from the bold letterpress posters advertising Elvis's early shows, through the multicolored fantasies of the psychedelic era, to the avant-garde collages of new wave and punk. More than 1,500 posters and other graphics--tickets, backstage passes, buttons, handbills--are presented in their original blazing color (or their stark black and white, as the case may be).

The text features dozens of exclusive interviews with musicians, concert promoters, and the poster artists themselves, including legends like Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, or Wes Wilson--who also designed the cover of this book. A visual journey through thirty years of rock and roll, as well as a valuable reference, The Art of Rock is an essential volume for every music lover (and art lover).

Art of the Fillmore - Bill Graham Presents (ISBN-13 : 978-1560252429)

Legendary impresario Bill Graham began in January 1966 to commission posters to promote the concerts he was putting on at San Francisco's Fillmore auditorium. The poster artists followed the revolutionary mandate of the sixties consciousness, creating vivid, irreverent banners that reflected their own sense of poetics, style, and wit. What resulted were signature juxtapositions of design, lettering, and color that spawned a brand new art form. Their muse was the cosmic synergy that then abounded, fueled in part by LSD.

These posters have since come to occupy a place in art history while surviving priceless artifacts of rock archeology. Published in cooperation with Bill Graham Presents, this is an intoxicating compendium of the funkiest posters of the century. Highlighted in this unique, lavishly printed full-color volume are the original numbered and unnumbered series created exclusively for the San Francisco and New York Fillmore dance concerts. The more than 400 hand-drawn posters, handbills, tickets, and photographs feature art by Wes Wilson, Bonnie MacLean, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Rick Griffin, Lee Conklin, Greg Irons, Randy Tuten, David Byrd, David Singer, and Norman Orr.