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Online Extra…
Get Into the Groove With These New Rock Music Books
By Diane Brown, May 2007
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The Show I'll Never Forget: 50 Writers Relive Their Most Memorable Concertgoing Experience
edited by Sean Manning (Da Capo Press)
From award-winning novelist Sigrid Nunez, who remembers being "blown away" by Janis Joplin at Woodstock, to author Dani Shapiro, still grateful to Bruce Springsteen for making it cool to be a girl from Jersey, the concertgoers in this richly diverse collection answer the question: what was the best concert you ever saw?
Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Legendary Neighborhood
by Michael Walker (Faber & Faber)
A behind-the-scenes look at the hippie section of Los Angeles that was the creative hangout for just about every late '60s rock musician. More a state of mind than a physical locale, Laurel Canyon offered a place where gifted artists such as Jim Morrison, Frank Zappa, and The Mamas and the Papas, among many others, "could write a song on a redwood deck on a Monday, record it on a Saturday, and have a hit at the top of the charts six weeks later."
Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector
by Mick Brown (Knopf, to be published June 2007)
This riveting narrative of the man credited with inventing the pop-music sound of the early '60s follows the "genius" music mogul's incredible path from troubled child to dweeby teen to precocious record producer to eccentric recluse…and, sadly, murder-trial defendant.
 Doo Wop: The Music, the Time, the Era
by "Cousin Brucie" Morrow with Rich Maloof
(Sterling, to be published November 2007)
Famous New York deejay Cousin Brucie fills us in on both the African and American origins of doo wop and rock and roll. Then, taking off his "professor's cap," he traces highlights of the music's progression from the mellow sound of the Mills Brothers to the funkier hits of the Temptations—checking in with lots of other artists in between.
Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island
edited by Greil Marcus (Da Capo Press, to be published July 2007)
First published in 1978, this reissue of one of the great classics of rock journalism offers essays by 20 rock music writers, including Dave Marsh, Nick Tosches, and Ellen Willis, who explain their picks for that one indispensable rock-and-roll album they would take with them to a desert island.
Chasing the Rising Sun: The Journey of an American Song
by Ted Anthony (Simon and Schuster, to be published June 2007)
Most people know "House of the Rising Sun" as a '60s hit by British Invasion group the Animals, but it's actually had a long and fascinating history. Prize-winning author Anthony traces the song in its many incarnations—from a 1937 blues song to a Bob Dylan version—and along the way discovers how dramatically American cultural traditions have changed.
 and watch for the much anticipated…
Clapton: The Autobiography
(Broadway Books, to be published October 2007)
One of the most influential guitarists of our time (he's a 16-time Grammy winner and a triple inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame), Eric Clapton will finally tell his story. He's expected to write about playing with the Yardbirds and Cream before going solo, hanging out with Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, and working with the Beatles and the Stones—and to reveal much about his turbulent personal life: the drug addiction; failed marriage to Patti Boyd, George Harrison's ex-wife; and tragic death of his four-year-old son.
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