Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs Review

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(More customer reviews)What a wonderful book! This is a book I wish I had written, if only to write the sentence "Seeing Guys and Dolls on opening night in 1950 was my nirvana as a musical comedy fan"! It's one long love letter to the great American songwriters, both composers and lyricists: the oft-written about Kern, Hammerstein, Berlin, the Gershwins, Porter, Arlen, Sondheim, Lerner, Loewe, Ellington, Rodgers and Hart, and the less-written about Dorothy Fields, Harburg, Youmans, Schwartz, Dietz, Warren, Weill, Styne, Comden/Green, Loesser, Cahn, Van Heusen, Kander, Ebb, Bock & Harnick. Though Zinsser is a pianist himself, he keeps the technical discussion to a minimum. He's dug up photographs I've never seen before: Frank Loesser sweating on a New York park bench; Barbra sitting on Jule Styne's lap; Johnny Mercer recording (I didn't know he was popular singer as well as gifted lyricist.) And the sheet music! He's included b&w pictures of dozens of vintage sheet music cover art: the Art Deco "Roberta"; "Just in Time" with '50's linear design motifs; a Toulouse-Lautrec knockoff for a '20's Rodgers and Hart song. Zinsser very interestingly keeps the biographical info to a bare minimum, concentrating on the melodic structure of the tune, the "rules" of song structure and how the rules were effectively broken; and the lyrics which are central to his appreciation of a song. He has lovingly captured an era I was born too late for but which lives on.

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To a Child Love Is Spelled Time: What a Child Really Needs from You Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is just long enough. Not overwhelming. It really inspired me to think more about my children and what they need even when I am "too busy". Very encouraging and nice, I made copies of a lot of the quotes to put up around my house for reminders.

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Parents work very hard to give their children what they desire. Whether it be the newest video game or the latest fashion, they strive to make their children's lives better, Reveals the one thing children need the most is often in the shortest supply - their parents' time. Encourages parents to make time for the things that are truly important.

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What Wondrous Love Is This (with CD): Hymns of Wonder and Worship to Remember His Love (Hymns of Love and Worship) Review

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(More customer reviews)I am listening to my copy of the CD as I order three more copies of this fabulous book and CD to give away. What a deal! Easter is only a week away and the hymns in it are most appropriate to express our joy at Christ's redeeming work on the Cross and His glorious resurrection. Today's modern "worship" music can NEVER compare to rich and beautiful hymns of better days.

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There are few things that create in our hearts such myriad emotions as meditating on Christ's crucifixion. Focusing on His sacrifice moves us to struggle with our humanity and guilt. Yet we cannot help but sing with joy as we remember His resurrection and the life that it brings us.

The heart-stirring lyrics of the hymns that center on these momentous events help us fully experience the meaning of Christ's great work on the cross. The intriguing histories, biblical wisdom, and inspirational messages included with each of the twelve hymns shared here will move your spirit as well.

Coupled with the enclosed music CD featuring performances of these favorite standards, you'll find this book to be a source of hopeful reflection on the glorious mysteries of Christ's death and resurrection.

Listen to 30-second excerpts from the CD
Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
What Wondrous Love Is This
Were You There?
He Was Wounded
Jesus Paid It All
Beneath the Cross of Jesus
And Can It Be That I Should Gain (full song)
Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness
Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross
There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood
Up From the Grave He Arose
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

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Singers of the Century, Vol. 3 Review

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(More customer reviews)Like its predecessor volumes, in this third (and final) instalment of this wonderful series, vocal connoisseur John B. Steane has once again managed to paint colourful and interesting vignettes for 63 notable singers of the 20th century. Restricting himself to around 1,500 words per chapter (there are altogether 50 of them arranged in random order), Steane goes straight into the heart of the matter and reveals with immense vividness and insight why the voices and images of those featured artistes are so dear to our hearts and why they occupy such exalted places in the annals of classical vocalism.
Given the limited space available, instead of charting the career of each singer in detail, Steane would highlight a few special recordings, performances or even musical phrases and gestures which, in his view, best embody the art, character and aura of these often larger-than-life personalities. These are buttressed by personal recollections and observations by the author himself throughout his many years of music appreciation. Indeed, given the wealth of Steane's experience, his views are often exceptionally illuminating, such as those in the discussion of the art of the French song (chapter for Gerard Souzay), the assessment of Alfredo Kraus's Werther, the almost phrase-by-phrase comparison between the Macbeths of Renato Bruson and Sherrill Milnes, the revelation of the "magic" of Maggie Teyte, the explanation Plancon's greatness and expressivity as a singer (as illustrated by the aria "Vi raviso, o luoghi amen"), the delineation of "Ich" by Ian Bostridge in Schubert's Winterreise, the outlining of the various strengths and weaknesses of Cecilia Bartoli, and the touching re-appraisal of Enrico Caruso, whose chapter brings the entire series to an end.
The actual style of writing is witty, warm and stylish. While an air of authority does seep into every phrase, there is also a sense of charm and intimacy throughout that makes the book hugely readable. Steane also quotes quite a lot from other eminent critics, some in support and some to contradict (e.g. those in the chapter on Claudia Muzio). Nevertheless, whether one agrees with Steane's assessments or not, the voices and images of these featured singers will immediately spring to one's mind when reading these delightful portraits, making one eager to reach for those records which have given one so much pleasure in the past to admire them with renewed interest or from a different (and perhaps more enlightened) perspective.
In the Foreword, Steane once again reiterates that the choice of singers in this series has been personal. Nevertheless, taking the 3 volumes of "Singers of the Century" as a whole, Steane does seem to favour those who possess a more traditionally beautiful voice (or a smoother vocal production) and those who have recorded well in the studio. And there are many glaring omissions: Astrid Varnay, Fritz Wunderlich, Gwyneth Jones, Jose van Dam, Anja Silja, Wolfgang Windgassen, Fedora Barbieri, Alessandro Bonci, Ebe Stignani, Piero Cappuccilli, Giulietta Simionato, Pierre Bernac, Helen Traubel, James King, Claire Croiza, Leo Nucci, Johanna Gadski, Mark Reizan, Agnes Baltsa, Cesare Siepi, Fiorenza Cossotto, Ramon Vinay, Ileana Cotrubas, Charles Santley, Teresa Berganza, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Anna Moffo, Geraint Evans, Beverly Sills, Leo Slezak, Magda Olivero, Ludwig Weber, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Maria Reining, Julius Patzak, Suzanne Danco, Gottlob Frick, Bidu Sayao, Maurice Renaud, Teresa Stratas, Erich Kunz, Lisa Della Casa, Leopold Simoneau, Rita Streich, Walter Berry, Leonie Rysanek, Kurt Bohme, Maria Muller, Paul Schoffler, Lilian Nordica etc.. Even when restricted to singers of the older generation, this reviewer can still easily name 50 other celebrated artistes which have not been featured in this three-volume series.
Can we have some more, please?

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The subjects of this third volume range from survivors of the so-called Golden Age of the 1890s, such as the formidable Lotte Lehman, to those whom the 20th century has bequeathed to the 21st, such as Cecilia Bartoli and Ian Bostridge. This is a personal selection that includes many of the great names, including Melchior, heldentenor of the century, and Gigli, the most popular Italian singer of his generation. The entire series (for this is the final volume) ends with a chapter on Caruso, still widely regarded as the greatest of all.Steane's critical essays seek out the special qualities of each singer and relate them to wider concerns in music and in life. His eloquent descriptions of the nuances of the vocal art are wonderful examples of the best kind of music appreciation. HARDCOVER.

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Poets Thinking: Pope, Whitman, Dickinson, Yeats Review

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(More customer reviews)I can't believe this book hasn't been reviewed yet. I found it a very thought-provoking insight into the techniques of these four poets. I particularly enjoyed the analyses of Whitman and Yeats, with the Pope and Dickinson running close second. This is not popularized dumbed-down literary criticism, but a rigorous examination of substantive issues. You will get out of it what you put into it.
Pope: His caricature devices include synecdoche, diminutive nicknames, scientific reduction (gold is yellow dirt), classical allusion, anticlimax (wisest, brightest, meanest), and word substitution (damned to everlasting [condemnation] fame).
Whitman: One of his devices is to state things reportorially, and then to restate them from a position of extreme empathetic identification with the things described, shifting from an emphasis on verbs to an emphasis on nouns; narrative incident turns to lyric description.
Dickinson: She gives the semblance of control by dividing a process into a series of arbitrary slots which she fills with detail, e.g a poem about a train's journey makes several stops at certain places, but other possible places it could have stopped are not mentioned. Vendler labels this "chromatic linear advance." Early on there was a definite ending in her poems, but this became more ambiguous as she got older. Also, things went from being ordered chronologically to being ordered in an emotional hierarchy.
Yeats: Overlayed images to present a vertical harmony of choral unison. Here's a typical Vendler sentence: "Yeats's bitter diptychs, though presented serially, are contrived so as to assemble themselves ultimately into a densely overwritten palimpsest." He frequently moved a single poem's mode from narration to meditation to an ode.
That's about 120 pages of densely overwritten Helen Vendler in a nutshell.

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Poetry has often been considered an irrational genre, more expressive than logical, more meditative than given to coherent argument. And yet, in each of the four very different poets she considers here, Helen Vendler reveals a style of thinking in operation; although they may prefer different means, she argues, all poets of any value are thinkers.

The four poets taken up in this volume--Alexander Pope, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and William Butler Yeats--come from three centuries and three nations, and their styles of thinking are characteristically idiosyncratic. Vendler shows us Pope performing as a satiric miniaturizer, remaking in verse the form of the essay, Whitman writing as a poet of repetitive insistence for whom thinking must be followed by rethinking, Dickinson experimenting with plot to characterize life's unfolding, and Yeats thinking in images, using montage in lieu of argument.

With customary lucidity and spirit, Vendler traces through these poets' lines to find evidence of thought in lyric, the silent stylistic measures representing changes of mind, the condensed power of poetic thinking. Her work argues against the reduction of poetry to its (frequently well-worn) themes and demonstrates, instead, that there is always in admirable poetry a strenuous process of thinking, evident in an evolving style--however ancient the theme--that is powerful and original.
(20040801)

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The Ballad of Matthew's Begats: An Unlikely Royal Family Tree Review

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(More customer reviews)My family has really appreciated Andrew Peterson's Christmas album, so a book from one of the songs on that album was of immediate interst to us. The lyrics which are the backbone of this book come from a song tracing the genealogy of Jesus as found in Matthew's gospel. If you can do that in an interesting way in a kids' book you have accomplised something! And Peterson does it. He includes little "Did you know?" facts along the way on various people in the genealogy. This is a fun and educational book. It also comes with a CD of the song.

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Who says all those "begats" in the first chapter of Matthew aren't fun to read? Kids and parents will have fun reading and singing along with this joyful Andrew Peterson song. The lyrics tell not only of the Biblical list of relatives, but for the first time, kids will learn why the "begats" are extremely important. This story and song demonstrate that Abraham's long lineage lead directly to the most important Bible character ever . . . Jesus Christ.This special book bridges the Old Testament and New Testament, showing Jesus' birth as part of God's plan from the very beginning. Interesting "Did You Know?" elements featured throughout the book to give kids fun facts about this Unlikely Royal Family Tree.

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Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues Review

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(More customer reviews)Many Americans have shown a great interest in "roots" music as part of a highly commendable effort to understand our country's life and culture. Much of this interest has, over the years, focused on the blues of the Mississippi Delta and, in particular, on the recordings of singer and guitarist Robert Johnson (1911 -1938). Johnson was an obscure figure in his day and his life and music remain the stuff of legend. He had two recording dates in 1936 and 1937. His music was rediscovered in the 1960s and since that time the sales of his collected recordings have numbered in the millions.
In "Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues" (2004), Elijah Wald offers a compelling study of the blues and of blues historiography focusing on Robert Johnson. Wald tries to correct what he deems to be the prevailing myths about Johnson: that he was a primitive folk artist caught in the Mississippi Delta who recorded and perfected a local traditional form of blues. Wald finds Johnson an ambitious young singer who had studied the blues forms popular in his day. Johnson, Wald argues, wanted to escape the Mississippi Delta and pattern himself on the urban blues singers, in particular Leroy Carr, emanating from the midwest and Chicago.
Wald finds that Johnson displayed a variety of blues styles in his recordings and that he was largely ignored by black music listeners of his day because Johnson's early efforts to capture an urban blues style were basically copies of more successful singers and because his songs in the Delta blues style lacked appeal to the urban and sophisticated black audience of the time.
Johnson's music only became well-known, Wald argues, with the rise of English rock, and with his rediscovery by a largely white audience. The tastes of black music listeners had moved in a mostly different direction towards soul, funk, rap, disco and did not encompass rural blues singers. The fascination of modern listeners with Johnson, according to Wald, is due to a romantic spirit -- a boredom with the life of the everyday -- and a search for a past full of authentic individuals who knew their own wants and needs and who projected themselves in their art.
Wald's book begins with a history of the blues before Robert Johnson focusing on the commercial character the music had at the outset. He gives a great deal of attention to the Blues queens -- Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey -- and to their smooth-voiced male sucessors, particularly Leroy Carr, as mentioned above, and Lonnie Johnson. These singers profoundly influenced Johnson's music and his ambitions to become a popular entertainer and not a cult figure.
The central part of Wald's book consists of a brief biography of Johnson -- summarizing the various speculations on his life -- and of a song-by-song discussion of his recordings. In this discussion, Wald discusses the music with a great deal of intelligence and understanding. He shows very clearly Johnson's debts to his more commercially sucessful predecessors and explains as well the variety of blues styles Johnson encompassed in his songs.
The final portion of the book carries the story of the blues forward beyond Robert Johnson's death. It shows how the music at first evolved into a combo style, again approaching popular music, which took blues into a different direction from Johnson's recordings. The book concludes with a discussion of Johnson's rediscovery, and the discovery of other Delta blues singers, beginning in the 1960's.
Wald clearly knows his material. For all his criticism of the mythmaking cult over Johnson, Wald's love for this music shines through, as he is the first to admit. Upon reading this book, I spent considerable time relistening to Johnson's music and felt I came away with a better understanding and appreciation of it than I had before. The goal of every book about music should be to encourage its readers to return to (or get to know) the songs, or what have you, themselves. The book meets this goal admirably.
There are few books on the blues that manage to be both scholarly, critical, and inspiring and Wald's book is one of these few. I do not find Wald's thesis as unsusual as he claims it to be, but it certainly will be worth exploring by listeners and readers who do not have a large backround in this music.
In music, a fair and careful historical account will in the long run perform a greater service to the music and the artists than will legends and stereotypes. The Delta singers discussed in this book, Robert Johnson, Son House, Skip James, Charley Patton, were musicians of talent. Understanding their story can only increase the listener's appreciation of the blues.

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What About Me? Review

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(More customer reviews)No one creates colorful, eye-popping collages like the very, very popular artist Ed Young. He's the winner of three Caldecott awards; "Seven Blind Mice" is an all time favorite. The cut-paper collages in his latest book are, indeed, works of art.
Once again, Mr. Young returns to an ancient fable for inspiration in this story of a little boy who wanted only one thing: knowledge. `I shall see a Grand Master," he concluded. The Grand Master responded that the boy needed to bring him a small carpet for his work.
When the boy located a carpetmaker, the artisan replied that he needed thread. A spinner woman cannot provide him with thread without goat hair to make the thread and the goatkeeper cannot give him goat hair without goats. All of these people say, "What about me?"
Will the boy ever manage to satisfy everyone and get himself a little knowledge at the same time? There's a lot to learn from this Middle Eastern fable, and much enjoyment to be found in Mr. Young's art.
- Gail Cooke

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Romantic Medievalism: History and the Romantic Literary Ideal Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a genuinely exasperating book. The topic, Romantic medievalism, is of great interest to anyone interested in the rapidly changing historical imagination in the early nineteenth century. Fay's project at first promises unique insights into Romantic medievalism by shifting our attention away from both the novel and Romantic conservatism (commonly joined together in the figure of Sir Walter Scott) to poetry and medievalism's more skeptical and/or radical modes. To do so, she makes a distinction between the troubadour position, which is ironic, skeptical, lyric, and only problematically masculine ("effeminated," as she puts it), and the knightly position, which is "noble" and "manly." From this distinction, she constructs a number of subtly delineated readings of authors ranging from members of the Romantic "big five" to less canonical figures like Seward and LEL.
Now, this is all very well, were it not for one bizarre problem that completely vitiates the argument: Fay supplies virtually no evidence to support it. We are over forty pages into the book before we get extended quotations from _any_ literary text. Throughout, Fay cheerfully makes complex assertions about the writings of a poet like Seward without ever bothering to cite a single line in support of said assertions--or even a single poem, in some cases. Worse still, when Fay does occasionally remember to provide a close reading, it is often difficult to see _how_ the conclusions actually relate to the original poem. Her account of medieval troubadour poetry appears to be based entirely on second-hand reading; moreover, given the lack of textual support, it is unclear if Fay's reading (or, at least, her derived reading) of the troubadour/knight position can actually be reconciled with what the Romantics thought about it. The reader can therefore neither follow Fay's thought processes nor confirm the analysis for herself. This goes for even the most advanced reader, since it is not always clear to what poem(s) Fay is referring. Where on earth was Fay's editor? The result is a book that will be useless to all but the most advanced graduate students and faculty, and then only specialists in the field.

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The Romantic period was characterized by a new historical self-consciousness in which history, and in particular the medieval, became an important screen for comprehending the present. Recent Scholarship has proposed contending theories for understanding how the historical is used to symbolize the political in the period. Romantic Medievalism takes an original position in proposing a critical difference in how the medieval was used to interpret the present, arguing that, where as the conservative writers identified with the knight of romance, radical writers identified with the troubadour of the courtly love lyric.

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Theatre World Volume 59 - 2002-2003: Hardcover Review

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(More customer reviews)This series of books is now in it's 59th year and is a wonderful record of what has happen on Broadway, Off Broadway & Off Off Broadway etc. With colour and Black and White Photos of all production that opened in the year covered buy the book
Theatrenut

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Highlights of this new Theatre World, now in its 59th year, include the 8-Tony winning Hairspray with award winners Harvey Firestein and Marissa Jaret Winokur; the Tony-winning Best Play Take Me Out; hot director David Leveaux's reimagining of Nine: The Musical, featuring the sensational Antonio Banderas and Jane Krakowski; the star-studded revival of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night with Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Dennehy, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robert Sean Leonard; and the groundbreaking Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam. Notable Off-Broadway and touring productions include the anti-death penalty play The Exonerated; Kate Mulgrew as Katharine Hepburn in Tea at Five; Dinner at Eight with the late John Ritter; Talking Heads with Lynn Redgrave, Christine Ebersole and Kathleen Chalfant; and the highly regarded Stephen Adly Guirgis' Our Lady of 121st St. Theatre World, the statistical and pictorial record of the Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway seasons, touring companies, and professional regional companies throughout the United States, is a classic in its field. The book is complete with cast listings, replacements, producers, directors, authors, composers, opening and closing dates, and song titles. There are special sections with biographical data, obituary information, a longest-runs listing, an expanded theatrical awards section, and much more. Now featuring 16 pages of color photos! Over 600 photos in all. "Nothing brings back a theatrical season better, or holds on to it more lovingly, than John Willis' Theatre World - an addiction for theatre buffs." - Playbill "If you're looking for an elaborate visual record of a theatrical season, you'll want to opt for Theatre World ... It's a keeper." - Back Stage

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Will You Take Me As I Am: Joni Mitchell's Blue Period Review

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(More customer reviews)I had the great fortune to read the uncorrected proof of Michelle Mercer's forthcoming book. _Will You Take Me as I Am: Joni Mitchell's Blue Period_ and I can tell you that you are in for a real treat when it comes out in April.
I read a lot of books about music and this one is really distinguished by the high quality of the writing. Mercer breaks with strict chronology that makes run-of-the-mill music criticism so uninteresting. Her discussion about "confessional" songwriting is fully informed by the literary history of confession from Augustine to Robert Lowell. There is a wonderful Joni monologue on Augustine--one of many fascinating excerpts from Mercer's original interviews.
For me, she really captures the core appeal of the records that she focuses on--_Blue_ through _Hejira_--, blending memoir and biography with criticism in useful ways. The book really took me back to my own personal connections with the music. While I like gossip as much as anyone else, this book has none of the prurient interest of Sheila Weller's book; rather, it captures the intricate essence of the music. It has a meditative quality that reminded me precisely about how I felt when I was coming of age with Joni's music. I didn't care about who her boyfriend was; I wanted to know, "How does she understand so well the way I feel?" This book goes a long way toward exploring that question, summed up in the quotation from Wallace Stevens's "The Man with the Blue Guitar" that serves as the book's epigraph:
And they said to him, "But play you must,
A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,
A tune upon the blue guitar,
Of things exactly as they are.
The book so exceeded my expectations that I couldn't put it down till I finished it.

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Power, Plain English, and the Rise of Modern Poetry Review

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(More customer reviews)A tightly argued piece of criticism, deploying close reading and sustained analysis with equal skill. Since it deals neither with my discipline (history) nor my period (early modern England), I must take much of the later book on faith; but the first chapter on John Locke seems both incisive and accurate. Obviously scholars of poetry will be interested in this book; I think scholars of rhetoric would also profit by taking a look.

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In this engaging book David Rosen offers a radically new account of Modern poetry and revises our understanding of its relation to Romanticism. British poets from Wordsworth to Auden attempted to present themselves simultaneously as persons of power and as moral voices in their communities. The modern lyric derives its characteristic complexities-psychological, ethical, formal-from the extraordinary difficulty of this effort.The low register of our language-a register of short, concrete, native words arranged in simple syntax-is deeply implicated in this story. Rosen shows how the peculiar reputation of "plain English" for truthfulness is employed by Modern poets to conceal the rift between their (probably irreconcilable) ambitions for themselves. With a deep appreciation for poetic accomplishment and a wonderful iconoclasm, Rosen sheds new light on the innovative as well as the self-deceptive aspects of Modern poetry. This book alters our understanding of the history of poetry in the English language.

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Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical Review

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(More customer reviews)This is essential reading for anyone interested in musical theatre, popular culture, and feminist and queer studies. Stacy Wolf combines a theatre critic's eye with a musicologist's ear to create a book that is at once insightful, provocative, and marvelously entertaining.
There is much to appreciate in this book, beginning with the fresh lens through which Wolf examines familiar and less familiar works of the American musical. The first five chapters explore notable musicals, applying a feminist reading while situating and scrutinizing the musicals within their historical context. There are fascinating connections accompanied by exceedingly smart (and accessible) analysis throughout, and one can almost hear Adelaide of Guys and Dolls, Anita of West Side Story, Charity Hope Valentine of Sweet Charity, and Cassie of A Chorus Line joining together to make a new and beautiful music. Most importantly, these chapters create a compelling case for the importance of the American musical as an essential component in theatre history and cultural studies.
The final two chapters focus almost entirely on Wicked. Even non-fans of the musical will leave with a deeper understanding of the show's impact in the first decade of the 21st Century. In particular, Wolf offers an ethnography of Wicked fansites and online chat boards, and she forcefully shows the effects of the Internet global media on musical marketing and consumption.
On a personal note, this book made me nostalgic for my own discovery of My Fair Lady, a cast recording my parents had long since stopped playing, and the blissful, yet solitary hours I spent listening to the record on our old HiFi. I can only imagine the pleasure of knowing that there were kids as passionate as I about Broadway shows (even if I didn't actually see one until I was well past puberty) and how this online community might share our musical theatre fantasies. I can only guess that I, too, would have been changed for good.
James F. Wilson

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From Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls" to Nina in "In the Heights" and Elphaba in "Wicked," female characters in Broadway musicals have belted and crooned their way into the American psyche. In this lively book, Stacy Wolf illuminates the women of American musical theatre - performers, creators, and characters -- from the start of the cold war to the present day, creating a new, feminist history of the genre.Moving from decade to decade, Wolf first highlights the assumptions that circulated about gender and sexuality at the time.She then looks at the leading musicals to stress the key aspects of the plays as they relate to women, and often finds overlooked moments of empowerment for female audience members. The musicals discussed here are among the most beloved in the canon--"West Side Story," "Cabaret," "A Chorus Line," "Phantom of the Opera," and many others--with special emphasis on the blockbuster "Wicked." Along the way, Wolf demonstrates how the musical since the mid-1940s has actually been dominated by women--women onstage, women in the wings, and women offstage as spectators and fans.

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I Want to Take You Higher: The Life and Times of Sly and the Family Stone Review

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(More customer reviews)Given the impact Sly Stone had on pop music in the 1960s and after, it's amazing more books haven't been written on the life and times of America's first master of funk. Jeff Kaliss takes a comprehensive look at the man - and the group - that gave us 'Stand,' 'Hot Fun in the Summertime,' 'Everyday People,' 'Thank You (Falettineme Be Mice Elf Agin' and other pop classics. Kaliss has done a marvelous job of researching his subject and I WANT TO TAKE YOU HIGHER is a must-read for all Sly Stone/Sixties rock music fans.
No Sixties group could touch Sly and the Family Stone for catchy, infectious songs that jumped off the vinyl and got their listeners up and shaking their tailfeathers. Yet Sly's songs weren't just empty-headed dance tunes for, wrapped up in those funky beats, were sincere, heartfelt calls for brotherhood and understanding. Tragically, the joy and magic and fun generated by the Family Stone's creation and initial success fell victim to drugs. Original group members left and Sly launched into a roller-coaster, drug-fueled ride that turned this tremendous talent into a reclusive Howard Hughes clone.
I WANT TO TAKE YOU HIGHER is a fairly slim volume - only 210 pages long - but Kaliss' in-depth research, which included interviews with original group members and even the man himself(!) produced an insightful, informative tale. While Kaliss doesn't shy away from warts-and-all exposure, his tone is even-handed and sympathetic.
The book's emphasis is on Sly and Company. After all, its sub-title is 'The Life and Times of Sly and the Family Stone.' So, while Kaliss discusses the group's musical output, he doesn't devote a great deal of space to that. Personally I would have liked a bit more on the music. And I would have loved it if Kaliss had dropped his laidback sensibilities and thrown in a "This song is Bitchin!!!!!" comment or two when discussing the songs!
Reading I WANT TO TAKE YOU HIGHER leaves one with mixed emotions. The music of Sly and the Family Stone touched so many people then and now, it's sad to read of the behind-the-scene turmoil and the toll drugs took on the man and his friends. They certainly took us higher for a time and, for that, we can be grateful. And grateful to for Jeff Kaliss' wonderful book. Highly recommended.

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Over the River: A Turkey's Tale Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a cute remake of the Over the River and through the woods story. I don't know that my kids get the humor as they are not familiar with the original but the drawings make me laugh every time.

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Christie's Rock & Pop Memorabilia Review

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(More customer reviews)The demand for rock and pop memorabilia has created a diverse and eclectic market including original manuscripts and artwork by the musicians as well as mass-produced artefacts aimed at fans in the 1950s and 1960s that have become rare collector's items in the 21st century.
The various memorabilia are categorised by chapter as autographs, letters and manuscripts; recordings; guitars and other instruments; costumes; posters; printed artefacts; merchandising; awards and artwork. There is also a chapter titled Collector's Information and the book concludes with a bibliography and index.
Christie's Rock Memorabilia is a superb guide to this fast growing collector's market. The book is richly illustrated with full colour photographs and the text contains interesting anecdotes on some of the artists and the specific items of memorabilia. Even if you're not a collector, this is a fascinating read and a great reference work. Music fans will love it.

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Over the last 20 years, rock and pop memorabilia has moved out of the junk shops and into the auction houses. The most exclusive items associated with legends like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, and Jimi Hendrix have begun to attract the same prices as the paintings of the old masters.Christie's Rock & Pop Memorabilia offers the first comprehensive survey of this worldwide market. Included is everything from autographs, letters, manuscripts, posters, artwork, and guitars to mass-produced artifacts that were aimed at teenage pop fans in the 1950s and 1960s and that today are scarce and valuable collector's items. Represented in over 120 fabulous photographs are such collectibles as Eric Clapton's prized Fender Stratocaster, Elvis Presley's love letters, Elton John's outrageous outfits, and Madonna's famous black bustier.

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Sit on a Potato Pan, Otis: More Palindromes Review

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(More customer reviews)Jon Agee may be best known for his illustration of children's books ("The Halloween House", "If Snow Falls"). However, he has also proven himself a proficient wordsmith, easily and playfully pulling words all apart and putting them together. "Sit on a Potato Pan" is one of five books delighting in the oddities English spelling.
Palindromes are words or phrases that are spelled the same way forwards as backwards. Take the title of the book and spell it backwards, and it's the exact same title!! These things are not easy to create, and the longer the phrase the more difficult it is to both spell backwards and still make sense. The fact that "Sit...Otis!" is one of THREE books of palindromes by Mr. Agee only proves his genius at manipulating words and letters.
Like his other two books of palindromes, "So Many Dynamos!" and "Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!" (now THERE'S one that must have taken a few days to create!!), "Sit...Otis!" is illustrated with wonderful drawings that make the palindrome live and sparkle. For example, in one of my personal favorites, two gents in the Old West are looking at a wanted poster. Pictures of large cats are on the wanted poster, and one man says to the other, "darn ocelots stole Conrad". Another is of three men staring at 9 little pieces of scribbled on paper. They make their own notes about them, and the caption is "some men interpret nine memos".
Needless to say, these things are not easy to write!! Especially the longer, more complicated ones like "naive was I ere I saw Evian" and the one that makes the title of this book. While not a book geared for young children, students in, say, third grade and above would no doubt get a kick out of these and other palindromes. With Mr. Agee as a guide, it's a perfect opportunity for students to go on and create their own. What else is Otis capable of??

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