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Turn it on, turn it up
New music books bring harmony to the holidays REVIEWS BY JULIE HALE Crank up the volume this Christmas with a swinging new group of gift books that pay tribute to the tunes we love and the people who play them. BookPage has put together a symphony of selections for the music collector on your list—titles that will complement those dusty piles of vinyl or stacks of sparkling CDs. The perfect fusion of sound and vision, this medley of new books will get your holiday humming. We suggest you give them a spin. From the lens of Leibovitz Bringing together her revelatory portraits of some of the biggest names in the music industry, American Music is a collection of Annie Leibovitz's greatest hits and the ultimate photo album for any fan. From tattooed tough-guy Eminem to angelic songstress Emmylou Harris and the velvet-voiced Mary J. Blige, the images in this intuitive, passionate volume reflect the varied nature of American song today.
With photos of Ray Charles, Steve Earle, Dolly Parton and Anita O'Day, among others, Leibovitz covers all the musical genres, and her reverence for her subject matter penetrates each and every image. (Our favorite: A youthful Bruce Springsteen, iconic in biker boots and blue jeans, eating Ritz crackers in his kitchen.) Biographical info about each musician and insightful essays written by notable artists round out the volume. By turns innocent, sexy and edgy, American Music is a landmark release in the career of one of our finest photographers.
By Annie Leibovitz Random House, $75 256 pages, ISBN 0375505075 Listen to the river
To supplement her photographs, Ryerson compiled the wonderful, water-inspired reflections of a stellar group of songsmiths. Big-name contributors to the volume include Dave Brubeck, Mark O'Connor, George Winston, Mickey Hart and Renée Fleming, among many others. The book also contains the sheet music to some very special tunes, like Pete Seeger's River of My People and Bruce Cockburn's Water Into Wine. Revenues from sales of this unique volume will go to the Water Music Fund, which was established at the United Nations Foundation to provide clean water to people all over the world.
By Marjorie Ryerson University of Michigan Press, $35 208 pages, ISBN 0472113380 It's only rock 'n' roll
Featuring 350 photographs—many never seen until now—and memorabilia from the band's own archive, as well as a timeline and discography, the book is a must-have for fans of the brashest band in the music biz. Mixed in with the Stones' own stories are remembrances contributed by major players in the group's career, including Ahmet Ertegun, head of Atlantic Records, producer Don Was and photographer David Bailey. A provocative look at a timeless band, According to the Rolling Stones is a dynamic, vital and colorful portrait of a group that's only improved with age.
Chronicle, $40 360 pages, ISBN 0811840603 The blues all over again
Squeeze My Lemon was edited by Randy Poe, a former executive director of the Songwriters' Hall of Fame. He's grouped the lyrics into revealing categories ("Women-The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," "Blues and Booze") that reflect the tough lives and world-weary attitude behind the music. The rootsy anthology also features a discography of recommended albums and a selection of wonderful black-and-white photographs of major blues figures, including Ma Rainey, Muddy Waters, Big Joe Turner and Howlin' Wolf. With a foreword by B.B. King, this bouncy book will spice up your holiday season.
Edited by Randy Poe Hal Leonard, $14.95 239 pages, ISBN 0634055461
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Leibovitz's entrée into the world of professional picture-taking happened at Rolling Stone magazine, where she became chief photographer in 1973. Over a 10-year period she documented the music business, producing an unmatchable portfolio of work and building her own extensive archive, which is represented in the new volume along with a host of new material.
A remarkable homage to Earth's most ephemeral element,
i>Water Music is a luminous collection of photographs by Marjorie Ryerson accompanied by essays, poems and songs from an international lineup of musicians as they pay tribute to a precious natural resource: water. "I was enthralled by the challenge of capturing on film the astonishing breadth of ways in which water presents itself," Ryerson, a professor of communications at Castleton State College, writes in the book's preface. Her breathtaking pictures feature the capricious substance in a variety of locales and incarnations—silvery rivers and dusky swamps, cascading rain and frozen falls, from the mighty Mississippi to the Puget Sound.
Revisit the mod, mad days of the British Invasion with
According to the Rolling Stones , a comprehensive scrapbook of the band that's filled with rare images, sensational stories and an invaluable reference section. Narrated by the Stones themselves, the volume represents the collective efforts of Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ron as they pull out all the stops to provide an uncensored history of their 40-year career. Candid and direct, the foursome share a fascinating array of personal and artistic anecdotes, shedding light on the music-making process and the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.
A salty little music sampler,
Squeeze My Lemon: A Collection of Classic Blues Lyrics is a compilation of choice outtakes from some of the most soulful songs ever captured on wax. These sound bites, culled from tunes by the likes of Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson and Sonny Boy Williamson, have all the spirit and sass of the South. Full of lively metaphors, they're brief and simple yet surprisingly profound, tackling timeless topics like death, religion, and love gone wrong.