Booktopia Comments: This pack really is incredible value and if you do know someone who still has a soft spot for the sixties and the music from that era then you are going to be their best friend if you give them this gift. If we listed all the fantastic endorsements and quotes that are printed on the front and back covers of these books you would think we were over doing it, but suffice to say these are excellent reads and more importantly they all come across as factual, uncut, revealing and as truthful as they can be.
Classic Rock & Roll Biographies of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, & 'Mama' Cass Elliot.
SHOUT! The True Story of the Beatles by Philip Norman.
In the first Beatles biography, Philip Norman has close working relationships with each of the Fab Four, having interviewed them many times since 1965 and observed first hand the events that led to the split during 1969-70. The resulting book contained insights into the rise of the Beatles, their final years, the chaos of Apple and the collapse of Hippy idealism.
Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus
Focuses on the production of the Basement Tapes, the suppressed recordings made by Bob Dylan and The Band in 1967 in Big Pink, Woodstock. This book returns to the folk/mythological preoccupations of Greil Marcus's "Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music".
Jimi Hendrix: The Man, the Magic, the Truth by Sharon Lawrence
Sharon Lawrence tells and shows - in rich detail - who Jimi Hendrix really was and what really happened to him during his short life, and what has happened to his legacy in the more than thirty years of greed and game-playing since his tragically early death. Fellow rock stars and musicians, childhood neighbours, lawyers and newspaper editors are among those who knew Jimi well and are now willing to speak about who he really was and what events marked his lightning-fast ride to the top, and the extraordinary highs and lows which ultimately led to his death. Insightful and revelatory, this is also an affectionate portrayal of the real Jimi by a friend who feels the time is finally right to tell the true story.
Dream a Little Dream of Me: The Life of 'Mama' Cass Elliot by Eddi Fiegel
'The greatest white female singer ever' is how Boy George described pop icon Cass Elliot, the sixties diva who was at the epicentre of US popular culture and music during the Californian hippy movement. Hailed as America's answer to the Beatles, the Mamas and the Papas' hits such as "California Dreamin" and "Monday Monday" became the soundtrack of a generation. Cass's uniquely emotive voice, charismatic wit and outsized multicoloured kaftans singled her out as a popstar who refused to conform to traditional female stereotypes. When she left the Mamas and the Papas, she immediately had a top ten hit with her debut single, "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and became the queen on Los Angeles society. Including interviews with Cass's friends and family, co-band members Michelle Phillips and Denny Doherty, and many of the famous names who knew her, this is both an insightful biography of an extraordinary singer, and a fascinating glimpse into free-living, free-loving ideals of the sixties as the optimism of the flower-child generation was crushed by the Vietnam War.
The Stones by Philip Norman
Their story - the band's rise, the Marianne Faithfull, Brian Jones and Altamont scandals, the groundbreaking hits - is the stuff of twentieth century legend, and core to popular culture. But as always, Norman's skills as a researcher and biographer bring a whole new dimension to such a story.
Click to Enlarge
