Unlocking the Masonic Code: The Secrets of the Solomon Key

Gittins, Ian

Reference

HARPER/COLLINS

A superbly illustrated, in-depth examination of the stories, events, places, and characters that inspired the songs of the Talking Heads, arguably the most significant band to emerge from the late-'70s New York punk scene based around CBGB's club. Led by guitarist-vocalist David Byrne, the band enjoyed major chart success on both sides of the Atlantic with infectious, incendiary singles like “Road to Nowhere ” “Psycho Killer ” and “Once in a Lifetime.” During their influential seventeen-year career, Talking Heads assembled a body of raw yet intellectual rock music second to none. Then in 2002, having vowed to never work together again, the four original Heads reconvened and played live when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ian Gittins has written about music and popular culture for fifteen years for such varied publications as Melody Maker, Q, The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Time Out, MTV, and the New York Times. He lives in London, England.

Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime: The Stories Behind Every Song

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Hal Leonard

A lush, pictorial look at one of the world’s most successful alternative rock bands, available in time to celebrate their 40th anniversary. Into the chaos of British punk rock, a handful of school friends led by Robert Smith announced their musical arrival in 1978 with a brash single pulled from the pages of Albert Camus. The Cure soon graduated into a series of increasingly dark and brooding albums, drawing the world’s attention to goth rock. But they resisted categorization, and subsequent albums—suffused with raw, intense emotion and featuring the breakout hits “In Between Days” and “Just Like Heaven”—attracted new legions of fans worldwide. Then, with the grand and somber Disintegration, the Cure achieved global domination, and, through fluctuating lineups and shifting sounds, they have flourished. Veteran music journalist Ian Gittins has interviewed and written about the Cure many times over the decades and brings deep insight to this unofficial retrospective of the group. This essential keepsake tells the story of the Cure—from the angular riffs of “Boys Don’t Cry” and “A Forest,” through the perfect simplicity of “Lovesong” and “Friday I’m in Love,” to headlining some of the world’s biggest music festivals—in beautiful, eye-catching color.

The Cure: A Perfect Dream

Humor & Entertainment

Union Square & Co.

Bjork is the most successful radical rock experimentalist of her generation. Contrary, inimitable, and gloriously her own, she has awed her famously dedicated fans for more than a decade with a swooping, querulous voice that has been likened to a glass not quite breaking. Bursting onto the Icelandic musical scene with a precocious album at the age of 11 and a series of releases in the 1980s that notably include her work with the Sugar Cubes, Bjork soon found herself gaining international renown as she released the jazzy Gling-Glo and her breakout solo album Debut. Since then the superstar wordsmith has continued to produce idiosyncratic, well-received works. In 1995 Bjork combined hit-making tunes with her maverick sounds to produce Post, and then after working with an army of collaborators, Telegram. Two years later, Homogenic took listeners on a compelling journey through the outer reaches of electronica. Again abruptly switching directions, Bjork starred as a blind mother in the critically acclaimed Dancer in the Dark, producing the renowned Selmasongs soundtrack. Returning to explorations of herself the next year, she produced Vespertine, an intimate and sensual fan favorite that continues to sell well. Drawing on years of experience covering Bjork and her industry, music journalist Ian Gittins explores and celebrates the creative processes and motivations behind her amazing career and musical history. With 70 color and black-and-white photographs, Bjork is a must-have for her legions of devoted fans.

Bjork: There's More to Life Than This (Stories Behind Every Song)

Da Capo Press

Started in the band's very earliest days, from 1986 until the year 2000, Propaganda was the only official U2 fan-club magazine to ever exist. Each issue carried exclusive in-depth interviews, plus behind-the-scenes insights into U2 operations and unique never-seen-elsewhere photographs. An impressive selection of the best features appear here in this very first Propaganda anthology, offering a fascinating chance to see the extraordinary development of one of the biggest bands in the world through the writers and photographers who have been closest to them throughout their successful career. U2's Propaganda includes 250 color photographs--some of which have never appeared anywhere else, a tribute CD made up of various artists appearing in stores in October 2002, articles written by the band members themselves, exclusive band member interviews never printed before, and a full discography.

U2 -- The Best of Propaganda: 20 Years of the Official U2 Magazine

Arts & Photography

Music

"Jimi Hendrix was not so much an element in a Periodic Table of Heavy Rock as an entire elemental spectrum in a parallel universe."
Instead of hydrogen to helium, here you'll find Smashing Pumpkins to Spinal Tap—118 artists that have defined this music genre arranged following the logical ordering of The Periodic Table of Elements. Many of these elements are as unstable and reactive as their chemical counterparts. Shared style influences and band members are all mapped out here, along with the vast spectrum of sound this genre. Grunge rock through to hardcore, blues rock, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, arena rock, glam rock and glam metal, punk rock, blues metal, 80s new wave, comedy metal, thrash, death, intelligent AND nu-metal are all represented here. Includes: Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC, Queen, Iron Maiden, Alice Cooper, Yes, GWAR, Hawkwind, Slipknot, Nirvana, ZZ Top, Sex Pistols, Meat Loaf, Queens of the Stone Age, the Doors, Pixies, Minor Threat, Frank Zappa, Slade, Marilyn Manson, The Beatles and Spinal Tap and many, many more. Also includes a beautiful The Periodic Table of Heavy Rock poster.

The Periodic Table of HEAVY ROCK

Humor

Ebury Press

Eight tracks. Endless stories.\nAllow yourself to be cast away in eight glorious decades of the most iconic show on radio. To mark this momentous occasion, The Definitive Desert Island Discs focuses on 80 of the most powerful and unforgettable interviews, revisiting every era of Desert Island Disc's storied history.\nReflecting on how times have changed, the book will feature brand new material as castaways are interviewed about their experiences - did the conversation go how they expected? Would Sir Patrick Stewart still take his beloved billiards table (and a shed to keep it in, of course)? And does Hilary Devey stick by her endless supply of Cointreau?\nGet lost in lists of the weirdest and most wonderful luxury items, most popular tracks and books throughout the years, and more. Introduced by Lauren Laverne, The Definitive Desert Island Discs is a must-have gem, celebrating an incredible institution that has captured the hearts of a nation for 80 years.

The Definitive Desert Island Discs: 80 Years of Castaways

BBC Books

The Definitive Desert Island Discs: 80 Years of Castaways (Doctor Who)

The Cure's story is a fantastical pop fable, but their trajectory has not been one of unbroken success. Along the way, their uneven, uneasy pop odyssey has taken in fierce intra-band tensions and fall-outs, numerous line-up changes and even a bitter court case that saw original group members feuding over payments and ownership of the band's name. There has been alcoholism, substance abuse and countless long, dark nights of the soul, many of which have been translated into luscious dark-rock symphonies. From gawky teenage art-punks in Crawley to gnomic, venerable rock royalty with 30 million record sales to their name, their journey has been a scarcely believable, vivid pop hallucination. A Perfect Dream is the tall tale of a truly unique British band. It's the story of The Cure.

Cure - A Perfect Dream

Palazzo Editions Ltd.

Emerging from the unlikely locale of Basildon at the dawn of the Eighties, the unassuming Depeche Mode became pioneers of British electro-pop. Surviving the abrupt early departure of band founder and chief songwriter Vince Clarke, they quickly gathered a fervent cult following before powering into the mainstream. Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andrew Fletcher and Alan Wilder took their dark, venal songs of sex, religion, obsession and death to the world’s arenas and stadiums. Over four decades, Depeche Mode have seduced millions from Moscow to Montevideo. Yet it has never been an easy ride. Along the way there have been crippling bouts of self-doubt, depression, intra-band fighting, alcohol abuse . . . and the catastrophic heroin addiction that almost killed the charismatic yet vulnerable Gahan. From the band’s earliest stirrings in Essex to the eve of their 40th anniversary, Depeche Mode: Faith and Devotion is a tale of triumph from adversity: the extraordinary history of a unique global synth-rock phenomenon.

Depeche Mode: Faith & Devotion

Palazzo Editions

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gittins, Ian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gittins, Ian