The teen-pop superstar asks her hero about early Green Day, staying sane in the industry, and that time he got into a fight with a guy in the audience.
My Next Read: The Beautiful Ones By Prince
The brilliant coming-of-age-and-into-superstardom story of Prince, one of the greatest artists of all time, in his own words—featuring never-before-seen photos, original scrapbooks and lyric sheets, and the exquisite memoir he began writing before his tragic death
Prince was a musical genius, one of the most beloved, accomplished, and acclaimed musicians of our time. He was a startlingly original visionary with an imagination deep enough to whip up whole worlds, from the sexy, gritty funk paradise of “Uptown” to the mythical landscape of Purple Rain to the psychedelia of “Paisley Park.” But his most ambitious creative act was turning Prince Rogers Nelson, born in Minnesota, into Prince, one of the greatest pop stars of any era.
The Beautiful Ones is the story of how Prince became Prince—a first-person account of a kid absorbing the world around him and then creating a persona, an artistic vision, and a life, before the hits and fame that would come to define him. The book is told in four parts. The first is the memoir Prince was writing before his tragic death, pages that bring us into his childhood world through his own lyrical prose. The second part takes us through Prince’s early years as a musician, before his first album was released, via an evocative scrapbook of writing and photos. The third section shows us Prince’s evolution through candid images that go up to the cusp of his greatest achievement, which we see in the book’s fourth section: his original handwritten treatment for Purple Rain—the final stage in Prince’s self-creation, where he retells the autobiography of the first three parts as a heroic journey.
The book is framed by editor Dan Piepenbring’s riveting and moving introduction about his profound collaboration with Prince in his final months—a time when Prince was thinking deeply about how to reveal more of himself and his ideas to the world, while retaining the mystery and mystique he’d so carefully cultivated—and annotations that provide context to the book’s images.
This work is not just a tribute to an icon, but an original and energizing literary work in its own right, full of Prince’s ideas and vision, his voice and image—his undying gift to the world.
Get it here.
Video: “Do They Know It’s Halloween?” Featuring Beck, Elvira, and Arcade Fire from 2005
Do They Know It’s Halloween? was released on October 11, 2005, in Canada on Vice Records by a cast of rock artists and other performers under the name “North American Halloween Prevention Initiative” (NAHPI). It reached number four on the Canada pop chart.
Like its inspiration “Do They Know It’s Christmas”, it is a charity song, with all proceeds being donated to UNICEF. According to the official press release, the song “stems from a frustration with other benefit songs’ misguided, somewhat patronizing attitude, and Western-centric worldview.”
The contributors include: Win Butler & Régine Chassagne of Arcade Fire, Beck, Buck 65, David Cross, Liane Balaban_ of Dessert, Devendra Banhart (with Noah Georgeson, Jona Bechtolt & Luckey Remington_), Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Feist, Gino Washington, Syd Butler of Les Savy Fav, J’aime Tambeur of Islands, Malcolm McLaren, Nardwuar the Human Serviette, Peaches, Dntel, Jenny Lewis & Blake Sennett of Rilo Kiley, Roky Erickson, Chris Murphy of Sloan, Asya & Chloe of Chaos Chaos, Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Russell Mael of Sparks, Subtitle, Steve Jocz of Sum 41 Tanya Tagaq, Anna Waronker of That Dog, Dan Boeckner & Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade, Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
My Next Read: Flea: Acid for the Children: A Memoir
Flea, the iconic bassist and co-founder of the Red Hot Chili Peppers tells his fascinating origin story, complete with all the dizzying highs and the gutter lows you’d want from an LA street rat turned world famous rock star.
In Acid for the Children, Flea takes readers on a deeply personal and revealing tour of his formative years, spanning from Australia to the New York City suburbs to, finally, Los Angeles. Through hilarious anecdotes, poetical meditations, and occasional flights of fantasy, Flea deftly chronicles the experiences that forged him as an artist, a musician, and a young man. His dreamy, jazz-inflected prose makes the Los Angeles of the 1970s and 80s come to gritty, glorious life, including the potential for fun, danger, mayhem, or inspiration that lurked around every corner. It is here that young Flea, looking to escape a turbulent home, found family in a community of musicians, artists, and junkies who also lived on the fringe. He spent most of his time partying and committing petty crimes. But it was in music where he found a higher meaning, a place to channel his frustration, loneliness, and love. This left him open to the life-changing moment when he and his best friends, soul brothers, and partners-in-mischief came up with the idea to start their own band, which became the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Acid for the Children is the debut of a stunning new literary voice, whose prose is as witty, entertaining, and wildly unpredictable as the author himself. It’s a tenderly evocative coming-of-age story and a raucous love letter to the power of music and creativity from one of the most renowned musicians of our time.
You can get it here.
Canadian Music Publishers Association Unveils Rebrand and New Programming
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How Trumpets Are Made
Vincent Bach combined his unique talents as both a musician and an engineer to create brass instruments of unequaled total quality – instruments which today remain the sound choice of artists worldwide.
The Mad Magazine TV Special from 1974
In 1974, Mad Magazine made its mark on television with The Mad Magazine TV Special, an animated pilot that sought to bring the iconic satirical publication to life. Although it never aired as a full series, the special captured the zany humor, biting satire, and offbeat style that made Mad Magazine a cultural staple.
Jimmy Fallon, The Who & The Roots Sing “Won’t Get Fooled Again” on Classroom Instruments
Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of The Who join Jimmy Fallon and The Roots perform their hit classic “Won’t Get Fooled Again” with classroom instruments. Love live The Who.
https://youtu.be/Ks8s1hC9y7c