The Reggae Scrapbook
by Roger Steffens
from Insight Editions
From its birth in the vibrant Kingston ghettos through it phenomenal popularity in the 1970s to its iconic standing in today's global culture, reggae and its close relations--ska, rock steady, dj, dub, dancehall, and raggamuffin--have taken the world by storm.
In The Reggae Scrapbook, scintillating words and images propel our appreciation of Jamaican music into the 21st century. Accomanying us on this journey is one of the men who introduced reggae to America and helped rock the world with its syncopated beat, Roger Steffens.
Through lectures, books, magazine articles, radio, and television, Steffens has shared his knowledge of reggae around the globe as the world's premier archivist and collector of reggae memorabilia. Here he traces reggae's history and roots, supplemented by an audio CD featuring interviews with such reggae greats as Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff and "Toots" Hibbert.
Divided into chapters on "Roots and Ska," "Rock Steady," "The Golden Age," "Rockers," "Digital and Dance Hall" and "Internationalization," and enhanced by sidebar features on historic figures, styles, and events, The Reggae Scrapbook is all you could wish for in a celebration of the rise of this irresistable musical and social force.
The Reggae Scrapbook also conveys reggae culture through a treasure trove of memorabilia, the cream of Steffen's collection of more than 30,000 photographs, 800 T-shirts, 3,000 buttons, 10,000 posters and flyers as well as innumerable, seven-inch singles and album covers, posters, postcards, and tickets.
Photographer Peter Simon presents a stunning collection of evocative images, from reggae's rough beginnings to the latest festivals, providing a stunning visual accompaniment.
Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley
by Timothy White
from Holt Paperbacks
Bob Marley, reggae superstar and pop culture icon, left an indelible mark on modern music. Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley delves deep into the life of the lionized leader of a musical, spiritual, and political explosion that still reverberates more than a decade after his death. Almost nothing pertaining to the life of Bob Marley is left out; the origins of Rastafarianism (the Ethiopian religion that was the keystone of his life), the roots of the reggae sound, the Jamaican political and social debacle that informed his lyrics--this is a comprehensive account of the life of the artist and the times that produced him.
Catch a Fire is assiduously researched; the details writer Timothy White presents of the King of Reggae's life are cinematic in scope and, at times, cumbersome. White includes much of his primary source material, ranging from full interviews with band members to unearthed CIA documents, and devotes a whole section to describing his exhaustive research process. The final product is rich with elements of spiritual tome, rock biography, and history text; it is a hagiographic epic--the story of a man and his legend. --Brendan J. LaSalle
Bob Marley left an indelible mark on modern music, both as a reggae pioneer and as an enduring cultural icon. Catch a Fire, now a classic of rock biography, delves into the life of the leader of a musical, spiritual, and political explosion that continues today.
Under the supervision of the author’s widow and with the collaboration of a Marley expert, this fourth edition contains a wealth of new material, including many revisions made by the author before his untimely death. An appendix to the new edition chronicles Marley’s legacy in recent years, as well as the ongoing controversy over the possibility that Marley’s remains might be exhumed from Nine Mile, Jamaica, and reburied in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where hundreds of Rastafarians live. The new edition also contains an expanded discography and is factually updated throughout.
“Probably the finest biography ever written about a popular musician.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“As close as rock journalism comes to transcendent literature.”
—Playboy
“White has a deep appreciation for reggae’s immediacy, hypnotic power, and contradictions . . . An exhaustively researched labor of love.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
Marley Legend: An Illustrated Life of Bob Marley
by James Henke
from Chronicle Books
Published to coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death, Marley Legend celebrates the life and work of Bob Marley in an authorized and fully illustrated biography. In the same interactive format as the best-selling Lennon Legend, this innovative book features rare photographs and 20 removable facsimiles, including Marley's handwritten lyrics and concert memorabilia, even a private sketchbook. The package also includes a 50-minute spoken word CD featuring archival Marley interviews. Rock journalist James Henke relates the dramatic story of Marley's life, from his impoverished childhood in Jamaica's Trenchtown to his spiritual awakening through Rastafarianism, his multinational musical success, and his death from cancer at age 36. In addition to interviews with Marley's family and associates conducted especially for this book, Henke includes thoughts on favorite Marley songs from such diverse artists as U2's Bono, Sean Paul, Ben Harper, and Chrissie Hynde. Marley's message was one of love, peace, and equality -- and in words and pictures, Marley Legend shows why Bob Marley is, as Entertainment Weekly recently called him, "still the world's biggest rock star."
No Woman No Cry: My Life with Bob Marley
by Rita Marley
from Hyperion
The story of Rita Marley's life as the girlfriend, wife, and eventual widow of Bob Marley, the legend of reggae music, whose distinctive sound has been part of the world's popular culture for more than three decades.
56 Thoughts from 56 Hope Road: The Sayings and Psalms of Bob Marley
from Hampton Roads Pub Co
Bob Marley began writing lyrics in the early 1960's and he continued to produce them until his passing in 1981. Critics have called these songs the best of the millennium. Yet,few readers have ever read Marley's magic on the page. For the first time, his eldest daughter Cedella has made a selection of her father's most prophetic and personal poems, insights, and conversational messages. Here are meditations to soothe the soul and thoughts to penetrate the mind. Here too is an encapsulated life of Bob Marley, the man. In his spare writings we can see the ebb and flow of his journey as an artist and a humanitarian. Packaged for purse and pocket, this colleciton is sure to find a place in everyone's heart.
Reggae Bass (Bass Builders)
by Friedland Ed
from Hal Leonard Corporation
The complete guide to reggae and Jamaican bass styles, covering early ska, rock steady, roots reggae, dub, modern ska, dance hall, and more. The book includes performance tips and lessons, authentic grooves and riddims, standard notation and tab, and more. The CD features 47 full-demo tracks.
Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae (Music Culture)
by Michael Veal
from Wesleyan
When Jamaican recording engineers Osbourne "King Tubby" Ruddock, Errol Thompson, and Lee "Scratch" Perry began crafting "dub" music in the early 1970s, they were initiating a musical revolution that continues to have worldwide influence. Dub is a sub-genre of Jamaican reggae that flourished during reggae's "golden age" of the late 1960s through the early 1980s. Dub involves remixing existing recordings--electronically improvising sound effects and altering vocal tracks--to create its unique sound. Just as hip-hop turned phonograph turntables into musical instruments, dub turned the mixing and sound processing technologies of the recording studio into instruments of composition and real-time improvisation. In addition to chronicling dub's development and offering the first thorough analysis of the music itself, author Michael Veal examines dub's social significance in Jamaican culture. He further explores the "dub revolution" that has crossed musical and cultural boundaries for over thirty years, influencing a wide variety of musical genres around the globe.
Ska'd for Life: A Personal Journey with The Specials
by Horace Panter
from Macmillan UK
This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music
by Lloyd Bradley
from Grove Press
Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono
by Yoko Ono
from Simon & Schuster
Back in print for the first time in nearly thirty years, here is Yoko Ono's whimsical, delightful, subversive, startling book of instructions for art and for life.
"Burn this book after you've read it." -- Yoko
"A dream you dream alone may be a dream, but a dream two people dream together is a reality.""This is the greatest book I've ever burned." -- John
+++
