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Ukulele For Dummies
by Alistair WoodLearn everything ukulele--from chord progressions to playing pop, folk, and holiday favorites--and, yes, even Hawaiian music!The ukulele is hot. The season one finale of Glee featured a ukulele. The recent hit song "Hey Soul Sister" by Train includes the dulcet tones of a uke. Not to mention the runaway success of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. For anyone wishing to master this fun, surprisingly versatile instrument, Ukulele For Dummies covers all the basics--from chords and strumming patterns to guidance on finger-picking.The print version of the book includes a CD with audio tracks of the entire musical notation in the book--creating a total musical instruction packageOffers instruction in a variety of styles--including pop, folk, holiday favorites, and Hawaiian musicFeatures a buying guide for the novice--with tips on purchasing a ukulele plus other necessary accessoriesWith its simple and clear instruction, and inspiration on every page, Ukulele For Dummies will have fans and first-time musicians making beautiful music--as they tiptoe through the tulips--in no time. Note: CD files are available to download after purchasing the e-Book version
Ukulele For Dummies, Enhanced Edition
by Alistair WoodLearn everything ukulele--from chord progressions toplaying pop, folk, and holiday favorites--and, yes, evenHawaiian music! The ukulele is hot. The season one finale of Gleefeatured a ukulele. The recent hit song "Hey Soul Sister" by Trainincludes the dulcet tones of a uke. Not to mention the runawaysuccess of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. For anyonewishing to master this fun, surprisingly versatile instrument,Ukulele For Dummies covers all the basics--from chordsand strumming patterns to guidance on finger-picking.The print version of the book includes a CD with audio tracksof the entire musical notation in the book--creating a totalmusical instruction packageOffers instruction in a variety of styles--including pop,folk, holiday favorites, and Hawaiian musicFeatures a buying guide for the novice--with tips onpurchasing a ukulele plus other necessary accessoriesWith its simple and clear instruction, and inspiration on everypage, Ukulele For Dummies will have fans and first-timemusicians making beautiful music--as they tiptoe through thetulips--in no time. Note: CD files are available to download after purchasing thee-Book version
Ukulele für Dummies (Für Dummies)
by Alistair WoodSie ist klein, handlich und unkompliziert. Wenn auch Sie dem Charme der Ukulele erlegen sind, ist dieses Buch genau das richtige für Sie. Alistair Wood zeigt Ihnen, wie Sie selbst ohne Vorkenntnisse schnell erste Stücke spielen, gibt aber auch fortgeschrittenen Spielern zahlreiche Tipps zur Verbesserung ihres Spiels. Sie lernen, wie Sie Ihrer Ukulele neben den typisch hawaiianischen Klängen auch rockige, jazzige oder bluesige Töne entlocken können, hier ist - vom AC/DC-Fan bis zum Klassik-Liebhaber - für jeden etwas dabei. Einfache Schritt-für-Schritt-Anleitungen und die beiliegende CD mit Hörbeispielen machen es einfacher denn je, die verschiedenen Techniken der Ukulele zu erlernen. Darüber hinaus erfahren Sie alles, was Sie sonst noch über das Instrument wissen müssen: vom Kauf bis zur richtigen Pflege. Musik soll Spaß machen - und der ist mit der Ukulele garantiert. Legen Sie los!
Ukulele Hayley
by Judy Cox Amanda HaleyEveryone has a talent, right? Hayley is sure she has one, but she's having trouble pinpointing it. Then Hayley buys a ukulele at a yard sale. Learning to play takes practice, but it's fun, fun, fun. Before long Hayley is strumming up a storm, and her classmates want in on the action. Then terrible new threatens not only the new uke band, but the whole school music program. Now it's up to Hayley and her band to come up with a creative plan to keep their school rocking.
Ukulele In A Day For Dummies (In A Day For Dummies)
by Alistair WoodWho doesn't want to learn how to play the ukulele? The uke is hot. And learning to play this instrument at a basic level is quick and easy for even the most inexperienced musicians - especially with Ukulele in a Day For Dummies! With this great introductory package, readers get the information they need to pick up a ukulele and try it out. Ukulele in a Day For Dummies: Covers ukulele basics Introduces readers to basic chords and strumming patterns Provides everything needed for readers to play a simple tune or two at the end of the day! Comes with access to 29 audio tracks and a half dozen instructional videos so you can read, hear, and see how to play the uke
The Ultimate: Church Sound Operator's Handbook
by Bill GibsonThis important second edition of The Ultimate Church Sound Operator's Handbook is written to specifically address the concerns and needs of the sound person who serves ministries and churches. The modern church uses many of the same presentation tools that have become common in television, movies, and concerts, placing a unique set of technical expectations on its eager, willing, and primarily volunteer force. This updated handbook blends the relational and technical aspects of church sound in a straightforward and easy-to-understand manner, providing a leg-up to volunteer and staff church sound operators. The Ultimate Church Sound Operator's Handbook will help church sound operators gain the knowledge they need to faithfully serve their church membership, leaders, and musicians. The book includes access to dozens of video and audio examples online to further help clarify and explain the techniques being discussed.
The Ultimate Guide to Great Reggae: The Complete Story of Reggae Told Through Its Great Songs, Famous and Forgotten (Popular Music History)
by Michael GarniceThe Ultimate Guide To Great Reggae celebrates (and helps you find) the greatest songs of reggae. It focuses on every style of reggae, from mento to Jamaican R&B, ska, rock steady, dub, DJ, roots, dancehall, and more. It opens with an exceptionally comprehensive brief history of reggae. This is followed by 52 chapters, each devoted to in-depth descriptions of the greatest songs for a particular artist or style. Over 750 great songs are detailed, and many more are discussed. More than 200 of reggae's stars, cult artists, one-hit wonders, and forgotten greats are profiled, encompassing the music's full six-decade span. Many of the songs and artists receive their overdue first coverage in print. The seven chapters on Bob Marley describe every one of his more than 600 recordings, his 200 best songs receiving detailed profiles. You can listen to many of the songs described on youtube.com using, for example, Google Assistant.
The Ultimate Live Sound Operator's Handbook
by Bill GibsonThe third edition of The Ultimate Live Sound Operator’s Handbook offers new sections on digital concepts, wireless considerations, digital mixers, modern digital snakes, routing schemes, block diagrams, signal paths, plug-ins for live sound, and more. <p><p> Any live act must sound great to be well received by today’s increasingly demanding audiences. If you’re a sound operator, teacher, musician, or even a music fan who is interested in becoming a sound operator, you know that regardless of the musical genre or venue, high-quality audio is mandatory for an artist or band’s success. This book shows you how to improve your audio skills, including how to build great sounds that form a professional-sounding mix. <p><p> Revised and updated, The Ultimate Live Sound Operator’s Handbook, 3rd Edition focuses on each modern and classic aspects of live sound operation in a way that is straightforward and easy to understand—from system, component, and acoustic considerations to miking, mixing, and recording the live show. <p><p> Tightly produced online videos clearly demonstrate key concepts presented in the text. These instructional videos, along with hundreds of detailed illustrations and photographs, provide an incredibly powerful and useful learning experience. An access code to the companion website is provided in the book.
The Ultimate Live Sound Operator's Handbook (Second Edition)
by Bill GibsonThe second edition of The Ultimate Live Sound Operator's Handbook is updated with new text, photos, illustrations, and video examples to specifically address the important, cutting-edge concerns faced by modern sound operators of all types.
The Ultimate Metallica: 0
by Kirk Hammett Ross Halfin"He just gets right the fuck in there. . . . Every drop of sweat, every molecule of saliva, every out-of-place nose hair, it all gets captured cuz he's just fucking there." -- Lars UlrichLegendary music photographer Ross Halfin has documented Metallica for nearly 25 years, from their beginnings as a scrappy, furious garage band to their current status as the heaviest and most popular metal band in the world. The Ultimate Metallica collects the best of Halfin's amazing images, taken over the years with access granted exclusively to him as the band's main lensman. His candid photographs--taken on stage, backstage, on and off tour--are supplemented by text from many people close to the band, including managers and music writers, plus some colorful personal observations from Halfin himself.
Umm Kulthum: Artistic Agency and the Shaping of an Arab Legend, 1967-2007 (Music Culture)
by Laura LohmanIn 1967 Egypt and the Arab world suffered a devastating defeat by Israel in the Six-Day War. Though long past the age at which most singers would have retired, the sexagenarian Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum launched a multifaceted response to the defeat that not only sustained her career, but also expanded her international fame and shaped her legacy. By examining biographies, dramas, monuments, radio programming practices, and recent recordings, Laura Lohman delves into Umm Kulthum's role in fashioning her image and the conflicting ways that her image and music have been interpreted since her death in 1975.
Unbinding Gentility: Women Making Music in the Nineteenth-Century South (Music in American Life #1)
by Candace BaileyHearing southern women in the pauses of history Southern women of all classes, races, and walks of life practiced music during and after the Civil War. Candace L. Bailey examines the history of southern women through the lens of these musical pursuits, uncovering the ways that music's transmission, education, circulation, and repertory help us understand its meaning in the women's culture of the time. Bailey pays particular attention to the space between music as an ideal accomplishment—part of how people expected women to perform gentility—and a real practice—what women actually did. At the same time, her ethnographic reading of binder’s volumes, letters and diaries, and a wealth of other archival material informs new and vital interpretations of women’s place in southern culture. A fascinating collective portrait of women's artistic and personal lives, Unbinding Gentility challenges entrenched assumptions about nineteenth century music and the experiences of the southern women who made it.
Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir
by Toni BraxtonThe bestselling solo R&B artist finally opens up about her rocky past and her path to redemptionWhile Toni Braxton may appear to be living a charmed life, hers is in fact a tumultuous story: a tale of personal triumph after a public unraveling. In her heartfelt memoir, the six-time Grammy Award-winning singer and star of WE tv's hit reality series Braxton Family Values is unapologetically honest in revealing the intimate details of her journey.Toni and the entire Braxton clan have become America's favorite musical family, but what fans may not know is the intense guilt Toni once felt when she accepted a recording deal that excluded her sisters. That decision would haunt Toni for years to come, tainting the enormous fame she experienced as a popular female vocalist at the top of the charts. Despite her early accomplishments, Toni's world crumbled when she was forced to file for bankruptcy twice and was left all alone to pick up the pieces.Always the consummate professional, Toni rebuilt her life but then found herself in the midst of more heartache. The mother of an autistic child, Toni had long feared that her son's condition might be karmic retribution for some of the life choices that left her filled with remorse. Later, when heart ailments began plaguing her at the age of forty-one and she was diagnosed with lupus, Toni knew she had to move beyond the self-recrimination and take charge of her own healing—physically and spiritually.Unbreak My Heart is more than the story of Toni's difficult past and glittering success: it is a story of hope, of healing, and, ultimately, of redemption.
Unbreakable: My Story, My Way
by Jenni RiveraThe story behind Telemundo&’s Jenni Rivera: Mariposa del Barrio series, now streaming. A New York Times bestseller, this is the official biography from the beloved Mexican-American singer who lost her life in a tragic plane crash.The only autobiography authorized by Jenni Rivera "I can’t get caught up in the negative because that destroys you. Perhaps trying to move away from my problems and focus on the positive is the best I can do. I am a woman like any other, and ugly things happen to me like any other woman. The number of times I have fallen down is the number of times I have gotten up." These are the last words that beloved Mexican American singer Jenni Rivera spoke publicly before boarding the plane that would crash and cut her life short on December 9, 2012. However, they are not the final words that La Diva de la Banda had for the world. Those are found in the pages you hold in your hands, Jenni’s own account of the highs and lows of her extraordinary journey. She became the most acclaimed Spanish-language singer in the United States and sold more than 15 million records worldwide. A single mother of five and grandmother of two, she was also an actress, a television producer, the star of her own reality show, and an entrepreneur. But for all its immense success, Jenni’s life often seemed to be a series of personal battles in which perseverance was her only weapon. As her fame grew, she made it her mission to speak about her struggles, forging an intimate connection with her fans. She became a figure of strength and a source of encouragement to women of all ages. In Unbreakable, Jenni recounts the crucial moments in her past, revealing her experiences with domestic and sexual abuse, divorce, body image issues, making her way in a male-dominated industry, raising her children as a single mother, and learning that she could depend only on herself. Though she is no longer with us, Jenni will always be the "Rivera rebel from Long Beach," the girl who maintained her sense of humor and fighting spirit in every circumstance. In this remarkable memoir, Jenni leaves behind a legacy of inspiration and determination that will forever live on through her precious family, friends, and fans.
Uncharted: Creativity and the Expert Drummer
by Bill BrufordWhat do expert drummers do? Why do they do it? Is there anything creative about it? If so, how might that creativity inform their practice and that of others in related artistic spheres? Applying ideas from cultural psychology to findings from research into the creative behaviors of a specific subset of popular music instrumentalists, Bill Bruford demonstrates the ways in which expert drummers experience creativity in performance and offers fresh insights into in-the-moment interactional processes in music. An expert practitioner himself, Dr. Bruford draws on a cohort of internationally renowned, peak-career professionals and his own experience to guide the reader through the many dimensions of creativity in drummer performance.
Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into Music (Uncle John's Bathroom Reader)
by Bathroom Readers' InstituteAn entertaining trivia compendium flush with fun facts about all things music. From boogie-woogie to Beethoven, from Prince to Pavarotti, from the bards of Broadway to the rebels of rock &’n&’ roll—it&’s all here. Uncle John has created this harmonious collection of tuneful tales for music lovers everywhere. Uncle John has proven once again that he is in tune with our legion of loyal readers. This 516-page musical masterpiece dedicated to all things noteworthy ranges from silly one-hit wonders to culture-changing musical milestones. You&’ll get a glimpse into the future of music and go back to the days when prehistoric man first started communicating in song. So, plug in your amp, turn the dial up to eleven, and have a blast reading about: · The origins of nearly every genre and style of music—including rock, country, jazz, the blues, rhythm-and-blues, hip hop, punk, folk, polka, opera, Muzak, disco, and even marching bands · Musical legends, from &“outsiders&” like the Shaggs and the Carter family, to giants like the Beatles, Elvis, and Weird Al Yankovic · The stories of legendary music venues like the Grand Ole Opry, the Apollo, and the Fillmore · How a computer glitch led to Right Said Fred&’s 1991 hit &“I&’m Too Sexy&” · Why waltzing was considered as scandalous in its early days as rock was in its early days · The birth of the banjo, the electric guitar, karaoke, and the Stradivarius violin · How John Williams struck a universal chord with his score for Star Wars · Go underground to play the world&’s largest natural musical instrument · What happened at Woodstock and other weird concert mishaps And much, much more
Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of The Rock Stars
by David HepworthNamed one of the best music books of 2017 by The Wall Street JournalAn elegy to the age of the Rock Star, featuring Chuck Berry, Elvis, Madonna, Bowie, Prince, and more, uncommon people whose lives were transformed by rock and who, in turn, shaped our cultureRecklessness, thy name is rock.The age of the rock star, like the age of the cowboy, has passed. Like the cowboy, the idea of the rock star lives on in our imaginations. What did we see in them? Swagger. Recklessness. Sexual charisma. Damn-the-torpedoes self-belief. A certain way of carrying themselves. Good hair. Interesting shoes. Talent we wished we had. What did we want of them? To be larger than life but also like us. To live out their songs. To stay young forever. No wonder many didn’t stay the course.In Uncommon People, David Hepworth zeroes in on defining moments and turning points in the lives of forty rock stars from 1955 to 1995, taking us on a journey to burst a hundred myths and create a hundred more.As this tribe of uniquely motivated nobodies went about turning themselves into the ultimate somebodies, they also shaped us, our real lives and our fantasies. Uncommon People isn’t just their story. It’s ours as well.
Uncommon People: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs
by Miranda SawyerWhen Miranda Sawyer interviewed Noel Gallagher in 1995, his gag wishing Damon Albarn would die of AIDS became front-page news. This fascinating pop history, exploring the mid-90s moment when British music suddenly meant everything, explains why. Picking out twenty key songs, delving into the surprising stories behind them and their unlikely creators, Uncommon People takes us back to when Jarvis Cocker became a national hero, Trainspotting was a global hit, fire-starting seemed like a good night out - and it felt as though the revolution was happening.Initially a music press nickname, Britpop became an unexpected musical movement centred around outsiders and misfits, drop-outs and weirdos who refused to compromise on their ideas, even when they were thrust into the international spotlight. Not just a scene for white guys with guitars, but something wilder and more interesting, with songs that have proved timeless. Exploring the era's key artists - Oasis, Blur, Tricky, Pulp, Underworld, Manic Street Preachers, The Prodigy, Suede, Chemical Brothers, Garbage, Supergrass, Radiohead, PJ Harvey and more - through their definitive anthems, Miranda Sawyer transports us back to the beating heart of the nineties.Uncommon People re-lives the mad exhilaration of what it was like to hear these songs for the very first time - and what it was like to make them. With amazing new interviews, and I-was-there insights, this book offers a backstage pass to all the most interesting bits of Britpop's Greatest Hits.Forget New Labour, forget earnest trend theories, this book is all about the music, the people and being right there, right now.
Uncommon People: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs
by Miranda SawyerWhen Miranda Sawyer interviewed Noel Gallagher in 1995, his gag wishing Damon Albarn would die of AIDS became front-page news. This fascinating pop history, exploring the mid-90s moment when British music suddenly meant everything, explains why. Picking out twenty key songs, delving into the surprising stories behind them and their unlikely creators, Uncommon People takes us back to when Jarvis Cocker became a national hero, Trainspotting was a global hit, fire-starting seemed like a good night out - and it felt as though the revolution was happening.Initially a music press nickname, Britpop became an unexpected musical movement centred around outsiders and misfits, drop-outs and weirdos who refused to compromise on their ideas, even when they were thrust into the international spotlight. Not just a scene for white guys with guitars, but something wilder and more interesting, with songs that have proved timeless. Exploring the era's key artists - Oasis, Blur, Tricky, Pulp, Underworld, Manic Street Preachers, The Prodigy, Suede, Chemical Brothers, Garbage, Supergrass, Radiohead, PJ Harvey and more - through their definitive anthems, Miranda Sawyer transports us back to the beating heart of the nineties.Uncommon People re-lives the mad exhilaration of what it was like to hear these songs for the very first time - and what it was like to make them. With amazing new interviews, and I-was-there insights, this book offers a backstage pass to all the most interesting bits of Britpop's Greatest Hits.Forget New Labour, forget earnest trend theories, this book is all about the music, the people and being right there, right now.
Uncommon People: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs
by Miranda SawyerWhen Miranda Sawyer interviewed Noel Gallagher in 1995, his gag wishing Damon Albarn would die of AIDS became front-page news. This fascinating pop history, exploring the mid-90s moment when British music suddenly meant everything, explains why. Picking out twenty key songs, delving into the surprising stories behind them and their unlikely creators, Uncommon People takes us back to when Jarvis Cocker became a national hero, Trainspotting was a global hit, fire-starting seemed like a good night out - and it felt as though the revolution was happening.Initially a music press nickname, Britpop became an unexpected musical movement centred around outsiders and misfits, drop-outs and weirdos who refused to compromise on their ideas, even when they were thrust into the international spotlight. Not just a scene for white guys with guitars, but something wilder and more interesting, with songs that have proved timeless. Exploring the era's key artists - Oasis, Blur, Tricky, Pulp, Underworld, Manic Street Preachers, The Prodigy, Suede, Chemical Brothers, Garbage, Supergrass, Radiohead, PJ Harvey and more - through their definitive anthems, Miranda Sawyer transports us back to the beating heart of the nineties.Uncommon People re-lives the mad exhilaration of what it was like to hear these songs for the very first time - and what it was like to make them. With amazing new interviews, and I-was-there insights, this book offers a backstage pass to all the most interesting bits of Britpop's Greatest Hits.Forget New Labour, forget earnest trend theories, this book is all about the music, the people and being right there, right now.
Unconquered: The Saga of Cousins Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Swaggart, and Mickey Gilley (Unconquered Ser.)
by J.D. Davis&“Engaging . . . [a] biography of three men bound by blood, music, and a lifelong struggle to strike a balance between the sacred and secular.&”—Publishers WeeklyThree cousins, inseparably bonded through music. Each became a star; their story would become a legend. J. D. Davis&’s enthralling new biography of famous cousins Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Swaggart, and Mickey Gilley, born within a twelve-month span in small-town Louisiana during the Great Depression, draws from exhaustive research and personal connections with friends and family. Davis recreates the irresistible and life-changing power of music that surrounded the cousins as boys and shaped their engagingly distinct paths to fame. With three personal journeys set alongside important landmarks in pop-culture history, Davis presents a unique tale of American music centered on the trials, tribulations, and achievements of three men who remain truly Unconquered.A ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award Honorable Mention for Biography&“This is a good read, and not just for the hard-core fan. It will appeal to anyone interested in the dynamics of rock &’n&’ roll, country music, and evangelical Christianity and what happens when the aesthetics and lifestyles of those three worlds collide. Highly recommended.&”—Library Journal&“God, the devil, and everything in between. This book is a great representation of the duality plane on which we exist.'&”—Leon Russell, legendary musician, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member &“Unconquered clearly depicts the fascinating story of three great musical artists who were cousins in real life but icons in the world of music. Each man conquered life&’s roadblocks to achieve his ultimate goals.&”—Tom Schedler, former Louisiana Secretary of State
Uncovering Music of Early European Women (1250-1750)
by Claire FontijnUncovering Music of Early European Women (1250 – 1750) brings together nine chapters that investigate aspects of female music-making and musical experience in the medieval and early modern periods. Part I, "Notes from the Underground," treats the spirituality of women in solitude and in community. Parts II and III, "Interlude" and "Music for Royal Rivals," respond to Joan Kelly’s famous feminist question and suggest that women of a certain stature did have a Renaissance. Part IV, "Serenissime Sirene," plays with the notion of the allure of music and its risks in Venice during the Baroque. The process of uncovering requires close listening to women’s creative endeavors in an ongoing effort to piece together equitably the terrain of early music. Contributors include: Cynthia J. Cyrus, Claire Fontijn, Catherine E. Gordon, Laura Jeppesen, Eva Kuhn, Anne MacNeil, Jason Stoessel, Elizabeth Randell Upton, and Laurence Wuidar. An invaluable book for college students and scholars interested in the social and cultural meanings of women in early music.
Under a Rock: A Memoir
by Chris SteinForeword by Debbie Harry"A Downtown Memory" by Romy AshbyDebbie Harry defined iconic band Blondie’s look. Chris Stein—her performing partner, lover, and lifelong friend—was its architect and defined its sound. “Parallel Lines”, their third album, catapulted to #1, sold 20 million copies, and launched singles like “Heart of Glass”, "Hangin' On the Telephone," and “One Way or Another”, providing the beat when Bianca Jagger and Halston danced at Studio 54 and the soundtrack to every 1970’s punk-soundtracked romance. Chris Stein knows how to tell a story. Under A Rock is his nothing-spared autobiography. It's about the founding of the band, ascending to the heights of pop success, and the hazards of fortune.Famous names march through these pages—Warhol, Bowie, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and more–but you can get famous names anywhere. What you can’t get anywhere else is a plunge into the moments that made a giant 1980's artistic sensation. Stein takes us there in this revelatory, propulsive, distinctive memoir.
Under My Thumb: Songs That Hate Women and the Women That Love Them
by Rhian Jones Eli Davies Tamar ShlaimDiscussions and analyses of music – whether on TV, in books or in the music press – have always been full of the stories of men. When female fans appear in these stories it is often through the eyes and from the perspectives of men – as muses, groupies or fangirls – meaning that women’s own experiences, ideas and arguments about the music they love are marginalised or glossed over. Women in music are frequently fetishised and objectified both in song lyrics and in real life, viewed purely in relation to men and through their impact on the male ego. But this hasn’t stopped generations of women from loving, being moved by and critically appreciating music – however that music may feel about them.Under My Thumb: The Songs that Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them is a study of misogyny in music through the eyes of women. It will bring together stories from music writers and fans about artists or songs they love despite their questionable or troubling gender politics, as well as looking at how these issues intersect with race, class and sexuality.The collection explores the joys of loving music and the tensions, contradictions and complexities it can involve. It is intended to be as much celebration as critique - a kind of feminist guilty pleasures.
Under A Rock
by Chris SteinThis audiobook includes the song 'Heartbreak Kid', an exclusive early track from Blondie's forthcoming album'Sometimes fate deals up a wild card. There's a lot to be said for one of these wild cards and from what I've learned over the fifty or so years of our friendship, Chris is a card from the unexpected deck' - from the foreword by Debbie HarryMusician, photographer, storyteller, and longtime partner to Debbie Harry, Chris Stein defined the sound of an era, catapulting the icon band Blondie to #1 and selling over 20 million copies of Parallel Lines.In this no-holds-barred autobiography, Stein reveals himself-this time not in songwriting or photography, which he's previously been known for, but in words. From a Brooklyn boyhood, a move across the river to the gritty and fecund East Village in the late 1970s allowed Stein to tap the explosive creativity that defined the era in the city. It was a time when David Bowie and the Ramones were also making music, when Andy Warhol was still alive and promoting Jean-Michel Basquiat's work, when cool was defined not by where you came from but by what you could contribute to culture.UNDER A ROCK is a plunge into that vanished time period, and into the moments that turned the fresh sound and new look of punk and new wave into a giant artistic and commercial sensation. Stein takes us there in this revelatory, propulsive, distinctive memoir.