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Music Memoirs and Biographies -

Related category: History & Biography
Related booklists: Biography and Autobiography, Bill Drummond, Paul Robeson, David Bowie,

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Books are listed in order of year of publication - newest titles are at the top. There are 43 books in this booklist

  • Cover image of book A Darker Electricity: The Origins of the Spiral Tribe Sound System by Mark Angelo Harrison
    A Darker Electricity: The Origins of the Spiral Tribe Sound System - by Mark Angelo Harrison

    £14.99   paperback   (2023) - ISBN 13: 9781913231354 | ISBN 10: 1913231356

    Written by Spiral Tribe’s co-founder and visual artist, Mark Angelo Harrison, A Darker Electricity charts the infamous sound system’s nomadic journey and the rapid escalation of their popularity – and notoriety.   From small squat-scene part ... more

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  • Cover image of book Good Pop, Bad Pop: An Inventory by Jarvis Cocker
    Good Pop, Bad Pop: An Inventory - by Jarvis Cocker

    £12.99   paperback   (2023) - ISBN 13: 9781784707910 | ISBN 10: 1784707910

    The Sunday Times bestselling hit memoir from Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker.  What if the things we keep hidden say more about us than those we put on display?  We all have a random collection of the things that made us - photos, tickets, clothe ... more

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  • Cover image of book Echoes: A Memoir Continued... by Will Sergeant
    Echoes: A Memoir Continued... - by Will Sergeant

    £22.00   hardback   (2023) - ISBN 13: 9781408719305 | ISBN 10: 1408719304

    THE FOLLOW UP MEMOIR TO SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, BUNNYMAN   Scenic Wye Valley isn’t the typical place for a rock story to begin, but when Echo & the Bunnymen hit the studio to record their ground-breaking debut album, Crocodiles, it was anything ... more

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  • Cover image of book The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds (10th Anniversary Edition) by John Higgs
    The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds (10th Anniversary Edition) - by John Higgs

    £23.00   hardback   (2023) - ISBN 13: 9781399610353 | ISBN 10: 139961035x

    'The best non-fiction book I've ever read. It's magical. Stunning' Dan Schreiber, No Such Thing As a Fish 'A pop biography for people who don't read pop biographies' Dorian Lynskey, Guardian 'Brilliant, discursive and wise' Ben Goldacre 'Utt ... more

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  • Cover image of book Woody Guthrie: A Life by Joe Klein
    Woody Guthrie: A Life - by Joe Klein

    £14.99   paperback   (2023) - ISBN 13: 9780571384297 | ISBN 10: 0571384293

    ‘A really great book.’ Bruce Springsteen  With a foreword by Billy Bragg.   Few artists have captured the American experience of their time as wholly as folk legend Woody Guthrie. Singer, songwriter and political activist, Guthrie ... more

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  • Cover image of book Nina Simone
    Nina Simone's Gum: A Memoir of Things Lost and Found - by Warren Ellis

    £10.99   paperback   (2022) - ISBN 13: 9780571365630 | ISBN 10: 0571365639

    From award-winning musician and composer Warren Ellis comes the unexpected and inspiring story of a piece of chewing gum. Featuring an introduction from Nick Cave. "Warren has turned this memento, snatched from his idol’s piano in a moment of ... more

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  • Cover image of book Why Solange Matters by Stephanie Phillips
    Why Solange Matters - by Stephanie Phillips

    £9.99   hardback   (2022) - ISBN 13: 9780571368983 | ISBN 10: 0571368980

    The dramatic story of a musician and artist whose unconventional journey to international success was far more important than her family name.   A ROUGH TRADE, THE TIMES, CLASH BOOK OF THE YEAR  The dramatic story of Solange: a musician and a ... more

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  • Cover image of book Song Noir: Tom Waits and the Spirit of Los Angeles by Alex Harvey
    Song Noir: Tom Waits and the Spirit of Los Angeles - by Alex Harvey

    £10.99   paperback   (2022) - ISBN 13: 9781789146639 | ISBN 10: 1789146631

    Song Noir examines the formative first decade of Tom Waits’s career, when he lived, wrote and recorded nine albums in Los Angeles; from his soft, folk-inflected debut, Closing Time (1973), to the abrasive, surreal Swordfishtrombones (1983). Startin ... more

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  • Cover image of book Why Patti Smith Matters by Caryn Rose
    Why Patti Smith Matters - by Caryn Rose

    £9.99   paperback   (2022) - ISBN 13: 9780571374847 | ISBN 10: 0571374840

    A radical exploration of the artistry and influence of Patti Smith: the Poet Laureate of Punk whose uninhibited creativity inspired an entire generation and triggered a cultural revolution.   Patti Smith arrived in New York City at the e ... more

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  • Cover image of book Beeswing: Fairport, Folk Rock and Finding My Voice, 1967-75 by Richard Thompson
    Beeswing: Fairport, Folk Rock and Finding My Voice, 1967-75 - by Richard Thompson

    £9.99   paperback   (2022) - ISBN 13: 9780571348176 | ISBN 10: 0571348173

    Beeswing is the autobiography from world-renowned artist Richard Thompson, co-founder of the legendary folk rock group Fairport Convention.   THE TOP FIVE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A BOOK OF THE YEAR: ROUGH TRADE, THE TIMES, ROLLING STONE, CLASH ... more

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  • Cover image of book The Velvet Mafia: The Gay Men Who Ran the Swinging Sixties by Darryl W. Bullock
    The Velvet Mafia: The Gay Men Who Ran the Swinging Sixties - by Darryl W. Bullock

    £20.00   paperback   (2021) - ISBN 13: 9781787602311 | ISBN 10: 1787602311

    In the fifties and sixties, in the period leading up to the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality and the founding of the Gay Liberation movement, a group of gay men behind the scenes of rock'n'roll was changing pop, politics and society for goo ... more

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  • Cover image of book Sailor Song: The Shanties and Ballads of the High Seas by Gerry Smyth, illustrated by Jonny Hannah
    Sailor Song: The Shanties and Ballads of the High Seas - by Gerry Smyth, illustrated by Jonny Hannah

    £14.99   hardback   (2021) - ISBN 13: 9780712353700 | ISBN 10: 0712353704

    From the earliest of voyages seafarers have sung, be they homeward bound or rolling in a merciless sea to an unknown horizon. The shouts and cries of these sailors’ shanties provided a musical rhythm to their work and such ‘concerted’ efforts i ... more

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  • Cover image of book Resistance: A Songwriter
    Resistance: A Songwriter's Story of Hope, Change and Courage - by Tori Amos

    £16.99   hardback   (2020) - ISBN 13: 9781529325607 | ISBN 10: 1529325609

    Since the release of her first, career-defining solo album Little Earthquakes, Tori Amos has been one of the music industry’s most enduring and ingenious artists. From her unnerving depiction of sexual assault in “Me and a Gun” to her post-9/11 ... more

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  • Cover image of book How Does It Feel? A Life of Musical Misadventures by Mark Kermode
    How Does It Feel? A Life of Musical Misadventures - by Mark Kermode

    £8.99   paperback   (2019) - ISBN 13: 9781474608992 | ISBN 10: 147460899x

    The hilarious, self-deprecating, blissfully nostalgic memoir of adored film critic Mark Kermode's riotous attempts to become a popstar.   Following a formative encounter with the British pop movie Slade in Flame in 1975, Mark Kermode decided that ... more

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  • Cover image of book Clothes, Music, Boys. by Viv Albertine
    Clothes, Music, Boys. - by Viv Albertine

    £6.99   paperback   (2019) - ISBN 13: 9780571351343 | ISBN 10: 0571351344

    In 1970, Viv Albertine knew she wanted to be in a band, but had never seen a woman play electric guitar. Seven years later, she was the guitarist in the hugely influential all-female punk band, the Slits. This is the story of how, through sheer will, ... more

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  • Cover image of book Why Dylan Matters by Richard F. Thomas
    Why Dylan Matters - by Richard F. Thomas

    £9.99   paperback   (2018) - ISBN 13: 9780008245467 | ISBN 10: 0008245460

    When the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan, the literary world was up in arms. How could the world’s most prestigious book prize be awarded to a famously cantankerous singer-songwriter in his Seventies, who wouldn’t even deign t ... more

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  • Cover image of book When Ziggy Played Guitar: David Bowie, The Man Who Changed The World by Dylan Jones
    When Ziggy Played Guitar: David Bowie, The Man Who Changed The World - by Dylan Jones

    £9.99   paperback   (2018) - ISBN 13: 9781786090638 | ISBN 10: 1786090635

    On 6 July 1972, David Bowie, with a flame-orange cockade quiff, lavishly applied make-up, wearing a multi-coloured jumpsuit that looked as though it were made from fluorescent fish skin, and carrying a brand spanking new blue acoustic guitar, made hi ... more

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  • Cover image of book No Way But This: In Search of Paul Robeson by Jeff Sparrow
    No Way But This: In Search of Paul Robeson - by Jeff Sparrow

    £9.99   paperback   (2018) - ISBN 13: 9781911617204 | ISBN 10: 1911617206

    Film star. Icon. Agitator. Martyr.   Paul Robeson was a brilliant student and champion athlete who abandoned a career in law to find worldwide fame as a performer and activist. He was undoubtedly the most famous African American of his time — be ... more

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  • Cover image of book Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World by Billy Bragg
    Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World - by Billy Bragg

    £9.99   paperback   (2018) - ISBN 13: 9780571327751 | ISBN 10: 0571327753

    Roots, Radicals & Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World is the first book to explore this phenomenon in depth – a meticulously researched and joyous account that explains how skiffle sparked a revolution that shaped pop music as we have come to ... more

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  • Cover image of book Billy Bragg: Still Suitable for Miners by Andrew Collins
    Billy Bragg: Still Suitable for Miners - by Andrew Collins

    £9.99   paperback   (2018) - ISBN 13: 9780753552711 | ISBN 10: 075355271x

    He was a punk. He was a soldier. He was a flag-waver for both the Labour Party and the miners. He is Billy Bragg, best known as a passionate, protest folk singer and a tireless promoter of political and humanitarian causes all over the world. His li ... more

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  • Cover image of book Walls Come Tumbling Down: The Music and Politics of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge by Daniel Rachel
    Walls Come Tumbling Down: The Music and Politics of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge - by Daniel Rachel

    £12.99   paperback   (2017) - ISBN 13: 9781447272694 | ISBN 10: 1447272692

    Walls Come Tumbling Down charts the pivotal period between 1976 and 1992 that saw politics and pop music come together for the first time in Britain's musical history; musicians and their fans suddenly became instigators of social change, and 'the po ... more

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  • Cover image of book Nick Cave: Mercy on Me by Reinhard Kleist
    Nick Cave: Mercy on Me - by Reinhard Kleist

    £14.99   paperback   (2017) - ISBN 13: 9781910593363 | ISBN 10: 1910593362

    “An electrifying graphic biography of Nick Cave”   Musician, novelist, poet, actor: Nick Cave is a Renaissance man. His wide-ranging artistic output always uncompromising, hypnotic and intense is defined by an extraordinary gift for storyt ... more

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  • Cover image of book Wake Up and Live: The Life of Bob Marley by Jim McCarthy and Benito Gallego
    Wake Up and Live: The Life of Bob Marley - by Jim McCarthy and Benito Gallego

    £16.99   paperback   (2017) - ISBN 13: 9781783059676 | ISBN 10: 1783059672

    The extraordinary life of the legendary Jamaican musician Bob Marley is here celebrated in a superb graphic novel by Jim McCarthy and Benito Gallego.  A man of spiritual hunger and force with music in his bones, Robert Nesta Marley came to re ... more

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  • Cover image of book The Rise, the Fall, and the Rise by Brix Smith Start
    The Rise, the Fall, and the Rise - by Brix Smith Start

    £8.99   paperback   (2017) - ISBN 13: 9780571325061 | ISBN 10: 0571325068

    The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise is the extraordinary story, in her own words, of Brix Smith Start. Best known for her work in The Fall at the time when they were perhaps the most powerful and influential anti-authoritarian postpunk band in the world ... more

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  • Cover image of book The Beatles: All Our Yesterdays (Graphic Novel) by Lalit Kumar Sharma and Jason Quinn
    The Beatles: All Our Yesterdays (Graphic Novel) - by Lalit Kumar Sharma and Jason Quinn

    £13.99   paperback   (2017) - ISBN 13: 9789381182222 | ISBN 10: 9381182221

    The Beatles are the world’s most enduring and biggest rock band ever! This is the story of their struggle for success.  Taking us through the early days of rock ‘n’ roll, and their lives in Liverpool during the 1950s, we journey with them ... more

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  • Cover image of book Lucky by Professor Green
    Lucky - by Professor Green

    £8.99   paperback   (2016) - ISBN 13: 9781910536728 | ISBN 10: 1910536725

    It was never easy for Professor Green. Born into a tough Hackney estate and raised by his grandmother, the rapper was always learning the hard way whether at school, on the streets of east London or during impromptu freestyling shows at friends ho ... more

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  • Cover image of book On Bowie by Simon Critchley
    On Bowie - by Simon Critchley

    £6.99   paperback   (2016) - ISBN 13: 9781781257456 | ISBN 10: 1781257450

    What made Bowie special? What made him the cultural icon he is today? And what made millions of people around the world tune into his peculiar wavelength and find exactly what they'd been looking for all along?  These are the questions asked ... more

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  • Cover image of book The Sick Bag Song by Nick Cave
    The Sick Bag Song - by Nick Cave

    £9.99   paperback   (2016) - ISBN 13: 9781782117933 | ISBN 10: 1782117938

    The Sick Bag Song chronicles Cave's journey with his band the Bad Seeds on a twenty-two-day, North American tour. It is a highly personal account that blends memories, musings, poetry, lyrics, flights of fancy and road journal.   Drawing inspi ... more

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  • Cover image of book Psychedelic Suburbia: David Bowie and the Beckenham Arts Lab by Mary Finnigan
    Psychedelic Suburbia: David Bowie and the Beckenham Arts Lab - by Mary Finnigan

    £14.95   paperback   (2016) - ISBN 13: 9780986377020 | ISBN 10: 0986377023

    David Bowie was 22 years old and still living with his parents in southeast London when, quite by chance, he met Mary Finnigan while visiting her upstairs neighbours in nearby Beckenham. Still an unrecognised talent haunting the London folk clubs, de ... more

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  • Cover image of book Fathomless Riches: Or How I Went from Pop to Pulpit by Richard Coles
    Fathomless Riches: Or How I Went from Pop to Pulpit - by Richard Coles

    £9.99   paperback   (2015) - ISBN 13: 9781780226194 | ISBN 10: 1780226195

    The memoir of popular BBC Radio 4 Saturday Live presenter and former member of the Communards, the Reverend Richard Coles.  From the top of the pop charts to the priesthood via BBC Radio 4.   Fathomless Riches is the Reverend Richard C ... more

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  • Cover image of book Ultraviolet: A Glastonbury Tale by Blueblagger
    Ultraviolet: A Glastonbury Tale - by Blueblagger

    £11.95   paperback   (2015) - ISBN 13: 9780956815569 | ISBN 10: 0956815561

    Welcome to Glastonbury a relaxed Somerset town known for its ancient legends. From King Arthur to the Tor, it is part of a Wessex landscape rich in stone circles and stoned wanderers, and in more recent years its name has become synonymous with a f ... more

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  • Cover image of book Bob Marley: Reggae King of the World by Malika Lee Whitney & Dermott Hussey
    Bob Marley: Reggae King of the World - by Malika Lee Whitney & Dermott Hussey

    £19.99   paperback   (2013) - ISBN 13: 9789768245038 | ISBN 10: 9768245034

    A picture scrapbook with over 300 colour/black and white photographs, full of memorabilia and information about the life of the legendary Bob Marley.  With foreword by his widow, Rita Marley, and a wealth of interviews with those who were closes ... more

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  • Cover image of book Love is the Cure: On Life, Loss and the End of AIDS by Sir Elton John
    Love is the Cure: On Life, Loss and the End of AIDS - by Sir Elton John

    £10.99   paperback   (2013) - ISBN 13: 9781444757033 | ISBN 10: 1444757032

    The first ever book by music legend Sir Elton John is the personal, passionate and illuminating journey of his fight to end the AIDS epidemic.  In the 1980s, Elton John saw friend after friend, loved one after loved one, perish needlessly fro ... more

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  • Cover image of book Autobiography by Morrissey
    Autobiography - by Morrissey

    £9.99   paperback   (2013) - ISBN 13: 9780141394817 | ISBN 10: 0141394811

    Steven Patrick Morrissey was born in Manchester on May 22nd 1959. Singer-songwriter and co-founder of the Smiths (1982-1987), Morrissey has been a solo artist for twenty-six years, during which time he has had three number 1 albums in England in thre ... more

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  • Cover image of book Women Make Noise: Girl Bands from Motown to the Modern by Julia Downes
    Women Make Noise: Girl Bands from Motown to the Modern - by Julia Downes

    £15.99   paperback   (2012) - ISBN 13: 9780956632913 | ISBN 10: 0956632912

    As more and more female solo artists hit the mainstream the question arises: where are the girl bands? Why aren't they getting the attention they deserve?   While the media continues to ignore them, in Women Make Noise Julia Downes invites mus ... more

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  • Cover image of book Class Act: The Cultural and Political Life of Ewan MacColl by Ben Harker
    Class Act: The Cultural and Political Life of Ewan MacColl - by Ben Harker

    £18.99   paperback   (2007) - ISBN 13: 9780745321653 | ISBN 10: 0745321658

    Ewan MacColl is one of the outstanding British singers and songwriters of the mid to late twentieth-century, and his work has been covered by artists including Roberta Flack, Johnny Cash and the Pogues. He was also a committed political activist. For ... more

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  • Cover image of book And They All Sang: Great Musicians Talk About Their Music by Studs Terkel
    And They All Sang: Great Musicians Talk About Their Music - by Studs Terkel

    £9.99   paperback   (2007) - ISBN 13: 9781862079366 | ISBN 10: 1862079366

    Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, Pulitzer Prize-winning oral historian Studs Terkel hosted a legendary daily radio programme in Chicago, presenting listeners with his singular take on an eclectic range of music from classical, ope ... more

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  • Cover image of book Here We Stand: Politics, Performers and Performance - Paul Robeson, Charlie Chaplin, Isadora Duncan by Colin Chambers
    Here We Stand: Politics, Performers and Performance - Paul Robeson, Charlie Chaplin, Isadora Duncan - by Colin Chambers

    £20.00   hardback   (2006) - ISBN 13: 9781854599209 | ISBN 10: 1854599208

    Paul Robeson's international achievements as a singer and an actor made him the most celebrated black American of his day (he would have said 'Negro'). But his outspoken criticism of racism in the USA, his unflinching support of African independence, ... more

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  • Cover image of book Dazzling Stranger; Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival by Colin Harper
    Dazzling Stranger; Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival - by Colin Harper

    £14.99   paperback   (2006) - ISBN 13: 9780747587255 | ISBN 10: 0747587256

    The guitarists' guitarist and the songwriters' songwriter, the legendary Bert Jansch has influenced stars as diverse as Johnny Marr, Paul Simon, Jimmy Page, Nick Drake, Donovan, Neil Young and Beth Orton. Raised in Edinburgh, Jansch became a poineeri ... more

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  • Cover image of book Chronicles: Volume 1 by Bob Dylan
    Chronicles: Volume 1 - by Bob Dylan

    £9.99   paperback   (2005) - ISBN 13: 9780743478649 | ISBN 10: 0743478649

    Bob Dylan's acclaimed autobiography: "A book which measures up to - and in many respects surpasses - the highest hopes anyone could have had of it. The narrator of Chronicles turns out to be a superbly candid and engaging character, with a sharp desc ... more

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  • Cover image of book Magic Circles: The Beatles in Dream and History by Devin McKinney
    Magic Circles: The Beatles in Dream and History - by Devin McKinney

    £20.95   paperback   (2004) - ISBN 13: 9780674016361 | ISBN 10: 067401636x

    No one expressed the heart and soul of the Sixties as powerfully as the Beatles did through the words, images and rhythms of their music. In Magic Circles Devin McKinney uncovers the secret history of a generation and a pivotal moment in twentieth-ce ... more

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  • Cover image of book Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie
    Bound for Glory - by Woody Guthrie

    £9.99   paperback   (2004) - ISBN 13: 9780141187228 | ISBN 10: 0141187220

    Bound for Glory is the funny, cynical and earthy autobiography of Woody Guthrie, the father of American folk music. He tells of his childhood running wild in an Oklahoma oil-boom town, the tragedies that struck his family and of his life on the open ... more

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  • Cover image of book When This Bloody War is Over: Soldiers
    When This Bloody War is Over: Soldiers' Songs of the First World War - by Max Arthur

    £8.99   paperback   (2002) - ISBN 13: 9780749923549 | ISBN 10: 0749923547

    A heart-rending compilation of the greatest soldiers' songs from the First World War. The haunting songs of the First World War still have a powerful emotional impact. These are the funny, bitter, sad and romantic words the soldiers actually sang o ... more

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