Ensconced in the black hole between childhood and adulthood, a glorious degenerate-grade freedom endures. A rebellion from respectability. An anathema to normalcy. It is the type of defiance that’s hopeful—hurt by the world but looking to reconcile it. Enter Gogo Germaine and her girl gang of delinquents. As manic teens in the ’90s punk scene, they engage in a vivid spectrum of misbehavior—from truancy to tattoos to trespassing. Here, in the underbelly of adolescence, music is God and the rest is a rush of nihilism. Gogo and her friends stumble through sound and fury into questionable firsts at varying degrees of sobriety. Many of us blunder through that black hole. It is a point of universal convergence, manifested by divergent experiences. Gogo’s rebellion may look different from yours, but the soaring highs and visceral lows will be familiar.

GUITAR PLAYER: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE FIRST TWO DECADES OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL GUITARM

Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia is a tour through pop-music’s most celebrated musical instrument. Covering several decades of iconic pieces, this guide describes electric guitars produced by every significant manufacturer from Alembic to Zemaitis. Alongside every model is detailed information and a host of action pictures of key players, from Chet Atkins to Joey Z. 1,200 photographs really bring each guitar to life. With 800 classic, rare and unusual instruments from all major manufacturers in studio-quality photographs, plus illustrations of key players, original ads, and memorabilia, it’s easy to get lost within these pages. Comprehensive and informative text with a unique A-to-Z guitar directory covers makers’ histories, great guitarists, and musical trends. This is the definitive guide to the electric guitar, written and researched by the world’s leading authorities on the instrument that has shaped over 50 years of popular music. In words and pictures, detailed descriptions of just why the electric guitar is the most exciting icon of modern pop music.

New York Times bestselling author Allen St. John started off looking for the world’s greatest guitar, but what he found instead was the world’s greatest guitar builder. Living and working in Rugby, Virginia (population 7), retired rural mail carrier Wayne Henderson is a true American original, making America's finest instruments using little more than a pile of good wood and a sharp whittling knife. There's a 10-year waiting list for Henderson's heirloom acoustic guitars—and even a musical legend like Eric Clapton must wait his turn. Partly out of self-interest, St. John prods Henderson into finally building Clapton's guitar, and soon we get to pull up a dusty stool and watch this Stradivari in glue-stained blue jeans work his magic. The story that ensues will captivate you with its portrait of a world where craftsmanship counts more than commerce, and time is measured by old jokes, old-time music, and homemade lemon pies shared by good friends.

(Guitar Collection). 25 classic songs from the Fab Four are presented in lyrics, chord symbols and guitar chord diagrams, making Beatles' music accessible to beginning guitarists just learning their craft. Songs include: Beautiful Dreamer * Come Together * Don't Let Me Down * Eleanor Rigby * Helter Skelter * I Saw Her Standing There * Let It Be * Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da * Paperback Writer * Twist and Shout * You've Got to Hide Your Love Away * and more.

Vintage Guitars: The Instruments, the Players, and the Music is the first pictorial reference work to offer guitar enthusiasts, players and collectors an opportunity to explore the eventful, endless give-and-take between musicians and instrument makers that has produced America's popular music and its quintessential instrument. Generously illustrated with more than 150 photos of players, instruments, catalog pages and other memorabilia, this book features everything from the elegant American guitars of the 19th century to the evolving dreadnought, jumbo, 12-string, archtop resophonic and more - original instruments as well as contemporary incarnations and reissues. It spotlights the guitars of Leadbelly, Jimmie Rodgers, the Everly Brothers, Tony Rice, Emmylou Harris, Ben Harper and others. The collector's edition features the book in a classy, hard-back slip case.

The craft tradition of making string instruments goes back to Stradivarius, the 18th-century luthier whose instruments today are very nearly priceless. Kathryn Dudley here takes us on a quest for the Guitar Heroes of the 21st century, the luthiers whose artisanal skills (as opposed computer numerical control technology) produce exquisite one-of-a-kind instruments. But she tracks industrial guitar-making as well as artisanal, starting with the post-WW II golden era of the Martin and Gibson companies on to a second golden era, a result of new modes of information sharing. She has interviewed 100 luthiers and 50 dealers, collectors, musicians, material suppliers, and guitar festival organizers. We see how the advent of disco caused sales of acoustic guitars to plummet in the 1980s, and meet the key individuals who rescued both the craft and the big companies from almost certain demise. In-depth portraits of guitar-makers illuminate the kinds of emotional and tactile engagement these skilled workers have with the wood they shape into a guitar s unique voice. They talk to wood, and listen to what the piece of wood wants to be, how the grain is going to go, they bring wood to life, treating it not as a passive object but as a collaborator in the production process. Along the way, we meet up with consequences of the 1992 law prohibiting sales of Brazilian rosewood, as well as taking tours of the Martin Company museum and factory, and devour with pleasure her portraits of student and apprentice luthiers as well as masters. The interaction between people and things yields a longing to be in perfect synch with sound and with the human bodywhat Dudley calls acoustic desire. No other book has so perceptively shown us the role of human hands in shaping a guitar s unique voice."