The frontman of one of the greatest bands of all time tells the story of his rise from nothing to rock 'n' roll megastar, and his wild journey as the voice of The Who. “It’s taken me three years to unpack the events of my life, to remember who did what when and why, to separate the myths from the reality, to unravel what really happened at the Holiday Inn on Keith Moon’s 21st birthday,” says Roger Daltrey, the powerhouse vocalist of The Who. The result of this introspection is a remarkable memoir, instantly captivating, funny and frank, chock-full of well-earned wisdom and one-of-a-kind anecdotes from a raucous life that spans a tumultuous time of change in Britain and America. Born during the air bombing of London in 1944, Daltrey fought his way (literally) through school and poverty and began to assemble the band that would become The Who while working at a sheet metal factory in 1961. In Daltrey’s voice, the familiar stories—how they got into smashing up their kit, the infighting, Keith Moon’s antics—take on a new, intimate life. Also here is the creative journey through the unforgettable hits including My Generation, Substitute, Pinball Wizard, and the great albums, Who’s Next, Tommy, and Quadrophenia. Amidst all the music and mayhem, the drugs, the premature deaths, the ruined hotel rooms, Roger is our perfect narrator, remaining sober (relatively) and observant and determined to make The Who bigger and bigger. Not only his personal story, this is the definitive biography of The Who.

'Hope I die before I get old', sang Roger Daltrey over forty years ago, but it didn't quite work out like that. The wild and passionate lead singer for supergroup The Who is still very much alive. The premature deaths of fellow group members Keith Moon and John Entwistle leaves Daltrey and Pete Townshend as the only survivors of the legendary band. Roger Daltrey's life is extraordinary from start to finish: he was expelled from school and written off as a violent thug - before he made his first guitar out of a block of wood, and music and The Who became his salvation. For many years he was the vouce of a generation, strutting bare-chested on stage, swinging the mic around like a lariat at The Who's dynamic concerts. Drawing on interviews with Daltrey himself, as well as his friends and fellow musicians, this is the most complete and revealing biography of one of rock's most powerful personalities.

The first biography of the seminal music group WAR whose many hits include "Spill the Wine," "All Day Music," "Why Can't We Be Friends?" "Slippin' into Darkness," "The Cisco Kid," and - of course - "Low Rider." They combined rock, funk, soul, R&B, jazz, and a strong Latin vibe in their music, they have been awarded two Platinum and eight Gold records in their career. Their album "The World is a Ghetto" was the bestselling release of 1973 and was #444 on the list of "Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums" list. This unauthorized book follows the group from their early incarnations when Harold Brown and Howard Scott met to form the Creators and then the Night Shift, to their partnership with former Animals lead singer Eric Burdon, to a highly successful career on their own with the core original lineup of Brown, Scott, Lee Oskar, Lonnie Jordan, B.B. Dickerson, Papa Dee Allen, and Charles Miller. The story also follows the band through their later, leaner years, the tragic deaths of two members, and the conflicts that led to a fissure and a split of performing entities that continues to this day. Featuring original interviews, archival research, and musical analysis and commentary, "Slippin' Out of Darkness: The Story of WAR" tells the tale of one of the most unique bands in the history of Classic Rock-era music.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2010 Jennifer Egan's spellbinding novel circles the lives of Bennie Salazar, an ageing former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the troubled young woman he employs. We first meet Sasha in her mid-thirties, on her therapist's couch in New York City, confronting her longstanding compulsion to steal. We meet Bennie at the melancholy nadir of his adult life - divorced, struggling to connect with his nine-year-old son, listening to a washed-up band in the basement of a suburban house. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other's pasts, the reader does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs, over many years, in many places. With music pulsing on every page, this is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption. Breathtaking work from one of our boldest writers. 'Irresistible. Fiction of the highest quality' Sunday Times 'Egan's precise, calm underwater prose is a persistent pleasure' Daily Telegraph 'Stories that defy narrative convention' Financial Times 'A must-read' Sunday Times

Long acknowledged as one of rock music’s most intelligent and literary performers, Pete Townshend—guitarist, songwriter, singer and founding member of The Who—at last tells his wild story in this candid and immersive autobiography. Raised in west London by an eccentric grandmother, while his parents were off living the early post-war, rock ’n’ roll lifestyle, Townshend describes a frenetic childhood of displacement and abuse. Then, in high school, everything changed when he met Roger Daltrey and formed a band that would travel the world, earning fame, fortune and critical acclaim. In Who I Am, Townshend brings us from the inner sanctum of Eric Clapton’s drug-ridden hotel rooms to the feet of Jimi Hendrix and his electric kool-aid guitar; from the first trial performance of Townshend’s rock opera, Tommy, in a London bar to his infamous arrest (and acquittal) on child pornography charges. With his trademark eloquence, fierce intelligence and brutal honesty, Pete Townshend has created a work of literature that stands as a primary source for popular music’s greatest epoch. Readers will be confronted by a man laying bare who he is, an artist who has asked for nearly sixty years: who are you?

"NEW REISSUE! The Who burst upon a startled world in the early sixties and since then have maintained a pre-eminent position in shaping the sound and style of a generation. Best-selling Rolling Stone writer Dave Marsh’s Before I Get Old is the first book to discard the myth and nonsense; it tells the story of not one but six personalities; guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle, drummer Keith Moon and singer Roger Daltrey and their original managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. It charts their origins in the steamy nightlife of London as well as their meteoric rise to fame, describing the creation of the rock opera Tommy, which turned the Who into superstars. In short, this story contains every line of fascinating, shocking, hilarious material on the Who and their wild, crazy lives and careers."--Publisher's website.

The Age of Anxiety is a great rock novel, but that is one of the less important things about it. The narrator is a brilliant creation - cultured, witty and unreliable. The novel captures the craziness of the music business and displays Pete Townshend's sly sense of humour and sharp ear for dialogue. First conceived as an opera, The Age of Anxiety deals with mythic and operatic themes including a maze, divine madness and long-lost children. Hallucinations and soundscapes haunt this novel, which on one level is an extended meditation on manic genius and the dark art of creativity.