Philip Norman

A fresh look at the story of the Beatles' rise to success and the people who helped them develop their music, image, and style.

The Beatles in Their Generation

Shout!

The definitive Paul McCartney biography, written with his approval by bestselling biographer Philip Norman. Since the age of twenty-one, Paul McCartney has lived one of the ultimate rock-n-roll lives played out on the most public of stages. Now, Paul's story is told by rock music's foremost biographer, with McCartney's consent and access to family members and close friends who have never spoken on the record before. PAUL McCARTNEY reveals the complex character behind the façade and sheds new light on his childhood--blighted by his mother's death but redeemed by the father who introduced him to music. This is the first definitive account of Paul's often troubled partnership with John Lennon, his personal trauma after the Beatles' breakup, and his subsequent struggle to get back to the top with Wings--which nearly got him murdered in Africa and brought him nine days in a Tokyo jail. Readers will learn about his marriage to Linda, including their much-criticized musical collaboration, and a moving account of her death. Packed with new information and critical insights, PAUL MCCARTNEY will be the definitive biography of a musical legend.

The Life

Paul McCartney

Clearing away the hype, myths, and legends surrounding the Rolling Stones, the author provides a fresh, objective, and sometimes shocking view of the men, their music, and their world

The Rolling Stones Story

Symphony for the Devil

die Biographie

John Lennon

Celebrated as the most innovative guitarist ever to play, Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) is renowned for symphonic solos and virtuosic picking (sometimes, with his teeth). But, as Philip Norman describes, before Hendrix was setting guitars aflame onstage, he was a shy kid in Seattle, lucking at a broken ukulele and looking out for his father, who chided him for playing left- handed. Interweaving new interviews with friends, lovers, bandmates, and his family, Wild Thing vividly reconstructs Hendrix's remarkable life-- from playing in segregated clubs on the Chitlin' Circuit to earning stardom in Swinging London in 1966. For more than four mind- boggling years Hendrix found unparalleled success, making historic appearances at Monterey and Woodstock while becoming the highest paid musician of his day, but it all abruptly ended with his tragic death in the sordid basement of a London hotel. Filled with insights into the greatest moments in rock history, Wild Thing reveals the endlessly complex figure behind the unforgettable riffs.

The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix

Wild Thing

This work provides a personal insight into the career of the Rolling Stones, now celebrating their 40th anniversary. It charts the band's rise, the Marianne Faithfull, Brian Jones and Altamont scandals, their groundbreaking hits and their implications for popular culture.

The Stones

The final word on music's greatest legend, in which Philip Norman reveals a John Lennon the world has never seen. With ground-breaking insight into the pain, beauty and frustration that shaped the genius of modern music, 'John Lennon' redefines a legend.

With Some Account of the Neighbourhoods of Chislehurst and Bromley and of the Families Residing There

Scores and Annals of the West Kent Cricket Club, 1812-1896, Originally the Prince's Plain Club

The bestselling author of Shout!, the definitive book on the Beatles, now offers a comic novel that dissects the office politics and bedroom shenanigans of trendy journalists in Beatles-era London, evoking the world of sixties pop music and high fashion with thorough authenticity.

Everyone's Gone to the Moon

Nesta biografia essencial, você encontrará tudo o que sempre quis saber sobre Paul McCartney mas não tinha certeza se era mito ou fato. Sim, Paul McCartney fumou maconha diariamente até depois dos sessenta anos de idade (e parou para não dar mau exemplo à filha pequena, Beatrice). Sim, Paul McCartney e Yoko Ono ainda hoje não se bicam. Sim, ele é considerado mão de vaca até pelos amigos íntimos. Sim, ele é um compositor erudito respeitado por seus pares. E não, ele não está morto. Muito pelo contrário. No final dos anos 1950, quatro adolescentes de Liverpool se reuniram para mudar para sempre a história da música e o próprio mundo como até então era conhecido. A beatlemania andou de mãos dadas com a revolução cultural dos anos 1960 e, como líder inconteste dos Fab Four (a despeito da opinião dos adoradores de John Lennon), Paul McCartney foi um de seus protagonistas. Mas o autor de "Hey Jude" e tantos sucessos imortais não é apenas o ex-líder do Beatles. Quase cinquenta anos depois do fim da banda, ele continua vivíssimo, no topo das paradas e elogiado pela crítica. Aclamada no Reino Unidos e nos EUA, esta biografia é a mais precisa e abrangente já publicada sobre Paul McCartney. Especialista em rock e profundo conhecedor da história dos Beatles, Philip Norman rastreia todos os passos do biografado com o precioso auxílio de entrevistas com membros de seu círculo pessoal. As versões de ex-namoradas, colegas, amigos, familiares e desafetos ajudam o autor de John Lennon: a vida a compor um retrato equilibrado do baixista canhoto que, um dia na vida, saiu de Liverpool com seu instrumento em formato de violino para transformar o rock numa grande arte.

A biografia

For more than a quarter century, biographer Philip Norman's internationally bestselling Shout! has been unchallenged as the definitive biography of the Beatles. Now, at last, Norman turns his formidable talent to the Beatle for whom being a Beatle was never enough. Drawing on previously untapped sources, and with unprecedented access to all the major characters, Norman presents the comprehensive and most revealing portrait of John Lennon ever published. This masterly biography takes a fresh and penetrating look at every aspect of Lennon's much-chronicled life, including the songs that have turned him, posthumously, into a near-secular saint. In three years of research, Norman has turned up an extraordinary amount of new information about even the best-known episodes of Lennon folklore—his upbringing by his strict Aunt Mimi; his allegedly wasted school and student days; the evolution of his peerless creative partnership with Paul McCartney; his Beatle-busting love affair with a Japanese performance artist; his forays into painting and literature; his experiments with Transcendental Meditation, primal scream therapy, and drugs. The book's numerous key informants and interviewees include Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin, Sean Lennon—whose moving reminiscence reveals his father as never seen before—and Yoko Ono, who speaks with sometimes shocking candor about the inner workings of her marriage to John. “[A] haunting, mammoth, terrific piece of work.” -New York Times Honest and unflinching, as John himself would wish, Norman gives us the whole man in all his endless contradictions—tough and cynical, hilariously funny but also naive, vulnerable and insecure—and reveals how the mother who gave him away as a toddler haunted his mind and his music for the rest of his days.

John Lennon: The Life

Cromwell house, Highgate, its history and associations. (Hosp. for sick children).

Buddy Holly is the best-known yet most elusive and enigmatic of all Rock 'n' Roll legends. Now Philip Norman, who has won international praise for his biographies of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Elton John, has written the definitive story of a short but extraordinary life. Buddy's records are played, and his memory is cherished, the world over. Yet the full story of his meteoric rise and tragic fall has never been told. Philip Norman uses his unique skills to give a revealing, sometimes shocking but always warmly affectionate portrait of America's mythical Rock 'n' Roll era and its brightest and most enduring star. 'excellent . . . [Norman's] cogency and thoroughness make this biography as welcome as the unstoppably fresh songs his idol left us' Sunday Times

The Definitive Biography of Buddy Holly

Buddy

A biography of the creator of such songs as "Rocket Man" and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" discusses John's childhood dreams of soccer fame, the marriage he avoided in his youth and the one that failed in the 1980s, his bisexuality, and his musical success.

Elton John

An updated, fully revised biography of the popular singer/songwriter discusses Elton John's childhood dreams of soccer fame, the marriage he avoided in his youth and the one that failed in the 1980s, his bisexuality, and his musical success. Reprint.

The Definitive Biography

Sir Elton

'He's got me spot on' Elton John ‘Anyone who can read will admire the intelligence, the detail and the robust good sense of this biography. It captures the flavour of the times every bit as distinctively as it captures the personality of Elton John’ Sunday Telegraph Elton John is one of the biggest stars in the world, a man whose extraordinary career has resulted in timeless songs and sold-out world tours. But how did the sensitive boy from Pinner, who started out pounding the piano in a pub, become such an iconic figure? Philip Norman’s acclaimed biography paints a frank but sympathetic portrait, from Elton’s rise to success to the attempted suicides, from Watford football club chairman to flamboyant Versace shopaholic, from the draining addictions to his turbulent personal relationships and the extraordinary moment in Westminster Abbey when ‘Candle in the Wind’ turned into a requiem for his friend Diana Princess of Wales. Covering the first five decades of Elton’s life, setting him in the context of the changing music scene, this is a vivid, perceptive, superbly researched account of a musical legend.

From Its Foundation in 1862 Until 1880

The Eton Ramblers' Cricket Club

Author Phillip Norman, whose previous bestseller, John Lennon: The Life, was praised as a “haunting, mammoth, terrific piece of work” (New York Times Book Review) and whose classic Shout! is widely considered to be the definitive biography of the Beatles, now turns his attention to the iconic front man of the Rolling Stones, “the greatest rock ’n’ roll band in the world.” Norman’s Mick Jagger is an extraordinarily detailed and vibrantly written in-depth account of the life and half-century-long career of one of the most fascinating and complex superstars of rock music—the most comprehensive biography to date of the famously enigmatic musician. Keith Richards had his say in Life. Now it’s time to get to know intimately the other half of the duo responsible for such enduring hits as “Paint It Black,” “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Gimme Shelter,” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Mick Jagger is a must read for Stones fans, and everyone who can’t get enough of the serious memoirs and biographies of popular musicians, like Patti Smith’s Just Kids, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? by Steven Tyler, and the Warren Zevon story, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.

Mick Jagger

Hailed for its astounding portrait of Jimi Hendrix, Philip Norman’s Wild Thing has become the definitive biography of rock’s most outrageous—and tragic—genius. Today, Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) is celebrated as the greatest rock guitarist of all time. But before he was setting guitars and the world aflame, James Marshall Hendrix was a shy kid in Seattle, plucking at a broken ukulele. Bringing Hendrix’s story to vivid life against the backdrop of midcentury rock, and interweaving new interviews with friends, lovers, bandmates, and his family, Wild Thing vividly reconstructs Hendrix’s remarkable career, from playing segregated clubs on the Chitlin’ Circuit to achieving stardom in Swinging London.

Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix

Mick Jagger é o astro da música que melhor encarnou o ideal de sexo, drogas e rock'n'roll. Nesta que é a mais completa biografia do líder dos Rolling Stones, Philip Norman refaz os passos da consagração de Mick Jagger e mostra como ele se tornou um showman sedutor, o protótipo do pop star genial, escandaloso e milionário. A partir de uma pesquisa detalhada e numerosas entrevistas, Norman reconstitui a infância de Mick (nascido Mike), o início da carreira do grupo (quando os Stones rivalizavam com os Beatles) e acompanha cronologicamente a evolução da banda, revelando bastidores da criação de clássicos como "Satisfaction", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Brown sugar" e "Start me up". O livro repassa os episódios turbulentos da carreira do astro e seu grupo, como a morte de Brian Jones, a relação de amor e ódio com Keith Richards, a prisão e o processo por porte de drogas em 1967 e o trágico concerto de Altamont (Califórnia), em 1969, quando um membro da plateia foi esfaqueado até a morte pelos Hell's Angels, enquanto Mick Jagger cantava "Sympathy for the Devil". Ganham destaque os relacionamentos conjugais e extraconjugais com mulheres atraentes e famosas como Marianne Faithful, Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall, Carla Bruni e Angelina Jolie. Hoje, sir Mick Jagger, condecorado pela rainha da Inglaterra, é um respeitado avô de quase setenta anos, mas sua imagem e sua voz ainda inspiram fãs e admiradores. A biografia restitui ao astro sua dimensão humana, retratando um personagem complexo, vulnerável e afetivo. O estilo envolvente de Philip Norman narra como, em sua longa trajetória de mais de cinquenta anos como astro e ícone sexual, Mick Jagger foi assimilado pelo establishment, mas manteve a mística transgressiva e fascinante do rock.

Philip Norman

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