Born In A Small Town: John Mellencamp, The Story PDF Download

Author: Heather Johnson
Publisher: Omnibus Press
ISBN: 0857128434
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Featuring interviews with everyone from childhood friends to band members, producers and engineers, this is a portrait of the real man, who grew up in Indiana and still lives there today – a passionate musician and a tireless campaigner for the lifestyle and values of the American family farmer. This is the complete story of John Mellencamp, tracking his progress as he matured from youthful rocker with a made-up name to major star with a social conscience. It is a journey typified by his 2007 release, Freedom's Road, an impassioned call to arms to rediscover America's founding traditions of freedom, justice, and never-say-die spirit. An unlikely story but, in the end, an inspirational one that reveals a remarkable and unique fusion of heartland values and rock 'n' roll stardom.

Author: Heather Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780825673368
Category : Rock musicians
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The First Definitive Biography of John Mellencamp! Johnny Cougar⦠John Cougar Mellencamp⦠John Mellencamp⦠the name may have changed but the man has remained a steadfast champion of American roots music and rock ânâ roll for over thirty years. Featuring interviews with everyone from childhood friends to band members, producers and engineers, this is a portrait of the real man who grew up in Indiana and still lives there todayâa passionate musician and a tireless campaigner for the lifestyle and values of the American family farmer. Here then is the complete John Mellencamp story, tracking his progress as he matured from youthful rocker with a made-up name to major star with a social conscience. It is a journey typified by his 2007 release Freedom Road, an impassioned call to arms to rediscover Americaâs founding traditions of freedom, justice and never-say-die spirit. Itâs an unlikely story but in the end an inspirational one that reveals a remarkable and unique fusion of heartland values and rock ânâ roll stardom. Fully Illustrated.

Author: Paul Rees
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 198211214X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"John Mellencamp is not your typical rock star. Not only has he absorbed into his own work the influence of Faulkner, Williams, Steinbeck, and other such literary giants, but he himself could have stepped straight from the pages of any of their great American novels. A complex, colorful, and larger than life character, Mellencamp, like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash before him, walks to the beat of his own drum. Or, as he told author and veteran music journalist Paul Rees: 'I just refuse to take shit off anyone.' [This book charts] the life of one of the most fascinating characters in all of American music"--

Author: Steve Sullivan
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810882965
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 1027

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Book Description
From John Philip Sousa to Green Day, from Scott Joplin to Kanye West, from Stephen Foster to Coldplay, The Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volumes 1 and 2 covers the vast scope of its subject with virtually unprecedented breadth and depth. Approximately 1,000 key song recordings from 1889 to the present are explored in full, unveiling the stories behind the songs, the recordings, the performers, and the songwriters. Beginning the journey in the era of Victorian parlor balladry, brass bands, and ragtime with the advent of the record industry, readers witness the birth of the blues and the dawn of jazz in the 1910s and the emergence of country music on record and the shift from acoustic to electrical recording in the 1920s. The odyssey continues through the Swing Era of the 1930s; rhythm & blues, bluegrass, and bebop in the 1940s; the rock & roll revolution of the 1950s; modern soul, the British invasion, and the folk-rock movement of the 1960s; and finally into the modern era through the musical streams of disco, punk, grunge, hip-hop, and contemporary dance-pop. Sullivan, however, also takes critical detours by extending the coverage to genres neglected in pop music histories, from ethnic and world music, the gospel recording of both black and white artists, and lesser-known traditional folk tunes that reach back hundreds of years. This book is ideal for anyone who truly loves popular music in all of its glorious variety, and anyone wishing to learn more about the roots of virtually all the music we hear today. Popular music fans, as well as scholars of recording history and technology and students of the intersections between music and cultural history will all find this book to be informative and interesting.

Author: Robert Gilberg
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1491757221
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
New Bremen, Ohio, was mostly like countless other small farm towns in that part of the state in the 1950s. The primary business at the time was farmingcorn, wheat, hay, alfalfa, and soybeans, along with some dairy farmingand there were always cows and pigs in the fields. And its where author Robert Gilberg spent the first twenty-two years of his life. In The Last Road Rebel, he shares what it was like growing up in that small town. In this memoir, Gilberg admits he is probably lucky to have survived his childhood; some of his friends did not. He is also lucky to have met the right girl at the right time who unknowingly gave him the push needed for him to climb out of an early life with a limited future. The storiessome hilarious, some horribly sad, and some just funtell of a young person who experienced the tortures of found and lost teen love, knew the disappointment of poor preparation for life after school, and finally looked himself in the mirror and decided it was time to get out of that place. Against the backdrop of the times, when the sounds on the radio were changing from Perry Como and Patti Page to Bill Haley and the Comets, Elvis, and Little Richard, The Last Road Rebel recalls the times, places, people, events, and experiences that have stayed with Gilberg forever.

Author: David Masciotra
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813147344
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
An in-depth biography of “a major artist whose work is sometimes obscured by the shadows of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen” (Craig Werner, author of Up Around the Bend: An Oral History of Creedence Clearwater Revival). Despite his numerous hits and Grammy nominations—and his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame—John Mellencamp remains one of America’s most underrated songwriters. In Mellencamp, David Masciotra explores the life and career of this important talent, persuasively arguing that he deserves to be celebrated alongside artists like Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan. Starting with his modest beginnings in Seymour, Indiana, Masciotra details Mellencamp’s road to fame, examining his struggles with the music industry and his persistent dedication to his midwestern roots as he found success by remaining true to where he came from. From a cultural critic who has contributed to the Washington Post, Atlantic, and Los Angeles Review of Books and who “writes with the precision and integrity and humanity of a great journalist” (New York Times–bestselling author James Lee Burke), this thoughtful analysis highlights four decades of the artist’s music, which has consistently elevated the dignity of everyday people and honored the quiet heroism of raising families and working hard.

Author: Lynn Coady
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307961362
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
A piercing epistolary novel, The Antagonist explores, with wit and compassion, how the impressions of others shape, pervert, and flummox both our perceptions of ourselves and our very nature. Gordon Rankin Jr., aka “Rank,” thinks of himself as “King Midas in reverse”—and indeed misfortune seems to follow him at every turn. Against his will and his nature, he has long been considered—given his enormous size and strength—a goon and enforcer by his classmates, by his hockey coaches, and, not least, by his “tiny, angry” father. He gamely lives up to their expectations, until a vicious twist of fate forces him to flee underground. Now pushing forty, he discovers that an old, trusted friend from his college days has published a novel that borrows freely from the traumatic events of Rank’s own life. Outraged by this betrayal and feeling cruelly misrepresented, he bashes out his own version of his story in a barrage of e-mails to the novelist that range from funny to furious to heartbreaking. With The Antagonist, Lynn Coady demonstrates all of the gifts that have made her one of Canada’s most respected young writers. Here she gives us an astonishing story of sons and fathers and mothers, of the rewards and betrayals of male friendship, and a large-spirited, hilarious, and exhilarating portrait of a man tearing his life apart in order to put himself back together. This ebook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.

Author: Deborah Serani
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538179830
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
"In the U.S., major depressive disorder afflicts more than 20 million adults and children every year. Living with Depression details the various forms and manifestations of depression alongside Serani's own personal and professional experiences with depression. Clinical definitions, updated research, and the promise of science serve not only as a resource guide for anyone who has depression or loves someone with this disorder, but also as a testament to those who live productively with mental illness"--

Author: Marty Pieratt
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1491823682
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
This is a collection of stories I wrote when my family was young and the world was more naive. This is a record of life in and around the Heartland before 9/11. These are some stories I told that people seemed to remember. My heroes have always been storytellers, like the late Charles Kuralt of CBS’s On The Road and Sunday Morning. He was inspired by the great Hoosier war correspondent Ernie Pyle. Today, there’s the great American raconteur Bob Dotson. Not long ago when the NBC Today Show reporter spoke to a group of our students at Indiana University, he reminded us of the wonderful stories that have made our country great. He said to remember, “The reason you got here is because of all those who came before.” We are not cut from one cloth, he said. He’s not talking about retelling the day-to-day murder, mayhem and politics journalists must cover, but looking under rocks and beside creeks to find stories about folks who work hard, play hard and pray hard. These are people who fly under the celebrity radar, but who are the sturdy foundation of our country. A lot of folks like that can be found in Indiana. I’ll never be able to take you on the remarkable journeys that Bob does with his words, but I can share what it is about Indiana people, places and things that I’ve come to hold dear in my world. Much of it revolves around my family, which is probably a lot like yours. What I wrote was the mood and passion of my heart at that time, in that place. It is true that precious people and things reveal themselves in passing from us. I’d like to share some of my precious memories from the past. Maybe it will stir your memories and help encourage us all to appreciate the here and now.

Author: Thomas Darlington
Publisher: WestBow Press
ISBN: 1664289216
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
What if soulmates are real? If so, wouldn’t God want them to find each other early in life? Jason fell in love with Jenny the first time he saw her, and in time she returned his love. They knew from the very start they were soulmates. They fell in love during high school, while they were still innocent, and they never moved on to other relationships. They married at nineteen and shared a long life, staying together through thick and thin. Is their story too perfect—too cliché to be believable? Does it lack the pain, tension, drama, and other elements expected of an epic romance? Perhaps their story can serve as an example to the world, showing others the value of innocence, the beauty of commitment, and the necessity of forgiveness? Perhaps their story can bear witness to the power of pure young love nurtured throughout a lifetime? As you turn the pages of this fictional soulmate memoir, you will find answers to all these questions. Your belief in soulmates will be rekindled. And you, too, will fantasize about your innocent young love that was, your profound true love that is, or your awesome eternal love that may be.