Michael C Lydon

Jazz Guitar Styles is an instruction book designed for the guitarist who already knows the fundamentals but wishes to explore the "classic" style of swing-era guitar. It offers a clear, concise introduction to the basics of jazz guitar, built on the student's basic knowledge of forming chords and ba...

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a highly readable list of the best, the most important, and the most influential pop albums from 1955 through 2003. Carefully selected by a team of international critics, each album is a groundbreaking work seminal to the understanding and appreciation of ...

In 1969 Michael Lydon, a founding editor of Rolling Stone and a leading member of rock writing’s first generation, got a dream assignment: to cover the Rolling Stones’ hopscotch tour across America that ended at Altamont. His long, intimate piece on the tour, The Rolling Stones Discover America, cap...

Now What? is a serious but informal essay on the twin facts of human freedom and human equality. Michael Lydon, a musician and writer who lives in New York, writes that all humans are equal because no one knows the future, and that we are free if we can do anything, however small, to make a better f...

"1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die" is an absorbing introduction to some of the greatest songs ever recorded, by an enormous range of artists from Bessie Smith to Gnarls Barkley and from Metallica to Missy Elliott. Find out what made their songs so great - then get back to the music. The rich ...

The ultimate compendium of a half century of the best music, now revised and updated. 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a highly readable list of the best, the most important, and the most influential pop albums from 1955 through today. Carefully selected by a team of international critics...

A founding editor at "Rolling Stone" presents a full-length biography of the man called "The Genius of Soul", from his experience of being blinded at age six to his five-decades-long career.

Re-creating life in words: a paean to the power and pleasures of writing and reading.