Most Popular Books by Barry Miles

A definitive, authorized portrait of Paul McCartney draws on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews and access to personal archives to chronicle the private life and successful career of one of the world''s most famous musicians, the world of the Beatles, his partnership with John Lennon, and more.

An authentic and compelling story of the group that gave alternative London its first real soundtrack and launched on the rock world a radical combination of music, light shows and pyrotechnic stage effects.A revealing diary of Pink Floyd''s daily routine, from their roots in Cambridge to cult status in Sixties London. Author Barry Miles saw the band play when they were still called The Pink Floyd Sound and he wrote the first ever article about them for a New York underground newspaper in 1966. He also knew band members socially, witnessed the rapid decline of Syd Barrett and became actively involved in setting up some of Floyd’s major gigs.Barry Miles is an acclaimed music writer and expert on ''Beat'' poetry and poets. A founder of the Indica bookshop and gallery in the Sixties, he went on to launch International Times and write for NME. He ghost-wrote Many Years From Now, Paul McCartney''s autobiography and has written books on The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Frank Zappa.

The celebration of an era, this ultimate, beautiful, illuminating, and really groovy look at the 1960''s counterculture is rich in illustrations and filled with the history, politics, sayings, and slogans that defined the age.

''Fear makes me a writer, fear and a lack of confidence'' Charles Bukowski chronicled the seedy underside of the city in which he spent most of his life, Los Angeles. His heroes were the panhandlers and hustlers, the drunks and the hookers, his beat the racetracks and strip joints and his inspiration a series of dead-end jobs in warehouses, offices and factories. It was in the evenings that he would put on a classical record, open a beer and begin to type... Brought up by a violent father, Bukowski suffered childhood beatings before developing horrific acne and withdrawing into a moody adolescence. Much of his young life epitomised the style of the Beat generation - riding Greyhound buses, bumming around and drinking himself into a stupor. During his lifetime he published more than forty-five books of poetry and prose, including the novels Post Office, Factotum, Women and Pulp. His novels sold millions of copies worldwide in dozens of languages. In this definitive biography Barry Miles, celebrated author of Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats, turns his attention to the exploits of this hard-drinking, belligerent wild man of literature.

With the resurgence of vinyl going from strength to strength, album cover art is as important as it''s ever been. This sumptuous book brings together 250 of the greatest album covers of all time and is arranged chronologically, beginning in 1956. Our judging panel, drawn from the great and the good of the music industry, has selected the final 275 entries, giving their reasons for selection to accompany the illustrations. From rock ‘n’ roll to pop, R&B to jazz, blues and even folk, some of the album covers included are obvious classics, while others will surprise readers and jog memories. The chosen entries might not necessarily be of a best-selling release, but they are important artistically, stylistically or culturally. This fascinating book forms a wonderful visual record of this popular art form, and is an essential read for music fans the world over.

Traces the life of ground-breaking musician Frank Zappa from his Italian American childhood roots to his ultimate success as a composer and rock star.

A revealing history of the Beatles’ experimental record label, as told by the label’s manager. In August 1968, the Beatles launched their greatest business enterprise, Apple Records, to international fanfare. The less well-known story is the introduction of their Zapple label about nine months later. If Apple represented artists with new, commercial opportunities, Zapple offered more cutting-edge freedom; its mission was to distribute experimental music and spoken word recordings from the leading avant-garde figures of the time. The brainchild of Paul McCartney, the label captured the counterculture spirit of the 1960s by collaborating with Yoko Ono alongside John Lennon, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Brautigan, Charles Bukowski, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Charles Olson. The Zapple Diaries is the first full-length look at the enterprise, as well as a true insider account from Barry Miles, the label’s manager who went on to become a leading authority and chronicler of ‘60s culture. He provides insight into the colorful lives and working methods of the artists and discloses the fascinating story of the experimental venture, ultimately offering up a revealing and engaging account of this little-known chapter of Beatles history.

Barry Miles knew Frank Zappa intimately and was present at the recording of some of his most important albums. This sparkling biography brings the Zappa the musician and composer, Zappa the controversialist and Zappa the family man (despite his love of groupies, he was married for more than 30 years) together for the first time. Barry Miles'' biography follows Zappa from his sickly Italian-American childhood in the 1940s (when his father, Frank senior, worked for the US military and was used to test the efficacy of new biological warfare agents) to his death from cancer in the 1990s. Miles shows how Zappa''s goal had been to become a classical composer, until he realised that he would starve to death pursuing this ambition in post-war America. In an effort to make music people would actually listen to, in the mid-1960s he joined a noisy new band called ''The Mothers of Invention''. Before long, Zappa had taken over as singer, song writer and lead guitarist and together they exploded on to the San Francisco freak scene. Following the release of recordings such as Freak Out, Absolutely Free, We''re Only In It For the Money and Hot Rats, Zappa''s reputation in the United States and in Europe, especially the UK, Germany and Holland, took off. When the Berlin wall fell, Frank was surprised to learn that his extravagant music embodied sixties liberty for a generation of dissidents (including Vaclav Havel, who invited Zappa to be his minister for culture). Frank Zappa is an authoritative and hugely enjoyable portrait of a singular man and a vivid evocation of the West Coast scene.

Beginning with the Weathermen explosion in Greenwich Village and ending with punk, the seventies was the age of extremes; sex, drugs and, of course, rock ''n'' roll. With an extraordinary cast of characters, and even more extraordinary anecdotes, In The Seventies tells, firsthand, the story - and stories - of the decade. From Allen Ginsberg''s hippie commune in upstate New York to the time Miles spent cataloguing William Burroughs'' archives in London, from David Bowie in drag to Grace Jones naked at Studio 54, it''s all here. Vivid, compelling, intimate and, sometimes, insane, Barry Miles reveals the truth behind this legendary era.

Examines the British influences on American culture between 1964 and 1969, discussing rock bands such as The Beatles, the Yardbirds, supermodel Twiggy and Mary Quant minidresses, James Bond films, and more.

An intimate member of Allen Ginsberg''s circle and the editor of many of his works, Miles is the only person with access to the poet''s enormous personal archives to create this definitive biography. Full of rich human detail and wonderful anecdotes. Photos.

A biography of the influential American beatnik novelist, charting both his life and legacy. Miles considers the continuing appeal of Kerouac, his iconic status, the cult of On the Road, and the influence he has had on popular culture.

Bowie''s career year-by-year, 1963-1987.

Love, poetry, protest, the Beatles, psychedelia and the 1960s underground in pictures, words and rare sound recordings form this limited edition illustrated memoir by one of the key figures of the Sixties British counterculture.

London has long been a magnet for aspiring artists and writers, musicians and fashion designers seeking inspiration and success. In London Calling, Barry Miles explores the counter-culture - creative, avant garde, permissive, anarchic - that sprang up in this great city in the decades following the Second World War. Here are the heady post-war days when suddenly everything seemed possible, the jazz bars and clubs of the fifties, the teddy boys and the Angry Young Men, Francis Bacon and the legendary Colony Club, the 1960s and the Summer of Love, the rise of punk and the early days of the YBAs. The vitality and excitement of this time and years of change - and the sheer creative energy in the throbbing heart of London - leap off the pages of this evocative and original book.

Originally published: London: Virgin, 1992.

The Beat Hotel has been closed for nearly forty years. But for a brief period—from just after the publication of Howl in 1957 until the building was sold in 1963—it was home to Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Brion Gysin, Peter Orlovsky, Harold Norse, and a host of other luminaries of the Beat Generation. Now, Barry Miles—acclaimed author of many books on the Beats and a personal acquaintance of many of them—vividly excavates this remarkable period and restores it to a historical picture that has, until now, been skewed in favor of the two coasts of America. A cheap rooming house on the bohemian Left Bank, the hotel was inhabited mostly by writers and artists, and its communal atmosphere spurred the Beats to incredible heights of creativity. Its inhabitants followed the Howl obscenity trial, and they corresponded with Jack Kerouac as On the Road was taking off. There Ginsberg wrote “Kaddish,” “To Aunt Rose,” “At Apollinaire’s Grave,” and “The Lion for Real,” and Corso developed the mature voice of The Happy Birthday of Death. The Beat Hotel is where the Cut-up method was invented, and where Burroughs finished and published Naked Lunch and the Cut-up novels. From a party where Ginsberg and Corso drunkenly accosted Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, to an awestruck audience with Louis-Ferdinand Céline a year before he died; from a drug-addled party on a houseboat on the Seine with Errol Flynn and John Huston, to Burroughs’s near arrest as a heroin dealer: mischief, inspiration, and madness followed the Beats wherever they went. Based on firsthand accounts from diaries, letters, and many original interviews, The Beat Hotel is an intimate look at a crucial period for some of the twentieth century’s most enduring and daring writers.

An intimate day-by-day history of all four Beatles from childhood to the break-up of the group. All the concerts...film, TV and radio appearances...interviews, hushed-up scandals, the sex and the drugs...the triumphs and quarrels...and all the Beatles-related births, marriages and deaths. Essential reading for anyone interested in rock''s most influential phenomenon of all time.

Fifty years ago, Norman Mailer asserted, "William Burroughs is the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius." Few since have taken such literary risks, developed such individual political or spiritual ideas, or spanned such a wide range of media. Burroughs wrote novels, memoirs, technical manuals, and poetry. He painted, made collages, took thousands of photographs, produced hundreds of hours of experimental recordings, acted in movies, and recorded more CDs than most rock bands. Burroughs was the original cult figure of the Beat Movement, and with the publication of his novel Naked Lunch, which was originally banned for obscenity, he became a guru to the 60s youth counterculture. In CALL ME BURROUGHS, biographer and Beat historian Barry Miles presents the first full-length biography of Burroughs to be published in a quarter century-and the first one to chronicle the last decade of Burroughs''s life and examine his long-term cultural legacy. Written with the full support of the Burroughs estate and drawing from countless interviews with figures like Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr, and Burroughs himself, CALL ME BURROUGHS is a rigorously researched biography that finally gets to the heart of its notoriously mercurial subject.

The Beats. a title that Jack Kerouac coined to define the exhausted exaltation of a generation, produced a body of works infected with a new energy. Their spontaneous, often-unedited style epitomised their own era and their famed close-knit literary community continues to inspire writers today. Barry Miles, friend and biographerof Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, was there , part of the Beat Vibe. here he gathers together some of the most influential as well as the most overlooked writers of the era. He covers the writings from The Original Beats (New York 1944-53): The San Francisco Scene (1954-57) and The Second Wave (New York 1958-60) including works from Gregory Corso, John Clellon Holmes, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Frank O''Hara, Diane di Prima and Alexander Trocchi to the king of the Beats Himself, Jack Kerouac. The result is a fascinating compendium that recaptures the unique but varied voices of the Beat generation..

Iconoclast; visionary; homosexual crusader; drug advocate; teacher and elder statesman to Jack Kracouac, Allen Ginsberg and the Beats; anti-hero guru to each successive counter-culture generation: Willaim Burroughs remains one of the most complex and controversial American writers of the twentieth century. A longtime heroin addict, Burroughs preferred to live abroad, away from America''s Draconian drug laws. After killing his wife in a bizarre shooting accident, he moved to Tangier where he lived in male brothel and wrote his celebrated bestsellerNaked Lunch- inNewsweek''swords ''A masterpiece. A cry from Hell'' - as a series of letters to Allen Ginsberg. He lived at the Beat Hotel in Paris and spent a decade in London before returning as prodigal son to New York in 1974 after 25 years of self imposed exile.

One of the most instantly recognized images in the world--the peace sign--celebrates its 50th anniversary. Miles uses a combination of research and personal recall to recount the evolution of this iconic image. Illustrated.

Allen Ginsberg occupies a significant and enduring position in American literature. This title presents a readable account of one of the twentieth century''s most extraordinary poets

Can you remember where you were when you heard John Lennon had died? Did you queue to watch Saturday Night Fever or rush out to buy With The Beatles when it was first released? Did you witness Justin Timberlake’s national TV superbowl blunder or tune in to see the verdict in the Michael Jackson trial? ''Massive Music Moments'' chronicles over 100 of the most memorable music events of the last fifty years, whether shocking, shameful, uplifting or inspiring. Unfolding chronologically the moments from music history to include the great album launches, the killer hit singles, the Broadway musical openings, the rock star excesses, the sad demises and the monster music festivals such as Live Aid, Woodstock and the 2006 Make Poverty History concerts around the world, which ended with a once-only reunion of Pink Floyd. Each event is featured in a double-page spread along with news and trivia from the time. Starting in 1955, the year that Bill Haley performed Rock Around The Clock in the film Blackboard Jungle and moving through to 2007, every year has its own timeline entry listing the key album and single No.1s, plus other groundbreaking records and news. These are combined with quotes from some of the major players and additional background information in box-outs. ''Massive Music Moments'' is a comprehensive and accessible record of music history covering the last fifty years.

Authoritative biography of cult writer and author of NAKED LUNCH, William Burroughs (1914-1997). It has been 50 years since Norman Mailer asserted, ''I think that William Burroughs is the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius.'' This assessment holds true today. No-one since then has taken such risks in their writing, developed such individual radical political ideas, or spanned such a wide range of media - Burroughs has written novels, memoirs, technical manuals and poetry, he has painted, made collages, taken thousands of photographs, made visual scrapbooks, produced hundreds of hours of experimental tapes, acted in movies and recorded more CDs than most rock groups. Made a cult figure by the publication of NAKED LUNCH, Burroughs was a mentor to the 1960s youth culture. Underground papers referred to him as ''Uncle Bill'' and he ranked alongside Bob Dylan and the Beatles, Buckminster Fuller and R.D. Laing as one of the ''gurus'' of the youth movement who might just have the secret of the universe. Based upon extensive research, this biography paints a new portrait of Burroughs, making him real to the reader and showing how he was perceived by his contemporaries in all his guises - from icily distant to voluble drunk. It shows how his writing was very much influenced by his life situation and by the people he met on his travels around America and Europe. He was, beneath it all, a man torn by emotions: his guilt at not visiting his doting mother; his despair at not responding to reconciliation attempts from his father; his distance from his brother; the huge void that separated him from his son; and above all his killing of his wife, Joan Vollmer.

Élaboré à partir de trente-cinq séances d''entretiens, menées par Barry Miles sur une période de six ans, et avec un accès illimité aux archives personnelles de l''ex-Beatle, cet ouvrage est le récit personnel de Paul McCartney. La vie privée d''un homme qui devint personnage public à l''âge de vingt et un ans. La trajectoire du plus célèbre groupe de l''histoire, depuis ses débuts jusqu''à sa séparation. Les sixties racontées par un témoin placé dans l''œil du cyclone. Une histoire de musique, de drogues, de femmes, d''argent, de folie, d''art, d''amour, de paix, et aussi d''amertume. Au cœur de l''aventure se trouve évidemment la relation liant Paul McCartney à John Lennon, relation entre deux amis, deux collaborateurs, Lennon et McCartney, deux gars de Liverpool qui souhaitaient changer le monde... et l''un des plus grands tandems d''auteurs compositeurs du siècle. " Je vais vous raconter l''histoire comme elle me revient... C''est une suite d''événements qui se sont tous déroulés dans un petit laps de temps. Ce n''est que mon souvenir de l''aventure... Tout ce que je souhaite faire avec ce livre, c''est raconter ma version des faits. " Paul McCartney.