England Facts
England, because it is the largest of the four countries, acts as the industrial and trading center of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. London remains the capital and largest city of England.
The government of England, both a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy, serves as the government for the entire UK. The Parliament, the chief lawmaking body of UK, consists of the monarch, and the Cabinet (senior members of Parliament, led by Prime Minister) governs the UK.
The Royal Family
Prime Minister Boris Johnson
England has a mixture of city and rural living. Because of the Industrial Revolution, about 80% of people came to live in cities for work and left the countryside and today, 95% of people live in urban areas.
London
English Country Cottage
Information from World Book Online
British Art and Painting
Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775 - 1851. 1844. Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway. Place: The National Gallery, London, Turner Bequest, 1856. https://library.artstor.org/asset/ANGLIG_10313768662.
George Lambert, 1700-1765, British. 1747. Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire. Painting, landscape. Place: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. https://library.artstor.org/asset/AYCBAIG_10313605267.
Beardsley, Aubrey, 1872-1898. March 1893. How King Arthur saw the Questing Beast.
https://library.artstor.org/asset/ARTSTOR_103_41822001001138.
Thomas Luny, 1759-1837, British. 1780. A Packet Boat Under Sail in a Breeze off the South Foreland. Painting, marine art. Place: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. https://library.artstor.org/asset/AYCBAIG_10313608519.
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Bronte by Call Number: E-BookCharlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is one of the most famous novels in the world; its heroine's spirited response to hardship and temptation has engaged an eager readership since its publication in 1847. Jane Eyre, however, was not Charlotte Bronte's only novel, and Patsy Stoneman's book traces thedevelopment of her work from her exuberant early writing to her disturbing last work, Villette. A final chapter considers Charlotte Bronte's shifting popular and academic reputation and the various adaptations and imitations of her work. Reading the novels in the context of Charlotte Bronte's lifeand times, Stoneman emphasises her persistent engagement with power relations - within families, between classes and between men and women - and the changing narrative strategies with which she explores them. While keeping close to the words of the page, the book is informed by the criticalperspectives of feminism, cultural materialism and postcolonialism.
Charlotte Brontë by Call Number: E-BookWithin the narrow confines of Haworth Parsonage the Brontë children constructed a multiform fantasy world and to their gift of intense imagination was added the quality of intense passion. The narrowness of Charlotte's experience makes autobiography important in her novels, while her imagination and passion exalt the subjectivity of her work. Her style is autobiographical also, adding credibility to the often heightened narrative, while the moralism of her heroines often serves to stabilise this exaggeration. This book, first published in 1968, introduces extracts from the novels of Charlotte Brontë, emphasising the author's subjectivity, imagination and the resultant heightening of dialogue and experience. There is a central section on her heroines, while others discuss and illustrate events, other characters, the handling of time and place, speech and dialogue and the author's place in novels. This title will be of interest to students of English Literature.
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre by Call Number: PR4167.J33 C4 2007Charlotte Bronte's ""Jane Eyre"", published in October 1847, was an immediate success, going into second and third printings by spring of 1848. Even Queen Victoria, according to her diary, read the story to Prince Albert until midnight. The tale of the ""poor, obscure, plain, and little"" governess, her brooding employer, Edward Rochester, and the madwoman secreted in the attic, ""Jane Eyre"" is considered a staple of Gothic and Victorian literature. Combining important critical essays from the previous edition with an abundance of new material, Bloom's ""Modern Critical Interpretations"" deftly places Bronte's book in context and assesses its continuing popularity.
Bluebeard Gothic by Call Number: PR4167.J5 P97 2010'Bluebeard,' the tale of a sadistic husband who murders his wives and locks away their bodies, has inspired hundreds of adaptations since it first appeared in 1697. In Bluebeard Gothic, Heta Pyrhönen argues that Charlotte Brontë's 1847 classic Jane Eyre can be seen as one such adaptation, and that although critics have been slow to realize the connection, authors rewriting Brontë's novel have either intuitively or intentionally seized on it. Pyrhönen begins by establishing that the story of Jane Eyre is intermingled with the 'Bluebeard' tale, as young Jane moves between households, each dominated by its own Bluebeard figure. She then considers rewritings of Jane Eyre, such as Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) and Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale (2006), to examine how novelists have interpreted the status and meaning of 'Bluebeard' in Brontë's novel. Using psychoanalysis as the primary model of textual analysis, Bluebeard Gothic focuses on the conjunction of religion, sacrifice, and scapegoating to provide an original interpretation of a canonical and frequently-studied text.
Wilfred Owen
Carol Ann Duffy
Carol Ann Duffy is a British poet and playwright. With numerous collections of poetry, books, and plays to her name she also served as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 2009 to 2019 and is the first openly LGBT woman to hold the position. She is professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.
My Country; a Work in Progress by Call Number: E-BookBritannia calls a meeting, to listen to her people. Caledonia, Cymru, East Midlands, North East, Northern Ireland and the South West bring the voices of their regions. The debate is passionate and opinions divided. Can there ever be a United Kingdom? In the days following the Brexit vote, a team from the National Theatre of Great Britain spoke to people nationwide, aged 9 to 97, to hear their views on the country we call home. In a series of deeply personal interviews, they heard opinions that were honest, emotional, funny, and sometimes extreme. These real testimonials are interwoven with speeches from party leaders of the time in this play by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and director Rufus Norris. My Country opened at the National Theatre, London, in March 2017 before playing at venues around the UK.
Standing Female Nude by Call Number: E-BookThis outstanding first collection introduced Carol Ann Duffy's impressive gifts and the broad range of her interests and style. The poems are fresh, skilful, passionate. Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow in 1955. Her awards include first prize in the 1983 National Poetry Competition; three Scottish Arts Council Book Awards; Eric Gregory, Somerset Maugham and Dylan Thomas Awards in Britain and a 1995 Lannan Literary Award in the USA. In 1993 she received the Forward Poetry Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award for her acclaimed fourth collection Mean Time. On May 1, 2009 she was named the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom.
Carol Ann Duffy by Call Number: E-BookThis is the only monograph to consider the entire thirty-year career, publications, and influence of Britain's first female poet laureate. It outlines her impact on trends in contemporary poetry and establishes what we mean by 'Duffyesque' concerns and techniques. Discussions of her writing and activities prove how she has championed the relevance of poetry to all areas of contemporary culture and to the life of every human being. Individual chapters discuss the lyrics of 'love, loss, and longing'; the socially motivated poems about the 1980s; the female-centred volumes and poems; the relationship between poetry and public life; and poetry and childhood and written for children. The book should whet the appetite of readers who know little of Duffy's work to find out more, while providing students and scholars with an in-depth analysis of the poems in their contexts. It draws on a wide range of critical works and includes an extensive list of further reading.
The Other Country by Call Number: E-BookCarol Ann Duffy's third collection takes us to the other country' - the places that we visit in fantasy, memory and imagination. What is admirable about Duffy', commented Robert Nye in The Times, is that she celebrates such places without sentimentalizing them, and wrings the last drop of meaning from each visit.' Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow in 1955. Her awards include first prize in the 1983 National Poetry Competition; three Scottish Arts Council Book Awards; Eric Gregory, Somerset Maugham and Dylan Thomas Awards in Britain and a 1995 Lannan Literary Award in the USA. In 1993 she received the Forward Poetry Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award for her acclaimed fourth collection Mean Time. On May 1, 2009 she was named the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom.
British Invasion
The British Invasion sparked the creative elements within rock music and later earned respect as a legitimate art form. Rock blossomed into many new styles and sounds. By the mid-1960’s, rock music had become the dominant form of popular music. Some notable British musicians during this era include: David Bowie, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Sex Pistols, and the Kinks. In the 70s, a new wave of musicians such as, The Cure and Talking Heads. Music listeners can trace the developments of British bands, like the Beatles, in the advancements of music throughout decades.
Mods, Rockers, and the Music of the British Invasion by Call Number: ML3534.6.G7 P47Musical floodgates were opened after the Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. Suddenly, the U.S. record charts, radio, and television were overrun with British rock and pop musicians. Although this British Invasion was the first exposure many Americans had to popular music from the United Kingdom, British pop -- and more specifically British rock and roll -- had been developing since the middle of the 1950s. Author James Perone here chronicles the development of British rock, from the 1950s imitators of Elvis Presley and other American rockabilly artists, to the new blends of rockabilly, R&B, Motown, and electric blues that defined the British Invasion as we recognize it today. Die-hard fans of the Beatles, the Who, and the Kinks will all want a copy, as will anyone interested in the 1960s more generally. May 1964 saw major gang-style battles break out in British resort communities between the Mods and the Rockers. The tensions between the two groups had been developing for several years, with each group claiming their own sense of culture and style. The Mods wore designer clothing, rode Vespa motor scooters, and shared an affinity for black American soul music, while the Rockers favored powerful motorcycles, greased-back hair, and 1950s American rock and roll. It was within this context that the sounds of the British Invasion developed. Mods, Rockers, and the Music of the British Invasion chronicles the development of British rock through the iconic artists who inspired the movement, as well as through the bands who later found incredible success overseas. In addition to analyzing the music in the context of the British youth culture of the early 1960s, Perone analyzes the reasons that the British bands came to so thoroughly dominate the record charts and airwaves in the United States. The contributions of Cliff Richard, Billy Fury, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Tommy Steele, the Tornados, Tony Sheridan, Blues Incorporated, and others to the development of British rock and roll are examined, as are the contributions and commercial and artistic impact of major British Invasion artists such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Dave Clark Five, the Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, the Who, the Kinks, and others. After investigating these groups and their influences upon one another, Perone concludes by examining the commercial and stylistic impact British rock musicians had on the American music of the time.
British Invasion: the Crosscurrents of Musical Influence by Call Number: ML3534.3 .P55Before The Beatles landed on American shores in February 1964 only two British acts had topped the Billboard singles chart. In the first quarter of 1964, however, the Beatles alone accounted for sixty percent of all recorded music sold in the United States; in 1964 and 1965 British acts occupied the number one position for 52 of the 104 weeks; and from 1964 through to 1970, the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, the Dave Clark Five, the Animals, the Kinks, the Hollies, the Yardbirds and the Who placed more than one hundred and thirty songs on the American Top Forty. In The British Invasion: The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence, Simon Philo illustrates how this remarkable event in cultural history disrupted and even reversed pop culture's flow of influence, goods, and ideas--orchestrating a dramatic turn-around in the commercial fortunes of British pop in North America that turned the 1960s into "The Sixties." Focusing on key works and performers, The British Invasion tracks the journey of this musical phenomenon from peripheral irrelevance through exotic novelty into the heart of mainstream rock. Throughout, Philo explores how and why British music from the period came to achieve such unprecedented heights of commercial, artistic, and cultural dominance. The British Invasion: The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence will appeal to fans, students and scholars of popular music history--indeed anyone interested in understanding the fascinating relationship between popular music and culture.- The British Invasion: From the First Wave to the New Wave byCall Number: ML3534 .S32
The History of Live Music in Britain, Volume III, 1985-2015 by Call Number: E-BookTo date there has been a significant gap in existing knowledge about the social history of music in Britain from 1950 to the present day. The three volumes of Live Music in Britain address this gap and do so through a unique prism--that of live music. The key theme of the books is the changing nature of the live music industry in the UK, focused upon popular music but including all musical genres. Via this focus, the books offer new insights into a number of other areas including the relationship between commercial and public funding of music; changing musical fashions and tastes; the impact of changing technologies; the changing balance of power within the music industries; the role of the state in regulating and promoting various musical activities within an increasingly globalised music economy; and the effects of demographic and other social changes on music culture. Drawing on new archival research, a wide range of academic and non- academic secondary sources, participant observation and a series of interviews with key personnel, the books have the potential to become landmark works within Popular Music Studies and broader cultural history. The third volume covers the period from Live Aid to Live Nation (1985- 2015).
The Emergence of Rock and Roll: Music and the Rise of American Youth Culture by Call Number: E-BookRock and roll music evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and 1950s, as a combination of African American blues, country, pop, and gospel music produced a new musical genre. Even as it captured the ears of the nation, rock and roll was the subject of controversy and contention. The music intertwined with the social, political, and economic changes reshaping America and contributed to the rise of the youth culture that remains a potent cultural force today. A comprehensive understanding of post-World War II U.S. history would be incomplete without a basic knowledge of this cultural phenomenon and its widespread impact. In this short book, bolstered by primary source documents, Mitchell K. Hall explores the change in musical style represented by rock and roll, changes in technology and business practices, regional and racial implications of this new music, and the global influences of the music. The Emergence of Rock and Roll explains the huge influence that one cultural moment can have in the history of a nation.
The Beatles brought the rebirth of rock n' roll to the United States and sparked the emergence of many British rock bands on the American charts of best selling records. The Beatles, from Liverpool, were inspired by the early 1950s rock in American and rebranded this style to create instant success in the next decade. The members include George Harrison on lead guitar, Ringo Star on drums, and John Lennon on rhythmic guitar while also wrote and sang songs with Paul McCartney. A note on the Beatles music from World Book Online includes that "during the middle and late 1960's, the Beatles helped to give rock music a new direction. Most earlier rock music had been based primarily on a strong beat, but the Beatles' music contained a new sense of melody. Their chord progressions were also more complex, and the lyrics of their songs were more imaginative and meaningful. The Beatles composed several songs of social criticism, including "Nowhere Man" (1965) and "Revolution" (1968). They also wrote such ballads as "Michelle" (1965) and "Yesterday" (1965). Other popular Beatles' songs included "Strawberry Fields Forever" (1967), "Hey, Jude" (1968), "Come Together" (1969), and "Something" (1969). The Beatles won an Academy Award in 1970 for the title song from Let It Be, a documentary motion picture about the group in a recording studio." The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and won several Grammy Awards for the continued success.
The Beatles (Score) by Call Number: M453 .B43 S7Stringworks is a series of popular music for working string quartets. Light repertoire pieces and entertaining encores are all expertly arranged by Jack Long. Each folio contains individual parts, plus score, for five pieces which can be performed separately or as a collection. Includes: Get Back * Good Day Sunshine * Hey Jude * World Without Love * Yesterday.
The Beatles by Call Number: ML421.B4 D38During 1967 and 1968 Hunter Davies spent eighteen months with the Beatles at the peak of their powers as they defined a generation and rewrote popular music. As their only authorized biographer, he had unparalleled access--not just to John, Paul, George, and Ringo but also to friends, family, and colleagues. Davies collected a wealth of intimate and revealing material that still makes this the classic Beatles book--the one all other biographers look to. He remained close with the band and had access to more information over the years. This edition brings the story up-to-date with new material on the Beatles's solo careers and lives, as well as the stories of many other people who appear in the book. Drawing on new material from the author's archives and from the Beatles themselves, including a newly discovered song lyric by George Harrison, this edition brings new insights to the Beatles legend.
Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year by Call Number: ML421.B4 T855A riveting look at the transformative year in the lives and careers of the legendary group whose groundbreaking legacy would forever change music and popular culture. They started off as hysteria-inducing pop stars playing to audiences of screaming teenage fans and ended up as musical sages considered responsible for ushering in a new era. The year that changed everything for the Beatles was 1966--the year of their last concert and their first album, Revolver, that was created to be listened to rather than performed. This was the year the Beatles risked their popularity by retiring from live performances, recording songs that explored alternative states of consciousness, experimenting with avant-garde ideas, and speaking their minds on issues of politics, war, and religion. It was the year their records were burned in America after John's explosive claim that the group was "more popular than Jesus," the year they were hounded out of the Philippines for "snubbing" its First Lady, the year John met Yoko Ono, and the year Paul conceived the idea for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. On the fiftieth anniversary of this seminal year, music journalist and Beatles expert Steve Turner slows down the action to investigate in detail the enormous changes that took place in the Beatles' lives and work during 1966. He looks at the historical events that had an impact on the group, the music they made that in turn profoundly affected the culture around them, and the vision that allowed four young men from Liverpool to transform popular music and serve as pioneers for artists from Coldplay to David Bowie, Jay-Z to U2. By talking to those close to the group and by drawing on his past interviews with key figures such as George Martin, Timothy Leary, and Ravi Shankar--and the Beatles themselves--Turner gives us the compelling, definitive account of the twelve months that contained everything the Beatles had been and anticipated everything they would still become.
The Rolling Stones also proved to be an important band in the British invasion. World Book Online states that "the Rolling Stones formed in London in 1962. The quintet was led by singer Mick Jagger. Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards formed a songwriting partnership. Their aggressive, rebellious style can be heard in such rock classics as “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (1965), “Sympathy for the Devil” (1968), and “Honky Tonk Women” (1969). The Stones rank among the most enduring rock groups. The band, still led by Jagger and Richards, continued to perform into the 2000’s."
Counting down the Rolling Stones: Their 100 Finest Songs by Call Number: ML421.R64 B48No band has ever been able to demonstrate the enduring power of rock and roll quite like the Rolling Stones, who continue to enthrall, provoke, and invigorate their legions of fans more than fifty years since they began. In Counting Down the Rolling Stones: Their 100 Finest Songs, rock writer Jim Beviglia dares to rank the band's finest 100 songs in descending order. Beviglia provides an insightful explanation about why each song deserves its place. Looking at the story behind the song and supplying a fresh take on the musical and lyrical content, he illuminates these unforgettable songs for new and diehard fans alike. Taken together, the individual entries in Counting Down the Rolling Stones tell a fascinating story of the unique personalities and incredible talents that made the Stones a band for the ages. Counting Down the Rolling Stones is the perfect playlist builder, whether it is for the longtime fan or the newbie just getting acquainted with the work of Mick, Keith, and the boys.
Brian Jones: the Making of the Rolling Stones by Call Number: ML420 .J754 T79For the first time, the complete story of the enigmatic founder of the Rolling Stones and the early years of the band Brian Jones was the golden boy of the Rolling Stones—the visionary who gave the band its name and its sound. Yet he was a haunted man, and much of his brief time with the band, before his death in 1969 at the infamous age of twenty-seven, was volatile and tragic. Some of the details of how Jones was dethroned are well known, but the full story of his downfall is still largely untold. Brian Jones is a forensic, thrilling account of Jones’s life, which for the first time details his pioneering achievements and messy unraveling. With more than 120 new interviews, Trynka offers countless new revelations and sets straight the tall tales that have long marred Jones’s legacy. His story is a gripping battle between creativity and ambition, between self-sabotage and betrayal. It’s all here: the girlfriends, the drugs, and some of the greatest music of all time. Victors get to write history—but it’s rarely fully true. The complete, magnificent story of the Rolling Stones can never be told until we disentangle all the threads and put Brian Jones back in the foreground.
Experiencing the Rolling Stones: a Listeners' Companion by Call Number: ML421.R64 M34Experiencing the Rolling Stones draws together a broad swath of postwar history as it covers the band's origins in Swinging London, their interest in the Beat generation, the powerful attraction of Morocco on their lives and music, the infamous drug busts that nearly destroyed the band, the female muses who inspired them, the disaster at Altamont, their flight from England as tax exiles, and the recording sessions outside of England. Malvinni takes an especially close look at Keith Richards' guitar work and its effect on the band's music, as well as the multiple changes in the band's members, such as the addition of guitarists Mick Taylor and Ron Wood.
Beggars Banquet and the Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Revolution: "They Call My Name Disturbance" by Call Number: E-BookThe Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet is one of the seminal albums in rock history. Arguably it not only marks the advent of the 'mature' sound of the Rolling Stones but lays out a new blueprint for an approach to blues-based rock music that would endure for several decades. From its title to the dark themes that pervade some of its songs, Beggars Banquet reflected and helped define a moment marked by violence, decay, and upheaval. It marked a move away from the artistic sonic flourishes of psychedelic rock towards an embrace of foundational streams of American music - blues, country - that had always underpinned the music of the Stones but assumed new primacy in their music after 1968. This move coincided with, and anticipated, the 'roots' moves that many leading popular music artists made as the 1960s turned toward a new decade; but unlike many of their peers whose music grew more 'soft' and subdued as they embraced traditional styles, the music and attitude of the Stones only grew harder and more menacing, and their status as representatives of the dark underside of the 60s rock counterculture assumed new solidity. For the Rolling Stones, the 1960s ended and the 1970s began with the release of this album in 1968.
The Who, similar to the Rolling Stones, was a popular British Band that expressed the dissatisfaction of young people. Pete Townshend, the guitarist and songwriter for the band, wrote “My Generation” (1965) is a classic rock expression of youthful alienation. The Who created the first successful rock opera titled Tommy (1969). It was also made into a motion picture in 1975 and was produced on Broadway in 1993.
Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of the Who, 1958-1978 by Call Number: ML421 .W5 N45A completely revised and updated edition of the best book written on one of the world's greatest, and most explosive, rock bands: The Who. Organized by year, it has all the most current information about the band's classic years from 1958--1978. "650 images...capture The Who's journey from raucous r&b interpreters to roiling rockers..."--The Washington Post The Who put on one of the most astounding stage shows ever seen (culminating in a blaze of smashed-up instruments) and took popular music to new heights with the first rock opera. Together, songwriter Pete Townshend, sexy lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist John Entwhistle, and drumming wild man Keith Moon redefined rock. Here, in a series of day-to-day diaries brimming with enthusiasm, thoroughness, and fresh information, is the tale of their performing career. The authors gained rare access to various official archives, many not viewed before; to friends and associates (some of whom had never spoken publicly about their relationship with the group); and to Pete, Roger, and John themselves. Three hundred photos capture the charismatic band, Daltrey has contributed a foreword, and the diaries recount club dates, TV appearances, auditions, and recordings. No Who fan can do without this unprecedented and engrossing look at the band.
Feedback: The Who and Their Generation by Call Number: ML421.W5 H37In Feedback: The Who and Their Generation, historian Casey Harison offers a cultural and social history of one of the most successful bands of the 1960s British Invasion. In this historically sensitive account of the superband's impact during its first decade, Harison describes the key role played by The Who in the formation of the "Atlantic Generation" of rock 'n' roll fans. When the band first burst onto the scene, they quickly established their reputation for amping up the volume, pushing distortion effects (feedback), and destroying instruments on stage at the end of performances. If The Who did nothing else for their generation, they would have easily secured a place in rock 'n' roll history for high volume, smashed guitars, and kicked over drum sets. Ever since, The Who's stage antics have achieved iconic status in rock 'n' roll. But we should not forget how startling this on-stage violence was and what it signified. Audiences had never experienced music so loud, a band so energetic, and stage destruction so redolent of the frustrations they shared. If anything, who'd have thought the three in combination--with excellent songwriting and studio production--would emerge as a formula for success? Feedback: The Who and Their Generation begins with the roots of rock music, setting the stage for The Who when its four band members came together in 1964 to produce their most successful work over the next decade. Throughout, Harison looks at the musical and social cross-Atlantic feedback that characterized The Who's reception and impact. From distorted guitars to "big sound" drum solos, The Who mirrored youth culture--its anger and its frustrations, from the class conflicts of England and Europe to the Vietnam protest movements of the United States. The Who, like no other British Invasion band, assumed a signal role in the transatlantic cultural traffic. From the American music traditions they borrowed--rock, blues, R&B--they transformed and returned to America the very music that served as their source of anger, echoing audiences' angst while developing enormous fan bases in Europe and America.
The Who and Philosophy by Call Number: ML421.W5 W5The Who were one of the most memorable and influential of the 1960s British Invasion bands--memorable because of their loudness and because they destroyed instruments during performances, and influential because of their success in crafting "Power Pop" singles like "My Generation" and "I Can See for Miles," long-playing albums Live at Leeds and Who's Next, and the "rock operas" Tommy and Quadrophenia. The themes that principal songwriter Pete Townshend imparted into The Who's music drew upon the group's mostly working-class London upbringings and early Mod audiences: frustration, angst, irony, and a youthful inclination to lash out. Like some of his rock and roll contemporaries, Townshend was also affected by religious ideas coming from India and the existential dread he felt about the possibility of nuclear war. During a career that spanned three decades, The Who gave their fans and rock critics a lot to think about. The remarkable depth and breadth of The Who's music and their story as one of the most exciting and provocative rock bands over the last half-century are the subjects of the philosophical explorations in this collection.
Who I Am by Call Number: ML410.T69 A3"Raw and unsparing...as intimate and as painful as a therapy session, while chronicling the history of the band as it took shape in the Mod scene in 1960s London and became the very embodiment of adolescent rebellion and loud, anarchic rock 'n' roll." -- Michiko Kakutani, New York Times One of rock music's most intelligent and literary performers, Pete Townshend--guitarist, songwriter, editor--tells his closest-held stories about the origins of the preeminent twentieth-century band The Who, his own career as an artist and performer, and his restless life in and out of the public eye in this candid autobiography, Who I Am. With eloquence, fierce intelligence, and brutal honesty, Townshend has written a deeply personal book that also 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?
The Who: Meaty, Beaty, Big, and Bouncy by Call Number: ML421.W5 P47A behind-the-scenes view of all The Who's classic singles that draws on documentary evidence and interviews with the participants themselves.- Tommy (Motion Picture) byCall Number: (DVD) PN1995.9.M86 T65A classic rock opera about a boy who is traumatized by the death of his father. He is "cured" several years later, only to be hailed as a "Messiah."
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