2016 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE – Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound, and Revolution of the Electric Guitar

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The product(s) featured in this post was provided to me free of cost to me for inclusion in the holiday gift guide. This post has not been monetarily compensated. Please note that, as always, any personal opinions reflected in this post are my own.

GIFT IDEA – Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound, and Revolution of the Electric Guitar

PRICE $26.95 cover price

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Many people have a passion, something they just love and enjoy learning more about in different ways. Books can be lots of fun, they can be entertaining and informative. And if the book is written about a topic that is someone’s passion, it’s a great gift. My oldest son loves music and plays the guitar. He doesn’t completely have my love for reading, for him to want to really settle in with a book it needs to be one that is a certain type or on a certain topic. Music is one of those topics. Any guitar lover such as my son will enjoy reading about the musicians that have made guitar playing and music what it is today. Here’s a full description of the product.

PRODUCT DETAILS

Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound, and Revolution of the Electric Guitar

• Author: Brad Tolinski & Alan di Perna
• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (October 25, 2016)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038554099X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385540995
• Cover price $26.95

“Play it Loud is a dynamic history of the electric guitar, but more importantly, it’s about the artists who painted universal tones, colors, textures and movements on the world canvas… Brad and Alan get inside the note of the political and cultural significance of the guitar… To be able to touch someone and change their molecular structure with just one note is very powerful. One note can bring someone back from the edge, make lovers come together, create life, end wars and make you shed tears of joy and sorrow at the same time. It is called the universal tone and for me it comes from six things, every time I plug in my guitar: stay genuine, honest, sincere, true, authentic and for real on every song. Play It Loud is all of these things, on every page.” – Carlos Santana, Grammy Award-winning artist and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, from the foreword

Featuring Interviews With…

• Les Paul
• Billy Gibbons
• Paul Reed Smith
• Keith Richards
• Jeff Beck
• Peter Townshend
• Jimmy Page
• Steve Vai
• Ted Nugent
• Billie Joe Armstrong
• Jack White
• Kerry Keane
• Dan Auerbach
• Patti Smith
• …and dozens more

An unprecedented history of the electric guitar, its explosive impact on music and culture, and the players and builders who brought it to life

For generations the electric guitar has been an international symbol of freedom, danger, rebellion, and hedonism. In Play It Loud, veteran music journalists Brad Tolinski and Alan di Perna bring the history of this iconic instrument to roaring life. It’s a story of inventors and iconoclasts, of scam artists, prodigies, and mythologizers as varied and original as the instruments they spawned.

Play It Loud uses twelve landmark guitars—each of them artistic milestones in their own right—to illustrate the conflict and passion the instruments have inspired. It introduces Leo Fender, a man who couldn’t play a note but whose innovations helped transform the guitar into the explosive sound machine it is today. Some of the most significant social movements of the twentieth century are indebted to the guitar: It was an essential element in the fight for racial equality in the entertainment industry; a mirror to the rise of the teenager as social force; a linchpin of punk’s sound and ethos. And today the guitar has come full circle, with contemporary titans such as Jack White of The White Stripes, Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent), and Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys bringing some of the earliest electric guitar forms back to the limelight.

Featuring interviews with Les Paul, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, and dozens more players and creators, Play It Loud is the story of how a band of innovators transformed an idea into a revolution.

PLAY IT LOUD is a fascinating-and very fun-history of the electric guitar that will forever change the way we think about and listen to music.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Brad Tolinski was the editor-in-chief of Guitar World, the world’s bestselling magazine for musicians, for twenty-five years. He is the author of Light & Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page.
Alan di Perna is a longtime contributor to Guitar Worldand Guitar Aficionado and has written for Rolling Stone, Creem, Billboard, Guitar Player, and other leading music publications. He is the author of Guitar Masters: Intimate Portraits.

REVIEWS

“The authors trace the evolution of the guitar nicely up to the present, writing knowledgeably of the merits and demerits of Japanese knockoffs, Pete Townshend-inspired amp stacks, and the contributions of mad-dog collectors to the whole rock ‘n’ roll genre….the authors are geeky enough to bring freshness to chestnuts through technical nuggets aplenty….The electric guitar changed the world, and Tolinski and di Perna impressively reveal its epic story.” – Kirkus, STARRED review

“A comprehensive history of the electric guitar…The authors engagingly explore the importance of amplifiers on artists’ sounds, particularly the Vox amps used by the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix’s manipulation of feedback. Beat-up thrift shop guitars used by experimental bands such as Sonic Youth and more traditional garage rock groups such as the White Stripes are highlighted, representing a path for innovating guitar sounds in an era when prices have rendered classic models largely inaccessible.” – Publishers Weekly

“It’s all here: everything knowable now becomes known about the plugged-in ax that changed the world. A comprehensive history of the electric guitar in cultural context is something long wanted, awaited and needed. At long last, it has arrived.” – Billy Gibbons, ZZ Top guitarist/vocalist and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee

“Play It Loud is a fascinating, elegantly written, page-turning account of how a musical weakness-the guitar’s inherently low volume-led to the development of the instrument that transformed contemporary music and culture: the electric guitar. It’s all here-the history, the science, the musicians, and of course, the stringed beauties and the sounds they helped create. An essential addition to any serious guitarist’s library.” – Jonathan Kellerman, New York Times bestselling author of The Murderer’s Daughter

“Brad Tolinski and Alan di Perna’s Play It Loud is a marvelous survey of how the electric guitar has rocked its way into the hearts and minds of millions of music lovers. This is a rich trove of unforgettable anecdotes and vignettes. Highly recommended!” – Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author of Rightful Heritage