New Editions of Love and Gram Parsons biographies due February 2021
On February 18th, 2021 Extradition / Cadiz Publishing will issue two classic rock biographies in paperback. The titles are a new revised edition of Pegasus Epitaph - The Story of the legendary rock group Love’ by Michael Stuart Ware and ‘Hickory Wind’ by Ben Fong-Torres, which is considered to be the definitive Gram Parsons biography and will include a new epilogue by the author. I’m sure Love and Gram Parsons will be familiar to RGM readers but full details of both books follow:
On 18 February 2021, ‘Pegasus Epitaph: The Story Of The Legendary Rock Group Love’ will be issued in paperback by Extradition / Cadiz Publishing and priced at £16.99. This new, revised edition of a unique piece of rock literature opens up the world of California's late sixties music to every reader - and is essential reading for any fan of Arthur Lee and Love. This new edition offers not only updates on fellow Love members, but also Author Michael Stuart Ware’s own tribute to Arthur Lee, plus further archive photos from the era not included in previous editions.
Michael Stuart Ware was alongside as Lee, at the height of his powers, reached towards unique, unforgettable sounds and created the Love masterpieces cherished by music fans for half a century - but he also saw how drugs and egos can thwart the potential of even the greatest bands.
Pegasus Epitaph sees a talented young drummer swept into the path of Arthur Lee, Love's charismatic frontman and creative force, possessed of a restless, almost demonic energy.
As a cautionary tale of rock band politics, Pegasus Epitaph is as frank and compelling as only an eyewitness account can be, but the author also vividly portrays life away from the studio in a pivotal era in rock music: hanging out in Laurel Canyon, checking out bands and shooting the breeze in the Summer of Love.
50 years after the release of Forever Changes, this acclaimed memoir is still the only insider's story of life in Love - one of the seminal West Coast bands of the late sixties.
On 18 February 2021, Hickory Wind will be issued in paperback by Extradition / Cadiz Publishing and priced at £16.99. This compelling portrait of Gram Parsons superbly evokes the tumultuous musical era that he worked in, his personal mystique and, above all, the magic of his music – and is the only Gram biography to adequately explain why the legend lives on. This is a new edition – including a new epilogue from the author – of a work that is rightly regarded as a classic of its kind.
Blessed with fabulous riches, charisma, good looks, a wealth of music business contacts and a unique songwriting gift, Gram Parsons still somehow ended his life overdosing in a motel, his charred remains scattered in the desert and his music virtually unknown. However, nearly 50 years on from his untimely demise, the man, the myth and the music endure. Ben Fong-Torres's Hickory Wind is the landmark biography of perhaps the greatest enigma in American music, combining meticulous research, perceptive criticism and key testimony from Gram's contemporaries – including Chris Hillman, Emmylou Harris and Keith Richards.
Ben Fong-Torres himself is one of the defining figures in rock journalism, writing, editing and running Rolling Stone's music section in its golden age during the 60s and 70s. Still a major force in rock writing, Ben Fong-Torres lives and works in San Francisco. His own life and times are to be celebrated in the epic documentary, Like A Rolling Stone, which is due out next year. In Hickory Wind he has created a fitting memorial to a mercurial talent whom we lost too soon.
Both titles are available direct from the Cadiz shop or via Amazon:
