

ALTAMONT: The
Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and
the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day
Available
from Amazon
“In this breathtaking
cultural history filled with
exclusive, never-before-revealed
details, celebrated rock journalist
Joel Selvin tells the definitive story
of the Rolling Stones' infamous
Altamont concert in San Francisco, the
disastrous historic event that marked
the end of the idealistic 1960s."
|
LONG-AWAITED
BERT BERNS BIOGRAPHY PUBLISHED BY
COUNTERPOINT PRESS
Available
from Counterpoint Press
“Here Comes
the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert
Berns and the Dirty Business of
Rhythm and Blues” is both a
definitive account of the New York
rhythm and blues world of the early
‘60s, and the harrowing, ultimately
tragic story of songwriter and
record producer Bert Berns, whose
meteoric career was fueled by his
pending doom.
His heart damaged by
rheumatic fever as a youth, doctors
told Berns he would not live to see
twenty-one. Although his name is
little remembered today, Berns worked
alongside all the greats of the era –
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Ahmet
Ertegun and Jerry Wexler, Burt
Bacharach, Phil Spector, Gerry Goffin
and Carole King, anyone who was anyone
in New York rhythm and blues. In seven
quick years, he went from nobody to
the top of the pops – producer of
monumental r&b classics,
songwriter of “Twist and Shout,” “My
Girl Sloopy” and others.
His fury to succeed
led Berns to use his Mafia
associations to muscle Atlantic
Records out of a partnership and
intimidate new talents like Neil
Diamond and Van Morrison he signed to
his record label, only to drop dead of
a long expected fatal heart attack,
just when he was seeing his grandest
plans and life’s ambitions frustrated
and foiled.
|

A
tell-all biography of the epic
in-fighting of the Grateful Dead
in the years following band
leader Jerry Garcia’s death in
1995
Available
from Hattchette Book Group
|
'Wear
Your Dreams,'
by Ed Hardy with Joel Selvin

Ed Hardy
& Joel Selvin
David
D'Arcy
July 7,
2013
Wear
Your Dreams My Life in Tattoos
By Ed Hardy with Joel Selvin
(Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's; 293
pages; $26.99)
|

HAGAR
AUTOBIOGRAPHY HITS NO. 1 ON NY
TIMES BEST-SELLER LIST
FIRST WEEK OUT
Sammy
Hagar—legendary lead singer of
Van Halen, founder of the Cabo
Wabo Tequila brand, and one of
rock music’s most notoriously
successful performers—tells his
unforgettable story in this
one-of-a-kind autobiography of a
life at the top of the charts. From
his decade-long journey alongside
Eddie Van Halen to his raucous
solo career with Chickenfoot and
everything in between—the drugs,
groupies, and excesses of fame,
the outrageous stadium tours, and
the thrill of musical
innovation—Hagar reveals all in
this treasure trove of
rock-and-roll war stories. Red is
a life-changing look at one of
music’s biggest talents—an
essential read for music fans and
anyone dreaming of becoming rock’s
next number one star.
...Read More
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VIDEO
FROM JOEL'S "RETIREMENT" PARTY
|
 |
|
|
From the Beach Boys
and Jan & Dean to the
Byrds and the Mamas &
the Papas, acclaimed music
journalist Joel Selvin
tells the story of a group
of young artists and
musicians who came
together at the dawn of
the 1960s to create the
lasting myth of the
California dream. Read
more.. |
HOLLYWOOD
EDEN PRESS: |
•
NEW
YORK TIMES: From
Brian Wilson to Nancy
Sinatra: The L.A. Music
Scene in the ’60s
Joel
Selvin, the former pop
music critic of The San
Francisco Chronicle, has
explored rock’s history in
a string of fun books,
including “Monterey Pop”
(written with Jim
Marshall) and “Summer of
Love.” In his new one,
“Hollywood Eden: Electric
Guitars, Fast Cars, and
the Myth of the California
Paradise,” he tells the
story, set between 1957
and 1967, of a network of
young Angelenos who
“captured a California of
the mind” — one of “cars,
sun, sex and surf;
‘Gidget’ set to a rock ’n’
roll beat.”
|
•
LA
TIMES: How
California’s culture
industry manufactured the
California dream
As
Selvin writes, a handful
of young artists,
including Jan and Dean,
the Beach Boys and the
Mamas and the Papas, were
largely responsible for
implanting the myth of
Southern California in the
national consciousness.
“Good Vibrations” sounds
like a forever future, as
if a fleet of tanned
aliens touched down to
share their music. (In
fact, it was just the
genius of Brian Wilson and
an army of session
musicians.)
|
|
VIDEO
from TIME.com:
Let Paul McCartney
Introduce You To Bert
Berns, The Best
Songwriter You’ve Never
Heard Of
click
here |
 |
HERE
COMES THE NIGHT PRESS: |
•
New
York Times: Many-Hit
Wonder, Out of Obscurity
Bert Berns, Songwriter
and Producer, Remembered
Even
in his mid-1960s heyday,
Bert Berns was barely
known beyond the
obsessives who studied
songwriters’ and
producers’ credits on 45
r.p.m. records and LP
album jackets. And then,
after his death in 1967
at the age of 38,
something truly odd
happened: Though the
songs he wrote and
produced, like “Twist
and Shout” and “Hang On
Sloopy,” proved to have
durability, growing in
stature and popularity
as the years passed,
Berns’s own reputation
receded even further
into obscurity.. |
"Ok,
just finished the book
on Bert Berns "Here
Comes The Night" and it
was great. Anyone who
loves early Rock and
Soul will love it." |
"BANG!
THE BERT BERNS
STORY. Great
rockumentary
about a
forgotten giant.
Narrated by
Little Steven,
written by rock
legend Joel
Selvin, my old
bandmate. |
|
•
Los
Angeles Review of
Books: Stephen
Deusner on Here Comes
the Night : The Dark
Soul of Bert Berns and
the Dirty Business of
Rhythm & Blues
IN
HIS NEW BOOK, Joel
Selvin describes three
different recordings of
the song “Twist and
Shout.” Two were not
simply big hits, but
seminal contributions to
the rock ’n’ roll canon.
... |
More
HERE COMES THE NIGHT
press here... |
|
---
N E W S .
F R O M .
J O E L S E L V I N . C O M ---
|



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READ
MORE EXCLUSIVE NEWS FROM
JOELSELVIN.COM
|
|
Browse
all of Joel's San Francisco
Chronicle pieces here. |
Linda
Ronstadt back in public eye,
and it’s not so easy
Sunday, May
27, 2018
Linda Ronstadt
doesn’t feel like company much
these days. At least, not too much
company. And on a recent visit,
she is definitely not going to put
on clothes and makeup.....sfgate |
Jefferson
Airplane’s Paul Kantner dies
at 74
Friday, January 29, 2016
Jefferson
Airplane founder Paul Kantner, a
giant of the San Francisco rock
scene, died Thursday afternoon
after suffering a massive heart
attack in his sleep two days
earlier. He was 74 and
surrounded by his three children
at the time of his death....sfgate
|
Dead
offers paint-by-numbers
show, but fans provides
color
Sunday, June 28, 2015
No rock band in the world boasts
an audience as devoted and
engaged as the Grateful
Dead, and it was the
Deadheads who brought the party
Saturday to Levi’s Stadium for
the first show on the
five-concert “Fare Thee Well”
tour featuring the four living
members of the Dead back
together for one last roundup.....sfgate
|
A
night at the Fillmore
changed B.B. King’s career
forever
Saturday, May 16, 2015
One
night in San Francisco changed
everything in B.B. King’s life —
in amazing and unpredictable
ways.
B.B. King,
the greatest bluesman of his
generation, who died Thursday at
89 in Las Vegas, had played the
Fillmore Auditorium many times
before that night in February
1967. It had been operated by
Charles Sullivan, a ghetto
entrepreneur who ran jukeboxes
and cigarette machines up and
down the coast, as well as
producing rhythm and blues
concerts at the 1,100-seat
upstairs dance hall in the
middle of a black neighborhood
that had thrived prior to urban
redevelopment, a well-known stop
on the so-called chitlin
circuit....sfgate
|
Music:
Ron Nagle’s ’70 album,
popular flop and cult hit,
returns
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Ron
Nagle, a longtime curmudgeon of
the San Francisco art and music
scene, was swimming upstream in
1970 with the release of an
album of dark, melancholy pop
songs at the height of the San
Francisco hippie psychedelic
era. “Bad Rice,” his lone solo
album, is a long-lost cult
classic about to be issued on CD
for the first time in a two-disc
deluxe set....sfgate
|
On
tour with Janis Joplin — an
insider’s view
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
John
Byrne Cooke strides across
Washington Square, a place
familiar to him because he lived
around the corner of 45 years
ago when he was road manager for
Big Brother and the Holding
Company.
“The guys
in Big Brother all wanted to
know why I didn’t live in the
Haight,” he says, “and I told
them 'I’m a beatnik, not a
hippie.’” ...sfgate
|
Emmylou
Harris touring for reissue
of cult classic 'Wrecking
Ball'
Friday, March 28, 2014
The
country music career of Emmylou
Harris was already finished when
she set foot in the studio in
winter 1995 to make "Wrecking
Ball" with producer Daniel
Lanois. Country radio had
stopped playing her records, and
her label had no idea what to
do....sfgate
|
Jeff
Beck, Brian Wilson review:
perfect harmony
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Brian
Wilson and Jeff Beck have lived
their lives in parallel musical
universes, but in the wide,
wonderful world of rock 'n'
roll, parallel lines do meet. At
the Paramount Theatre in Oakland
on Tuesday, in an unforgettable
tableau, the exquisite British
blues-rock guitarist drew out
Wilson's sunny melodies in
silvery, wavering guitar lines
as the combined forces of his
band and the Beach Boys
founder's backing group stitched
together the complex harmonies
and orchestrations from Wilson's
lost masterpiece, "Smile." ...sfgate
|
Rascals'
show revisits era of good
lovin', playin'
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
How
did Little Steven find the time?
He tours the
world playing guitar with Bruce
Springsteen and the E Street Band.
He maintains a thriving acting
career launched by a long-running
part in "The Sopranos." He hosts a
syndicated weekly radio show and
runs his own record label, among
other enterprises....sfgate
|
Fillmore's
Poster Room filled with
walls of sound
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
They
ran out of space on the walls of
the Poster Room at the Fillmore
Auditorium years ago. The most
recent addition advertises a
Black Keys concert from 2007.
Every available inch of the wall
space in the upstairs bar and
restaurant as well as the
adjacent balcony room is covered
with framed posters from
sold-out Fillmore shows of
the past ...sfgate
|
Giving
credit to Woodstock hero
Alvin Lee
Friday, March 8, 2013
His
frantic, flashy guitar playing
on the nearly 10-minute "I'm
Going Home" made British rock
musician Alvin Lee, who died
this week at age 68 in southern
Spain, one of the heroes of
Woodstock, both the music
festival and the subsequent
movie....sfgate
|
Singer
Rick Stevens embraces 2nd
chance
Monday, January 28, 2013
Wearing
a glacial-white suit and tie,
set off by a blood-orange shirt,
the compact, dark-haired
vocalist Rick Stevens leaned
into "You're Still a Young Man,"
his signature song as lead
vocalist of Tower of Power, when
the band burst out of the East
Bay funk scene 40 years ago and
Stevens had a promising future.
...sfgate
|
Review:
Johnny Cash Columbia boxed
set
Monday, December 3, 2012
Johnny
Cash had to disappear from the
skyline before it became obvious
how tall a tree he truly was.
If any doubts
remain, the newly released 63-disc
boxed set, "Johnny Cash - The
Complete Columbia Album
Collection" - takes the full
measure of the man's recorded
legacy. With the addition of a
single disc covering his first
three years of recording for the
Sun Records label - and Cash's
absent latter-era sessions with
producer Rick Rubin
notwithstanding - this unwieldy
set is an American treasury along
the lines of....sfgate
|
Browse
all of Joel's San Francisco
Chronicle pieces here. |
|
Contact Joel: joelselvin@aol.com
Literary Agent:
Frank Weimann: fweimann@theliterarygroup.com
|

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Available
at Amazon

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• BBC:
Joel Selvin
discusses LSD and the effect the
drug has had on music, culture and
society.....
• Los
Angeles Times: Tattooist
Ed Hardy, whose name adorns a
near-ubiquitous clothing brand has
signed a deal to write a memoir with
the help of Joel Selvin.....
• New
York Times: Julie
Bosman on Sammy Hagar and other rock
star's books....
• Examiner.com:
Q&A with
author Joel Selvin on Sammy Hagar’s
‘Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock’
....
• LA
Weekly: San
Francisco Chronicle pop music critic
Joel Selvin is the last of the great
rock & roll newspapermen. ....
• KGO
Newstalk Radio: Joel
Selvin joined Ronn Owens to take
your calls and talk about his new
book, Smartass: and his
co-authorship of Sammy Hagar's new
book Red: My Uncensored Life in
Rock.....
• The
California Report: Since
the early 1970s, Joel Selvin has
been reviewing concerts and writing
about rock 'n roll...
• Sacramento
Bee: Veteran
rock 'n' roll writer Selvin looks
back -Carla Meyer
• KQED
Radio: Selvin
joins Forum with Michael Krasny to
talk about California musicians and
Smartass
• NPR:
"A 'Smart Ass'
Take On San Francisco Sound" -Felix
Contraras
• Crawdaddy:
"David
MacFadden-Elliot reviews Smart Ass"
• Michael
Heaton, Cleveland Plain Dealer: "With
Merle Haggard, all things are
possible"
• S.F.
Chronicle: "Joel
Selvin On Dennis Wilson, Puck of the
Beach Boys"
• Santa
Cruz Sentinel: "Music
journalist Joel Selvin looks back on
a career chronicling California's
contribution to rock history"
• The
Daily Californian, Culture Shot: "Selvin
at Moe's"
|
BOOKS
|
• SMART
ASS:
The Music Journalism of Joel
Selvin
• ED
HARDY:
Wear Your Dreams: My Life in
Tattoos
By ED HARDY
with Joel Selvin
•
HERE
COMES THE NIGHT:
The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and
the Dirty Business of Rhythm and
Blues
PEPPERMINT
TWIST:
The Mob, the Music and the Most
Famous Dance Club of the 60s
By
Joel Selvin with John Johnson
Jr.
• THE
HAIGHT:
Love, Rock, and Revolution
By Joel
Selvin with photographer
JIM MARSALL
• SING
TO ME:
My Story of Making Music, Finding
Magic, and Searching for Who's
Next
By L.A. REID
with Joel Selvin
•
ALTAMONT:
The Rolling Stones, the Hells
Angels, and the Inside Story of
Rock's Darkest Day
•
FARE THEE WELL:
The Final Chapter of the Grateful
Dead's Long, Strange Trip
•
RUST IN PEACE:
The Inside Story of the Megadeth
Masterpiece
By
DAVE MUSTAINE with Joel Selvin
• HOLLYWOOD
EDEN:
Electric Guitars, Fast Cars, and
the Myth of the California
Paradise
• RED: My
Uncensored Life in Rock
By
SAMMY HAGAR with Joel Selvin
• RICKY
NELSON:
Idol for a Generation
MONTEREY POP
By Joel
Selvin with photographer
JIM MARSALL
• SUMMER
OF LOVE: The True Story of
LSD, Rock & Roll, Free Love and
High Times in the Wild West
• MID-LIFE
CONFIDENTIAL: The Rock Bottom
Remainders Tour America With Three
Chords and an Attitude
• SAN
FRANCISCO: The Musical History
Tour
• PHOTOPASS:
The Rock and Roll Photography of
Randy Bachman
• SLY
AND THE FAMILY STONE: The Oral
History
• THE
TREASURES OF THE HARD ROCK:
The Official Guide To the Hard Rock
Café Memorabilia Collection
...
Books Page
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