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Tell the Truth Until They Bleed Kindle Edition

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 7 ratings

Back in print in a new, definitive edition, this unflinching, critically acclaimed collection by Black Cracker author Josh Alan Friedman gets up close and personal with some of the most important and unsung figures in 20th century blues and rock 'n' roll. From household names to the unacknowledged architects behind both the unforgettable sounds and the multi-billion-dollar industry, here are music's big winners and tragic losses; the self-made, the self-serving, and the self-destructive. Friedman captures intimate insights, unearths secret histories, and shines a light on parts of the music business most prefer not to talk about. 
An antidote to antiseptic cultural mythologizing,
Tell the Truth Until They Bleed is show business without the showbiz. After too many years out of circulation, Truth is back.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Josh Alan Friedman has chops like a wolf. The French had a phrase for his tropism for the seedy, the gutter, the outcasts: nostalgie de la boue. This book deserves wide attention." --Jerry Wexler, co-founder of Atlantic Records
"A can't-put-it-down rock 'n' roll read ... a must for any fan of good music writing and great storytelling." --William Michael Smith,
Houston Press
"He dances off the page, improvises, hits all the grace notes. He knows the turfspeak of both showbiz and quality lit." --Michael Simmons,
High Times
"The architects and the artists, the legends and the liars, the famously acclaimed and the anonymously unsung... each one a delectable bit of voyeurism." --
PopMatters

About the Author

Josh Alan Friedman sold his soul at the Crossroads of the World--42nd Street and Broadway--and moved to Texas in 1987. He is the author of Tales of Times Square, When Sex Was Dirty, and Black Cracker, and co-writer of the lurid memoir I, Goldstein: My Screwed Life. As "Josh Alan," he released four highly acclaimed albums, winning three Dallas Observer Music Awards for Best Acoustic Act.
Black Cracker Online is his website and archive. 

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00V3ZUH0E
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wyatt Doyle Books/New Texture; 1st edition (March 17, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 17, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 7392 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 7 ratings

About the authors

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
7 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2023
Josh Alan Friedman is a great writer, and you'll never view rock & rock, R&B and blues in quite the same way after reading his book. True stories from the front lines and back alleys. Spotlight is on Jerry Lieber (longest chapter in the book); Doc Pomus, Ronnie Spector, Dr. John, Mose Allison, Joel Dorn, Keith Ferguson, to name a few. Might sound silly to make this comparison, but Friedman carries on the tradition of the 19th century French realist novelists like Balzac and Flaubert -- except in Friedman's case it's non-fiction and set in places like Times Square and the Brill Building and New Orleans.
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2022
This book gives an interesting perspective behind the music industry. Is a bit fragmented at times but offers some great stories.
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2018
Would you like to know why famous boxing promoter Don King (himself not known widely for his honesty and above board tactics in the boxing game) didn't get into the music business because, as he said, "It's too corrupt," ? Then read this book. A series of short, easy to read chapters about various people in the music biz, some well known, some not; Josh Alan Friedman has put together a one of a kind read packed with lots of little known info and interesting stories about some of the folks, both good and bad, that inhabited (and inhabit) the music industry. A great and eye opening read!
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