Penguin Books News

In the mid-nineties, documentarian Peter Spirer embarked on a three-year odyssey to offer a realistic view of Hip-Hop and the people and culture it encompassed, interviewing over 80 artists involved in the art form. Spirer managed to capture a seminal moment as the culture balanced on the cusp of the mainstream. As Ice-T comments in his foreword to the book, 'Rhyme & Reason is one of the few films that was there to document us before Hip-Hop truly exploded.' While filming, Spirer took accompanying stills using a medium format Rolleiflex camera. It is these photographs that form The Book Of Rhyme & Reason. 'The Rollei allowed me to capture some amazing moments: Puffy getting a trim in his office while doing three tasks at once, Biggie opening record plaques on his couch, Ice-T and Mack 10 hanging with their homies, Heavy D at the barber, playing pool. There was the Jack The Rapper convention with Death Row making a statement, at a Disney World Hotel, that ended in chaos. There were magical moments such as Redman and Erick Sermon freestyling on the mic to amazed onlookers at a block party in Newark and watching Wu-Tang Clan chop it up on the block in Staten Island on a cold winter's day before they exploded.'



This coffee table volume features over 130 of Spirer's photographs from 1994 to 1997. As Hip-Hop commemorates its fiftieth anniversary in 2023, it is particularly fitting that many of these images from this formative period are being seen and published for the first time.

Booze and Vinyl explores the intersection of timeless music and mixed drinks with a spotlight on 70 great records from the 1950s through the 2000s.

From modern craft cocktails to old standbys, prepare to shake, stir, and just plain pour your way through some of the best wax ever pressed. Wickedly designed and featuring photography throughout, Booze & Vinyl is organized by mood, from Rock to Chill, Dance, and Seduce. Each entry has liner notes that underscore the album's musical highlights and accompanying cocktail recipes that complement the music's mood, imagery in the lyrics, or connect the drink to the artist. This is your guide to a rich listening session for one, two, or more.

Among the 70 featured albums are: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club, Purple Rain, Sticky Fingers, Born To Run, License to Ill, Appetite for Destruction, Thriller, Like a Virgin, Low End Theory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, Hotel California, Buena Vista Social Club, Back to Black, Pet Sounds, Vampire Weekend, and many more

432 pages, 20cm x 13cm x 3cm

What was it about Bob Marley that made him so popular in a world dominated by rock’n’roll?

How is that he has not only remained the single most successful reggae artist ever, but has also become a shining beacon of radicalism and peace to generation after generation of fans across the globe?

On May 11, 1981, a little after 11.30 in the morning, Bob Marley died. The man who introduced reggae to a worldwide audience

in his own lifetime he had already become a hero figure in the classic mythological sense. From immensely humble beginnings and with talent and religious belief his only weapons,

the Jamaican recording artist applied himself with unstinting perseverance to spreading his prophetic musical message.

And he had achieved it: only a year earlier, Bob Marley and The Wailers' tour of Europe had seen them perform to the largest audiences

a musical act had up to that point experienced. Record sales of Marley's albums before his death were spectacular;

in the years since his death they have become phenomenal, as each new generation discovers afresh the remarkable power of his music.

Chris Salewicz, who had a sequence of adventures with Bob Marley in Jamaica in 1979,



offers us a comprehensive and detailed account of Bob Marley's life and the world in which he grew up and came to dominate.



Never-before-heard interviews with dozens of people who knew Marley are woven through



a narrative that brings to life not only the Rastafari religion and the musical scene in Jamaica, but also the spirit of the man himself.

304 pages colour and black & white images throughout
The lyrics to the songs of the Beatles read like poetry. This book treats them as such, and illustrates each track artistically, paying careful attention to detail and high design standards.

The stories, themes and ideas behind nearly 200 songs are explored in this beautiful book that includes photographs, artwork and illustration to bring the Fab Four's lyrics to life as never before.

400 pages colour and black & white images throughout

The story of the phenomenon that is Kraftwerk, and how they revolutionised our cultural landscape

'We are not artists nor musicians. We are workers.' Ignoring nearly all rock traditions, experimenting in near-total secrecy in their Düsseldorf studio,

Kraftwerk fused sound and technology, graphic design and performance, modernist Bauhaus aesthetics and

Rhineland industrialisation - even human and machine - to change the course of modern music.

This is the story of Kraftwerk the cultural phenomenon, who turned electronic music into avant-garde concept art and created the soundtrack to our digital age.