The gift of giving is welcome year-round, but perhaps never more than as the holidays approach. Our array of top picks should help brighten the season.
“The Philosophy of Modern Song” by Bob Dylan: Twelve years in the making, this 360-page book is Bob Dylan’s richly textured valentine to more than 60 of the songwriters and singers he most admires. They range from Hank Williams and Little Richard to Elvis Costello and Rodgers & Hart — and Dylan’s insights about music, culture and life at large are absorbing. His views of women are another matter. In one chapter, he enthusiastically endorses the potential benefits of polygamist marriage. $45. Available at bookstores and Amazon
John Adams, “Collected Works”: From concertos, chamber works and symphonies to choral works, operettas and wildly ambitious operas, John Adams has distinguished himself as pne of America’s most prolific and singular living composers. This comprehensive box set includes 39 CDs and a Blu-ray disc — the latter featuring his groundbreaking 1987 opera, “Nixon in China” — that span Adams’ five-decade recording career. It’s an unusually deep, and often dizzying, dive. $131.60. Available at record stores and Amazon
Blondie, “Against The Odds: 1974-1982”: With charismatic singer Debbie Harry at the fore, Blondie pivoted through multiple musical chapters, from garage-rock, girl-group pop and punk to new wave, disco, reggae and hip-hop (the band’s 1981 hit, “Rapture,” was the first song with rapping to top the Billboard pop singles charts). Thirty of the the 125 tracks in this handsomely packaged, eight-CD box set are released here for the first time and it is these previously unheard early demo tracks and assorted rarities that will entice Blondie devotees. $93.08. Available at record stores and Amazon
“Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands” by Linda Ronstadt and Lawrence Downes: What started as an idea for a cookbook by Linda Ronstadt and a few of her friends turned into something far more profound for the Tucson, Arizona-born vocal legend, who is Mexican American but passed for white growing up, Ronstadt writes with passion about cultural pride, food, music, geography, politics, religion, racism and more. Her observations are often astute and her unabashed candor is refreshing. $29.49. Available at record stores and Amazon
The Kinks, “Muswell Hillbillies / Everybody’s in Show-biz, Everybody’s a Star” 50th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set: Weighing in at 8 pounds, this voluminous box set chronicles one of England’s greatest rock bands of the 1960s starting a new chapter in the early 1970s. With the addition of keyboardist John Gosling as a full-time member, the Kinks produced two albums, the country-tinged “Muswell Hillbillies” and the half-live, half studio-recorded “Everybody’s in Show-Biz.” Both were commercial flops, despite boasting such classic songs as “Lola” and “Celluloid Heroes,” but grew more appealing over time. The box set contains four CDs, six colored vinyl albums, a 52-page hardcover book, a Blu-ray disc and more. $174.98. Available at record stores and Amazon
Fleetwood Mac charity auction for MusiCares: You can’t bid for Mick Fleetwood, John McVie or Christine McVie to come visit you at home. But you can bid on more than 700 items of memorabilia — from Christine’s baby grand piano and John’s rare Fender bass guitar to stage attire and a “Stevie Nicks gifted surfboard” — that the three members of the now-dormant Fleetwood Mac are auctioning off. Proceeds will benefit MusiCares, the Grammy Awards’ charity organization for music industry members in need. You can bid in person, starting at 10 a.m. PT Dec. 3 and 4, at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills, California, or online at: juliensacutions.com. Preregistration is required.
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