Gawk at Gorgeous Guitars

Welcome to the Summer Guitar Session. The library has plenty of useful resources for guitarists, including guitar transcriptions (MP 126) and method books (MT 580). But we also have a large collection of beautifully illustrated books that show off the instrument (ML 1015.G9). For example:

• Electric Guitars: An Illustrated History by Jonathan Lister (ML1015.G9 E44 2010)
• Star Guitars: 101 Guitars that Rocked the World by Dave Hunter (ML1015.G9 H86 S73 2010)
• The Complete History of Guitar World: 30 Years of Music, Magic and Six-String Mayhem (ML1015.G9 C66 2010)
• Gibson Guitars: 100 Years of an American Icon by Walter Carter (ML1015.G9 C35 1994)

Feel free to grab one of these coffee table tomes from the shelf, curl up in an easy chair in Reading Room, and appreciate the artistry of the guitar. 

In Remembrance of Elvis

August 16 marks the 35th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. Rock critic Lester Bangs concluded his essay "Where Were You When Elvis Died?" with:

If love truly is going out of fashion forever, which I do not believe, then along with our nurtured indifference to each other will be an even more contemptuous indifference to each others' objects of reverence. I thought it was Iggy Stooge, you thought it was Joni Mitchell or whoever else seemed to speak for your own private, entirely circumscribed situation's many pains and few ecstasies. We will continue to fragment in this manner, because solipsism holds all the cards at present; it is a king whose domain engulfs even Elvis's. But I can guarantee you one thing: we will never again agree on anything as we agreed on Elvis. So I won't bother saying good-bye to his corpse. I will say good-bye to you.

The essay appeared in The Village Voice on August 29, 1977 and is reprinted as the introduction to Elvis Presley: The Rebel Years (ML420.P74 E29 1994). It is part of out large collection of Presley biographies. Of course we have plenty of material by and about the King.

Special thanks to Jim Testa of Jersey Beat for the Bangs quote.

RIP Marvin Hamlisch

Award-winning composer and conductor Marvin Hamlisch died on August 6 at the age of 68. He is only of only two people, with Richard Rodgers, to win an Oscar, Emmy, Tony and Grammy award and the Pulitzer Prize. Billboard has an obituary and remembrance.

Among the highlights of the works by Marvin Hamlisch in our collection:

• A Chorus Line [MP1503.H2497 C4], for which Hamlisch won the Tony and Pulitzer
• The Way We Were [CD 5571], which earned Hamlisch an Oscar and a Grammy
• Barbra: The Concert [CD 9886-9887] The TV special from this tour earned Hamlisch an Emmy.

Olympic Fanfare

Feeling musically inspired by the Olympics and can't get enough of the music? We have lead sheets and streaming audio of "Bugler's Dream" by Leo Arnaud, the formal name of the Olympic fanfare. Despite its ubiquity on NBC's coverage of the event, it is not an international theme song. ABC started using it in the late 1960s, and it is so firmly associated with the Olympics in American minds that NBC continued the tradition.

The lead sheet is in The Best Fake Book Ever [MP1630.28 .B478], available for C, Bb, and Eb instruments.

The streaming audio track is on an album of Arnaud's works.