{"title":"Joseph Lanza","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the unique literary world of Joseph Lanza, where cultural commentary meets insightful prose. Explore his perspectives on music, society, and the arts, a thought-provoking journey for curious readers.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"phallic-frenzy-book-joseph-lanza-9781556526695","title":"Phallic Frenzy","description":"A biography of director Ken Russell that details the wild ideas, surreal moments, personal faith, and cavalcade of colourful personalities surrounding this eccentric filmmaker - on and off the set. Ken is best known for the acclaimed movies \"Altered States\", \"The Devils\", \"Gothic\", \"The Music Lovers\", \"Tommy\", and \"Women in Love\".","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49571845177617,"sku":"GOR006157148","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50381656523025,"sku":"CIN1556526695G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1556526695.jpg?v=1751119243"},{"product_id":"cocktail-book-joseph-lanza-9780312134501","title":"The Cocktail","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49607385448721,"sku":"GOR007728659","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50429517234449,"sku":"CIN0312134509G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0312134509.jpg?v=1751228172"},{"product_id":"easy-listening-acid-trip-book-joseph-lanza-9781627310956","title":"Easy-Listening Acid Trip","description":"In his acclaimed book \u003ci\u003eElevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong\u003c\/i\u003e, author Joseph Lanza explored the forbidden beauty and social importance of an otherwise shunned musical category. Now, in \u003ci\u003eEasy-Listening Acid Trip\u003c\/i\u003e, he pushes the boundaries further by taking his subject into altered states, showing how psychedelic pop (as opposed to the ear-grinding jams of \"acid rock\") offered other worlds and strange sounds that took listeners through a mind-bending time travel back to vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley, British Music Hall, and the melodic traditions that made songs hits before your grandmother was born. These influences, in turn, inspired many easy-listening arrangers and conductors to reinterpret the songs into instrumental wonders that were often just as (if not more) surreal.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eEasy-Listening Acid Trip\u003c\/i\u003e takes readers on a journey that includes the Hollyridge Strings' haunting version of the Beatles' \"Strawberry Fields Forever,\" Paul Mauriat's lush treatment of Scott McKenzie's \"San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair),\" and Mariano and the Unbelievables' baroque-pop tribute to the Lemon Pipers \"Green Tambourine.\" The book also provides numerous anecdotes, such as how quickly after the Strawberry Alarm Clock released their 1967 hit \"Incense and Peppermints,\" Muzak recorded an instrumental version by Charles Grean and His Orchestra that kept the electric guitar but re-contoured the tune with harps, horns, flutes, a tambourine, and other effects for offices, restaurants, supermarkets, and of course, elevators.\u003cbr\u003e Delving into the songs along with the international roster of composers, arrangers, and conductors who recorded them, Easy-Listening Acid Trip celebrates the trippy paradox linking psychedelia to easy-listening: a netherworld where the Beatles meet The Percy Faith Strings, where Donovan meets David Rose and His Orchestra, and where other flower-power-pop favorites meld with the likes of Ferrante and Teicher, Lawrence Welk, and the Mystic Moods Orchestra.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49740281217297,"sku":"NGR9781627310956","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51040512934161,"sku":"NIN9781627310956","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51141302223121,"sku":"CIN1627310959G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52817511350545,"sku":"CIN1627310959VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53211218313489,"sku":"GOR011405476","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1627310959.jpg?v=1751342795"},{"product_id":"russ-columbo-and-the-crooner-mystique-book-joseph-lanza-9780922915804","title":"Russ Columbo And The Crooner Mystique","description":"Though his strange and premature death became one of Hollywood Babylon's weirdest chapters, this King of the Crooners' and 'Valentino of Radio' had a voice that spoke to a world still drifting in the malaise following the First World War. Taking a devoted and personal look into this crooner's art and life, this biography derives much of its information from Columbo's otherwise long-lost personal effects, including original movie transcripts, love letters to and from Carole Lombard and other movie actresses, and the singer's daily diaries.'","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49755334476049,"sku":"CIN0922915806G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50113803157777,"sku":"CIN0922915806VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50372955799825,"sku":"CIN0922915806A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0922915806.jpg?v=1750704644"},{"product_id":"phallic-frenzy-book-joseph-lanza-9781845133733","title":"Phallic Frenzy","description":"'At a certain point in a Ken Russell movie, I always say to myself, \"The man is mad\"' Pauline Kael, The New Yorker Ken Russell has made some of the most daring, disturbing and beautifully photographed films of all time. His subjects are astoundingly varied: from deranged 17th-century Ursuline nuns in The Devils to the sexual angst of Tchaikovsky; from the inner demons of Shelley and Byron to a deaf, dumb and blind pinball wizard in Tommy. He is still making films on video, and recently found fame on Channel 4's Big Brother. This first full biography shows how Russell's own life has been as vibrant and engaging as his impish film scenarios. It reveals how Alan Bates and Oliver Reed compared their penis sizes for the nude wrestling scene in Women in Love, and how Russell was even originally set to direct Evita, starring Liza Minnelli. Russell has not specifically authorised the book, but has co-operated to the extent of granting an interview and supplying many rare photos. A madcap tale full of wild ideas, surreal situations and a cavalcade of colourful personalities, Phallic Frenzy is as thrilling a ride as any Ken Russell film. Joseph Lanza's other books include a history of muzak, Elevator Music, and the definitive book on the film-maker Nicolas Roeg, Fragile Geometry.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49851376009489,"sku":"GOR001270052","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50454310093073,"sku":"GOR003762022","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1845133730.jpg?v=1751437074"},{"product_id":"texas-chain-saw-massacre-book-joseph-lanza-9781510737907","title":"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre","description":"Lanza turns his attentions to the production, reception, social climate, and impact of a movie that rattled the American psyche in the wake of Nixon, Watergate, and Vietnam.  When Tobe Hooper’s low-budget slasher film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, opened in theaters in 1974, it was met in equal measure with disgust and reverence. The film—in which a group of teenagers meet a gruesome end when they stumble upon a ramshackle farmhouse of psychotic killers—was outright banned in several countries and was pulled from many American theaters after complaints of its violence.  Despite the mixed reception from critics, it was enormously profitable at the domestic box office and has since secured its place as one of the most influential horror movies ever made.  Joseph Lanza transports the reader back to the tumultuous era of the 1970s defined by political upheaval, cultural disillusionment, and the perceived decay of the nuclear family in the wake of Watergate, the onslaught of serial killers in the US, as well as mounting racial and sexual tensions. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Its Terrifying Times sets the themes of the film against the backdrop of the political and social American climate to understand why the brutal slasher flick connected with so many viewers. As much a book about the movie as the moment,  Joseph Lanza has created an engaging and nuanced work that grapples with the complications of the American experience.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50056616640785,"sku":"CIN1510737901G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52652242862353,"sku":"NIN9781510737907","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53597654778129,"sku":"CIN1510737901A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1510737901.jpg?v=1751340075"},{"product_id":"elevator-music-book-joseph-lanza-9780704302266","title":"Elevator Music","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50157696352529,"sku":"GOR002066453","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53370537378065,"sku":"GOR003049534","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0704302268.jpg?v=1751438035"},{"product_id":"elevator-music-book-joseph-lanza-9780312130633","title":"Elevator Music","description":"It's campy, it's cool, empty, intrusive, trite, and treacly. It's Big Brother singing. Call it what you will -- elevator music, Moodsong (R) easy listening, or Muzak (R). For a musical genre that was supposed to offend no one, it has a lot of enemies.\u003cbr\u003eMusical cognoscenti decry its insipid content; regular folk -- if they notice -- bemoan its pervasiveness; while hipsters and campsters celebrate its retro chic. Mindful of the many voices, Joseph Lanza's Elevator Music sings seriously, with tongue in cheek, the praises of this venerable American institution.\u003cbr\u003eLanza addresses the criticisms of elites who say that Muzak and its ilk are dehumanized, vapid, or cheesy. These reactions, he argues, are based more on cultural prejudices than honest musical appraisal.\u003cbr\u003eSays Lanza, today's so-called mood music is the inheritor of a long tradition of mood-altering music stretching back to the ancients; Nero's fiddle and the sirens of Odysseus being two famous examples. Contemporary atmospheric music, Lanza argues, not only serves the same purpose, it is also the inevitable background for our media-dominated age.\u003cbr\u003eOne of Lanza's premises, to quote Mark Twain, is that this music is better than it sounds. This book will have succeeded in its purpose, he writes, if I can help efface.the distinction between one person's elevator music and another's prized recording.\u003cbr\u003eJoseph Lanza is an author, producer, and music historian. His most recent book is \u003ci\u003eRuss Columbo and the Crooner Mystique\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50261317779729,"sku":"CIN0312130635G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51681433616657,"sku":"GOR007975072","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51697193943313,"sku":"CIN0312130635VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0312130635.jpg?v=1751133613"},{"product_id":"fragile-geometry-book-joseph-lanza-9781555540333","title":"Fragile Geometry","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50391749427473,"sku":"CIN1555540333G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1555540333.jpg?v=1750798704"},{"product_id":"elevator-music-book-joseph-lanza-9780312105402","title":"Elevator Music","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50468440244497,"sku":"GOR010740790","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51424039731473,"sku":"CIN0312105401VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51695045771537,"sku":"CIN0312105401G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53683578241297,"sku":"CIN0312105401A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0312105401.jpg?v=1751196156"},{"product_id":"elevator-music-book-joseph-lanza-9780472089420","title":"Elevator Music","description":"Noted music historian Joseph Lanza seriously appraises an American musical tradition","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51604639252753,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51604639580433,"sku":"GOR009376776","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53097783197969,"sku":"CIN0472089420G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0472089420.jpg?v=1750943197"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-au\/collections\/author-books-by-joseph-lanza.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}