Josh Alan Friedman

Tell the Truth Until They Bleed Josh Alan Friedman

Publisher Marketing: "Josh Alan Friedman has chops like a wolf... This book deserves wide attention." --Jerry Wexler, Atlantic Records co-founder "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 Back in print in a new, definitive edition, this unflinching, critically acclaimed collection gets up close and personal with some of the most important 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 losers; the self-made, the self-serving, and the self-destructive. BLACK CRACKER author Friedman delivers intimate profiles, unearths secret histories, and shines a light on parts of the music business most prefer not to talk about. An antidote to antiseptic mythologizing, TELL THE TRUTH UNTIL THEY BLEED is show business without the showbiz. At long last, TRUTH is back. Review Citations: Library Journal 04/15/2008 pg. 87 (EAN 9780879309329, Paperback) Contributor Bio:  Friedman, Josh Alan In 1987, writer-guitarist Josh Alan Friedman sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads (the Crossroads of the World--Broadway & 42nd Street) and moved to Texas. He'd just written TALES OF TIMES SQUARE, a cult classic. An Expanded Edition with new chapters was recently released, while the still-unfinished movie of TALES has played 35 film festivals. Josh's latest book is BLACK CRACKER, the story of his tumultuous childhood as the only white boy at Long Island's last segregated school. In 2008: TELL THE TRUTH UNTIL THEY BLEED: COMING CLEAN IN THE DIRTY WORLD OF BLUES AND ROCK 'N' ROLL. Before that: WHEN SEX WAS DIRTY; I, GOLDSTEIN: MY SCREWED LIFE (with Al Goldstein); NOW DIG THIS: THE UNSPEAKABLE WRITINGS OF TERRY SOUTHERN (co-editor). Josh also set off satirical fires and lawsuits as writer-half of the Friedman Bros, the most feared cartooning duo of the late '70s and '80s. Two anthologies remain in print, featuring the art of Josh's brother, Drew Friedman: WARTS AND ALL, and ANY SIMILARITY TO PERSONS LIVING OR DEAD IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL. On the music front, as "Josh Alan," he barnstormed the state of Texas for 20 years, rocking whole arenas with his Guild D-40. Copping three DALLAS OBSERVER Music Awards for Best Acoustic Act, he released four albums: FAMOUS & POOR, THE WORST!, BLACKS 'N' JEWS (the title of which became a documentary on Josh's life) and JOSH ALAN BAND. Contributor Bio:  Doyle, Wyatt WYATT DOYLE is a founding contributor to NewTexture.com and the editor of Josh Alan Friedman's BLACK CRACKER for his own imprint. He is co-editor and designer of the anthology WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH! and a collection of lost pulp fiction by Walter Kaylin, HE-MEN, BAG MEN & NYMPHOS. He lives in Los Angeles.