Books
MUSIC IS POWER
Popular Songs, Social Justice and the Will to Change
(Rutgers University Press)
Music Is Power at AMAZON
WINNER, FOREWORD INDIES BOOK AWARDS
WINNER, GRAPHIS 2021 ANNUAL BOOK DESIGN
Music Is Power covers the past 100 years of socially conscious music, from Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie to the Dixie Chicks and NWA. It includes reggae, country, metal, psychedelia, hip hop, punk, folk and soul. Music Is Power tells fascinating stories about the origins and the impact of dozens of transcendent songs, while revealing political context and the personal challenges of legendary artists. 18 photos, 4 in color.
“Brad Schreiber understands both music and politics, as well as the jagged lines where they overlap and intersect. His clarity, intelligence and insight provide lasting rewards.”
—Anthony DeCurtis, Grammy Award-winning journalist, Rolling Stone and author of Lou Reed: A Life
“An inspiring tour through the history of making change with music, and an important call for retrieving music’s intrinsic ability to challenge power.”
—Douglas Rushkoff, documentarian, professor, Media Theory and Digital Economics, CUNY/ Queens, and author of Team Human
“A stirring survey of the sometimes sad, sometimes joyful, sometimes angry but ever hopeful music that is the soundtrack for America’s struggle to become a more fair and just society.”
—Seth Rosenfeld, journalist, winner, George Polk Award, and author of Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power
Brad discusses musical artists Lesley Gore (“You Don’t Own Me”) and Janis Ian (“Society’s Child”) from MUSIC IS POWER at Books, Inc., Berkeley, CA.
REVOLUTION’S END
The Patty Hearst Kidnapping, Mind Control & the Secret History of Donald DeFreeze & the SLA (Skyhorse)
WINNER, INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS
WINNER, INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER BOOK AWARDS
Revolution’s End at Amazon
Revolution’s End audiobook at Amazon, read by Brad Schreiber
Revolution’s End details 1970s heiress Patty Hearst’s relationship with Donald DeFreeze, known as Cinque, head of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Neither she nor the white radicals who followed DeFreeze knew he was a victim of prison behavior modification and an informant.
Molded by a CIA officer and allowed to escape, DeFreeze’s secret mission was to infiltrate and discredit Bay Area anti-war radicals and the Black Panther Party, the nexus of 70s activism.
“Brad Schreiber presents a compelling new case that the SLA was a creation of the police state to infiltrate, subvert and destroy the growing radical movements of the period.”
--David Talbot, founder, Salon.com, author of Season of the Witch and The Devil’s Chessboard
“This book careens to its bloody ending with all the inevitability of a train wreck. Schreiber won’t let us take our eyes off it. He ignites the past in chilling detail and at the same time shines an uncanny and unsettling light on who we are today.”
--T. Jefferson Parker, three-time winner of the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award
“‘Fascinating…a careful book and one as necessary as it is disturbing.”
--Mark Crispin Miller, author, professor of Media Studies, New York University
BECOMING JIMI HENDRIX
From Southern Crossroads to Psychedelic London, the Untold Story of a Musical Genius (Da Capo/Perseus)
Becoming Jimi Hendrix at Amazon
The first biography of the formative years of the greatest electric guitarist of all time. Leaving his broken home in Seattle, where he experienced near starvation, Jimi tours with the greats of R&B in the Deep South and discovers LSD and a whole new way of playing and writing music in Greenwich Village, prior to his breakthrough in London…and eventually America and the world.
Revelations in BECOMING JIMI HENDRIX:
Jimi getting arrested at one of the earliest US civil rights sit-ins, in Nashville
Jimi experiencing racism, touring with groundbreaking, integrated group The Starliters
Jimi setting his guitar on fire, touring with Little Richard…in 1964
Linda Keith, girlfriend of Keith Richards, getting Jimi “discovered” in Greenwich Village
“It’s a fascinating book for the story it tells, but I would pay the cover price just for its amazing photographs.”-
-Steve Coates, New York Times
“Hendrix’s career as a superstar has been well-chronicled; the more interesting details of how he became one are told here.”
—New York Times Book Review
"Most important, the book shows how Greenwich Village was crucial to Hendrix’s 1966 breakthrough."
--Rolling Stone
Death in Paradise
An Illustrated History of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner (Parallel Universe)
Death in Paradise at Amazon Kindle
Death in Paradise is the first authorized pictorial history of the world's most famous coroner's office. It features extensive archival photography of Southern California locations, famous and infamous victims, and medical and forensic technology.
What are the lingering controversies surrounding the deaths of director William Desmond Taylor in the 1920s and film comedienne Thelma Todd in the 1930s? Was the horrific 1940's "Black Dahlia" case linked to the little-known "Lipstick Murders"?
Walk along the City of Angels' darker side with modern tragedies involving George Reeves, Dorothy Dandridge, the Tate-La Bianca murders, Freddie Prinze and more.
"A colorful history of the L.A. County Coroner's Department."
—Los Angeles Times
"An intriguing look at the forensic science behind some of L.A.'s grisliest crime scenes." ---Los Angeles Magazine
"With crackling prose, glorious and gory photographs and mind-blowing accounts of your favorite celebrity exits, the authors have created the perfect book for a coffee table in hell."
---Jerry Stahl, consultant, CSI (CBS), author, Permanent Midnight
On ABC TV’s Primetime discussing Death in Paradise.
STOP THE SHOW!
A History of Insane Incidents and Absurd Accidents in the Theater (Da Capo/Perseus) Stop the Show! on Amazon
The first collection of live theatre’s greatest blunders, from the West End and Broadway to the lowliest amateur production, Stop the Show! revels in ruined lines, dangerous scenery, rude audience members and performers sabotaging each other.
Richard Burton, after an afternoon of drinking with his brothers, accidentally urinates through his tights while sword fighting Michael Redgrave at Stratford-upon-Avon.
The Second City Toronto member who tries LSD for the first time, and plays a cab driver on LSD in an improvisational sketch, without the audience knowing he’s tripping.
A homeless woman crawls onstage during a production of Cats on Broadway, rubs up against startled performers and starts to sing off-key.
NYU student Shari Albert, dancing in the Rodgers and Hart musical By Jupiter, forgets to wear underwear on opening night and the review in the student newspaper sports the headline, “AMAZON QUEEN RULES WITHOUT PANTS.”
“Mr. Schreiber’s book of anecdotes should be deposited in every dressing room, both on and off Broadway.” —Eric Bogosian
“Among its many virtues is its historical sweep…provides a source of endless pleasure.” —Steven Leigh Morris, L.A. Weekly
“Fascinating and fun reading for anyone interested in the theatre.”
—Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winner, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?
How to Write Humor for Screenplays, Stories, and More (Allworth/Skyhorse) What Are You Laughing At? on Amazon
The definitive book on how to “write funny” is the first to compare comedic screenwriting with fiction and nonfiction in all forms. It uses principles developed in Brad’s UCLA Extension course on humor writing and his CBS Studio City seminars on screenwriting, and includes a foreword by Chris Vogler (The Writer’s Journey).
More than 80 excerpts from folks like Steve Martin, Erma Bombeck and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Unique writing exercises developed for this book.
Vital information on writing comedy for TV, stage and audio.
Where else would you find “11 Modes of Comedic Dialogue,” “13 Things Bad Screenwriters Commonly Do” and “The Cream of Wheat Theory of Exposition”?
“At last, a how-to book by somebody who actually knows how to.” —Larry Gelbart, creator-writer, M*A*S*H, screenwriter, Tootsie
“Attention, aspiring writer! You’ll learn so much about the craft from Schreiber’s book that you can skip school altogether and spend your tuition money on sex and drugs.” —Tom Robbins, author, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Jitterbug Perfume
“Some people are just plain funny. Some people don’t know funny when it bites them in their collective ass. For the rest of us in the middle, this book might help. That is, if funny is your idea of a good time.” —Penn Jillette, Penn and Teller
WHERE’S MY FORTUNE
COOKIE?
Phil Proctor and Brad Schreiber (Blurb)
Where’s My Fortune Cookie? on Amazon
WINNER, NEW YORK FESTIVALS
WINNER, 3 COMMUNICATOR AWARDS
FINALIST, INDEPENDENT AUDIOBOOK AWARDS
Phil Proctor, co-founder of the thrice Grammy nominated comedy group The Firesign Theatre, has fashioned the most outrageous, eclectic autobiography intergalactically available, with the interference of Brad Schreiber. The book covers Phil’s work on Broadway, radio, TV and film, and especially live and audio performances with Firesign. Phil, with Peter Bergman, Phil Austin and David Ossman, predicted reality TV, hackers, computer viruses, virtual reality, the fall of the Soviet Union, 9/11 and more.
“I met Phil Proctor when I was a small, feral child, living in the woods on grubs and berries. He took me in, raised me as his own, and taught me how to be funny. The fact that my entire childhood was omitted from Phil’s otherwise complete and compelling memoir is disconcerting to say the least, but it’s still a fascinating read, I guess.”
—”Weird Al” Yankovic
“Phil Proctor has lived many colorful lives and made a sizable dent in our popular culture. I’m glad he’s given us this warm, funny, thoughtful memoir.”
—Leonard Maltin
WEIRD WONDERS AND BIZARRE BLUNDERS
The Official Book of Ridiculous Records (Parallel Universe)
Weird Wonders and Bizarre Blunders at Amazon Kindle
Weird Wonders contains the most utterly insane records, ones the Guinness Book wouldn’t touch. There are 425 freakazoidal facts in 10 different categories:
Human Body / Animal, Vegetable or Mineral / Science & Technology / Artistic Achievements / Buildings, Structures & Locations / Mechanical Inventions / Business and Commerce / Lifestyles / Human Accomplishments / Athletics and Hobbies
“This is truly funny stuff.”
—Tom Snyder
“Wonderful. What a lot of fun.”
—Mike Duffy, Detroit Free Press
“Wacky…Hilarious stories.”
—National Enquirer
“I am impressed. A hilarious book. A very strange guy.”
—Bill Handel, KFI-AM, Los Angeles
The end of Sea Ridge Drive in Half Moon Bay, California is a steep incline leading to a short pier built with rough wooden slats that goes out in the Pacific Ocean. As of the present time, there have been 36 cases of concussions, 159 broken bones and 3 occasions when boys went flying off the pier and were never seen again. Sea Ridge Drive has many signs prohibiting skateboarding and there is a fine as well, if caught. Still, skateboarders come from all over the Bay Area, mostly at night or on foggy days, to break the law, possibly break their bones and have fun.