Tell the Truth Until They Bleed

by Josh Alan Friedman

A wild insider's ride with one of music's most notorious journalists. Here are 15 music profiles, guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. Leiber & Stoller, the white fathers of R&B and rock and roll, who possess what is perhaps the last great untold story of the music biz. They created the American songbook of the '50s and '60s, led by Elvis, the Coasters, and the Drifters. Doc Pomus, the only white blues singer in America making records in the 1940s. Half of the hit songwriting team of Pomus-Shuman during the Brill Building era, Doc had the biggest heart in the music business. A sad, comic-tragic romance with the Ronettes' Ronnie Spector, dubbed an "oldie" once she left her teens.

262 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2008

About the author

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.

Joshs 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. 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 Joshs life) and Josh Alan Band."