{"product_id":"book-au41","title":"Howling at the Moon","description":"\u003cb\u003eShow biz memoir at its name-dropping, bridge-burning, profane best: the music industry’s   most outspoken, outrageous, and phenomenally successful executive delivers a rollicking   memoir of pop music’s heyday.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e During the 1970s and '80s the music business was dominated   by a few major labels and artists such as Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, the   Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Barbra Streisand and James Taylor.   They were all under contract to CBS Records, making it the most successful label   of the era. And, as the company’s president, Walter Yetnikoff was the ruling monarch.   He was also the most flamboyant, volatile and controversial personality to emerge   from an industry and era defined by sex, drugs and debauchery. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Having risen from   working-class Brooklyn and the legal department of CBS, Yetnikoff, who freely admitted   to being tone deaf, was an unlikely label head.  But he had an uncanny knack for   fostering talent and intimidating rivals with his appalling behavior—usually fueled   by an explosive combination of cocaine and alcohol. His tantrums, appetite for mind-altering   substances and sexual exploits were legendary. In Japan to meet the Sony executives   who acquired CBS during his tenure, Walter was assigned a minder who confined him   to a hotel room.  True to form, Walter raided the minibar, got blasted and, seeing   no other means of escape, opened a hotel window and vented his rage by literally   howling at the moon.   \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eHowling at the Moon\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eYetnikoff traces his journey as   he climbed the corporate mountain, danced on its summit and crashed and burned. We   see how Walter became the father-confessor to Michael Jackson as the King of Pop   reconstructed his face and agonized over his image while constructing \u003ci\u003eThriller \u003c\/i\u003e(and   how, after it won seven Grammies, Jackson made the preposterous demand that Walter   take producer Quincy Jones’s name \u003ci\u003eoff\u003c\/i\u003e the album); we see Walter, in maniacal pursuit   of a contract, chase the Rolling Stones around the world and nearly come to blows   with Mick Jagger in the process; we get the tale of how Walter and Marvin Gaye—fresh   from the success of “Sexual Healing”—share the same woman, and of how Walter bonds   with Bob Dylan because of their mutual Jewishness. At the same time we witness Yetnikoff’s   clashes with Barry Diller, David Geffen, Tommy Mottola, Allen Grubman and a host   of others.  Seemingly, the more Yetnikoff feeds his cravings for power, sex, liquor   and cocaine, the more profitable CBS becomes—from $485 million to well over $2 billion—until   he finally succumbs, ironically, not to substances, but to a corporate coup. Reflecting   on the sinister cycle that left his career in tatters and CBS flush with cash, Yetnikoff   emerges with a hunger for redemption and a new reverence for his working-class Brooklyn   roots.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Ruthlessly candid, uproariously hilarious and compulsively readable, \u003ci\u003eHowling   at the Moon\u003c\/i\u003e is a blistering \u003ci\u003eYou’ll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again\u003c\/i\u003e of the music   industry.","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49341129326896,"sku":"BDau41","price":12.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/117948-au41-Square.jpg?v=1734054836","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-au41","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}