Music Gift Books

A Pig's Tale includes:

• 336 full color pages
• softcover edition
• a complete discography of the entire TMQ catalog of over 100 LPs and EPs
• well over 350 images of the albums, colored vinyl, and inserts
• the underground tale of how Trade Mark of Quality came into being

This book is essential for record collectors and dealers. 

In that hot summer of ’69 two longhaired music freaks created an underground LP record album of unreleased tracks by one of their music gods and put it out on the streets of Los Angeles. No one had ever been crazy enough to do such an audacious thing before. The god’s official record label was not amused but the music fans were thrilled. Were these guys pirates or heroes? It was so much fun the first time, they soon pressed up even more records of forbidden musical fruit. They were on a roll. The following year, in 1970, one of the culprits put The Pig image in a circular logo with the name “Trade Mark of Quality.” TMQ and Pigman were born!

With a cast of outrageous characters, here is the story of Trade Mark of Quality aka TMQ aka The Pig, the first bootleg record label of its kind, spawning many later imitators. From the end of the '60s to the mid '70s, TMQ and Pigman led the way, trotting down a muddy trail, feeding the habits and needs of music addicts around the world. Who were these fellow travelers? Carl? The Greek? Merlin? Hans? Rob Snout? Casper? Sheldon? The Blue Hasslebeast? Ol’ Fred? (Not to mention, The Brooklyn Boys, The Record Suits and The Feds!) What was the connection between TMQ and the Viet Nam war, revolutionaries, guns, pot and the moon landing? It’s all here!

Included in A Pig’s Tale is not only the Trade Mark of Quality and Pigman saga, but reproductions of all the rubber stamped and illustrated album jackets from every genuine TMQ record release, including the earliest releases from ’69 right up to the last titles in 1976. Everything you ever wanted to know about the real TMQ label is here: A complete discography of artists and track listings, sources of recordings, catalog numbers, master tape and record matrix info, colored vinyl pressings, record labels, graphics, photos, vintage news clippings, articles and more, all collected together, at last, in one volume.

A Pig’s Tale by Ralph Sutherland and Harold Sherrick, with their unique point of view, guides the reader through the never before told history of Trade Mark of Quality. It’s all here for the music lover and fan, the hardcore record collector, and the just plain curious.

WARNING! THESE EVENTS COULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IN ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE!

(Pigman says, “Be cool, put some sounds on the turntable and groove on with ‘A Pig’s Tale’!”)

It’s time to get “Happy Together” again! 

Discover the songs and the history of one of the most successful pop rock bands ever, The Turtles, who had many, many Top 40 hits including “It Ain’t Me Babe,” “Let Me Be,” “You Baby,” “She’d Rather Be with Me,” “You Know What I Mean,” “She’s My Girl,” “Elenore,” “You Showed Me” and of course, the iconic “Happy Together!” All of their Golden Hits!

Authors Mark Arnold (Long Title: Looking for the Good Times; Examining The Monkees Songs, One by One and Headquartered: A Timeline of The Monkees Solo Years) and Charles F. Rosenay!!! (The Book of Top 10 Beatles Lists and The Book of Top 10 Horror Lists) have joined forces to cover the entire careers of The Turtles from their early days as The Crossfires, through their hit-filled years, into their break-up that led to most of The Turtles’ members joining forces with Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, to Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan’s years as solo artists under the guise of Flo & Eddie, and even their forays into children’s records.

Arnold and Rosenay!!! have reviewed every song and album, and interviewed many of The Turtles’ friends and associates along with most of The Turtles themselves, who have given startling new revelations that will surprise even the most hardcore fan.

Open the doors to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and to your library to add this book. This definitive Turtles compendium is as unique as The Turtles themselves.

Most books about Bob Dylan try to explain the man, decode the lyrics, or solve the mystery.

Seeking Mirth and Beauty takes a different road.

Kevin Kane is not interested in gossip, biography, or proving what Dylan “really meant.” Instead, he asks a stranger and more interesting question: why do certain songs work on us so deeply when they do not explain themselves at all?

Written as a series of searching, personal, and often surprising musings, this book treats Dylan’s songs as works of art in their own right — not messages to be translated, but objects to be encountered. Like a painting, a sculpture, or a sudden memory, a song can stand outside ordinary explanation and still change the way we hear, feel, remember, and understand the world.

Moving through Dylan, Shakespeare, abstract art, old records, memory, physics, faith, and the creative process itself, Kane reflects on how art separates from the artist, how songs become fixed in us, and how beauty and meaning often arrive without asking to be solved.

This is not a biography of Bob Dylan. It is not a lyric guide. It is a book for readers who want to think deeply about music, art, memory, and the mysterious ways human beings make things that last.

Seeking Mirth and Beauty is for anyone who has ever heard a song and felt that something permanent had entered the room.