Coming on April 1st, 2025 from Jawbone Press is a book about music promotion history from one of its key insiders, Paul Rappaport, including his interaction with The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, and many more. It is titled Gliders Over Hollywood: Airships, Airplay, and the Art of Rock Promotion.
Paul Rappaport enjoyed a thirty-three-year career at Columbia Records, where he was instrumental in the careers of everyone from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd to The Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello to Billy Joel, Judas Priest to Alice In Chains, and many, many more.
His career spanned the music business from the late 60s through the 90s, when there were many new and creative ideas on how to market this cultural phenomenon. Eccentric characters were everywhere, and often the managers, promoters, disc jockeys, and record company staff were just as big a show as the performers themselves.
Paul Rappaport says:
I wrote this book to capture the magical times, so that people wouldn’t forget but also to show the many behind-the-scenes folks whose lives were so colorful they brought a warmth and laughter to the world. If you want to know what it felt like to be there, to experience the whole scene first hand, to get the inside track on how it really all went down, these stories are for you. I welcome you to follow me down the rabbit hole to a magical place that will bring you laughter and reveal the inner workings of the music biz that you may have often wondered about.
From creating the Pink Floyd airship to sword-fighting with Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden and receiving a guitar lesson from Keith Richards, Gliders Over Hollywood is full of adventures with some of the biggest names in Rock.
More about the author:
Paul Rappaport was senior vice-president of rock promotion at Columbia Records, where he enjoyed a thirty-three-year career playing a pivotal role in the careers of some of the biggest stars in the business. He co-created and executive produced the Emmy Award-winning music television series A&E’s Live By Request and the popular live radio series The Columbia Records Radio Hour. Upon leaving Columbia, he formed his own production company, Tres Hombres, and for many years wrote the ‘Backstage Access’ blog for Classics Du Jour. He was the lead guitarist in the pioneering LA punk band Mogan David & His Winos. Gliders Over Hollywood is his first book. He lives in Port Washington, New York.
