This extraordinary coffee table book on the history of the Fender Rhodes--one of the most iconic and easily recognized keyboards ever played on record--is the first and only publication covering the remarkable development of the instrument and the way it impacted the sound of music. More than a mere chronology of the fabled keyboard, Down the Rhodes is a paean to one of the most unique electric pianos ever created.

Invented by Harold Burroughs Rhodes, the keyboard was first developed in 1942 as a 29-note keyboard and originally called an Army Air Corps Piano or Xylette. It was conceived as a laptop piano that could be easily played by injured soldiers as part of their rehabilitation process.

That is just a tiny bit of what you'll read about here. Besides the astonishing and archival photos, there are interviews with everyone from Steve Grom (former marketing director at CBS/Fender) and Mike Peterson (former engineer at CBS/Fender) to a multitude of famous Rhodes players including Don Grusin, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, Earth, Wind and Fire's Larry Dunn and the Crusaders' Joe Sample.

Down the Rhodes is based on a documentary about the historic keyboard and included with each book is a Blu-ray DVD. The Rhodes is as important in its own way to keyboardists as the Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul were to guitarists. You've heard the Rhodes played on dozens of songs, and now you can find out the who, what, when, where and why of what you were listening to.