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Music Book Recommendations

Started by A Passing Turk Slipper, July 02, 2004, 12:01:17 AM

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A Passing Turk Slipper

Hello. I am currently reading In Search of The La's after being intrigued by what I had seen written about it here. I am actually really enjoying it so a big thank you to whoever mentioned it first. I am currently at the bit where he is meeting Mavers - it's quite exciting stuff. So anyway, basically I thought I'd start a thread where we could all recommend each other music books, be them biographys, documentary style ones like In search of the La's or even tab books. My recommendations are the La's one which is worth reading even if you hate the La's, and Return Of the Last Gang in Town. ROTLGIN is a Clash biography. It is detailed as fuck and is a must-have for any Clash fan. One of the good things about it is that, where a book like In Search of The La's is a little bit sycophantic (or at least what I've read so far is), ROTLGIT holds no prisoners in it's criticisms. Obviously the writer is a fan of the group but he doesn't let that get in the way of his writing and he makes a lot of very good points on a number of subjects. The one thing that annoyed me about the book though was the amount of times he made references to the 'Clash on Broadway' box set book. He was quoting it about every second page! Anyways, those are my recommendations, what are your's? Also, I'm guessing a lot of you will have read the Hunter Davies Beatles biog, so will one of you write a little review of that or recommend me a decent Beatles biography? Thanks.

Marty McFly

i just read "buddy holly - the real story" which was excellent. as is the old john goldrosen book "buddy holly, his life and music".

i'd like to read more about the 50s and rock and roll in general, it's one genre that really fascinates me.

"wouldn't it be nice - brian wilson and the making of pet sounds" is, if you're a fan of the album, a very good read.

currently reading "nick drake - the biography", which, although a little cliched, isn't bad.

Rats

Mangoliver read some motley crue biography that he said was really good. He regaled me with the tale of how they stuck a phone reciever up some groupies chuff and rung her mother. Something to tell the grandkids isn't it?

mayer

England's Dreaming - Jon Savage
Time Travel  - Jon Savage
The Faber Book Of Pop - Ed. John Savage & Hanef Kureshi

Rotten: No Blacks, Do Dogs, No Irish - John Lydon

Touching From A Distance - Deborah Curtis

Once In A Lifetime - Jane Bussman

Poison Heart (or other titles depending on edtion) - Dee Dee Ramone

all fantastic

Doctor Stamen

'My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize - The Creation Records Story' kept me going for ages, but it's a cracking read.  Was expecting half of it to be about the Gallagher brothers, but they get about the same amount of coverage as Ride, Teenage Fanclub, MBV, the Scream, Boo Radleys and so on.  Not much about SFA though.

fanny splendid

Bad Seed: Biography of Nick Cave  
~Ian Johnstone

The Real Frank Zappa Book
~Frank Zappa, Peter Occhiogrosso

No One Here Gets Out Alive: The Biography of Jim Morrison
~Jerry Hopkins, Danny Sugerman

Silver SurferGhost

Quote from: "fanny splendid"The Real Frank Zappa Book
Yeah, I'd have had that one too if only I'd been quicker.

Top of the bonce then:
X-Ray - Ray Davies
Crazy Diamond (Syd Barrett and the Dawn of Pink Floyd) - Mike Watkinson and Pete Anderson
Small Change, A life of Tom Waits - Patrick Humphries
Ginger Geezer, The Life of Vivian Stanshall * - Lucian Randall and Chris Welch
Dear Boy, the life of Keith Moon - Tony Fletcher
Moon The Loon - Dougal Butler (groupie tales galore from his chauffeur)
Before I Get Old, the story of The Who - Dave Marsh
A Decade of The Who - a very rare part tab/part bio book with some gorgeous illustrations of Who songs in it
Small Faces: The Young Mod's Forgotten Story - Paolo Fucking Hewitt (just for the nice pictures like)
All The Rage (small faces etc) - Ian Mclagan (properly written without recourse to pretention, but not as many photos)
Faithfull - Marianne Faithfull, David Dalton (more of a social document really, but an interesting read all the same)

...and two sort-of music books about fictional rocker Jim McLaine:
That'll Be The Day and Stardust - Ray Connolly (yes, the books of the films)

Calling Turk Slipper: Not so much Beatles, but Lennon: John Lennon - Ray Coleman (definitive, huge)
and for a right old muck-raking laugh: The Lives of John Lennon - Albert Goldman

* Well obviously, you should know I would've picked that by now.
.

roosta

Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad is awesome. It dedicates a chapter each to bands like Black Flag, the Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Minor Threat, Husker Du, the Replacements, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr, Fugazi, Mudhoney and Beat Happening. Even if you don't neccescarily like all the bands it still stands up as a great book because the way it is written is so engaging.

elderford

Julian Cope: Head On

Is one of those funny and a bit too revealing and honest books, apparently film rights have just been sold.

Beatles books.
There is one around written by one of the Apple Scruffs, the lasses who from all over the world who used to hang around the Apple building.
Needless to say George comes off as the nicest.

Revolution in the Head, was the best book I read on them. Shout (or Shite as Lennon called it) by Hunter Davies is the official one. Harrison's is a bit crap as you expect more from it being actually written by a Beatle.

Neville Chamberlain

Quote from: "roosta"Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad...

Sounds right up my alley that, thanks!

Krautrocksampler by Julian Cope is a passionately written guided tour through the murky waters of Krautrock. If you're into Krautrock, or want to get into it, this book's invaluable.

Meet The Residents: America's Most Eccentric Band by Ian Shirley is a great read too. Doesn't get to the bottom of who the eyeballed ones actually are though. Strangely, I find reading about The Residents way more interesting than listening to them.

Still waiting for a 2,000-page Cardiacs biography. Will probably have to write it myself at this rate.

Lumiere

Quote from: "Rats"Mangoliver read some motley crue biography that he said was really good. He regaled me with the tale of how they stuck a phone reciever up some groupies chuff and rung her mother. Something to tell the grandkids isn't it?

I was just about to say that, oddly. The Motley Crue biography is classic, with poignant stories, sick stories and funny stories.

benthalo

'Tape Delay' by Charles Neal - an 80s classic, consisting of long interviews with experimental rock types (Mark E Smith, Nick Cave, Steve-o) and extremists like Genesis P. Orridge, David Tibet and Coil. Loads of theory and political debate, never once threatening to turn into PR guff. Reprinted by SAF a couple of years back.

'Words and Music - The Story Of Pop In The Shape Of A City' by Paul Morley. If you're put off by wilful obscurity, convoluted sentences and footnote comedy then run away, but this was my favourite read of last year. It sets off with the proposition that the whole of musical history is expressed in two recordings - Kylie's Can't Get You Out Of My Head, Alvin Lucier's I Am Sitting In A Room - and pursues this across several hundred thousand words.

'England's Hidden Reverse' by David Keenan. An admirable attempt to tell the story of post-Industrial UK experimentalists, taking in Coil, Whitehouse, Nurse With Wound and Current 93 in particular. I read it in a day.

Sam

I beg you all to read "Music: a Very Short Introduction" by Nicholas Cook (published by Oxford University Press*).

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0192853821/qid=1088771192/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-5917257-1167265?v=glance&s=books

It will absolutely blow your mind. It's beautifully written, concise, easy to read, diverse, open-minded. It will make you think about music in ways you never would have before. Read it couple of times (and once when you're stoned off your tits) and you're brain will be frying.

Also highly recommend is Edward Said's "Musical Elaborations" (Yeah, the Palestine commentator who copped it recently).

Gazeuse

I second Dear Boy and would like to add Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll The Life Of Ian Dury by Richard Balls and Percy Grainger by John Bird.

easytarget

Morrissey and Marr: The Severed Alliance Decent, detailed book about The Smiths

Long Hard Road Out of Hell Marilyn Manson's hilarious 1998 biography.

Lucky Jackson

Regarding the Motley Crue book just or the Ozzy insights it's worth the read.
Tommy Lee on Pamela Anderson - 'We thought like wrestlers and fucked like porn stars.'
Others I would add to the list
This Is Uncool: The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk and Disco by Garry Mulholland
Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King, Lloyd Bradley
Seven Years Of Plenty - Ben Thompson
The Manual - KLF
(also see 45 - Bill Drummond)...

Dr David V

Probably not the sort of music book you're talking about, but I'm reading Tony Hawks' One Hit Wonderland at the moment, it's good stuff. I saw the series on Discovery, and I loved it, so I thought I'd give the book a try. I haven't been disappointed yet.