books about music worth reading

[studpuppet]

Head-On is fantastic. My favourite music biog ever. I'll just put a word in here for Boy George's Take It Like A Man, which is very well-written, although he does have a co-writer.

I went to the launch party for Take It Like A Man at Camden Town Hall (I was a lowly bookseller back then). It was a riot, with trampolines, balloons, crossdressers galore, etc. Dress code was school uniform and EVERYONE made the effort - everyone that is, except the publishing execs who turned up in their normal outfits and got turned away from their own party!

[Jockice]

I went to the launch party for Take It Like A Man at Camden Town Hall (I was a lowly bookseller back then). It was a riot, with trampolines, balloons, crossdressers galore, etc. Dress code was school uniform and EVERYONE made the effort - everyone that is, except the publishing execs who turned up in their normal outfits and got turned away from their own party!

School uniform? Perverts!

[LordMorgan]

A few I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Ask: The Chatter of Pop by Paul Morley - if you like Morley you will surely love this.  Wonderfully fluffy and pretentious prose, hugely confrontational interviews, wildly incomprehensible at times, plus chinwags with some of the biggest pop stars on the planet circa 1986 and earlier.

The Best of Smash Hits: The 80s - everything that was great about the best pop music mag ever is here.

Re-make/Re-model: Becoming Roxy Music by Michael Bracewell - one of those books that takes you right up to the band playing their first note of music together, but I believe this was one of (or maybe the?) first to do it. Fascinating look at the avant scene in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the 1960s and how the band came together, but likely one for the heads and not for those casually interested in Roxy.

Vitamin C, can I thank you personally for smash hits 80s book

Fuck me it's a treasure trove

It's a hard cover annual, but it's not just a stocking filler

It's beautiful
Now being born in 1981, and being absolutely britpop and indie daft as a teenager
But, as that faded as I got older and I started loving all different kind of pop music, especially the new pop era of pre live aid

This is a fucking bible

[madhair60]

i have that book too, charity shop, and it's cracking. Really good fun.

[Keebleman]

No mention yet of Tune In??  Come on, it's a magnificent book.  I was as sceptical as anyone when it was announced - The Beatles story told "properly"?  By a guy whose speciality is lists and dates? - and indeed it took me 10 years to get around to it, but it is a superb work.  As a social history of Britain at the time it is as valuable as David Kynaston's books.

[LordMorgan]

No mention yet of Tune In??  Come on, it's a magnificent book.  I was as sceptical as anyone when it was announced - The Beatles story told "properly"?  By a guy whose speciality is lists and dates? - and indeed it took me 10 years to get around to it, but it is a superb work.  As a social history of Britain at the time it is as valuable as David Kynaston's books.

It's fucking brilliant I agree

Read it when it came out , and enjoyed the audiobook too with Clive mantle

Just hope volume 2 sees the light of day soon

[Deskbound Cunt]

No mention yet of Tune In??  Come on, it's a magnificent book.  I was as sceptical as anyone when it was announced - The Beatles story told "properly"?  By a guy whose speciality is lists and dates? - and indeed it took me 10 years to get around to it, but it is a superb work.  As a social history of Britain at the time it is as valuable as David Kynaston's books.

It's a brilliant book and I say that as someone who doesn't really care for The Beatles music.

I've just checked and it's been 11(!) years since it was published.

He better get a move on with the follow ups because the core audience isn't going to round for too much longer.

[Maureen Brontë]

Lewisohn's just tweeted that he can't be bothered to finish it.   😔

[Keebleman]

I wonder if he has ever met Robert Caro?

[markburgle]

It's fucking brilliant I agree

Read it when it came out , and enjoyed the audiobook too with Clive mantle

I thought Clive done a really great job, Clive.

Lewisohn has expressed regret that he didn't have time to do it himself, and has threatened to do part 2. I'm sure he'd be fine, but I want more Clive (who is still a living person, I just checked).

A few years later I read the extended version, but I actually found it excessive, which I did not expect. Maybe I just wasn't enough in the mood for it I dunno, but it felt like where the original was just the right side of massive, that one felt like a bit of a slog (although I loved the section that was just a compilation of first-hand accounts of the Cavern).