Read any good music books lately? Or some all-time favorites?

Hah I asked that question!

And I didn't quite articulate it well, what I meant was: what was the most "Wow" moment in the research? Not in the detail of the story itself, but in finding this info, which I'm sure has tons if stories as well.

 

I love this book. It has so much detail in the behind the scenes of the band. Rare to get that from a music bio.

 

Just finished Barney Hoskyns oral history of Led Zeppelin "Trampled Underfoot". IMHO the best book on Zeppelin history yet. You almost feel like you are right there along for the ride through their epic highs and lows. Well done!

 

Best music-related books I've Read:

*England's Dreaming (Savage)
*Revolutuon in the Head (MacDonald)
*Song and Dance Man III (Gray)
*Rip it Up & Start Again (Reynolds)
*Tune In (Lewisohn)
*All Day and All of the Night (Hinman)
*The Complete David Bowie (Pegg)
*Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere (Neill & Kent)
*Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (Bangs)

 

Really enjoyed engineer/producer Phill Brown's book Are We Still Rolling?

 

Love-Michael Stuart-Ware

 

I received Carmine Appice's book, "Stick It!", in the mail last week. I honestly only bought it to hear some stuff from his days in Cactus. There were two chapters FILLED with stories from that era. I am happy. (There is also HIS take on the Vanilla Fudge "Mud Shark" stuff as well...)

 

"Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy" by Tony Visconti is a great read for anyone interested in the artists Visconti has worked with, or even music and music production in general.

 

My favorite is the Domenic Priore book, Riot On Sunset Strip, an encyclopedic look at LA music in the mid-60s. The Tamla Motown book is a great song-by-song tour of Motown's golden years. The Dave Marsh book is a love affair with a thousand and one 45's that he chooses as great, and its hard to disagree with his picks.

Ignore the title of How The Beatles Destroyed Rock 'N' Roll. It's really just a history of all the great things that led up to the Beatles, and how the author feels sad about the loss of them. It's actually a good read, and combined with What Was The First Rock 'N' Roll Record and Charlie Gillett's The Sound Of The City makes a fine history of pre-Fab Four rock.

I Fought The Law is the best look at Bobby Fuller's life and death, and Steve Boone presents another honest look at life and death, The Lovin' Spoonful being the subject.

Ellen Sander closely followed many classic rock bands, getting to know the musicians and their wives and girlfriends. Her stories in Trips are often poignant, always insightful. The ubiquitous Al Kooper reveals all in his classic Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards.

Surf Beat spends a lot of ink discussing the various guitars in use by surf-rockers, but he goes into nice detail about some of the more obscure groups on the scene. Stephen McParland's The California Sound focuses on Gary Usher, but pretty much every LA cat with a guitar or horn makes his way into the story. This oversize book is a monster, filled with the words of those who were there, although they often found their memories gently corrected by the author.

The Zombies and Nicky Hopkins books are just great reads about two of my favorites. The back of the Hopkin's book lists every song that Nicky played on (I want them all!).

 

Nearing the end of a re-read of Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out - Bill Graham and Robert Greenfield.
As for the re-read, I'm glad I did.
What went on in the chapter "Led Zeppelin" is pretty frightening.
The trivia question answer "Lenny Bruce, Groucho Marx, Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols" would come in handy in a "bar bet".

 

I'm close to finishing reading Wouldn't it Be Nice; Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys Pet Sounds by Charles L. Granata published by Chicgo Review Press, ISBN 1556525079 (that's the title on my copy). Interestingly, the book is more widely available with the title I Just Wasn't Made For These Times ; Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys Pet Sounds by Charles L. Granata and published by Spruce, ISBN 1903318572. Really enjoyed this one!

There's an excellent section in the book that focuses on the collaboration between lyricist Tony Asher and Brian Wilson. Mike Love co-wrote a few of the songs on "Pet Sounds" as well and you can read some ridiculously heated arguments about this subject on another thread here.

 

Recently bought The Beatles - the House That Jack Built, untold, at a local village shop. Written by the son and daughter-in-law of Jack Vale, who owned Valex, a Blackpool-based company which produced postcards of pop stars in the early 60s. Some interesting photos - especially the one of Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and Joe Brown, together with Jack Vale - but the book is badly let down by not seeming to have been proof-read. Reversed photographs, one even appears twice, and some poorly reproduced photos, are annoying, as is the writing at times. A good editor was needed badly.

The son, John Edward Vale, has read the Albert Goldman biography of John Lennon; shame he doesn't seem to have read any other Beatles-related books to try to get a more balanced view. "I suspect John loved the idea of wearing makeup because his sexual relationship with Epstein was getting quite turgid." He also repeats stories about Lennon, and about Epstein, "according to Albert Goldman." And there's a rather snide last word on Yoko Ono too, which has absolutely nothing to do with his fathere or Valex. So why put it in? Because he read about her in Goldman's book?

Overall, it's a fairly interesting story but also a quite seedy one of some dodgy characters trying to make a bit of money.

 

Brooklyn Boy~ Tony Visconti
Amazing life story.
And not just tbe music.

 

My alltime favorite is "Space Is The Place : The Lives & Times Of Sun Ra." Absolutely fascinating and unique.

The gold standard of music writing for me would be the 2-volume Peter Guralnick bio of Elvis. I'd like to track down his Elvis "Day By Day" book as well, but it's on the pricey side. Anyone have feedback on that book? Worth getting?

 

I'm currently reading Mick Wall's book on Metallica which I got from the
library. I'm a casual fan of the band at best so I was surprised at how much
I'm digging it. The original bassist of the recording band, Cliff Burton, seems
to be the most fascinating character. He, apparently, was obsessed with Ed
King of Lynyrd Skynyrd fame.......of all musicians.

 

I read Neil Young's autobiography and couldn't put it down. The only thing was he spent a lot of time praising Pretty Peggy, and as soon as I put the book down I see pictures of Neil walking around Malibu holding hands with Darryl Hannah. Kind of unexpected, but when You're Neil, the world is Your oyster, so why not make a necklace out of my them. He should really go for a girl with ten fingers though. I used to date a girl who looked just like Darryl, and I got tired of her, so Neil will too. I think He can do better. He's the King after all.
Now I'm reading Keith Richards' autobiography, and it is really cool. Zi'm at the part where he used to try to avoid being beaten up on his way home from school. Pretty fascinating stuff about the tough. guys in old London. Kind of sad, and funny when he finally conquers his demons. I have always liked Keith, so it's a pretty fascinating book.

 

Seriously?

 

Currently reading 'Tim Book Two' by Tim Burgess, its a collections of stories following his searching out music recommendations - a great read for lovers of music and music shops.

 

2 of them; how music works by David Byrne. Pretty much a must read and very very few successful folks making money in the industry will share that personal info he does. And explains a lot of tidbits about the money aspect of things. A must read.

Next one is Guns,Cash, and Rock and Roll by Overbury. It delves into the managers of early rock. Most of those guys are/were Col Tom Parker or lets say if it was boxing, Don King.

 

I've not read that one, but his previous book was a biography of Kate Bush titled "Under The Ivy" and it was excellent, absolutely the best bio on Kate.

 

I saw two books last time I was in Half Price that I was wondering about,both Memphis related. Al Green,Take Me To The River....maybe,not sure if that's the title and Respect Yourself about Stax. Anybody do those yet? Thumbs up/down?

 

Working on a pretty intensive (by my rather lax standards) Beach Boys-related project and trying to make sure my facts are solid. I was rather impressed with James Murphy's book Becoming the Beach Boys, easily the most well-researched and extensive book I've read on any aspect of their history. The writing is a little dry at times but it's a small price to pay to find actual good information in a Beach Boys book. Wish he'd move on to cover more of the band's career.

This thread is supposed to be about "good music books" but just in the interest of contrast to the above, rereading Timothy White's massive tome and it's still unfortunately everything I can't stand about loftier biographies, with eyeroll-inducing pretension throughout. At one point he literally moves in the space of two paragraphs from the Beach Boys overdubbing parts of the Concert album to the three civil rights workers being killed in Mississippi. I guess some people might like having that wholly irrelevant context, but for me it's painful to read and just leaves me impatient. I also don't pick up a Beach Boys book to read about the history of California, or skateboarding, etc.; again, I understand why White felt it was relevant but it pads out a narrative that shouldn't need padding. The book's also full of dumb, obvious errors, as is Keith Badman's well-illustrated but disappointing chronology book -- in this respect it's amazing to contrast the professional writers with Murphy, who's a veterinarian and did his thing as a hobby.

I've got Carlin, Stebbins/Marks, and rereads of Leaf and Doe queued up.

 

I hesitated to start this one immediately after finishing Nash's autobiography, but I'm glad I did.

 

Recently finished both of these and recommend them:

Reckless: My Life as a Pretender




1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music