Best Music Books

[troutman]

I've been reading a couple of music books this summer (both about Twin Cities bands). What are your favorites?



I can recommend some of these:

Words and Music: Our 60 Favorite Music Books

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/featur...e-music-books/

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk

The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band

The SPIN Alternative Record Guide

[Aeneas]

Dave Bidini, Tropic of Hockey

Okay, it isn't about music, really.
And it would be the only "music" book I've read.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Aeneas

Dave Bidini, Tropic of Hockey

Okay, it isn't about music, really.
And it would be the only "music" book I've read.

Good call - he did write this book, which I now want to pick-up:

http://www.amazon.ca/Cold-Road-Tales...5340087&sr=8-2



David Bidini, rhythm guitarist with the Rheostatics, knows all too well what the life of a rock band in Canada involves: storied arenas one tour and bars wallpapered with photos of forgotten bands the next. Zit-speckled fans begging for a guitar pick and angry drunks chucking twenty-sixers and pint glasses. Opulent tour buses riding through apocalyptic snowstorms and cramped vans that reek of dope and beer. Brilliant performances and heart-sinking break-ups.

Bidini has played all across the country many times, in venues as far flung and unalike as Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto and the Royal Albert Hotel in Winnipeg. In 1996, when the Rheostatics opened for the Tragically Hip on their Trouble at the Henhouse tour, Bidini kept a diary. In On a Cold Road he weaves his colourful tales about that tour with revealing and hilarious anecdotes from the pioneers of Canadian rock – including BTO, Goddo, the Stampeders, Max Webster, Crowbar, the Guess Who, Triumph, Trooper, Bruce Cockburn, Gale Garnett, and Tommy Chong - whom Bidini later interviewed in an effort to compare their experiences with his. The result is an original, vivid, and unforgettable picture of what it has meant, for the last forty years, to be a rock musician in Canada.

[socalwingfan]

Heroin Diaries - Nikki Sixx
Scar Tissue - Anthony Kiedis

Both give extraordinary accounts of heroin addiction and how it totally consumes that persons life

I also enjoyed Keith Richards autobiography - very interesting story

[sclitheroe]

This is THE book for people who like guitars. If you're a fan of the instrument, of the way it sounds and feels and just generally being around guitars, you'll love it. It weaves the history of the guitar around the author's experience of working with a luthier to build his personal dream instrument.

Guitar: An American Life

[habernac]

Any of the Neil Peart ones are good. I read a David Lee Roth one years ago that was funny. Sammy Hagar's was good, I like a good autobiography. Tough for me to say without my bookcase in front of me. Bidini's are all entertaining.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by troutman

I've been reading a couple of music books this summer (both about Twin Cities bands). What are your favorites?

am also reading this one right now

[habernac]

"Shakey" about Neil Young was awesome as well.

[Puppet Guy]

I back up Habernac's sentiments about Neil Peart's books and David Lee Roth's autobiography (which is easily one of the funniest books I've ever read). I recommend Led Zeppelin's biography "Hammer of the Gods" (full of rock debauchery), and Lemmy's autobio "White Line Fever", also full of raunch, but hilites how intelligent Lemmy is.

[habernac]

damn, how could I forget White Line Fever? Brilliant book.

[Magnum PEI]

http://www.amazon.com/Elvis-Albert-H...f=pd_rhf_p_t_1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_John_Lennon
http://www.amazon.ca/Lives-John-Lenn...f=pd_rhf_p_t_1
The result of six years of research and some 1,200 interviews, this book takes fans deep into Lennon’s secretive world, from his traumatic childhood to his Beatles days to his hidden life with Yoko Ono. While the Lennon of legend enjoyed a gifted and inspired life, the private Lennon lived in torment, poisoning himself with drugs and self-hatred. The Lives of John Lennon exposed for the first time all of his various lives, from idealist to cynic, from ascetic to junkie. It is a lasting tribute to his brilliant achievements and a revelation of the price he paid for them.

Absolutely insane, both of them.
The author spent decades researching both men and every minor detail is footnoted with quotations and sources, so if you don't believe some of the stuff, there's proof.

[carom]

This wheel's on fire - Levon Helm

Is one of my favorite books i have read. Its covers the bands days from backing up Ronnie Hawkins through to the dylan days and on to the last waltz. Levon Helm leaves no question about how he feels about Robbie Robertson, pretty much blaming him for Richard Manuel and Rick Danko's deaths.

I have peered through "A hard days write" which was good. Tries to bring out all the back stories of the beetles songs.

[Traditional_Ale]

[Deelow]

This book was great. Written by the drummer from Semisonic...more of a look inside the industry rather than the typical sex/drug rock bio. I really enjoyed it.

So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star is a telling and witty look at what happens just before and during one's time in the spotlight. Jake takes readers on a step-by-step journey of his evolution from fledgling drummer to globetrotting performer and proves to be the perfect guide—feisty and humbled—to the inner workings of the music industry and instant celebrity. So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star speaks to all of us who dream again and again of rock superstardom and shows how one kid can go from picking up a pair of drumsticks to picking up a platinum record.

[TurnedTheCorner]

http://cantstopwontstop.com/

[troutman]

I highly recommend this book, even if you never intend to write a song. It does an amazing job explaining how your favorite songs are put together.

[afc wimbledon]

This is a Pete Frame family tree, he has been doing them for years for the New Musical Express, I always loved seeing how three or 4 great bads would grow out of some obscure group you had never heard of.
You can get books of these covering many bands, one of those coffee table things your mates will start reading half way through a 1-1 game and will insist on borrowing after.
Sorry about the size by the by!

[troutman]

http://www.magnetmagazine.com/

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http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2005/0...the-80s-scene/

http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2005/0...eapolis-scene/

[North East Goon]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

http://cantstopwontstop.com/

I am not a fan of rap, but still enjoyed this book.

[Matata]

Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale

Seconding this one, has a real 'man behind the curtain' approach to how we perceive and interpret music. Nikki Sixx's book is also pretty nuts.