Books by musicians

Bill Callahan, Kristin Hersh, Michael Gira

Are any of these any cop?

Am I the only person in the world who actually *enjoyed* "And The Ass Saw The Angel"?

No, I liked it quite a bit.

I loved it but I thought The Death of Bunny Munro was abysmal.

Gira's The Consumer is a mixed bag (and very hard to get hold of nowadays). IIRC it's divided into stories he wrote during Swans' 80s hardcore phase and later ones. The earlier ones were much better.

Oh yeah, I notice no-one's mentioned Pete Townshend's The Horse's Neck.

I presume that's for the best, yes?

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Thursday, June 14, 2001 8:00 PM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes. Yes it is.

Actually, it's not a bad read, and likely the most illuminating account of his 1979-1982 heroin addiction years. Said illumination, however, is not without its embarrassing moments, intentional and otherwise.

His autobio Who He? is due out in October.

Robert Fripp is supposed to be writing some kind of book detailing his various run-ins with the music industry. Should be a corker, if it ever appears.

^^^ anticipating the hell out of

Ed Sanders Fug You, a unique perspective of the lower east side in the 1960s. It is amazing. So Far, anyway. I am about a third of the way through it.

Reading between the lines of Fripp's online diary, I'd guess the book is in the editing process now, by the way.

Enjoyed Dean Wareham's memoir.

No mentions so far of David Toop (22 album credits on discogs, many instrumental/production credits dating back to 1971).

Rap Attack (1984, 1992, 1999)
Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds (1995)
Exotica: Fabricated Landcapes in a Real World (1999)
Haunted Weather: Music, Silence and Memory (2010)

I've only read Ocean of Sound which is a great book length version of what could have been The Wire magazine featurettes (he writes for them as well) on ambient music precursors and pioneers. Just learned about Haunted Weather which is apparently about 21st century laptop music, and on my wishlist.

You left off Sinister Resonance, which I just read. Lots of fascinating ideas but it was a hard slog at times.

http://kevincoynepage.free.fr/ARTWORK/Party_Dress.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nB7Ap4IRL._SL500_.jpg

Bill Bruford's The Autobiography (2009) is rather great.
Rick Wakeman's Say Yes! is a good, if somewhat slim, read too.

Bill Bruford's The Autobiography (2009) is rather great.

i still have this lying around unread. :(

i did enjoy phill brown's "are we still rolling?" though.

also need to read that niles rodgers one.

nile

I have that Art Pepper book, mentioned upthread, lying about pretty much unread for years.
And Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers hasn't progressed further than p.80.

B-b-b-ut I've read a book of the late Kevin Coyne's short stories. What I can recall of them, the mode of a few of them was kinda sorta Kafka-esque...

Kafka meets Les Dawson

Another vote for Art Pepper.

Possible. Tho I kno nuthink of Les Dawson :(

Dennis Coffey's book was pretty good.

A GIS may suffice (xp)

??

google image search

o I did that, avtually:)

"In a BBC TV documentary about his life, he spoke of his love for some canonical figures in English literature, in particular the 19th Century essayist Charles Lamb, whose somewhat florid style influenced Dawson's own."

Neil Peart's "Ghost Rider." Found it to be, for the most part, a moving and instructional account of how to cope with profound grief.

I know Mike Nesmith's written a couple of novels, never even seen 'em tho

(Thanks, Tom D.)

I think I saw them in a bookstore between the Kinky Friedman and Jimmy Buffett murder mysteries.

Actually I recently read about half of a pretty good post-apocalyptic noir novel by a guy from Shudder To Think. Remember them? I don't. Nathan Larson, The Dewey Decimal System. Oh yeah, he is married to the lead singer of The Cardigans.

Oh yeah, he is married to the lead singer of The Cardigans

Nice for him

Enjoyed Daevid Allen's Gong Dreaming vol 2. Have meant to read vol 1.

Thought Andy Sommers One Train Later was pretty good too.
& Drumbo's book on Beefheart was very engrossing. Somebody sent me the Zoot Horn Rollo one but I've yet to read it.

Lee Underwood's Tim Buckley tome was interesting but Underwood comes off prety egotistical throughout from what I recall.

Phil Lesh's book was interesting Searching For The Sound
& the singer from The Misunderstood wrote a memoir that's available through Ugly Things that's very interesting. Think it has more on him as a monk after heading to India as a draft dodger than him on the band but very good book.

Somebody has presumably mentioned Miles Davis autobio by now too,
& the John Einarson expansion on Arthuir Lee's notes Forever Changes is a must read if you like Love at all.
Just been reminded Jeffrey Lee Pierce's Go Tell The Mountain is very readable if possibly not the most reliable of sources.

Drumbo's book on Beefheart

Didn't even know this existed till I read it on ILX a coupla weeks back!

read about it, not read it, as it's allegedly a doorstopper

Reading "Just Kids" right now even though I never liked Patti Smith. I think it's pretty much as good as anyone can expect from a musician who isn't a professional writer

More books on this thread:

Good books about music

Another vote for John Cale's What's Welsh For Zen.

drumbo's book is enjoyable but needs severe editing. lots of repetition throughout.

but as the story of what it was like being in the magic band it's amazing.

lots of repetition throughout

Oh, the irony!

Ha

haha

to expand on that: anecdotes get repeated often ... it's obvious no editor worked on it. i have no problem with reading 800 pages on beefheart, just that this book was a bit messy.

That and The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick are next on my list.

No mentions so far of David Toop (22 album credits on discogs, many instrumental/production credits dating back to 1971).

Rap Attack (1984, 1992, 1999)

The first part of Rap Attack (the part published in 1984, the current print edition combines the 1984 and 1992 volumes and add a long prologue written in 1999) is the best, most essential history of rap's roots and its early development that I've ever read. The 1992 part has some good observations too, but in the 1999 text he doesn't manage to capture the state of rap that in that year as acutely as in the other parts. Still, I would strongly recommend this on the strength of the 1984 part alone.

Robert Fripp is supposed to be writing some kind of book detailing his various run-ins with the music industry. Should be a corker, if it ever appears.

― ban this sick stunt (anagram), Tuesday, February 28, 2012 10:15 AM (2 weeks ago)

Fripp has withdrawn the book from the university press that wanted to publish it, because he didn't like the contract terms. http://www.dgmlive.com/diaries.htm?entry=21262

"How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life" by John Fahey is a great book, really entertaining (and funny) on many levels. Can't recommend it enough.

the drumbo bk is more than a 'bit messy' - it's p much a disaster, unfortunately. the text switches between meandering first person narrative (three pages on the kind of trousers john french and pals wore back in the 1950s etc) that's interspersed w/ chunks of seemingly verbatim interview transcripts that almost never offer any additional insight or coherence. admittedly i haven't made it to the 'good stuff' yet (ie 'my years in the beefheart cult'/what a bad bad person uncle don was), but i sorta lost the will to live after the first 100 pages or so. i'm not exactly a beefheart novice, but i easily got lost in all the different names and places that flit in and out of the narrative and which a decent editor - ANY kind of editor - would've helped organise in a much more reader-friendly fashion. the mike barnes and bill harkelroad bks are def less comprehensive - and props to drumbo for trying to nail down so many of the vliet-myths and boasts - but so much better reads-as-reads