best/worst rock biographies

I'd actually give a decent shout to the Billy Bragg one, 'Still Suitable For Miners'. It's a bit too "he's a good bloke", but readable with it.

I think the Tony Bennett one that was bought for me several years is one of the worst I've read, although I've got a Bauhaus one (Dark Entries?) which is so fawning it's incredible.

Is there a decent Scott Walker one? I've only got 'A Deep Shade Of Blue', and feel there must be a better book about Scott out there.

I can't recall him saying that much about rock music when I read it but he's really gd on jazz and relating it to developments in classical avant-garde.

I can see what you mean in respect to the dryness of the writing but the whole thing is so well researched -- he interviews as many associates/musicians as he can, and the story is so damn great and the guy is so fascinating that I found it a real quick and enjoyable read.

But anyway: what was ra's 'influence' on rock? I mean, maybe leading by an example -- as in setting up this commune of ppl to work together on improvisations and group sound; which, as far as i can tell, wz only adopted by some ppl in krautrock and maybe beefheart (but that could also be relaetd to a 60s countercultural mindset). Even his work as a whole is odd in relation to jazz too, i find.

Also, Miles Davis' autobiography is an entertaining and enlightening read. To give a little of the flavor of the book, I always think of a photo caption that read (quoting from memory) "This was our line-up at Birdland in 1949. Standing at left is Symphony Sid, another motherfucker I never could stand."

How's "Hip Priest", by the way?

sorry xpost, back to sun ra's influence on rock

Best (individual) - Chuck Berry: The Autobiography
Best (group) - Hammer Of The Gods: The Led Zeppelin Story (Steven Davis)

Worst - No One Here Gets Out Alive (Jerry Hopkins)

Hopkins' David Bowie & Jimi Hendrix biographies were just as poorly written as his Jim Morrison bio was, but at least those two were fairly compelling subjects, so the books retained some inherent interest. Never read his Elvis bio, and certainly don't intend to.

I liked Shakey for the original interviews with Neil Young, but had a major problem with the author inserting himself into the narrative. It seemed to me that he wanted to sniff Neil Young's armpits and then tell him why they stank.

I call it biographer's disease (it has some resemblance to executor's disease, but that's another thread): thinking you're a genius because you're writing a book about one.

Worst = the lemmy one. A terrible dissapointment. Just crass and stupid and boring.

Fong-Torres on Gram Parsons is pretty awful. Bobbie Ann Mason on Elvis isn't too good, and Guralnick on Elvis just makes the whole thing boring.

I still like David Henderson's old Hendrix bio, too.

Revolution in the Head (Ian macdonald) awesome for the song detail if you are a beatles nut.

and for fun Fargo Rock city (biog of a mid west usa teenage metal freak and perfect summation of the hair metal years)

Is there a newer thread I'm missing? I read these three while on vacation and recommend them all:

Patti Smith - Just Kids (2010)
Nick Kent - Apathy For The Devil: A Seventies Memoir (2010)
Andrew Earles - Husker Du: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock (2010)

Just finished slogging through Peter Doggett's There's A Riot Going On: Revolutionaries, Rock Stars, and the Rise and Fall of the '60s (2009), which was pretty much a depressing chore. My wife wants me to read the Tina Fey book. In the meantime, what's good from this list? Apparently the Ambrose book on Iggy is crap, but the Trynka book isn't available on Kindle. Hrm.

Jah Wobble - Memoirs Of A Geezer (2009)
Zoe Street Howe - Typical Girls? The Story Of The Slits (2009)
Tony Visconti - The Autobiography: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy (2007)
Paul Trynka - Iggy Pop: Open Up And Bleed (2007)
Joe Ambrose - Gimme Danger: The Story Of Iggy Pop (2009)
Keith Richards/James Fox - Life (2010)
Andrew Loog Oldham - Stoned (2000)
Cherry Vanilla - Lick Me: How I Became Cherry Vanilla (2010)
Legs McNeil - Cheetah Chrome: A Dead Boy's Tale (2010)
Rick Wakeman - Grumpy Old Star (2009)
Rick Wakeman - Further Adventures Of A Grumpy Old Star (2010)
George Berger - The Story Of Crass (2009)

I guess no response cuz I didn't list these?

Sammy Hagar - Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock (2011)
Steven Tyler - Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?: A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir (2011)
Nikki Sixx - This Is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography and Life Through the Distorted Lens of Nikki Sixx (2011)
Vince Neil & Mike Sager - Tattoos & Tequila: To Hell and Back with One of Rock's Most Notorious Frontmen (2010)

Dean Wareham's memoir is pretty good.

WORST: anything on the Grateful Dead. I'm actually a recent convert to their music, but the hero worship they inspire is pitiful.

As a recent convert myself, while I assume nothing objective has been published about them, is there anything at least not-cringeworthy?

The Keith Richards one starts out interesting, but quickly degenerates into, "and then I passed out here, and then I passed out here, etc." I read it back to back with an Iggy bio (not sure it's the one listed above) and it was kind of weird to see two people basically writing the same book except that one is passing out on a yaht in the Mediterranean and one is passing out in someone's living room.

the last third of Life is pretty bad -- a lot of "i own property in connecticut, i hate mick jagger, i'm an old rich guy" kind of stuff. but there's enough in the 60s-70s to make it worthwhile.

Oh, and The Fallen about all the ex-members of The Fall is pretty good in a few places, but really should have been a blog as there's not enough meat to make a full book...

Dylan's Chronicles

Ribowsky's Spector bio is good, I think.

i read this years ago -- really excellent. there's a newer bio of spector that i think got good reviews, too.

I have the Ribowsky bio, it's great

Just finished the latest Led Zep bio--it's excellent, especially if all you knew before was Hammer of the Gods

The Richards one hits his nadir when he goes off on the guy who stole his shepard's pie ingredients late in the book. I can't imagine why you would want the world knowing you are that much of a fool.

hits "its" nadir

David Keenan's England's Hidden Reverse is wonderful, as is Simon Ford's Wreckers of Civilization. Not sure if those count as biographies exactly though.

I read Hagar's book. I thought it was really entertaining. Don't expect Shakespeare.

The Warren Zevon biography is remarkable for how unflattering it is. He comes off as an absolute monster.

Yeah, that's a good one too.

Feels like I've read dozens of bios of the classic rock/pop types (Stones/Kinks/Who/Beatles/Pink Floyd etc) and yet I can't think of a single one that sticks in my memory. Even the good ones tend to follow the same general model where the savage young upstart early years/first flush of fame part of the story is interesting but the second half is a relatively dull or sometimes depressing catalogue of album releases, collaborations, lawsuits and relationship problems.

The only ones I can think of where I have read them more than once or regularly flick through them:

Julian Cope - Head On (Repossessed suffers from the above issues)
Bill Drummond - 45
Malcolm McLaren - The Wicked Ways of Malcolm McLaren
Ian MacDonald - Revolution in the Head

I'm aware of the issue with the last one but it's a great resource for recording details and so on and reading it is kinda like arguing with a fellow Beatle freak about why they are brilliant.

Best: Levon Helm, This Wheel's on Fire (whenever I think of Robbie Robertson, I always think of Ronnie Hawkins and Levon making fun of his red scarf in Last Waltz)

Worst: either Albert Goldman's Elvis or A Drink with Shane MacGowan

Fuck. Goldman's book is the worst book/thing ever.

I've had a hold on Greil Marcus's Dead Elvis at the library for a while now, which is in part a rebuttal to that piece of shit. Opinions anyone?

Bowie In Berlin, a really sweet string of moments that begins with Bowie freaking out on Cameron Crowe in L.A. while eating peppers, milk and cocaine (literally checking the closed blinds for any signs of Jimmy Page, who Bowie thought had cursed him) to a more assured Bowie years later, wrapping up Lodger and moving with "Ashes to Ashes".

In between, Iggy Pop serves as a wingman, Bowie rides around in a hovercraft, Marc Bolan and Bing Crosby are both struck dead mere weeks after performing with Bowie and Bowie sees two familiar figures out kissing by the Berlin Wall.

― Pleasant Plains, Sunday, March 6, 2011 6:51 PM Bookmark

Best: Levon Helm, This Wheel's on Fire (whenever I think of Robbie Robertson, I always think of Ronnie Hawkins and Levon making fun of his red scarf in Last Waltz)

And the fact that the mic he sang into was off.

the goldman elvis book is 'bad' definitely but also kind of hysterically entertaining as long as you don't expect it to be an actual biography, but rather 600 pages of unintentional self-expose on goldman's part. there's an entire page in marcus's book where he just lists as many odious goldmanisms as he can find in the book, viz a viz: "the presleys were not normal people, they were hillbillies..."

Andrew Oldham's book is really good. Oral history that allows others to undercut Oldham's own claims. He comes off like such a charismatic asshole. It's supposed to be the first of a series (it ends w/Marianne Faithfull having a hit w/"As Tears Go By"). 2Stoned came out a while back, but not in the US. I think it covers the rest of the 60s. I'm wondering if the rest will ever come out.

I think the biggest revealation I got out of Keef's book (other than Mick's "tiny todger")--and reall is just something I never really thought about--is he never really used effects pedals. The only reason he used a fuzzbox on "Satisfaction" was it was made available to him, and he thought his track would be replaced w/horns. Later, he cites a delay pedal during the Some Girls/Emotional Rescue era.

Actually now that I think of it, Kieth also claims through the magic of overdubs & tape editing he played all the guitars on The Stones 66-67 recordings because Brian Jones couldn't play well any more. Reeks of bullshit to me.

stanley booth's 'true adventures' is definitely the best stones book, but i read any of them i could get my hands on when i was 19. bill wyman's book is dry as dust; he even manages to make banging groupies sound boring. tony sanchez's book is trashy fun. a. e. hotchner's oral history 'blown away' is a pretty half-assed book but it does have some great interviews with ian stewart and marianne faithfull -- worth skipping around in, at least.

His Ray Davies biography from a few years ago is good, but he gets hung up on certain things - he keeps mentioning (in a smarmy way) how miserly Ray is, because he doesn't buy rounds at the pub or something.

Oh, and the opening post in this thread is correct - Bebe Buell's book is the worst I've ever made myself finish. It was, however, useful as a compendium of the insulting names that Elvis Costello had for Prince.

!

His Ray Davies biography from a few years ago is good, but he gets hung up on certain things - he keeps mentioning (in a smarmy way) how miserly Ray is, because he doesn't buy rounds at the pub or something.

I once worked with a guy who was in a band with one of Ray Davies' daughters and I know for a fact that that is true!

I'm sure it's true, is it worth mentioning over and over in a biography? (I don't go to pubs.)

Not specifically the buying rounds in pubs bit but just him generally being a comically tight-fisted millionaire.

Hard to believe he wrote another huge book on the solo members!

it's only on the members who've died!

Now that he's dead, Rogan will write biographies of the living members of the Byrds.

Not specifically the buying rounds in pubs bit but just him generally being a comically tight-fisted millionaire.

That's more funny when I think about the time he ran after that mugger who robbed his girlfriend - it always struck me as an impressively chivalrous act, but one can joke that he was after a tenner she owed him.

Good dot-connecting!

I'm pretty sure Rogan underlines that connection in his book!

Ha, yes, just found that section.