Good books about music

Please kill me.

Oh well. Read it anyway. It's amazing. And Our Band Could Be Your Life. If you're interested in criticism, check out Psychotic Reactions and Carbeurator Dung or anything by Lester Bangs or one or two Greil Marcus books (The Basement Tapes). I'd stay away from Camden Joy, contrary to popular opinion.

I need something that doesn't take too long to get into

But you're going to college, man! Just buy Adorno's Essays on Music and accept that the next 4+ years of your life are going to be like that mwahahaha...

I also enjoyed Last Night a DJ Saved My Life and there's the ever-classic Generation Ecstasy.

I had never heard of Tate until I saw him speak not long ago. He is a BAD. ASS. Does he still write for The Voice? I feel like I never see him in there. Does he have a blog?

I'm mostly interested in reading a book of his since his prose is fairly magnificent.

If you want a cracking funny read on hip-hop, though, pick up The Rough Guide to Hip-Hop by Peter Shapiro, which has just been updated and enlarged (it was a pocket-size the first time, now it's 8 x 10). Best line goes to the Bad Boy Records writeup, when he notes that Puff Daddy, having been responsible for 40% of all 1997's number ones, moved to the Hamptons "so he could live by the sea, just like his magic dragon namesake."

Same here! (Of course there's also the Led Zep bio.)

Next week on "The O.C.": Seth and Ryan get into a fatal disagreement over "James Taylor: Marked For Death," while Summer meets a new hottie who shares her disgust of Nick Hornby.

Dino by Nick Tosches (about Dean Martin; as deep as Catch a Fire by Timothy White, as entertaining as that Motley Crue book)

Backbeat: Earl Palmer's Story, by Tony Scherman (oral history/autobiography of the New Orleans drummer; had me at "Louis Armstrong was a pimp"...)

We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk by Marc Spitz and Brendan Mullen (better than Please Kill Me, kind of like L.A. punk itself)

I was torturing this guy in the garage of my mom's house in this nice suburban neighborhood with my whole family inside eating Easter dinner... and I'd got this guy tied up in the rafter with a rope around his legs and I'm beating him with a two-by-four. I said, "Hang on a minute," and put the two-by-four down and walked into the house and kissed my aunt and said like, "Oh hi, how you doing?" I grabbed a deviled egg, told them I'd be back in a minute, and I went back out, grabbed the two-by-four, and kept workin' on the guy. I finally had to get out of Vicious Circle 'cause of the violence. There were constant stabbings and beatings and people cruising by my house at night, shooting up the neighborhood....

I did something pretty bad to somebody and they retaliated with guns. It was a big deal, I had to split to Alaska for a while, they cut the lines on my car, blew up my car... fuck...I don't wanna say who they were, but they weren't punks... boy, they were pissed off.

i went on holiday with the Deborah Curtis book and the Nick Drake biography once. happy times, let me tell you.

if you ever find dave rimmer's "once upon a time in the east", abt berlin east and west b4 the fall of the wall, i utterly UTTERLY recommend it: tho it's only somewhat abt music - unlike his earlier (and also good) "like punk never happened"

Joe Carducci's Rock and the Pop Narcotic is being reissued sometime this year.

Electronic and Experimental Music by Thom Holmes
also; Wireless Imagination (d kahn / g whitehead)
Paul Griffiths - A Concise History of Avant-Garde Music
Paul Griffiths - Modern Music And Beyond
Curtis Roads
William Duckworth : Talking Music
Cage: Silence / A Year From Monday
Cage / Feldman: Conversations
James Tenney : Meta / Hodos
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Stockhausen on Music (Compiled by R Maconie)
Sound By Artists (ed. Dan Lander)
Chris Cutler - File Under Popular
Attali - Noise
Russolo - The Art of Noises (get a hold of a copy any way you can)
Trevor Wishart - On Sonic Art
Douglas Kahn - Noise Water Meat

i think the attali book is lousy at book length—it's a good short polemic idea bulked out to a contradictory nonsense schema—and wireless imagination is patchy (which is a pity, cz it's a great idea for an essay collection)

The Elvis Guralnick books - again, you don't have to care about the subject matter to enjoy them (personally, I was so-so on Elvis before readin' 'em, am now an unabashed fan), and the second one is one hell of a car wreck: the descent starts like twenty pages into it, and by the end of the book you can't even feel sorry for the guy anymore, you just wonder why he hasn't kicked the bucket already.

"Where Did Our Love Go?" by Nelson George has some nice anecdotes, and is probably the best book on Motown around, tho to be frank I didn't learn all that much from it.

"The Heart Of Rock & Soul" seconded, and throw in the "New Book Of Rock Lists" too, if only for the sheer joy of reading the sentence "Tragedy The Intelligent Hoodlum Lists..." over and over again (not that book of rock jokes, tho, that was awful.) And also "Fortunate Son: The Best Of Dave Marsh", great stuff on Elvis, Muddy Waters, latino rock, etc.

I remember reading Maryiln Manson's "The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell" in my early teens and being surprised by how good it was (I'd always loathed the guy's music.) Dunno if it holds up.

"Sweet Soul Music", hell yeah.

I've read the entirety of Christgau's consumer guide online, and there's some great, great stuff there. So the books are recommended, too.

yay I've been wanting to read that one for a while!

adding to my prev post here leroi jones 'blues people' which I just finished this morning: most gd bks on music accept that they aren't just abt notes and chords.

You mean it's not long enough? I loved the book. Should re-read it...

I also loved the Lexicon Devil (bio on Darby Crash) though it's certainly not essential...

the ONLY thing wrong with JMC's line is that he somewhat slightly seems to accept the assumption that the social dimension—the "dance"—isn’t also always part of all music in the West (though he does this in the context of getting ppl to see/hear/look for the fuller sense of the meaning of music): taking his insights abt Africa (Ghana, to be more accurate) and applying them everywhere else is revelatory

Most of it is a charming telling of him learning African drumming in Ghana

And I hope someone someday undertakes a lengthy Sabbath bio.

I'm not a big Dylan guy, but I read Chronicles and finished it feeling like it's pretty bad as like, A Dylan Biography. I enjoyed reading it, but it felt like I was missing a lot of knowledge that it assumed I had. What's the best Dylan bio out there?

going into that sheffield list i was anticipating responding 'no rod stewart, no credibility' but there rod is, high up there, at that. his eloquence is so surprising you can't help but admire him

Dean Wareham's book is really good, he's v frank about Damon & Naomi but doesn't let himself off the hook.

(xpost) The only one I know I've read for sure is Anthony Scaduto's, the first and most ancient--came out in the early '70s. I read it 40 years ago, so I don't remember a thing; I don't think it was all that well received, by Dylan especially. The most famous is Robert Shelton's, which was anticipated for years--it's his Times review on reproduced on the first album. I think I read that when it came out. But I'm not sure--I might have just skipped to the end, where he interviews Dylan. I think he does, anyway. My memory's terrible, as you can see.

Kristin Hersh and Viv Albertine’s books are fantastic. I’d have included Playing the Bass With Three Left Hands by Will Carruthers. And its not technically a rock memoir, but Really the Blues by Mezz Mezzrow (especially since Dylan took bits and pieces of it for his own memoir).

i liked the kristin hersh book about vic chesnutt too (depressing obviously)

Loved the Hersh autobiog (predictably). Have bought her Chesnutt one as well, but am stalling at diving in, possibly for reasons expressed by na there.

Dylan's Chronicles I is fantastic. It is not really an autobio though.

I want to take a minute to Stan for a very obvious choice, one that most here will have probably already read, or at least been aware of - Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business. It's the most entertaining book on the pop-music business that I ever read, and I've read it 20-odd-some years ago. There are a million other books, most of which are mentioned in this treasure of a thread, but this book explains 70s-90s major label business more than any other book. 

I read a book a few years back written by Jacob Slichter (drummer for Semisonic) on a recommendation by a friend, it's a great read and Jacob is a really engaging writer, it's the boom and bust tale of Semisonic (and a bit about Trip Shakespeare) but very good nonetheless.

^ So You Wanna Be A Rockstar? It's a great one.

Yep, that's the one!

Y'all really made me just order a book by the drummer from Semisonic, and that's why I love this place.

My 2 fave rock memoirs are Crazy From the Heat and Chronicles Vol 1, maybe not in that order.

i enjoyed "cool town" by grace elizabeth hale about the athens, GA, scene of the '70s and '80s. she's an academic, so she does a good job of discussing the broader sociological context of the scene and bands, but she was also part of the scene (ran a beloved restaurant and was in a local band) so has a good personal connection too.

Enjoying the Michael Barnes book on Prog It Was A New Day yesterday. Got as far as the Canterbury scene. Just read the first chapter on that this morning

I was wondering this morning if there's a band in which every single member has written a memoir yet.

Got a slight update on a Kid congo one recently. So hope taht means its coming before too long. Which would mean 3 members out of 4 on a coupl eof occasions.
but Rob ritter is dead and not sure if Patricia Morrison is going to write one.
Enjoyed the Terry graham one though.

Patricia Morrison is legally not allowed to talk about her time in SIsters of Mercy, so that would make for a weird book.

I was wondering this morning if there's a band in which every single member has written a memoir yet.

― Maresn3st, Monday, April 27, 2020 3:46 PM (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Motley Crue, if you count Mick Mars' contributions to The Dirt.

Has anyone read The Beautiful Ones?

The Police also

xpost - yes! It’s really good but incomplete for obvious reasons.

All the surviving members of Joy Division plus Ian curtis widow have done memoirs.
& is that Jon Savage thing an oral history that contains more material by each band member too

Finally getting around to Jeff Tweedy's book, I like it quite as bit - funny and very conversational.

Duke University Press is doing a half-price sale on their books till May 25--- Tony Allen one, some reggaeton ones, more

https://www.dukeupress.edu/explore-subjects/browse?subjectid=110&sortid=3

mark lanegan's new memoir!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

seeing backlashes against Lanegan from the Connor brothers and an attempted one from LIam Gallagher.
THink I want to read the book anyway cos he's lead an interesting life, i mean quite apart from the responses so far, like.

What have the Connor brothers said? I can't find that anywhere.

THing about the vitriol that Lanegan directed at them in the book when they haven't really talked in years and whenever they have done its been civil.
May have been a response on FB by Van Connor that somebody else shared. Sounded like there was an FB Screaming Trees group that he contributed to.

Actually comment came from GAry lee Conner.

Thanks!

this book is great. the liam gallagher chapter is hilarious. overall lanegan he has very little good to say about the trees (or anyone, really, with some notable exceptions -- the gun club, nick cave, johnny cash, waylon jennings, chris cornell, josh homme, layne staley, and kurt cobain). he caricatures lee throughout the book. i wouldn't be happy if i were him, either. he doesn't treat van to the same scorn but still i'd be pissed

Has anyone read It Still Moves by Amanda Petrusich?
Also curious about Will Oldham On Bonnie Prince Billy by Alan Licht, anyone familiar with it?

I have teh Will Oldham but haven't read it yet.

i've got the Oldham book it's good, basically a long interview, i'm not the biggest fan of music books or biographies tbh so maybe not the best judge but it's an enjoyable read

actually i could read it again now you've made me think of it, excuse my uncertainties

An old friend of mine who is a music professor at Syracuse University wrote a “textbook” about new wave music called Are We Not New Wave. It’s got lighter moments, but also some pretty deep and thoughtful academic discussion. I loved it! Here it is on goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11461133-are-we-not-new-wave

Cheers ordered the Oldham book and David Crosby's Long Time Gone!

There are more relevant threads to post this on, but--I know this is self-serving--I'm going to post here, where anybody who opens it up does buy music books.

I just self-published a book on pop music in movies and on TV: You Should've Heard Just What I Seen. It's on Kindle Direct Publishing, which is owned by Amazon, so that's where you have to order it.

States

Canada

A friend has also been talking to me about the book and posting clips on YouTube. The first one, 20th Century Women is here--you can find others in the same place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UorpT9Qbhu0

Cool, just watched. Who is your friend?

Scott Woods. He runs the Greil Marcus site, and he's been my friend and co-author for years--you might even remember him from Radio On.

Oh yeah, we toss it back and forth a little bit on rockcritics.com sometimes, when I comment on his posts. Most recently re his interview w *ilxor mark s, editor of A Hidden Landscape Once A Week,* just in case any of yall didn't know about that...

Oh, nice! Will order when I get my next CESB cheque (don't tell Scheer).

In the meantime, I added the book to Goodreads, since it wasn't on there yet: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54240276-you-should-ve-heard-just-what-i-seen

Thanks, cryptosicko (on both counts)! I got out ahead of you this time and made up a playlist a few days ago (posted the link in the Spotify playlist thread).

Delighted to see "It's Too Late To Turn Back Now" on there (assuming the entry is on BlacKkKlansman). One of my two own fave song/visual media combos of recent years, along with Prefab Sprout's "King of Rock and Roll" in the Netflix series I Am Not Okay With This.

Don't know that, but I have Netflix so I'll give that a look. "It's Too Late" was an automatic pick.

Until I get the book, I am really enjoying the YouTube series. Just finished the American Graffiti, which ends with a great gag.

Wasn't that great? Scott's so good with this stuff.

Harald Kisiedu's European Echoes: Jazz Experimentalism in Germany 1950-1975 is a very interesting study of...well, the German avant-garde jazz scene of the 60s and 70s, with particular focus on Peter Brötzmann, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Manfred Schoof, and Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky (an East German saxophonist whose work I'm not familiar with). It's really good, a mix of biography and broader social/political context...and I was surprised to find a quote from a 2019 interview I did with Brötzmann for Bandcamp included in it.

I have recently read Geoff Dyer's But Beautiful and Ian Penman's It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track, really enjoyed both for their sorta fanciful insights onto the personalities of artists. So far from all the hagiography and legend-burnishing bios and magazines I read when I was a teenager.