Books by musicians

a great book but a truly asd tale of a very talented musician. I like the original large paperback layout better than the recent smaller paperback editions...

books by Nick Cave and Lydia Lunch should be avoided at all cost.

Other good stuff:
"Really the Blues" by Mezz Mezzrow
"Is That It?" by Bob Geldof was much better than I imagined it would be.
"Go Now" was, too! but then I promptly forgot I'd read it immediately after putting it down :/

It's an unitentional hoot...he's obsessed with proving that he's the person who introduced the short hair and skinny tie to Blondie (for the men).

The photos are a classic - "Note my short tie and skinny tie"....."Note length of hair" - next to a photo of Chris Stein.

The guy's a complete wally jumblat.

Killers, Angels, Refugees and Mirrors, Dreams and Miracles by Peter Hammill. Both have some interesting short stories alongside his collected lyrics up to 1980.

"Are You Experienced?", by Noel Redding and Carol Appleby. Goes into detail about drug use, drinking, management problems, the whole lot.

Hip Hop Literature TS:

The Ice Opinion - Ice T & Heidi Sigmund

The Wu Tang Manual - RZA

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is there a thread for crap books by musicians? if so, slash's autobiography belongs on there. never cared much for guns n roses but i figured his book might be entertaining, like the motley crue one but for someone who led such a wild life, he sure knows how to distill it down into one almighty tedious read. the main thing i took from the book was that axl rose sounded like a very interesting guy, which i'm guessing wasn't slash's intention.

neil sedaka's autobio is pretty great, comes across as a warm friendly guy though i don't think anyone ever needed to read his description about losing his virginity. similarly, mick fleetwood's book is worth reading, a good honest account of the big years by a good honest guy. nothing earth-shattering but very readable. same goes for barry white to the power 10, he has this crazy almost-sleazy-but-not way of writing and tbh the guy comes across as godlike. love him even more after reading that.

didn't care much for ian hunter's diary. not a big fan of mott but his diary just seemed pretty banal and his writing is all abc fisher price nothingness. don't understand the fuss about it.

not strictly by a musician but michael francis's star man is a good account of life working as a roadie for led zeppelin, bon jovi, cher, sheena easton.

also books i've not read in years but loved at the time and im planning on buying again: autobios by pete waterman, holly johnson and marc almond. 45 is awesome too, but drummond's recent book 17 is more of a grumpy rant - i never quite grasped what was so wildly exciting about recording a bunch of people humming and then wiping the tape. plus he lost me when he stood in front of a bunch of primary school kids and told them that all recorded music was rubbish. bit of a prick's trick.

"You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" by Simon Napier-Bell.

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.

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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

i read that kaye book a while back. don't recall *too* much about it, but it was entertaining in a nick tosches-kinda way. some interesting stories about the time period.

really need to read "How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life"

Fripp has withdrawn the book from the university press that wanted to publish it, because he didn't like the contract terms

oh ffs

There is another Fahey book as well, but I haven't read it yet. Gotta find it, as if it's anywhere near as enteraining as "How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life" then it promises to be a real treat.

Jonathan Meiburg out of Shearwater is an ornithologist, and he has written a book about the striated caracara:

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the guy behind Ant-Bee put out some books on early 70s rockers including Grand funk Railroad (which I think I have but haven't looked at much)

.....apparently dude from Cromags has written a self help book....

books by Nick Cave and Lydia Lunch should be avoided at all cost.

― end of time, Thursday, January 29, 2004 10:08 AM (twenty years ago) bookmarkflaglink

can't say for sure about lydia but i wouldn't avoid nick's books. the sick bag song!