a list, part 2: the best rock bios (says jukebox graduate)
many thanks for the comments and suggestions on the u2 reading list (a list, part 1). keep 'em coming. this whole music-related book recommendation list is going to have a few more parts.
part 2 of the recommended book list is interesting for me because it includes lots of books i have yet to read, and insight from someone whose opinions never cease to enlighten me.
the genesis of my book recommendation list came from a brief little question i had attached at the end of an email exchange with rock 'n roll addict caryn from jukebox graduate. i think i asked her "what's your favorite rock bio?"
bwa ha ha. can. worms. opened. part 2 of the reading list consists solely of caryn's email reply in full. the reply was just so off-the-cuff and perfect, i think it really needs to stand on its own. the best part about caryn's list of her favorite rock bios is that it literally came back to me in email minutes. minutes. rapidfire certainty.
here you go:
"Shakey (Neil Young's biography) is really the bee's knees, in a David Foster Wallace kind of comprehensive way. I'm also reading the new Joe Strummer bio (Redemption Song), which is not even out yet in the U.S., and that's coming close to being second. Nothing will really ever top 600+ pages on Neil Young, ya know?
Stanley Booth's The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones is one of the best written rock books ever. I read it just for the writing, and I nightly petition the deities that he'll write his Gram Parsons book some day. (He grew up in Waycross, just like Gram.)
Of the Dave Marsh pantheon, the first edition of Born To Run (the Bruce Springsteen Story) was a huge thing for me. But I think his Who bio - Before I Get Old - is cantankerous and unapologetic and he'd never write it today, which is a shame. It's a true love-hate exploration.
Marcus Gray's Last Gang In Town is the definitive Clash book. If you take that plus the new Strummer bio, you know everything there is to know about the Clash.
Barbara Charone's Keith Richards bio (Life As a Rolling Stone) is such a worship-fest that it needs to be preserved forever.
Larry Sloman's On The Road With Bob Dylan is one of the books that made me want to write about music. Combine that, Marsh, Bangs and a healthy dose of CREEM magazine. Of course, no one could ever write a book like that today.
Anything by Peter Guralnick. In fact I don't think anyone should be allowed to write rock and roll unless they've read all of these books.
That's what I can think of sitting here procrastinating."
when the above email landed in my inbox, i think i went "bwa ha ha." (awesomeness makes me laugh). of course, caryn later went home and looked at her bookshelf and added a few more:
"Please Kill Me (The Uncensored Oral History of Punk). The Gospel.
Tony Fletcher's massive tome on Keith Moon (Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend). Wonderful job, although I will be a tad cranky and say it has a veneer of fanboy - which is at times charming and at times annoying. That said, it didn't hold him back from telling the whole truth - which is why Roger Daltrey didn't cooperate.
Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out. I wanted my father to read it and he is not much of a rock fan."
of all the books on caryn's list, the only one i have read is shakey about neil young. it is very long, and the author likes himself. a lot. but neil is really, really interesting. great book. of all the others on the list, the first one i am going to read is please kill me (the uncensored oral history of punk) because it's a book on a subject i don't know all that much about.
still to come: more parts in this list, with more book recommendations, and more super-awesome bloggers contributing.
in the meantime: opinions and recommendations are welcome....
~ visit caryn over at jukebox graduate
related:
part 1: u2 reading list
part 3: music-related books that heather likes
part 4: dr. bob k's list focuses on the beatles
part 2 of the recommended book list is interesting for me because it includes lots of books i have yet to read, and insight from someone whose opinions never cease to enlighten me.
the genesis of my book recommendation list came from a brief little question i had attached at the end of an email exchange with rock 'n roll addict caryn from jukebox graduate. i think i asked her "what's your favorite rock bio?"
bwa ha ha. can. worms. opened. part 2 of the reading list consists solely of caryn's email reply in full. the reply was just so off-the-cuff and perfect, i think it really needs to stand on its own. the best part about caryn's list of her favorite rock bios is that it literally came back to me in email minutes. minutes. rapidfire certainty.
here you go:
"Shakey (Neil Young's biography) is really the bee's knees, in a David Foster Wallace kind of comprehensive way. I'm also reading the new Joe Strummer bio (Redemption Song), which is not even out yet in the U.S., and that's coming close to being second. Nothing will really ever top 600+ pages on Neil Young, ya know?
Stanley Booth's The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones is one of the best written rock books ever. I read it just for the writing, and I nightly petition the deities that he'll write his Gram Parsons book some day. (He grew up in Waycross, just like Gram.)
Of the Dave Marsh pantheon, the first edition of Born To Run (the Bruce Springsteen Story) was a huge thing for me. But I think his Who bio - Before I Get Old - is cantankerous and unapologetic and he'd never write it today, which is a shame. It's a true love-hate exploration.
Marcus Gray's Last Gang In Town is the definitive Clash book. If you take that plus the new Strummer bio, you know everything there is to know about the Clash.
Barbara Charone's Keith Richards bio (Life As a Rolling Stone) is such a worship-fest that it needs to be preserved forever.
Larry Sloman's On The Road With Bob Dylan is one of the books that made me want to write about music. Combine that, Marsh, Bangs and a healthy dose of CREEM magazine. Of course, no one could ever write a book like that today.
Anything by Peter Guralnick. In fact I don't think anyone should be allowed to write rock and roll unless they've read all of these books.
That's what I can think of sitting here procrastinating."
when the above email landed in my inbox, i think i went "bwa ha ha." (awesomeness makes me laugh). of course, caryn later went home and looked at her bookshelf and added a few more:
"Please Kill Me (The Uncensored Oral History of Punk). The Gospel.
Tony Fletcher's massive tome on Keith Moon (Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend). Wonderful job, although I will be a tad cranky and say it has a veneer of fanboy - which is at times charming and at times annoying. That said, it didn't hold him back from telling the whole truth - which is why Roger Daltrey didn't cooperate.
Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out. I wanted my father to read it and he is not much of a rock fan."
of all the books on caryn's list, the only one i have read is shakey about neil young. it is very long, and the author likes himself. a lot. but neil is really, really interesting. great book. of all the others on the list, the first one i am going to read is please kill me (the uncensored oral history of punk) because it's a book on a subject i don't know all that much about.
still to come: more parts in this list, with more book recommendations, and more super-awesome bloggers contributing.
in the meantime: opinions and recommendations are welcome....
~ visit caryn over at jukebox graduate
related:
part 1: u2 reading list
part 3: music-related books that heather likes
part 4: dr. bob k's list focuses on the beatles
posted by c at 12:00 AM
7 Comments:
yes indeed, that is why we appeciate jukeboxgraduate.com so much: devotion, accuracy, knowlegable & opinionated! i'm surprised though that c. didn't mention following more or less canonical publications:
fred goodman's "the mansion on the hill -- dylan, young, geffen, springsteen & the head-on collision of rock & commerce" is one of the most insightful books about the biz behind the artists. greil marcus's "mystery train. images of america in rock & roll music" is widely accepted as a standard meisterwerk of one of the great rock essayist. last but not least a personal favourite of mind will always be clinton heylin's highly inspiring & interesting "the great white wonders. a history of rock bootlegs"! enjoy reading! best!
It almost seems some of these on the road type books will never get written anymore due to "big" bands being more handled and image conscious.
I love the lists. Catch A Fire about Bob Marley is one of my top books. You guys should do rock documentaries, too. Wilco and Metallica's, those were both really good documentaries recently.
It almost seems some of these on the road type books will never get written anymore due to "big" bands being more handled and image conscious.
yeah, i don't know, but i think a lot of the above bands are/were pretty image conscious. weren't they?
i totally agree that "rock documentaries" is a whole other category of awesomeness. i love in the metallica one when james and lars are doing cheesy radio promos and they feel like total losers and bob rock says "i don't think bono and edge are sitting around doing radio promos" - or something like that.
FWIW, I was, deliberately, staying away from the 'canon', because no one needs me to tell them to go read "Mystery Train". I mean, it's curriculum at Columbia.
And, I was trying to stay true to c's comment about bios, so I wouldn't mention Mansion on the Hill or Bootleg or any other sundry number of industry books. (Although I realize that the Guralnick books aren't all biographies.)
thanks to all for the comments and to c. for making me think.
Rotten: No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish. By John Lydon (Johnny Rotten to his friends, if he had any).
It's funny, informative and, at times, touching.
second the Shakey and Sloman on the road with Dylan choices. I'm actually 100 pages from finishing Bil Graham Presents. It's told in the oral, multiple interviews/anecdotes forming a cohesive narrative format as opposed to the typical style. I first cam across this style in 'Steal This Dream', the Abbie Hoffman biography (coincidentally compiled by Ratso Sloman). Although great it tends to take it easy on Bill Graham, painting a picture of a cantakerous rock and roll capitalist. Still worth for some of the stories especially the one about a Led Zeppelin dustup backstage involving some of Bill's Crew.
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