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Music Books


Lee909
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Head On - Julian Cope : about Liverpool in the punk rock years and Teardrop Explodes. Superbly entertaining.

 

Copendium - Julian Cope : a series of essays about music, he's a very enthusiastic writer with some great taste. His other books are also really good if you can get hold of them.

 

Bill Drummond - anything he's written. Ex manager of Teardrops/Bunnymen then one of the KLF. Highlight books include 45/17/The Manual and Bad Wisdom (written with Zodiac Mindwarp in which they travel to the North Pole to plant an effigy of Elvis to save the planet - incredible read).

 

Jon Savage - England's Dreaming : a quite superb account of punk rock and where it came from.

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Miles - Ian Carr (Miles Davis autobiography)

Trampled Underfoot - Barney Hoskyns (this is the best Led Zeppelin book)

Dear Boy - Tony Fletcher (Keith Moon biography)

Revolution in the Head - Ian MacDonald (The Beatles records & the 60s)

Bathed in Lightning - Colin Harper (the story of John McLaughlin in the swinging 60s)

Hellraiser - Ginger Baker (Autobiography)

 

I could recommend a good few others but they're probably a bit niche.

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I'll echo the sentiments about Hilburn's Cash biography. The autobiography (Cash) is great though as an alternative if you want to hear the man's voice. It's a bit rambling, and - like with all personal accounts of a musician's life - you have to take some things with a pinch of salt, but it gives you a real insight into how he ticks.

 

In a similar vein, B.B. King's Blues All Around Me is decent if you like the man himself or the genre. 

 

Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 is well worth a read if you like that scene (Minor Threat, Black Flag etc.), as it's one that's hardly covered in other books on key musical movements. 

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Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 is well worth a read if you like that scene, as it's one that's hardly covered in other books on key musical movements.

Literally just about to add this. Really good book.

 

Also, Get In The Van by Henry Rollins about his time in Black Flag.

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The Slash autobiography is OK in places, but too many stories end up '...and then I passed out in a pile of my own vomit after bumming a stripper whilst some cunt was having a fight'. Genuinely the majority of the anecdotes are other peoples as he was too fucked up to remember.

 

Lemmy's on the other hand...

 

if you want a fascinating read then Jeff Sparrow's 'No way but this way: in search of Paul Robeson' is an incredable book about success, failure, race, politics and so much more, cannot recommend highly enough.

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Read Slashes and enjoyed it

 

Read Motley Crue Dirt - Mental-Disgusting-heartbreaking all in one

 

Never finished Lemmys though it was funny as fuck. Especially the bit about him and his mate as teenagers sneaking into a girls camo to be awoken by his mate getting twatted by the guides leader with own his prosthetic arm.

 

Read part of BB Kings too. Will have to get it again. Dont know what happened to it.

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