Books about music
 

Some of them drive me a little batty. I like the idea of reading about my favorite bands, but some of the bios are poorly written. I tried one about the Talking Heads recently and it was atrocious. I tried a few Dylan things, and they were tedious.

Regardless, here are some of my favorites. What are yours?

Our Band Could be Your Life by Michael Azerrad

S.T.P., a journey through America with The Rolling Stones by Robert Greenfield

Ascension : John Coltrane and his quest by Eric Nisenson

Grown up all wrong : 75 great rock and pop artists from vaudeville to techno by Robert Christgau

Mainlines, blood feasts, and bad taste : a Lester Bangs reader

Cinderella's big score : women of the punk and indie underground by Maria Raha

hahahaha robert christgau.

:o Why do I suddenly feel like an idiot?

I want to check out Our Band Could be your life.

because i said hahahahaha robert christgau.

i killed christgau with my big fucking dick.

Them books is hard to read.

I don't give Christgau as much cred as someone like Bangs, but some of his stuff is passable.

Rough guide to rock

reading about music is boring.

I highly recommend. Though I have trouble with the author's rather arbitrary decision to stop the chronology after the bands sign major label deals.

I'd recommend any book by Nick Tosches. Out of his writings about music:

 

 

 

I read a bit of a book called Please Kill Me: An Uncensered History of Punk. Quite interesting chapter on the Velvet Underground

I agree.
Though I had the urge to pick up a copy of Please Kill Me, if only for the pictures, but I talked myself out of it and got some Bukowski instead.

psychotic reactions and carburator dung by lester bangs.
american hardcore by steven blush.
lords of chaos: by michael moynihan and didrik soderlind
lexicon devil by brendan mullen with don bolles and adam parfrey
choosing death by albert mudrian

the only books i read are about music.

Drugs are Nice by Lisa Crystal Carver. Not technically a music book, but I love it.

Go back and get it. It's worth it. Because it's a music book that never actually talks about music.

noise, water, meat - douglas kahn

four musical minimalists - keith potter

music and the mind - Anthony Storr

read a book called the secret history of rock (I think it was called). It was pretty good.

Cinderella's Big Score is actually pretty interesting. A bit basic--she doesn't go into the flights of imagination a la Bangs, say, but it's comprehensive.

i prefer autobiographies to biographies. anthony kiedis' book is really good, as is marilyn manson's. i'm currently reading johnny rotten's, which is okay. henry rollins' get in the van sucks (though i only read the first 60 pages.) he whines a lot about cops and doesn't talk about any of the fun stuff like sex or drugs that makes a good rock book. hammer of the gods (the zeppelin book) is just all right as well. very historical but a little dry.

fargo rock city is a great book about '80s metal culture, and the dirt, the autobiography of motley crue, is the best book ever written.