Various Music Related Books

[benjamin]

I can't stand Motley Crue, but this book was amazing.

 

[Tenderloin]

I read that this summer. I just finished I'll Sleep When I'm Dead written by Warren Zevon's ex Crystal. Disturbing stuff. I've found myself going back and reading pieces of Neil's book Shakey. I read it cover to cover 5 years or so ago, but it is such a dense read @ about 750 pages or so. I love reading the parts about the recording of the albums.

 

 

I've picked up 'Exile' twotree times now only to put it back on the bookstore's shelf. Tell me I am doing the wrong thing! Tell me I need to read this book!

[Analogman]

I've picked up 'Exile' twotree times now only to put it back on the bookstore's shelf. Tell me I am doing the wrong thing! Tell me I need to read this book!

 

That book is garbage.

[jff]

I'm saving a couple music books for my vacation next week:

 

Song Man (I read this author's Guitar Man recently, which I enjoyed. Song Man is the follow up.)

White Bicycles: Making Music in the '60s

 

This one was so enjoyable I read it twice:

 

Life in Double Time: Confessions of an American Drummer

 

 

(sorry for the tiny image...this book may no longer be in print, but is pretty easy to find used for super cheap).

[PopTodd]

A fly-on-the-wall, no bullshit (read: no gossip) account of every single recording sessions The Beatles did between 62 and 70.

Despipte the techie-geek bent of a lot of it, the story, journal-like entries totally put you inside the sessions. Freaking essential,

 

Also, does anyone have/has anyone seen

A Year With Swollen Appendeces by Brian Eno

?

[Analogman]

A fly-on-the-wall, no bullshit (read: no gossip) account of every single recording sessions The Beatles did between 62 and 70.

Despipte the techie-geek bent of a lot of it, the story, journal-like entries totally put you inside the sessions. Freaking essential,

 

Also, does anyone have/has anyone seen

A Year With Swollen Appendeces by Brian Eno

?

 

That Beatles book has been re-configured - if you have an original printing of that book - it is worth a lot of money.

[mpolak21]

That Beatles book has been re-configured - if you have an original printing of that book - it is worth a lot of money.

 

Yeah, they're selling for like 55 dollars on Amazon. I don't remember how I got it, I think it was for Christmas or a birthday one year, but I have one of the originals.

 

jff, I love White Bicycles, it's one of my favorite books about music. I'm currently working through "To Lives To Fly" a Townes Van Zandt bio, so far so good.

 

--Mike

[Analogman]

The very first British edition use to go for several hundred dollars.

[CortezTheKiller]

I've picked up 'Exile' twotree times now only to put it back on the bookstore's shelf. Tell me I am doing the wrong thing! Tell me I need to read this book!

A lot of heresay and unconfirmed bullshit in there. As a Stones fan, it was still an enjoyable read.

[Tenderloin]

That book is garbage.

 

 

A lot of heresay and unconfirmed bullshit in there. As a Stones fan, it was still an enjoyable read.

 

 

I just don't want to be let down like I was the first time I watched "cocksucker blues"

[m_thomp]

The best music autobigraphy I've read:

 

 

 

It's a long time since Julian Cope had his 15 minutes of mainstream fame, fronting the Teardrop Explodes with their brassy, extravagant masterpiece Reward. But over the last two decades he has maintained an impressive cult following, largely due to his mesmerising live performances--and more to the point, maintained an undiminished sense of his own importance, which has led to two, bulky volumes of his autobiography. Head-On: Memoires of the Liverpool Punk Scene and the story of the Teardrop Explodes (1976-82) was published, acclaimed and lost to posterity in 1994; now thankfully it's been republished, back-to-back (literally--this is a book you can finish, turn upside down, and start again) with a sequel: Repossessed: Shamanic Depressions in Tamworth & London (1983-89), which leads us through his 1980s solo career.

 

As the grandiose subtitles indicate, Cope writes on an epic scale, but his terms of reference are unapologetically personal. Much of Repossessed deals, bizarrely, with Pete De Freitas (the Bunnymen's drummer) weaving his way across America, not chemically unaided--a story which is relayed via transatlantic phone to Cope ensconced in Tamworth, like some postmodern, virtual Kerouac. Non-Cope devotees might find some of this rather allusive, not to say elusive, but there's no doubting the man's power with the pen, and soon enough you'll be there in the front row, throwing your knickers onstage. Or the literary equivalent. --Alan Stewart --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

 

Synopsis

Julian Cope's highly acclaimed autobiography and its long-awaited sequel in one extraordinary volume. Julian Cope shot to fame with eighties band 'Teardrop Explodes' during the Punk era. Hailed as a visionary by those people who recognise his genius and a madman by those who find him perplexing, he has become a cult figure in the music world. Head-On/Repossessed is written in Cope's own inimitable style and follows his journey through a time of incredible change within the music industry. Head-on is the highly acclaimed autobiography that The Observer viewed as "book of the year" when it was first released. Repossesed picks up in 1983 where Head On ends and continues up until 1989.

 

Closely followed by:

 

 

With Bill Drummond, it's always best to expect the unexpected. He has made a career out of being gloriously unpredictable. He famously tasted pop success with the KLF, burned a million pounds on a remote Scottish isle and introduced the world to Echo & The Bunnymen and Julian Cope. 45 is as unexpected as the KLF collaborating with Tammy Wynette: a semi-autobiography from a man who has previously been loathe to talk about his work in public. The book takes the form of a collection of short stories and essays focusing on various aspects of Drummond's life. While some chapters are definite page-turners, others move at a more ponderous pace. 45 really comes alive when Drummond discusses hair-brained KLF schemes and K Foundation art stunts. It is within these chapters that he gets closest to confessional, musing on disillusionment, musical myth and the nature of nationalism. Here we get to glimpse into the mind of one of pop's wayward geniuses. Yet it is never more than a mere glimpse. Drummond clearly finds it hard to be truly revelatory. We should, of course, expect this from a man who spent his musical career building up myths, creating alter egos and trying to fool the media and the record-buying public. If anything, 45 illustrates perfectly Drummond's chameleon-like nature. On one hand, he is a shy, retiring family man who enjoys long walks in the country and drinking tea. Yet he is also a tortured genius, a frustrated artist and a man in the throes of a mid-life crisis. When he lets himself go, 45 is a cracking read and one of the most interesting books about music and art in years. --Matt Anniss

 

THE TIMES

'Drummond has the inimitable wisdom of a true maverick'

[PopTodd]

That Beatles book has been re-configured - if you have an original printing of that book - it is worth a lot of money.

 

I don't know.

But it's a softcover copy, so... how much could that be worth?

Not as much as an original hardcover, I'd guess.

Did they print an original hardcover?

[Analogman]

I don't know.

But it's a softcover copy, so... how much could that be worth?

Not as much as an original hardcover, I'd guess.

Did they print an original hardcover?

 

Yes - I have one.

 

The Beatles Live!

The Beatles Recording Sessions ~ The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years

The Beatles Day By Day

 

Now, it goes like this.

[Analogman]

I was looking at the page for Sam Cutler's book:

 

You Can't Always Get What You Want: My Life with the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and Other Wonderful Reprobates

 

and noticed this:

 

Keith Richards - Life (October 2010)

[Fritz]

Searching For The Sound: My Life With The Grateful Dead - Phil Lesh

 

Chronicles: Volume 1 - Bob Dylan

 

Garcia: An American Life - Blair Jackson

 

A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead - Dennis McNally

 

This Wheel's on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band - Levon Helm with Stephen Davis

 

No Direction Home: The Life And Music Of Bob Dylan - Robert Shelton

[The High Heat]

By Peter Guralnick:

Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley

Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley

 

 

 

 

There's this one:

 

[LouieB]

By Peter Guralnick:

Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley

Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley

 

 

These are a couple of the best books ever written about music.

 

LouieB

[KramkonG]

Has anyone read David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries? I just got it for an early b-day gift and will likely start reading it tonight. So, does anyone want to excite/discourage me? NOTE: both encourage my enthusiasm for reading the book.

 

[tinnitus photography]

just found this thread and i am intrigued by the Head On post...will be looking for a copy of that. Cope's a great musician, and sadly under-rated.

 

 

was a bit surprised to see no mention of any of the 33 1/3rd books out on Continuum...there are a lot of titles, each one ostensibly focused on a single record, and typically written by either a musician or rock critic. i've only read a few, but they were all good, esp the Celine Dion and Black Sabbath ones. i've also read the Byrds and Smiths titles, and have the GBV one on deck.

 

you can get 'em really cheap used, and i will definitely be picking up some more.

[PopTodd]

An incredibly entertaining read:

 

He was an angry man. And there is a lot of bile in this book, but a lot of humor, too. I love what he had to say about Mingus and Monk. (Monk was a weirdo, and Mingus was a big, intimidating man.) Some great stories.

 

EDIT:

I need to re-read this.

[Analogman]

just found this thread and i am intrigued by the Head On post...will be looking for a copy of that. Cope's a great musician, and sadly under-rated.

 

 

was a bit surprised to see no mention of any of the 33 1/3rd books out on Continuum...there are a lot of titles, each one ostensibly focused on a single record, and typically written by either a musician or rock critic. i've only read a few, but they were all good, esp the Celine Dion and Black Sabbath ones. i've also read the Byrds and Smiths titles, and have the GBV one on deck.

 

you can get 'em really cheap used, and i will definitely be picking up some more.

 

I think there was a thread about those books at some point a few years ago.

 

The Ozzy book I just read is a piece of junk - unless you want to read stories about his "wild and crazy" past.

 

I don't know why I read these rock start vanity books thinking they will be about music.

[tinnitus photography]

was the Ozzy book part of this series? i agree that these titles aren't just dry re-telling of recording details, etc...the authors have much leeway to editorialize how they see fit. Darnielle's book on _Master of Reality_ is outstanding because of this. Pernice's book reads as a fictitious memoir about the romanticism of youth, w/ that record as a backdrop. the Dion book considers what makes taste either 'good' or 'bad,' which i thought was very interesting.

[Analogman]

was the Ozzy book part of this series? i agree that these titles aren't just dry re-telling of recording details, etc...the authors have much leeway to editorialize how they see fit. Darnielle's book on _Master of Reality_ is outstanding because of this. Pernice's book reads as a fictitious memoir about the romanticism of youth, w/ that record as a backdrop. the Dion book considers what makes taste either 'good' or 'bad,' which i thought was very interesting.

 

No - it is a new book he has out.

 

The only one of those 33 books I read was about The Band. I didn't like it, so I never finished it.

 

Besides Shakey, and the David Lee Roth book, my favorites books to read are the day by day books, the gear books, or the books written by Martin Popoff.

[W(TF)]

 

was a bit surprised to see no mention of any of the 33 1/3rd books out on Continuum...there are a lot of titles, each one ostensibly focused on a single record, and typically written by either a musician or rock critic. i've only read a few, but they were all good, esp the Celine Dion and Black Sabbath ones. i've also read the Byrds and Smiths titles, and have the GBV one on deck.

 

you can get 'em really cheap used, and i will definitely be picking up some more.

 

I read the Music From Big Pink 33 1/3 novella, it was pretty entertaining.

[LouieB]

I found the Big Pink book entertaining too....no masterpiece however.

 

LouieB