Favourite Music Biographies?

[Chiogtr4x]

I forget the actual titles,
but read very good ( easy reads) autobiographies from both Gregg Allman and Neil Young



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[northernguitar]

I forget the actual titles,
but read very good ( easy reads) autobiographies from both Gregg Allman and Neil Young



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I read NY’s Waging Heavy War. It had its good parts, but he kept veering into promoting the failed Pono and all its ‘superior sound quality’.

 

[Chiogtr4x]

I read NY’s Waging Heavy War. It had its good parts, but he kept veering into promoting the failed Pono and all its ‘superior sound quality’.

That's the one, and you are right.

But I also remember him being pretty gracious/complimentary ( or tries...) to everyone he mentions in the book.

But I'll give him a pass, for all his songs I learned to play!

I don't really perform them ( a few) but I practice the rhythm guitar of about 30 ( more?) of his songs- just for kicks at home usually on acoustic.
I can't seem to help it- I love his chord progressions or little hooks.
He really is something- if you like him!

 

[northernguitar]

That's the one, and you are right.

But I also remember him being pretty gracious/complimentary ( or tries...) to everyone he mentions in the book.

But I'll give him a pass, for all his songs I learned to play!

I don't really perform them ( a few) but I practice the rhythm guitar of about 30 ( more?) of his songs- just for kicks at home usually on acoustic.
I can't seem to help it- I love his chord progressions or little hooks.
He really is something- if you like him!

I love Neil.

 

[Oxidao]

“Just kids” Patti Smith (+R. Mapplethorpe)
NYC scene on 1967

 

[Lamar Chipperson]

 

[dswo]

A few people have mentioned Geoff Emerick's Here, There, and Everywhere. I enjoyed this, but realized (after I had read more widely) that Emerick is a Paul partisan; even though he was an eyewitness to some things, you can't take what he says about the other three at face value.

I too look forward to the second volume of Lewisohn's The Beatles: All These Years. In the meantime, I wish the publisher would make the expanded version of the first volume available as an ebook. I want to read it, but I don't want to store it or pay US$100+ for it.

I'm grateful for Philip Norman's biography of John Lennon. Lewisohn's Tune In has more detail about his early life, but Norman helped me to see Yoko Ono more clearly. Emerick assumed she had "no musical background." If you read Norman, you learn that she was "an accomplished pianist" who had studied music at university, "specializing in German lieder and Italian opera." That doesn't mean you have to like her singing.

I'm currently rereading Mick Wall's Zeppelin book, When Giants Walked the Earth. He's cautious but probing about Page and the occult.

 

[Burlington Dave]

Conversations with Tom Petty - Best Petty bio out there.

Enlighten me! Please! [/QUOTE]

 

[dickey]

Only one I've read:

Lucky Man...Greg Lake.

 

[Jim W]

Rory Block’s autobiography is good
Dave Davies book
Bruce Cockburn

 

[Dave Hicks]

Here's one I've preordered - due out in a couple weeks:

 

[IMMusicRulz]

You guys should read Wishbone Ash guitarist Andy Powell's autobiography, Eyes Wide Open: True Tales of a Wishbone Ash Warrior. It is a very good book. I think Martin Turner of Wishbone Ash also has an autobiography too.

 

[Vegetable Man]

 

[jays0n]

The book Redemption Song about Joe Strummer is good:

 

[suthol]

I have both Working Class Boy & Working Class Man - Jimmy Barnes both good if depressing and then uplifting reads

Riding Shotgun - Gerry McAvoy ( life on the road with Rory Gallagher )
Tragedy - The Bee Gees ( what the title says )
Motherless Child - Eric Clapton
Me - Elton John
Infinite Tuesday - Mike Nesmith

 

[brupop]

‘Beautiful Dreamer’ : Bill Frisell​

 

[pbenn]

Learned a lot from Barney Hoskyns's Band book:



But also might mention Rob Bowman's Stax history:



And although not a highbrow read, Kent Hartman's Wrecking Crew book casts a wide net for strange cultural detail (who knew the connection between Johnny Rivers and the Fifth Dimension?):

 

[Linderflomann]

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You might like Under the Big Black Sun by John Doe if you haven't read it already!

 

[Bendyha]

Just to add a contrast, the worst I ever tried reading - I fought my way to the photo section in the middle, then was pleased to throw the crap away, was "Scar Tissue (Give it Away)" by the R-H-C-Peppers singer, Anthony Kiedis. What a characterless, self-loving, privileged git, with an insipid biography told with limited writing skills. I purchased the book in a junk-shop - right place for it, but the 50c I paid was more than a waste, for I now no longer get pleasure from hearing the music his band plays.

 

[Wrighty]

Or autobiographies. Please recommend some, they’re usually my favourite things to read. My favourites:

Life-Keith Richards
Iron Man-Tony Iommi
Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You?: A Memoir -George Clinton
The One- James Brown bio
Reckless: My Life as a Pretender -Chrissie Hynde
Anger Is An Energy-John Lydon
Who I Am- Pete Townshend
I Am Ozzy
White Line Fever-Lemmy bio

Enlighten me! Please!

Or autobiographies. Please recommend some, they’re usually my favourite things to read. My favourites:

Life-Keith Richards
Iron Man-Tony Iommi
Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You?: A Memoir -George Clinton
The One- James Brown bio
Reckless: My Life as a Pretender -Chrissie Hynde
Anger Is An Energy-John Lydon
Who I Am- Pete Townshend
I Am Ozzy
White Line Fever-Lemmy bio

Enlighten me! Please!

Willy Nelson, bought it on impulse for a holiday read. Read it in two days, heck if a guy and we’ll written book.