Rock Autobio's or Bio's

mskill

Hey,

I was wondering if anyone has any good recommendations for some good rock, punk, classic rock, or grunge related autobiographical books (preferred) or biographical books. The only books I've got are Slash and a bio on John Lennon.

So, what do you guys recommend?

brianlux

My favorites... so far... I very much like or love all of these books- it's not just a big list for the sake of a big list (favorites in bold):

Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life, an outstanding book about several bands including Black Flag, Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Minor Threat, Husker Du, The Replacements, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr., Fugazi, Mudhoney and Beat Happening. Highly recommended!

Legs McNeil, Please Kill Me, The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Highly Recommended.

Greil Marcus, Ranters and Crowd Pleasers, Punk in Pop Music, 1977-92

Hilly Kristal and David Byrne, CBGB & OMFUG, Thirty Years from the Home of Underground Rock (mostly photos)

David Crosby,
-Long Time Gone
-Stand and Be Counted
-Since Then

Doors related:
John Densmore: Riders of the Storm
Ray Manzarek, The Poet in Exile ( a novel, but I like it a lot)
Wallace Fowlie, Rimbaud and Jim Morrison, The Rebel as Poet

Colin Irwin, Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited
Marc Spitz, Nobody Likes You, Inside the Turbulent Times, Life, Music of Green Day

Jimi Hendrix related:
-Tony Brown, Hendrix, The Final Days
-Charles R. Cross, Room Full of Mirrors
-Martin Green, Voodoo Child
-David Henderson, 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky
-John McDermott, Jimi Hendrix Sessions
-Mitch Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, Inside the Experience
Charles Shaar Murray, Crosstown Traffic

Willie Nelson, The Tao of Willie To me, essential.
Nina Antonia, The New York Dolls, Too Much Too Soon

Nirvana Related:
Michael Azerrad, Come As You Are, The Story of Nirvana
Charles R. Cross, Heavier Than Heaven, A Biography of Kurt Cobain

Laurie Lindeen, Petal Pusher, A Rock and Roll Story (about the band Zuzu's Petals)
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten), Rotten

Mick Wall, Pearl Jam (interesting but not great)

Ramones related (loved them all):
Mickey Leigh, I Slept With Joey Ramone
Monte Melnick, On the Road With The Ramones
Johnny Ramone, Commando, The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone
Everette True, Hey Ho Let's Go, The Story of the Ramones

Diana Clapton, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground

Jim Walsh, The Replacements, All Over But the Shouting
Keith Richards, Life Great book!

Henry Rollins, any or all- Rollins is great!- but if I had to pick a few:
- The Portable Henry Rollins
-Black Coffee Blues
-Solipsists
-Smile, Your Traveling

Steven Kurutz, Like a Rolling Stone, The Strange Life of a Tribute Band (Excellent!)
Patti Smith, Just Kids Excellent!
John Dougan, The Who Sell Out

Neil Young related:
Jimmy McDonough, Shakey, Neil Young's Biography
Editors of Rolling Stone, Neil Young, The Rolling Stones Files
Neil Young, Waging Heavy Peace Loved it!

morello

Interesting & great info brianlux. Snagging for later reference.

Oh & I too loved Uncle Neil(who I'm seeing live with Crazy Horse twice next week!!!!!!!!!!!! WEEEEHEEEEEE!!!! :-D)'s book by the way.

CP218430

Bob Dylan - Chronicles. Amazing writing. One of the best non-fiction books I've ever read.

Johnny Aggro

Cracking list Brian


One to add from Doors end of things (sort of)... Wonderland Avenue by Danny Sugerman


Not a biog, but a great insight into both The doors and Iggy Pop

dankind

And now for two that will make you want to take a shower after you read them:

1.

Hammer of the Gods by Stephen Davis -- pretty much everything that happens in this book has been denied by the surviving members of Led Zeppelin, but it's still a good sleazy read.

[list=2]2. The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band by Mötley Crüe and Neil Strauss. First paragraph:

Her name was Bullwinkle. We called her that because she had a face like a moose. But Tommy, even though he could get any girl he wanted on the Sunset Strip, would not break up with her. He loved her and wanted to marry her, he kept telling us, because she could spray her cum across the room.[/list]

peacefrompaul

Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis

he.who.forgets

Clapton's auto was a good read

Indifference71

he.who.forgets wrote:

Clapton's auto was a good read

Clapton's was awesome! How that guy is still alive after all the drugs/booze he did back in the day is a mystery.

Indifference71

I'm about halfway through the Rod Stewart book and it is pretty damn good so far.

JonnyPistachio

brianlux wrote:

Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life, an outstanding book about several bands including Black Flag, Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Minor Threat, Husker Du, The Replacements, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr., Fugazi, Mudhoney and Beat Happening. Highly recommended!

This looks interesting -- just picked it up!

I'd also have to say Scar Tissue. Great read!
Alos Hammer of the Gods was good,
The PJ story is outstanding too.. I liked Mick Wall's book.

I've got Keith Richards book on deck. My Dad said it was great.

Tom K

If you read Dylan's Chronicles and enjoy it, I would suggest reading Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie. I also liked Shakey, the Neil Young bio. It really chronicles Neil's entire recording career (the author is a bit of a dipshit) but it is a pretty insightful book.

JonnyPistachio

just remembered, Jimmy Buffets autobiography was very good. Im not a huge fan of his music, but his book was great.

MaxGoldenrod

Indifference71 wrote:

he.who.forgets wrote:

Clapton's auto was a good read

Clapton's was awesome! How that guy is still alive after all the drugs/booze he did back in the day is a mystery.

This.

Read it.

brianlux

JonnyPistachio wrote:

brianlux wrote:

Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life, an outstanding book about several bands including Black Flag, Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Minor Threat, Husker Du, The Replacements, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr., Fugazi, Mudhoney and Beat Happening. Highly recommended!

This looks interesting -- just picked it up!

I'd also have to say Scar Tissue. Great read!
Alos Hammer of the Gods was good,
The PJ story is outstanding too.. I liked Mick Wall's book.

I've got Keith Richards book on deck. My Dad said it was great.

I'm guessing you'll love Azerrad's book, Jonny. I can't say enough about it-- one of my all-time favorite music books. Huge!

I want to read Hammer of the Gods. I've had a couple copies but gave both as gifts. Same with Scar Tissue. I'll add those to my "want" list.

Tom K

Anyone read Pete Townsend's book yet?

Leezestarr313

Oh that is great, I added some of the recommendations to my must-read list :thumbup:

I want to add one that I always recommend in threads like this, I enjoyed reading it quite a lot. So here goes ... It's not an autobiography or biography, but rather collected writings of a music journalist.
The name is "The Dark Stuff - Selected Writings on Rock Music". The author is Nick Kent. He has done interviews and spent time with people like Brian Wilson, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Stones, Eminem, Elvis Costello, Neil Young, Iggy Pop, and also Kurt Cobain.
It's interesting and slighty different pieces and musings on musicians, the language is very vivid, almost like you are watching a documentary.
I'm going to read it again

Who Princess

Tom K wrote:

Anyone read Pete Townsend's book yet?

Even as a huge Who fan, I found the book hard to get through. I'll just say that if you're interested, get the audiobook instead of trying to read it. Pete reads it himself and he's an entertaining storyteller. He chuckles at funny stories and imitates people's voices when he quotes them. Unfortunately, a lot of the story isn't real fun. He spent many years as a drunk and an addict and talks a lot about all the people he hurt and the stupid things he did.

It's not your typical sex, drugs and rock'n'roll story and it's not a lot of great "on the road with the 'orrible 'Oo" stories. He doesn't talk about his songwriting process, which would have interested me a lot. He gives the stories behind a lot of the songs, some of which I knew and some I didn't. I've always thought "A Quick One" was such a fun song and I'm not sure I'm going to hear it the same way now. My favorite story was what led him to write "Did You Steal My Money?"

There's lots of detail about his early life. I thought the best part of that was hearing about the joys and weirdness of growing up in a family of professional musicians. It had an enormous impact on his career as a musician, more than I realized. Also fun to read about is the excitement of seeing bands like the Stones, the Kinks, Pink Floyd in their early days.

But it's not all that interesting (at least to me) to read about all the beautiful women with whom he cheated on his wife. Or the complicated business dealings of the Who. Or the fabulous recording equipment in each new studio.

RKCNDY

Duff McKagan-It's So Easy and Other Lies: he talks about his life, being in Guns and Velvet. More about his battle with addiction. I really enjoyed it. I read they are turning it into a doc.

Gonna start reading the Slash book.

Tom K

Who Princess wrote:

Tom K wrote:

Anyone read Pete Townsend's book yet?

Even as a huge Who fan........... fabulous recording equipment in each new studio.

I will take that all into consideration whoprincess.. thank you..

riotgrl

Who Princess wrote:

Tom K wrote:

Anyone read Pete Townsend's book yet?

Even as a huge Who fan, I found the book hard to get through. I'll just say that if you're interested, get the audiobook instead of trying to read it. Pete reads it himself and he's an entertaining storyteller. He chuckles at funny stories and imitates people's voices when he quotes them. Unfortunately, a lot of the story isn't real fun. He spent many years as a drunk and an addict and talks a lot about all the people he hurt and the stupid things he did.

It's not your typical sex, drugs and rock'n'roll story and it's not a lot of great "on the road with the 'orrible 'Oo" stories. He doesn't talk about his songwriting process, which would have interested me a lot. He gives the stories behind a lot of the songs, some of which I knew and some I didn't. I've always thought "A Quick One" was such a fun song and I'm not sure I'm going to hear it the same way now. My favorite story was what led him to write "Did You Steal My Money?"

There's lots of detail about his early life. I thought the best part of that was hearing about the joys and weirdness of growing up in a family of professional musicians. It had an enormous impact on his career as a musician, more than I realized. Also fun to read about is the excitement of seeing bands like the Stones, the Kinks, Pink Floyd in their early days.

But it's not all that interesting (at least to me) to read about all the beautiful women with whom he cheated on his wife. Or the complicated business dealings of the Who. Or the fabulous recording equipment in each new studio.

I'm reading this right now and this is spot on. I am having a hard time reading it because it seems so disjointed. He makes mention of keeping a diary during this time and it seems as if he recounts some of the stories he found there and just drops them in the book here and there. Or else, someone edited it for him and dropped alot of stuff out. I just finished reading the section about the develoment of Quadrophenia and that was pretty good but it is too much about business dealings and the like. I would have liked to know more about his relationship with Clapton and more details about how he helped "save him". But he kept that pretty brief.

Who Princess

riotgrl wrote:

I'm reading this right now and this is spot on. I am having a hard time reading it because it seems so disjointed. He makes mention of keeping a diary during this time and it seems as if he recounts some of the stories he found there and just drops them in the book here and there. Or else, someone edited it for him and dropped alot of stuff out. I just finished reading the section about the develoment of Quadrophenia and that was pretty good but it is too much about business dealings and the like. I would have liked to know more about his relationship with Clapton and more details about how he helped "save him". But he kept that pretty brief.

The original manuscript was pared down to half, so I think that's why it seems disjointed. I'm not sure anybody would want to read 1000 pages of Pete Townshend's life but I didn't care for how it was edited. Things were introduced and then never mentioned again. Other things just seemed to come out of nowhere.

I couldn't finish the book. That's why I'd recommend the audiobook for anyone who's interested. Much more enjoyable. But I was still kind of disappointed. I've read a lot of things Pete's written over the years and I expected better from him. He can write very well and was always considered "the thinking man's rocker."

At the same time I'd hesitate to tell someone to avoid the book. There are some priceless moments, like when his exasperated wife hits him on the head with a wooden spoon. I was thinking, "Sister, what took you SO LONG!"

Or the little bits you pick up here and there, like how he took dance lessons as a child until his dad put a stop to it. The experience gave him a love of dance and added to his athleticism on the stage. Also, how early manager Kit Lambert told the band members that they should perform on stage so that even people in the back row could see something. After that Pete usually wore white on stage and perfected his windmill and leaps (coming down right on beat, very cool to watch). As a Who fan, reading things like that was pure gold to me. It reminded me of all the guys in the 70s who wore wide-legged white pants so they would look like Pete, along with putting numbers on their guitars. It never occurred to me that there was so much thought behind moves like this:



I wish I could say just read this or that section for the high points but it's not like that. And what one person finds fascinating, someone else might think is boring. My best advice still is try the audiobook.