Your top five (or ten) favorite music books.

brianlux · January 2019

Kind of an updated version of an earlier thread because times and tastes change.

What are your all-time top 5 (or 10) favorite music books and/or biographies?

It's super hard for me to go with just 10 but as of now my top 10 are:

Pete Townshend, Who I Am

My current favorite. I devoured this one!

Michael Azarrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life

An essential edition among my music books.

Keith Richards, Life

A must read!

John Lydon, Anger is An Energy

Inspiring and motivating! No bullshit, no lies.

John Lydon, Rotten

Excellent stories of changing times.

Kris Needs, Dream Baby Dream, Suicide, a New York Story

Excellent in every way. A strong glimpse of early 70's NYC and an incredible musical duo.

John Densmore, Riders of the Storm

Loved it! Doors Unhinged is really good to and I got John to sign my copy. Sweet guy, too.

Neil Young, Waging Heavy Peace

Marvelous though a bit scattered (a great song!). Neil's the real deal.

Bob Meir, Trouble Boys, The True Story of the Replacements

An excellent book about one of my all-time favorite bands that I found rather disturbing.

Keith Morris, My Damage

As real as it gets. And what a cool guy. Got to meet him briefly and bet my copy signed.

I wanted to add a Henry Rollins title since I have, and have read, 33 of them, but Henry is about way more than just music.

Thoughts_Arrive · January 2019

Scar Tissue - Anthony Kiedis
Inside Out - Nick Mason
Come As You Are - Michael Azerad
Being John Lennon - Ray Connoly (still reading it but loving this)

I own a copy of Life by Keith Richards, received it as a gift years ago as the person who bought it thought I was a Stones fan.
I have not read it but might have to.

brianlux · January 2019

Thoughts_Arrive said:

Scar Tissue - Anthony Kiedis
Inside Out - Nick Mason
Come As You Are - Michael Azerad
Being John Lennon - Ray Connoly (still reading it but loving this)

I own a copy of Life by Keith Richards, received it as a gift years ago as the person who bought it thought I was a Stones fan.
I have not read it but might have to.

I've heard Kiedis' book is really good. I might have to give that one a read!

Life is great. I was blown away by what a great story teller Keith is! A friend of mine liked it so much that when he finished reading it, he went back to page one and read it straight through all over again.

Thoughts_Arrive · January 2019

brianlux said:

Thoughts_Arrive said:

Scar Tissue - Anthony Kiedis
Inside Out - Nick Mason
Come As You Are - Michael Azerad
Being John Lennon - Ray Connoly (still reading it but loving this)

I own a copy of Life by Keith Richards, received it as a gift years ago as the person who bought it thought I was a Stones fan.
I have not read it but might have to.

I've heard Kiedis' book is really good. I might have to give that one a read!

Life is great. I was blown away by what a great story teller Keith is! A friend of mine liked it so much that when he finished reading it, he went back to page one and read it straight through all over again.

Looking forward to it.
I could re-read Scar Tissue over and over again. What a life Anthony has lived.

ST66483 · January 2019

I really like Please Kill Me - The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

Gern Blansten · January 2019

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fargo_Rock_City

Fargo Rock City

brianlux · January 2019

ST66483 said:

I really like Please Kill Me - The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

Yes, excellent book!

Gern Blansten said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fargo_Rock_City

Fargo Rock City

Klosterman is cool, I should check into this one. Love the Kiss Cow cover.

Gern Blansten · January 2019

Definitely check it out....great book

timdwilli · January 2019

A couple good relatively recent ones:
Closer You Are: The Story of Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices - Matthew Cutter
Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011 - Lizzy Goodman

RYME · January 2019

(Left) is a Waylon biography. Got it from the merch tent (and a few t-shirts & a hat of course) at a concert of his in Janesville WI. Rock County Fair 1996 on his Right For The Time tour. (I was18 yrs old at the time lol) I stood in line for an hour after the show to get it signed and a handshake. The other book needs no explanation. Its a great book.

goldrush · January 2019

I definitely agree on Life and Scar Tissue; they’re both great books that I’ve read more than once. Waging Heavy Peace takes some work but it is worth it!

‘Neil & Me’ by Scott Young is one of my favourite Neil books, and I also really enjoyed ‘Detours’ by Tim Rogers recently. ‘Slash’ by Slash was a lot better than I expected it to be as well.

On the downside, I was given The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play (a Frank Zappa biography of sorts) years ago - it’s so pretentious it’s bordering on unreadable!

Loujoe · January 2019

Just read .'punk avenue' by the guy from the senders. Usually takes me weeks to read a book. Read it in one night.

brianlux · January 2019

goldrush said:

I definitely agree on Life and Scar Tissue; they’re both great books that I’ve read more than once. Waging Heavy Peace takes some work but it is worth it!

‘Neil & Me’ by Scott Young is one of my favourite Neil books, and I also really enjoyed ‘Detours’ by Tim Rogers recently. ‘Slash’ by Slash was a lot better than I expected it to be as well.

On the downside, I was given The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play (a Frank Zappa biography of sorts) years ago - it’s so pretentious it’s bordering on unreadable!

I have a copy of Neil and Me. I should read that one!

Thirty Bills Unpaid · January 2019

Heavier Than Heaven

and Scar Tissue

Hammer of the Gods was a good one too.

brianlux · January 2019

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

Heavier Than Heaven

and Scar Tissue

Hammer of the Gods was a good one too.

A lot of kudos for Scar Tissue here, looks like I need to read that one!

Thirty Bills Unpaid · January 2019

brianlux said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

Heavier Than Heaven

and Scar Tissue

Hammer of the Gods was a good one too.

A lot of kudos for Scar Tissue here, looks like I need to read that one!

It’s awesome. I might re-read.

dankind · January 2019

Adam Horovitz and Michael Diamond (and special guests), Beastie Boys Book

Patti Smith, Just Kids

Kim Gordon, Girl in a Band

John Fine, Your Band Sucks

Greil Marcus, Mystery Train

Lester Bangs, Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung

Peter Guralnick, Lost Highway

Carrie Brownstein, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

Neil Young, Waging Heavy Peace

Louis Armstrong, Satchmo

Timothy White, Catch a Fire

Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape (Talking to Girls About Duran Duran is pretty good, too)

Chuck Klosterman, Fargo Rock City

Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Please Kill Me

Jerry Hopkins, No One Here Gets Out Alive

Woody Guthrie, Bound for Glory

Evelyn McDonnell and Ann Powers (eds.), Rock She Wrote

Jeff Chang, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, Miles

David Hajdu, Positively 4th Street

Billie Holliday with William Dufty, Lady Sings the Blues

Andrew Grant Jackson, 1965

Pamela Des Barres, I’m with the Band

Stephen Davis, Hammer of the Gods

Mötley Crüe with Neil Strauss, The Dirt

iOnlyownMymind · January 2019

Everybody Loves Our Town: An oral history of grunge by Mark Yarm

Indifference71 · January 2019

Clapton's autobiography is phenomenal. I couldn't put that one down...finished it in a couple days.

HesCalledDyer · January 2019

I’ve been trying to find a decently priced copy of Peter Garrett’s (Midnight Oil) book “Big Blue Sky: A Memoir” but the decently priced part eludes me to no end. If anyone has any leads, please let me know.

brianlux · January 2019

dankind said:

Adam Horovitz and Michael Diamond (and special guests), Beastie Boys Book

Patti Smith, Just Kids

Kim Gordon, Girl in a Band

John Fine, Your Band Sucks

Greil Marcus, Mystery Train

Lester Bangs, Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung

Peter Guralnick, Lost Highway

Carrie Brownstein, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

Neil Young, Waging Heavy Peace

Louis Armstrong, Satchmo

Timothy White, Catch a Fire

Rob Sheffield, Love Is a Mix Tape (Talking to Girls About Duran Duran is pretty good, too)

Chuck Klosterman, Fargo Rock City

Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Please Kill Me

Jerry Hopkins, No One Here Gets Out Alive

Woody Guthrie, Bound for Glory

Evelyn McDonnell and Ann Powers (eds.), Rock She Wrote

Jeff Chang, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, Miles

David Hajdu, Positively 4th Street

Billie Holliday with William Dufty, Lady Sings the Blues

Andrew Grant Jackson, 1965

Pamela Des Barres, I’m with the Band

Stephen Davis, Hammer of the Gods

Mötley Crüe with Neil Strauss, The Dirt

More great books and I few I will check out. Nicely done, Dan!

Your top five (or ten) favorite music books.

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