Best music bio/autobio-graphies

[Ill Communication]

I don't know if I should post this here or in the books section, but what are some good ones you've read ... I've tackled

1. the Dirt (probably my favorite)
2. Tommyland
3. Shakey (to be read)
4. Hammer of the Gods (in progress)
5. Cash (to be read)
6. Please Kill Me (to be read)
7. Labotomy: Surviving the Ramones
8. A Riot of Our Own: Night and Day With the Clash
9. KISS and Make-Up

[jessecuster3]

Noone Here Gets Out Alive - The Doors
Saucerful of Secrets - Pink Floyd
Unforgettable Fire - U2 (this was up to and including Rattle and Hum. The only era of U2 I care for.



Forgot one, Manchester, England by Dave Haslam, detailing the history and rise and fall of the music scene from Manchester.

[Punchy]

Oddly enough I haven't read very many music biographies. But I have read the Autobiography of Miles Davis and it is fantastic.

[Jonathan Bogart]

Bob Dylan's superb first volume of his Chronicles should be read by anyone with any interest in his music.

Nick Tosches' examination of American music through the prism of the very few remaining biographical details of minstrel/jazz/country singer Emmett Miller, Where Dead Voices Gather, is essential.

It's not exactly a book, but the extensive liner notes in Rhino's reissues of Elvis Costello's back catalogue add up to a witty, if foreshortened, autobiography.

Generally speaking, I have no interest in reading biographies of people who are still alive; they're necessarily incomplete works. Autobiographies, of course, are a different story, but very few musicians can write well enough to make it worth the effort, I think.

[Ilash]

I'm currently reading Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now by Barry Miles, which is really quite interesting. It mainly covers the Beatles years and is taken from many interviews that Miles did with McCartney over the years, which includes plenty of great insights into the Beatles recordings. It's not exactly brilliantly written but it is a good read for all Beatles fans.

[Slam_Bradley]

Oddly enough I haven't read very many music biographies. But I have read the Autobiography of Miles Davis and it is fantastic.

That's a good one. It's actual title is just Miles by Miles Davis.

Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life by Laurence Bergreen is a good read.

[Adam Crocker]

8. A Riot of Our Own: Night and Day With the Clash


Ever heard of The Clash: The Return of the Last Gang In Town by Marcus Gray? He was a writer who set out to do a Clash biography, but never really got a chance to interview the band due to being told by their people that they were working on their own book. (Yet they weren't.) However, he ended up cobbling together a detailed, well written book from researching vast numbers of articles on the band as well as interviewing people that they knew. It was originally released in 1994 as Last Gang in Town : The Story and Myth of the Clash and was promptly lambasted by the press for trashing the Clash? Why? Because Gray found out that what he lacked in first-hand interviews he made up for in discovering information that cut into the Clash's myth at various points in the band's career (the specific content of the myth never being consistent) and highlighted many of the inconsistencies in the stance that the Clash had taken. Essentially it showed how human they were.

Granted this based on my reading of the latest edition, not the first one, which according to the author's own admission was badly rushed and badly written in the second half. He trimmed down some of the information from the earlier parts of the original book but was able to expand on things in the later years. In any case it hardly trashes the Clash, just notes that all music, like any other form of entertainment, is theatre and the Clash played up to that. (Or more accurately, ironically played up to it in the process of trying to live up to the rockist expectations of "authenticity.") In many ways its incredibly fair-minded towards the band in places where one could judge them much more harshly. Also the initial the press trashing of the book was kind of ironic considering how harshly the Clash were actually treated by the British press as they moved away from punk. Now the biography is considered to be the definitive book on the Clash. How's that for revisionist history?

Anyways you can read an interview (http://www.trakmarx.com/2003_01/10.htm) with Marcus Gray here. Also go over to look inside (http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/063408240X/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-1221023-5306464#reader-link) at Amazon to read a foreward that isn't in the newest edition that explains some of the revisions as well as the overall intent of the book. Gray left it out because he thinks it's not necessary anymore to defend the work. I think he should have left it in, more to explain the writing process and the nature of the work.

[Lubichev]

Beneath the Underdog--Charles Mingus

A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles--Mark Hertsgaard

Please Kill Me (The Oral History of Punk Rock)-- Legs McNeil

[Rob on the Job]

... It's not exactly a book, but the extensive liner notes in Rhino's reissues of Elvis Costello's back catalogue add up to a witty, if foreshortened, autobiography. ...

Elvis Costello writes the finest liner notes I've ever read.

He really should be writing regularly about music, even though Elvis once observed, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

[Punchy]

Beneath the Underdog--Charles Mingus

A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles--Mark Hertsgaard

Please Kill Me (The Oral History of Punk Rock)-- Legs McNeil
I've read part of Beneath the Underdog, I really should read the whole thing. Although it might be a stretch to call it a biography or autobiography.

[Ed Cunard]

Punchy, Bogart:

Have either of you read (and I'm stretching things a bit here, as it's not exactly biography) The Poets of Tin Pan Alley? It's an interesting look at the songs and lives of the composers and lyricists from that era.

[Lubichev]

Although it might be a stretch to call it a biography or autobiography.

True. 60 percent truth, 40 percent "other." Very well written, I thought. Musical in itself.

Mingus/Mingus: Two Memoirs by Janet Coleman and Al Young is good, short reading.

[leonaozaki]

Shakey, the biography of Neil Young, is excellent. I loved it. It's an hilarious book.

rob

[Adam Crocker]

He really should be writing regularly about music, even though Elvis once observed, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

That was him? I thought Frank Zappa coined that phrase.

[Jonathan Bogart]

That was him? I thought Frank Zappa coined that phrase.
It's attributed equally freely to both; as far as I can tell (and I've looked pretty hard) its original derivation is unknown.

[berk]

I haven't read a lot of pop music bios. I did think that both Hammer of the Gods (Led Zep) and No One Gets Out of Here Alive (Jim Morrison) were fun, trashy reads as long as you don't expect anything more from them. Probably the best two I've read were Nico: Icon (model/actress/singer Nico) and Without You (Badfinger). I keep meaning to give Lydon's book a try one of these days but never seem to get around to it.

[Sanagi]

Saucerful of Secrets is a good and quite readable account of the Pink Floyd story, although it predates the release of their last album.

[Jonathan Bogart]

Have either of you read (and I'm stretching things a bit here, as it's not exactly biography) The Poets of Tin Pan Alley? It's an interesting look at the songs and lives of the composers and lyricists from that era.
I haven't read that specific book, but I've read a lot about the Classic American Pop writers (Gershwins, Porter, Rodgers/Hart, Berlin, Kern, Carmichael, and some of the second tier too). That whole world -- and period -- fascinates me.

[TheLazy]

The only autobiography I've ever read was Justice For All: The Truth About Metallica by Joel McIver. I thought it was extremely subjective and very harsh throughout the second half of their career, but it worked. I disagree with alot of his opinion throughout it, but again, it made it more real, like he was a person their through it all, personally experiencing it. Since Master of Pupets came out before I was even born, then reading how it was recieved by the fans, and then how Metallica started infiltrating the mainstream with Justice was very informative. it's one of the few books I've given up a social life to finish.

[Ed Cunard]

I haven't read that specific book, but I've read a lot about the Classic American Pop writers (Gershwins, Porter, Rodgers/Hart, Berlin, Kern, Carmichael, and some of the second tier too). That whole world -- and period -- fascinates me.

I think you'd really like it. Worth checking out of the library, at least.

[Punchy]

Yeah, it sounds interesting.

[DDM]

Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Authorised Biography:

http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/7280000/7281272.jpg

A comprehensive autobiography with interviews from Siouxsie Sioux, Steven Severin, Budgie, & various other related lesser members of the group. I was surprised to learn Severin had a cocaine additiction throughout the making of Peepshow. And Siouxsie & the Banshees effectively split when Siouxsie had a terrible argument with Severin when he brought his girlfriend on the Peepshow Tour (This explains the sudden emergence of Siouxsie & Budgie as The Creatures' Boomerang when Sioux had talked at one time to go back to America with Peepshow & record new material as Siouxsie & the Banshees). Combine this with Siouxsie & Severin's differing musical views, the demise of the Banshees was on the horizon, despite the hugely successful Superstition.

I finished reading the book in one day.

[bert]

"Scar Tissue" by Anthony Kiedis (spelling?) is a great read about the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

"Long, Hard Road to Hell" the Official Marilyn Manson biography is a fun read, even if you can tell he's making half of the stuff up.

there's a couple of fun/trashy "tell alls" about Ace Frehley and his drug/alcohol issues while in KISS and after. the best is probably Into the Void, with Ace Frehley" written by an ex-girlfriend of his. as I said, a fun, trashy read, and It's available from Amazon.

and although not quite "music", there's quite a chapter on Lollapoloza w/ Ministry & Pearl Jam, and another chapter w/ Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). . easily one of my favorite biographies:
"Freak Like Me" Jim Rose and the Travelling Circus