My list of favorite music books are:
1:
High Fidelity by
Nick Hornby2:
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die3: Play Bass with Metallica
My list is small because I haven't read that many music related books. But I like what I have read though!
What are your favorite music related books? Biographies, sheet music, how to play (instrument), novels about music, it all counts for book loving music fans!
I'm not a huge fan of being told what's good and what I should listen to or own, so the list type books aren't of interest. And I'm not big into music theory and can't play a note, so technique books are out. Off the top of my head, I think I have only one music related book and that's
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon, but haven't read it because I'm not emotionally ready to handle it yet. 3 years later, I still cry over his death.
I have been tempted by a couple of history of heavy metal type books though...
Traveling Music (touchstone broken) by Neil Peart is a good one.
The Beatles by
Bob Spitz is one of the best biographies I have ever read.
There is a book about John Coltrane I want to read soon, but its name eludes me right now.
Head-On by Julian Cope is excellent, as is A Wop Bop a Loo Bop by Nik Cohn. Richard Meltzer's
The Aesthetics of Rock is hilarious, in a good way.
I had Charlie Gillette's The Sound of the City, which I picked up at a gas station/book exchange outside a godforsaken little West Texas town, as a boon companion in High School, leading me to seek out a lot of early rock n roll records in whatever format I could find.
Then, about the time I hit University, the first edition of
The Rolling Stone Record Guide furthered my education regarding artists and (debatably) essential lp's.
Soon after, I graduated to Bangs' Psychotic Reactions and Carburator Dung. Being a Dylan fan, I found
No Direction Home essential as well.
Also,
Milton Cross's 2 volume guide to classical music (the name escapes me and I'm too lazy to check the box) helped open up that world for me.
Message edited by its author, Jan 16, 2008, 2:35pm.
I almost forgot
Rock Dreams, an art book purporting to trace the history of rock though various imaginings (the Stones as pedophilac Nazis, for instance). Another high school favorite.
The ability to write about music in such a way that you can practically hear it is really magically to me.
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth is a wonderful novel about playing 'second fiddle' in a chamber music quartet. The book is accompanied by a CD containing several of the works that are major elements of the story.
Another book that has been brought out with a matching CD is
Dirt Music by Tim Winton which contains a very eclectic selection from classical to world music - and Australian, too.
Michael Connelly's police detective, Harry Bosch in
Trunk Music among others, is, like his creator, a jazz fan. 'Dark Sacred Night: the music of Harry Bosch', a very fine collection, was compiled by Michael Connelly and given to me by a friend, but I don't know if the disc is available commercially.
One of the short stories in John Harvey's
Now's the Time has a fabulous description of Thelonious Monk's piano playing. Harvey 'makes music' in other books, too,especially his Charlie Resnick series.
Barnes & Noble has the interactive DVD & book set of the last 40 years of
Rolling Stone. It is unbelievable. Every page of every issue including all the ads. Addictive. The search is powerful and they built in the ability for the user to create different reading lists. Say you want to see all the Album Reviews for David Bowie, you search for them and then drop them into a list you've created called David Bowie album reviews. You can create a separate list for articles, interviews or fiction. Very cool. I know what I'm doing this weekend!
Hammer of the Gods - epic story of Led Zep written by their roadie
Dirt - the story of Motley Crue
Even if you are not a fan of heavy metal, these 2 books are thorougly entertaining!
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I read a lot about the 60s and its countercultural + pop music scene when I was in my teens. Here are some of my best picks:
Faithfull: An Autobiography by
Marianne Faithfull- It reads like she is too eager to explain what was going on then, it is a much needed female perspective on the 60s hipster scene.
According to the Rolling Stones by The Rolling Stones
- Here you can read about their beginnings, their love for the Blues and their ups and downs. All told by Mick Jagger's, Keith Richard's, Ronnie Wood's and Charlie Watt's their distinctive voices.
Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend by
Stephen Davis- A recent biography on The Door's lead singer. A well-researched book that does not waste your time retelling old tall tales about the one and only Lizard King.
Love, Janis by
Laura Joplin- A Biography on Janis Joplin told from the perspective of her kid sister. The childhood memories are compelling and gracefully intimate.
The only music-related biography I've read all the way through is
Searching For the sound by
Phil Lesh. I'm not a major deadhead and missed the sixties by way of being born in the eighties, but some of it was interesting.
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