Books by musicians

Re Zappa: his own book is pretty good, but I like more the books written about him to be more fascinating. And one of the weirdest books I've ever read is The Negative Dialectic of Poodle Play, where a British academic tries to integrate Marx, Freud and Adorno into Zappa's oeuvre and even goes so far as to compare Zappa to James Joyce. It's a bit much even for a big-time Zappa-head like myself, and it's mostly bullshit, but it's fascinating and well-executed bullshit.

I presume that's for the best, yes?

John Cale: What's Welsh for Zen?

If I were to recommend a book by a musician...probably Stravinsky's Poetics of Music, or the writings of Debussy ("Monsieur Croche the Dilettante Hater") or Satie, or maybe a collection of Morton Feldman's essays that I once read. Composers often make each others' best biographers, too (i.e. George Perle on Berg). The only other book written by a pop musician I can think of, besides The Horse's Neck, that I've read was John Lennon's Skywriting by Word of Mouth, which was an amusing trifle with a few cute bits. Oh, and I also have a used paperback of Jim Morrison's poetry, which I'm glad to have (thanks, Mom) but I've never even tried to read -- why would I, when I could read something good instead? And now that I think about it (ah, the truth comes out), I have a book of Jimi Hendrix's poetry and fragments (Cherokee Mist) and a Jerry Garcia book stashed away somewhere; both were gifts, and neither were particularly compelling/memorable.

a great book but a truly asd tale of a very talented musician. I like the original large paperback layout better than the recent smaller paperback editions...

books by Nick Cave and Lydia Lunch should be avoided at all cost.

Other good stuff:
"Really the Blues" by Mezz Mezzrow
"Is That It?" by Bob Geldof was much better than I imagined it would be.
"Go Now" was, too! but then I promptly forgot I'd read it immediately after putting it down :/

It's an unitentional hoot...he's obsessed with proving that he's the person who introduced the short hair and skinny tie to Blondie (for the men).

The photos are a classic - "Note my short tie and skinny tie"....."Note length of hair" - next to a photo of Chris Stein.

The guy's a complete wally jumblat.

Killers, Angels, Refugees and Mirrors, Dreams and Miracles by Peter Hammill. Both have some interesting short stories alongside his collected lyrics up to 1980.

"Are You Experienced?", by Noel Redding and Carol Appleby. Goes into detail about drug use, drinking, management problems, the whole lot.

Hip Hop Literature TS:

The Ice Opinion - Ice T & Heidi Sigmund

The Wu Tang Manual - RZA

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tq1LHrIFL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg

is there a thread for crap books by musicians? if so, slash's autobiography belongs on there. never cared much for guns n roses but i figured his book might be entertaining, like the motley crue one but for someone who led such a wild life, he sure knows how to distill it down into one almighty tedious read. the main thing i took from the book was that axl rose sounded like a very interesting guy, which i'm guessing wasn't slash's intention.

neil sedaka's autobio is pretty great, comes across as a warm friendly guy though i don't think anyone ever needed to read his description about losing his virginity. similarly, mick fleetwood's book is worth reading, a good honest account of the big years by a good honest guy. nothing earth-shattering but very readable. same goes for barry white to the power 10, he has this crazy almost-sleazy-but-not way of writing and tbh the guy comes across as godlike. love him even more after reading that.

didn't care much for ian hunter's diary. not a big fan of mott but his diary just seemed pretty banal and his writing is all abc fisher price nothingness. don't understand the fuss about it.

not strictly by a musician but michael francis's star man is a good account of life working as a roadie for led zeppelin, bon jovi, cher, sheena easton.

also books i've not read in years but loved at the time and im planning on buying again: autobios by pete waterman, holly johnson and marc almond. 45 is awesome too, but drummond's recent book 17 is more of a grumpy rant - i never quite grasped what was so wildly exciting about recording a bunch of people humming and then wiping the tape. plus he lost me when he stood in front of a bunch of primary school kids and told them that all recorded music was rubbish. bit of a prick's trick.

"You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" by Simon Napier-Bell.

Bill Callahan, Kristin Hersh, Michael Gira

Are any of these any cop?

Am I the only person in the world who actually *enjoyed* "And The Ass Saw The Angel"?

No, I liked it quite a bit.

I loved it but I thought The Death of Bunny Munro was abysmal.

Gira's The Consumer is a mixed bag (and very hard to get hold of nowadays). IIRC it's divided into stories he wrote during Swans' 80s hardcore phase and later ones. The earlier ones were much better.

Oh yeah, I notice no-one's mentioned Pete Townshend's The Horse's Neck.

I presume that's for the best, yes?

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Thursday, June 14, 2001 8:00 PM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes. Yes it is.

Actually, it's not a bad read, and likely the most illuminating account of his 1979-1982 heroin addiction years. Said illumination, however, is not without its embarrassing moments, intentional and otherwise.

His autobio Who He? is due out in October.

Robert Fripp is supposed to be writing some kind of book detailing his various run-ins with the music industry. Should be a corker, if it ever appears.

^^^ anticipating the hell out of

Ed Sanders Fug You, a unique perspective of the lower east side in the 1960s. It is amazing. So Far, anyway. I am about a third of the way through it.

Reading between the lines of Fripp's online diary, I'd guess the book is in the editing process now, by the way.

Enjoyed Dean Wareham's memoir.

No mentions so far of David Toop (22 album credits on discogs, many instrumental/production credits dating back to 1971).

Rap Attack (1984, 1992, 1999)
Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds (1995)
Exotica: Fabricated Landcapes in a Real World (1999)
Haunted Weather: Music, Silence and Memory (2010)

I've only read Ocean of Sound which is a great book length version of what could have been The Wire magazine featurettes (he writes for them as well) on ambient music precursors and pioneers. Just learned about Haunted Weather which is apparently about 21st century laptop music, and on my wishlist.

You left off Sinister Resonance, which I just read. Lots of fascinating ideas but it was a hard slog at times.

http://kevincoynepage.free.fr/ARTWORK/Party_Dress.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nB7Ap4IRL._SL500_.jpg

Bill Bruford's The Autobiography (2009) is rather great.
Rick Wakeman's Say Yes! is a good, if somewhat slim, read too.

Bill Bruford's The Autobiography (2009) is rather great.

i still have this lying around unread. :(

i did enjoy phill brown's "are we still rolling?" though.

also need to read that niles rodgers one.

nile

I have that Art Pepper book, mentioned upthread, lying about pretty much unread for years.
And Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers hasn't progressed further than p.80.

B-b-b-ut I've read a book of the late Kevin Coyne's short stories. What I can recall of them, the mode of a few of them was kinda sorta Kafka-esque...

Kafka meets Les Dawson

Another vote for Art Pepper.

Possible. Tho I kno nuthink of Les Dawson :(

Dennis Coffey's book was pretty good.

A GIS may suffice (xp)

??

google image search

o I did that, avtually:)

"In a BBC TV documentary about his life, he spoke of his love for some canonical figures in English literature, in particular the 19th Century essayist Charles Lamb, whose somewhat florid style influenced Dawson's own."

Neil Peart's "Ghost Rider." Found it to be, for the most part, a moving and instructional account of how to cope with profound grief.

I know Mike Nesmith's written a couple of novels, never even seen 'em tho

(Thanks, Tom D.)

I think I saw them in a bookstore between the Kinky Friedman and Jimmy Buffett murder mysteries.

Actually I recently read about half of a pretty good post-apocalyptic noir novel by a guy from Shudder To Think. Remember them? I don't. Nathan Larson, The Dewey Decimal System. Oh yeah, he is married to the lead singer of The Cardigans.

Robert Fripp is supposed to be writing some kind of book detailing his various run-ins with the music industry. Should be a corker, if it ever appears.

― ban this sick stunt (anagram), Tuesday, February 28, 2012 10:15 AM (2 weeks ago)

Fripp has withdrawn the book from the university press that wanted to publish it, because he didn't like the contract terms. http://www.dgmlive.com/diaries.htm?entry=21262

"How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life" by John Fahey is a great book, really entertaining (and funny) on many levels. Can't recommend it enough.

the drumbo bk is more than a 'bit messy' - it's p much a disaster, unfortunately. the text switches between meandering first person narrative (three pages on the kind of trousers john french and pals wore back in the 1950s etc) that's interspersed w/ chunks of seemingly verbatim interview transcripts that almost never offer any additional insight or coherence. admittedly i haven't made it to the 'good stuff' yet (ie 'my years in the beefheart cult'/what a bad bad person uncle don was), but i sorta lost the will to live after the first 100 pages or so. i'm not exactly a beefheart novice, but i easily got lost in all the different names and places that flit in and out of the narrative and which a decent editor - ANY kind of editor - would've helped organise in a much more reader-friendly fashion. the mike barnes and bill harkelroad bks are def less comprehensive - and props to drumbo for trying to nail down so many of the vliet-myths and boasts - but so much better reads-as-reads

I'm really curious about this book by Alice Bag, recently published.

http://alicebag.com/sitebuilder/images/ViolenceGirlPoster-408x600.jpg

Anyone here read it yet? I love The Bags, and that whole early LA punk scene is fascinating.

Anyone read Lenny Kaye's book about crooners in the 1930s? I've had it on my shelf for years but haven't read it, and I'm thinking about putting it in the cull pile.

i read that kaye book a while back. don't recall *too* much about it, but it was entertaining in a nick tosches-kinda way. some interesting stories about the time period.

really need to read "How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life"

Fripp has withdrawn the book from the university press that wanted to publish it, because he didn't like the contract terms

oh ffs

There is another Fahey book as well, but I haven't read it yet. Gotta find it, as if it's anywhere near as enteraining as "How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life" then it promises to be a real treat.

Jonathan Meiburg out of Shearwater is an ornithologist, and he has written a book about the striated caracara:

https://media.s-bol.com/36J12qyjNGnA/550x803.jpg

the guy behind Ant-Bee put out some books on early 70s rockers including Grand funk Railroad (which I think I have but haven't looked at much)

.....apparently dude from Cromags has written a self help book....

books by Nick Cave and Lydia Lunch should be avoided at all cost.

― end of time, Thursday, January 29, 2004 10:08 AM (twenty years ago) bookmarkflaglink

can't say for sure about lydia but i wouldn't avoid nick's books. the sick bag song!