1. A year with swollen appendices by Brian Eno. 2. 45 by Bill Drummond. 3. Head on/Repossessed by Julian Cope. 4. Beneath the underdog by Charles Mingus.
If I had to pick one it would be the Eno book. Packed full of ideas, but surprisingly funny, playful and passionate.
― Billy Dods, Wednesday, 13 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
How about one of Johnny Cash's Westerns (He wrote two, I think: "The Man In Black" and "The Many In White". Seriously!)?
― Mark, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― tarden, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― david in nz, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― m, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Stevo, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― scott, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― alex thomson, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― mark s, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Open City Press (who published D.C. Berman's "Actual Air") recently published a book by Sam Lipsyte---a short story collection called "Venus Drive." It's a bit self-consciously grotty and confrontational, but I think it's quite worthwhile, in the end. My question is this: Lipsyte is said to have been the frontman for an American noise-rock band---does anyone here know of him? I've been trying to track this down for a while, just in case the band is one of any small consequence.
― Nitsuh, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Robin Carmody, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I don't know if its in bookstores (kinda doubt it), but I've seen it advertised in back of No Depression magazine. Also, he's got a website where you can order a copy from him.
BTW, his solo albums are pretty kick ass, kinda like Highway 61-era Dylan without the mind-altering substances. (seriously)
― brah glub, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― pina, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
The Jayne County book is pretty awesome. I love the part when, as a little kid, he tries to lure the local boys in his Georgia neighborhood by putting a sweater over his head with the arms dangling down on either side to affect a kind of Liz Taylor in Cleopatra look. And it worked!
― Arthur, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Sean, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
in the former category, word to mark: chuck berry is the coolest ('cept i'm looking fwd to reading the ramone book). as they haven't yet bin mentioned, i'd also rate "walk this way: the autobiography of aerosmith" (presuming that ghost writing counts?), and for all time sleaze, "c'mon, get happy" by david cassidy (as highly rated by "rollerderby" magazine) (occasionally kick myself for not buying the second hand copy i saw a few years ago, tho' i understand it is back in print). if it was stuff "packed with ideas" that you were after tho', billy, this may not be quite your thing .
as for the more 'creative' stuff, hmmm. maryann knows i'm on the record for dissing that pitiful thing the royal trux guy wrote. nick cave also sucks. so does leonard cohen. in general a bad idea: like celebrity painters (paul mcc etc)... but, i do have fun with richard hell's "voidoid" book - great drunken d.i.y. teenage surrealism from the '70s. and hell, what about patti smith? doesn't she make some sort of case for there being a special category for rock-poetry?
oh, anyone sticking up for "tarantula"?
― jon bywater, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― keith, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Josh, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― bnw, Thursday, 14 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Duane Zarakov, Friday, 15 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― tarden, Friday, 15 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I *did* read Caves 'And The Ass Saw The Angel'. A long time ago now, it seems. It was a struggle, and one that I thought wasn't quite worth it.
I used to like John Lennon's 'In His Own Write' and "A Spaniard In The Works'. Though I fear I would be embarassed by them now.
― DavidM, Friday, 15 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Madchen, Friday, 15 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― masonic boom, Friday, 15 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I'm glad RDD left a lot of things unanswered while still giving us some sense of background to a lot of the songs - especially liked his descriptions of his childhood and adolescence. I haven't read "Kink" yet - I want to, but am afraid that it will turn out to be that other type of autobio.
― Kerry Keane, Friday, 15 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Secondly because it has excellent bits like this:
"On Monday morning, Karen went round to see how [Geri's father] was, but got no reply from his flat. She called the police and a young constable arrived. They managed to get the door open and found Dad lying naked on the floor with a nicely wrapped present beside him. He'd been getting ready for the party when he'd had a heart attack. He was seventy-one I went to see him at the hospital; I suppose I wanted to say goodbye. He lay there, with his face sunken and purple and his nails blackened. He looked like Danny de Vito playing the Penguin in the second Batman film"
I think that is one of the funniest things I've ever read. Does this make me a bad person?
― jamesmichealward, Friday, 15 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
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.
― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Friday, 15 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I presume that's for the best, yes?
John Cale: What's Welsh for Zen?
― mark s, Friday, 15 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
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.
― Phil, Saturday, 16 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― duane, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Bob Six (bobbysix), Thursday, 29 January 2004 13:49 (twenty years ago) link
― David Allen (David Allen), Thursday, 29 January 2004 14:25 (twenty years ago) link
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.
― end of time, Thursday, 29 January 2004 15:08 (twenty years ago) link
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 :/
― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Thursday, 29 January 2004 17:39 (twenty years ago) link
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.
― Bob Six (bobbysix), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:08 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:51 (twenty years ago) link
Killers, Angels, Refugees and Mirrors, Dreams and Miracles by Peter Hammill. Both have some interesting short stories alongside his collected lyrics up to 1980.
― anagram, Sunday, 3 January 2010 17:56 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Pauper Management Improved (Sanpaku), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 17:03 (twelve years ago) link
You left off Sinister Resonance, which I just read. Lots of fascinating ideas but it was a hard slog at times.
― dollar eye twinkling (admrl), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 17:06 (twelve years ago) link
http://kevincoynepage.free.fr/ARTWORK/Party_Dress.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nB7Ap4IRL._SL500_.jpg
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 17:08 (twelve years ago) link
Bill Bruford's The Autobiography (2009) is rather great.Rick Wakeman's Say Yes! is a good, if somewhat slim, read too.
― t**t, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:25 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― 40oz of tears (Jordan), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:28 (twelve years ago) link
also need to read that niles rodgers one.
nile
― 40oz of tears (Jordan), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:29 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― t**t, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:34 (twelve years ago) link
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...
― t**t, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:36 (twelve years ago) link
Kafka meets Les Dawson
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:38 (twelve years ago) link
Another vote for Art Pepper.
― Averroes's Search Engine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:39 (twelve years ago) link
Possible. Tho I kno nuthink of Les Dawson :(
― t**t, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:40 (twelve years ago) link
Dennis Coffey's book was pretty good.
― Averroes's Search Engine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:41 (twelve years ago) link
A GIS may suffice (xp)
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:42 (twelve years ago) link
??
― t**t, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:43 (twelve years ago) link
google image search
― Averroes's Search Engine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:43 (twelve years ago) link
o I did that, avtually:)
― t**t, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:44 (twelve years ago) link
"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."
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:45 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― SongOfSam, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:46 (twelve years ago) link
I know Mike Nesmith's written a couple of novels, never even seen 'em tho
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:48 (twelve years ago) link
(Thanks, Tom D.)
― t**t, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:51 (twelve years ago) link
I think I saw them in a bookstore between the Kinky Friedman and Jimmy Buffett murder mysteries.
― Averroes's Search Engine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:56 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― Averroes's Search Engine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:59 (twelve years ago) link
Oh yeah, he is married to the lead singer of The Cardigans
Nice for him
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:01 (twelve years ago) link
Enjoyed Daevid Allen's Gong Dreaming vol 2. Have meant to read vol 1.
Thought Andy Sommers One Train Later was pretty good too.& Drumbo's book on Beefheart was very engrossing. Somebody sent me the Zoot Horn Rollo one but I've yet to read it.
Lee Underwood's Tim Buckley tome was interesting but Underwood comes off prety egotistical throughout from what I recall.
Phil Lesh's book was interesting Searching For The Sound& the singer from The Misunderstood wrote a memoir that's available through Ugly Things that's very interesting. Think it has more on him as a monk after heading to India as a draft dodger than him on the band but very good book.
Somebody has presumably mentioned Miles Davis autobio by now too,& the John Einarson expansion on Arthuir Lee's notes Forever Changes is a must read if you like Love at all.Just been reminded Jeffrey Lee Pierce's Go Tell The Mountain is very readable if possibly not the most reliable of sources.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:01 (twelve years ago) link
Drumbo's book on Beefheart
Didn't even know this existed till I read it on ILX a coupla weeks back!
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:02 (twelve years ago) link
read about it, not read it, as it's allegedly a doorstopper
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:03 (twelve years ago) link
Reading "Just Kids" right now even though I never liked Patti Smith. I think it's pretty much as good as anyone can expect from a musician who isn't a professional writer
― simulation and similac (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:05 (twelve years ago) link
More books on this thread:
Good books about music
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:05 (twelve years ago) link
Another vote for John Cale's What's Welsh For Zen.
― Averroes's Search Engine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
drumbo's book is enjoyable but needs severe editing. lots of repetition throughout.
― fit and working again, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:09 (twelve years ago) link
but as the story of what it was like being in the magic band it's amazing.
― fit and working again, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:10 (twelve years ago) link
lots of repetition throughout
Oh, the irony!
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:10 (twelve years ago) link
Ha
― Averroes's Search Engine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:12 (twelve years ago) link
haha
to expand on that: anecdotes get repeated often ... it's obvious no editor worked on it. i have no problem with reading 800 pages on beefheart, just that this book was a bit messy.
― fit and working again, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:18 (twelve years ago) link
That and The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick are next on my list.
― Averroes's Search Engine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:21 (twelve years ago) link
Rap Attack (1984, 1992, 1999)
The first part of Rap Attack (the part published in 1984, the current print edition combines the 1984 and 1992 volumes and add a long prologue written in 1999) is the best, most essential history of rap's roots and its early development that I've ever read. The 1992 part has some good observations too, but in the 1999 text he doesn't manage to capture the state of rap that in that year as acutely as in the other parts. Still, I would strongly recommend this on the strength of the 1984 part alone.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 10:48 (twelve years ago) link
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
― Carlos Pollomar (WmC), Tuesday, 13 March 2012 14:33 (twelve years ago) link
"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.
― grandavis, Tuesday, 13 March 2012 14:43 (twelve years ago) link
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
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 13 March 2012 14:51 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― collardio gelatinous, Friday, 16 March 2012 01:32 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― Carlos Pollomar (WmC), Friday, 16 March 2012 01:40 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― tylerw, Friday, 16 March 2012 02:15 (twelve years ago) link
really need to read "How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life"
― tylerw, Friday, 16 March 2012 02:16 (twelve years ago) link
Fripp has withdrawn the book from the university press that wanted to publish it, because he didn't like the contract terms
oh ffs
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Friday, 16 March 2012 08:36 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― grandavis, Friday, 16 March 2012 16:51 (twelve years ago) link
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
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 09:46 (three years ago) link
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)
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 10:01 (three years ago) link
.....apparently dude from Cromags has written a self help book....
― m0stlyClean, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 14:47 (three years ago) link
― 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!
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 24 April 2024 20:57 (three weeks ago) link