Top 5 Musician Biographies

[Stu-khag]

[quote name='BurritoBass' timestamp='1363960691' post='2020181']
Bobby Womack's book (available on Kindle) is a total car crash as is soul legend Bettye Lavette's which starts from her being dangled out a building by her ankles by per pimp before picking UP the pace - essential stuff! Makes those bad boy rockers look like The Waltons!
[/quote]

The first few pages about Bobby with his stepdaughter were just crazy. There's a bbc4 doc on him coming out soon.

[jezzaboy]

For all you Ritchie Blackmore fans out there. "A Hart life"

Basically it is the story of Colin Hart one time road manager with Purple, Rainbow and is a great insight into those bands and the characters in them.

The book I really want to read is the story of UFO. Should have a few decent stories form Mogg, Way and the strange person who is sometimes guitar god, Michael Schenker. Will someone please write it?

[yepmop]

[color=#000000][size=4]Rick Wakeman's "Grumpy Old Rock Star and Other Wondrous Stories" Very funny.[/size][/color]



[color=#000000]From my teenage years Ian Hunter - "Diary of a Rock n Roll Star"[/color]

Edited March 22, 2013 by yepmop

[Johngh]

Glenn Hughes' is also very good. But then agin I'm a huge Glenneth fan. Also enjoyed Lemmy's.

Next on the list will be Dave Lee Roth's

[Big_Stu]

[quote name='Dr.Dave' timestamp='1363937908' post='2019695']I enjoyed Noddy Holders self penned job - lightweight though it is[/quote]

Don Powell, Slade's drummer has his coming out later this year which promises to be far more enlightening. Nod's was more of a "I like me" book for himself.

Another +1 on "Cash" by Johnny Cash.
I LOL'd when I saw Lemmy's, still bought it though. A slender volume with wide margins & large type with deep leading (line-spacing) = Not a great deal to say.
I've two biogs on Chuck Berry, his which is cleaned up version & "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", an unofficial biog which is more direct.
Bo Diddley's is a good one, he's disgracefully under-recognised for what he did for guitar based music.
"Flowers In The Dustbin" is a USA slanted book on how they invented punk rock, the Sex Pistols barely get a mention even though the title is from GSTQ.
and "Room Full Of Mirrors" is probably the best, as in most readable biog of Hendrix I've read so far.

[dudewheresmybass]

I really enjoyed last train home by Andy summers, and life by Keith Richards.
Lemmys was very good, as was the cliff burton book written by the editor of bgm ( if only bgm was as good!)
The rudy Sarzo book- off the rails, which deals with rudys time with randy rhoads was excellent. I'd love to read the rest of rudys life story though.
I also really enjoyed kiss and make up and sex money kiss both by gene simmons

[the_skezz]

Also 'How Black Was Our Sabbath' - written by two Sabbath roadies, David Tangye Graham Wright., focusing on their experience with the group but with a fair bit of detail about the band's origins too. Great read and some amusing stories unmentioned in most other Sabbath biogs.

[John Cellario]

Guy Pratts auto biography...played with Pink Floyd etc....extremely funny.

[jezzaboy]

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1363991118' post='2020797']
Don Powell, Slade's drummer has his coming out later this year which promises to be far more enlightening. Nod's was more of a "I like me" book for himself.

[/quote]

Hey Big Stu, keep us informed of this will ya? Really looking forward to this.

[Big_Stu]

[quote name='jezzaboy' timestamp='1364061187' post='2021529']
Hey Big Stu, keep us informed of this will ya? Really looking forward to this.
[/quote]

Will do - apparently he's signed a deal with a publisher after a fair bit of hunting, but last I heard it was supposed to be around September of this year.
http://www.donpowellofficial.com/index.html
Ever since the car smash in '73 that nearly killed him he's kept a very detailed daily diary because he lost the ability to remember. Even now he has problems with recent memory but the amount of detail he remembers from their early years is phenomenal.

[jezzaboy]

Ta!

[Owen]

[quote name='Mickeyboro' timestamp='1363954636' post='2020052']
Declaring an interest as I am his pal and put the money up to publish it, Deke Leonard's [b]Rhinos Winos and Lunatics[/b]. It turned him from a guitarist (with Welsh band Man) to an author, and he's since written two more.

He has a Facebook page for his latest effort, [b]The Twang Dynasty[/b] - [url="http://www.facebook.com/twangdynastybook"]http://www.facebook.com/twangdynastybook[/url]. In terms of mixing music, info and humour I really think he's in a class of his own.
[/quote]

The Twang Dynasty is a fantastic read. Passionately written by someone who knows his stuff.

[Bilbo]

Lewis Porter's Coltrane bio is good, as is Myself When I Am Real by Gene Santarro (Mingus). Also Ron Carter's, Scott LaFaro's and Wayne Shorter's

[sandblast]

Mo Foster's 17 Watts : The Birth of British Rock Guitar is at times laugh out loud funny and although it's not strictly a biography of Mo it's more a biography of the arrival of the electric guitar in the UK. If you can find one, buy it.

Jah Wobble's Memoirs of a Geezer. A bit more conventional this one and well worth reading also.

[LeftyBiskit]

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1363948432' post='2019888']
No mention of "Dear Boy" by Tony Fletcher? Biography of Keith Moon - very well written and supposedly an enjoyable read even if you're not as obsessive a fan of The Who as I am.
[/quote]
Thoroughly good read
as is that one by Nile Rodgers-and I've read quite a few

[uncle psychosis]

[quote name='Stu-khag' timestamp='1363984744' post='2020677']
I refer to your post:

1.Been meaning to get Mr E's book for years! Glad its worth getting.[/quote]

Get it. Seriously.

[quote]2.http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016r4vs[/quote]

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up!

[quote]3. Absolutely love Bill Drummonds book
[/quote]

Its brilliant. I almost think he's a better author than musician!

[Owen]

I bought A Hart Life, the Andy Summers book and the Horace Panter book after reading this thread. I have now read them. They are for sale here.

http://basschat.co.uk/topic/185877-bassmusic-related-books/page__hl__the+twang+dynasty__fromsearch__1

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Celtic frost; are you morbid?
David Crosby ; long time gone
Motley Crüe ; the dirt
Rush ; chemistry
Glenn Hughes
Can't think of any others at the moment.

Edited May 5, 2013 by RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE

[CPBass]

More of a top selection than favourites, too many to go on, i do love a good Biog

1) Keith Richards
2) Shaky - Neil Young
3) Lemmy
4) Dear Boy / Keith Moon - Tony Fletcher
5) Frank Zappa - Barry Miles

+1 for the Glen Hughes book, not much into his coifurred image of late but his talent is undeniable. Oh, Mustaine is a good insight too.
Could go on........

[timmo]

I enjoyed a couple of books i read recently :-

Scars of Sweet Paradise ....About the life of Janis Joplin

Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out.... About Bill Graham who owned The Fillmore and Winterland in San Frncisco, full of his dealings with bands such as The Grateful Dead, Santana, Led Zeppelin,Rolling Stones,and many more with quotes from all the stars from the bands

[lefrash]

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1367692167' post='2068522']

Motley Crüe ; the dirt

[/quote]

Yes! Tremendous book!

[Angel]

Indeed, I am also a big fan of 'the dirt'. I'm not a big fan of the music, but interesting stuff from one of the most excessive bands ever. I always thought of the band as total jerks, and I still do to be honest, but I really felt for the guy after his daughter died.

Must pick up again: I was also reading Nikki Sixx's Heroin diaries. A terrible life, how he isn't dead I do not know. Put it down at some point and forgot about it!

[BILL POSTERS]

Of the ones I've read, probably enjoyed Chas Hodges and Noddy Holders the most.

Followed by bits of Ray Davies Xray, which is a bit weird. Even enjoyed Joe Browns, he was my first guitar hero when I was likkle.

Not sure how much of Keefs and Ozzies I really believe, and the Pete Townsend one is so bloody pretentious I had to read it a bit at a time so as not to just give up altogethr, Smashing guitars is a poncey bleedin art form... ?

Gercha.

Edited May 7, 2013 by BILL POSTERS

[Bass-Driver]

[quote name='John Cellario' timestamp='1364051717' post='2021390']
Guy Pratts auto biography...played with Pink Floyd etc....extremely funny.
[/quote]

This.

My Bass and Other Animals. Highly recommended, and I mean very highly.

[dry_stone]

+ 1 Cash by Cash
+ 1 Jaco by Bill Milkowski
+ 1 How Black was our Sabbath by Tangye and Wright
+ 1 My Bass and other Animals – Guy Pratt

I read a heck of a lot and here are a few I would like to recommend...

Bassists

Riding Shotgun by Gerry McAvoy - a great autobiog from Rory Gallagher’s right hand man for 20 years. One of my favourite quotes from Gerry’s book, regarding a certain leader of a prog rock group “Me being me, I was ready to smack the tw*t right in his flute hole.” It also contains one of the greatest understatements ever written “… he had a ’54 Precision with him as a spare, and after watching our set, he offered it to me for $250. Talk about a bargain.” Gerry snapped his hand off.

Japan and Self Existence by Mick Karn – I keep re-reading this one, written a couple of years before Mick died, it is more like a cathartic work of art than a book. Ok, I admit to being biased here, I have always rated Mick’s unique style from his beginnings with Japan through his solo career and his side projects with Dali’s Car, Rain Tree Crow and Polytown; no doubt Mick also had his faults but it makes me angry at the way the music industry and his one time friends appeared to have treated him.

Composing Himself by Jack Bruce - I enjoyed this book for the brilliant history of the British jazz, blues and rock scene in the ‘60s where Jack literally played a massive part.

Searching for the Sound, my Life with the Grateful Dead by Phil Lesh (not finished this one yet, but enjoying it so far… bloody hell it seems that the Dead took drugs!)

Other Good Reads

Through Gypsy Eyes by Kathy Etchinham - about her time spent with Jimi Hendrix when he first came over to London with Chas Chandler; Jimi sometimes called Kathy by her middle name Mary, as in "The wind cries ….:

No Off Switch by Andy Kershaw - from Billy Bragg’s roadie to ambassador of world music and then that downward spiral triggered by Andy’s wife reading a certain text message on his mobile.

Looking Back at Me by Wilco Johnson - hang on in there Wilco

Highway to Hell – The Life and Death of Ac/Dc’s Bon Scott - Kirriemuir’s finest; more about the man than the band.

Up and Down with the Rolling Stones by Tony Sanchez - mainly the "adventures" of Keef and Tony, his one time fixer.

But Beautiful by Geoff Dyer - an evocative collection of semi fictional shorts about some of the jazz greats - Lester Young, Mingus, Monk, Art Pepper and Chet Baker, exceptional writing.

Straight Life by Art Pepper - jazz alto sax player, one of the most brutally honest autobiographies I have read.

Conversations with Tom Petty by Paul Zorro – a really interesting read, follows a similar format to Peter Bogdanovick’s film about Tom and the Heartbreakers “Running Down a Dream.” Tom telling, via interview, the story about his life, his music, this band and his collaborations.

Edited May 8, 2013 by robfxst