What would be in the library of greatest Rock Books

[Ed]

Our Band C0uld Be Your life...michael azerrad
Our Noise:the story of Merge Records...john cook
Unknown Legends of Rock n' Roll...richie unterberger
The Lives of John Lennon...albert goldman
Neil Young Nation...chong

[[deleted user]]

Bad Seed: The Biography of Nick Cave

I can add to the list? :)

[Ed]

Yeah, of course.
I've read maybe 50 to 100 biographies about musicians, and honestly alot of them are kinda formulaic, but I still like them - especially ones in which I dont already know their story. I don't know much about Nick Cave, so this might be a good one for me.

[[deleted user]]

I found it a great read. Don't know if you were into punk but it's extra fascinating if you know the bands/albums the writer talks about.

I tried reading: Scar Tissue, as I love the Chili Peppers, and Anthony Kiedis's dad was the splitting image of Nick Cave (with his mustache) but he drove me batty. Couldn't finish.

Recently saw a Patti Smith autobiography that I want to read: Just Kids. She's a brilliant poet/songwriter, so I suspect it will be good.

[Ed]

Wow, I read Just Kids, about her relationship with Mapplethorpe. It was poetic of course. And I'm a fan of hers, so I enjoyed it.

I also read Scar Tissue. It was honest and interesting but it was also very frustrating. I just don't like reading about people messed up on drugs who keep screwing people over because of it, then trying to rationalize it and make excuses for it. I love Kiedis's music and voice, and I even like his basic attitude on life. But the drug stuff is such a bore to me.

Another terrible autobiography was the one on Kieth Richards that came out last x-mas I think. I got it for an x-mas gift and it was just him bragging about how effed-up he was all the time. Really lame imo.

[[deleted user]]

He contradicted himself all over the place. And yes, everyone was to blame for everything. Even when he hurt himself leaping from buildings. Drove me mad too.

Keith Richards writing? He finds it hard to string a verbal sentence together!

[Ed]

Ha, I'm sure someone was doing the writing for Keith Richards - he was probablly just mumbling into a taperecorder and some poor sap had to translate it, then make it coherant somehow...

[[deleted user]]

Hope he/she was paid well. :)

[Ed]

I'm currently reading a Gram Parson biography titled Calling Me Home. So far, fairly formulaic, but he really had an interesting life, so the formula is working well. Afterall, there is a reason that formulas exist...

[[deleted user]]

"Please Kill Me" - Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
"I Need More" - Iggy Pop
"Before I Get Old" - Dave Marsh
"We Got the Neutron Bomb:The Untold Story of L.A. Punk" - Marc Spitz
"The New York Dolls:Too Much Too Soon" - Nina Antonia
"Diary of a Rock and Roll Star" - Ian Hunter
"Billion Dollar Baby" - Bob Greene
"On the Road with the Ramones" - Monte Melnick

[[deleted user]]

"The Heroin Diaries"-Nikki Sixx
Best autobiography I have ever read

[Ed]

Midnight:Sixx Forever wrote: ""The Heroin Diaries"-Nikki Sixx
Best autobiography I have ever read"

I've seen that book at my library and I've been thinking of checking it out. Only I've never been a fan of Motley Crue or hair metal, so I have some doubts that it will hold my interest...

[[deleted user]]

It really is amazing,I read it just for the heck of it and it really is awesome.It's composed of Nikki's old diaries and it just talks about all the struggle of trying to be clean of drugs and all the problems he had like dying...twice.

[[deleted user]]

I'll keep that in mind

[Karen]

And I Don't Want to Live This Life by Deborah Spungen (about Sid and Nancy) and Faithfull by Marianne Faithfull.

[Rock]

Who is Deborah Spungen???

[[deleted user]]

The mother of Deborah Spungen, former and now-very-dead paramour of one Sid Vicious.

[Ed]

I saw Sound of the Beast in my library a couple years ago and I skimmed through it. My problem is that I was teenager in a small Midwest town during the HairMetal Heyday of the 1980s - which has forever tainted my outlook on metal. I couldn't stand that hairm metal shit. Every high school party you went to had have Ratt or Poisen or some other shit blaring from a ghetto blaster. Then by the time I was a senior it was all speed metal shit. I understood adolescent teenage angst as well as the next guy, but for some reason I just never connected with that speed metal/death metal or whatever the fuck people call it. I had plenty of friends who were into though.

Curious to know - does anyone here read Chuck Klosterman. What do you think of him?