Recommend me some Music Books

Mr Maps · Postby **Mr Maps** » 10 Feb 2006, 15:22

In a different direction I recommend This Little Ziggy by Martin Newell and Lost In Music by Giles Smith.

Andrew Lou Goldman · Postby **Andrew Lou Goldman** » 10 Feb 2006, 15:27

Although he is a fat fuck slob in person, Jim DeRogatis has written some very, very good books.

Turn On Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock.

I think this one is his best, but his book on Lester Bangs is pretty damned amazing also.

secondhandsocks · Postby **secondhandsocks** » 10 Feb 2006, 15:43

Navajo Meat wrote:Turn On Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock.

that looks interesting.
I also saw a silver Factory Records book that looked ok, can't remember the title, is there a new one out?

Tactful Cactus · Postby **Tactful Cactus** » 10 Feb 2006, 15:48

Happiness Stan wrote:I also saw a silver Factory Records book that looked ok, can't remember the title, is there a new one out?

Careful, I picked up that book a while ago (I think it was that one you're talking about). It turned out to be based on the movie, almost word for word. Went straight in the bin.

secondhandsocks · Postby **secondhandsocks** » 10 Feb 2006, 15:50

Tactful Cactus wrote:
Happiness Stan wrote:I also saw a silver Factory Records book that looked ok, can't remember the title, is there a new one out?

Careful, I picked up that book a while ago (I think it was that one you're talking about). It turned out to be based on the movie, almost word for word. Went straight in the bin.

I did wonder about that, I'm sure it wasn't called 24 hour party people though, can't find the bloody thing on the 'net either.

Tactful Cactus · Postby **Tactful Cactus** » 10 Feb 2006, 15:53

Have you read Shakey, Stan? Jimmy MacDonaghs unauthorised autobiog on Neil Young.

secondhandsocks · Postby **secondhandsocks** » 10 Feb 2006, 16:15

Tactful Cactus wrote:Have you read Shakey, Stan? Jimmy MacDonaghs unauthorised autobiog on Neil Young.

Not yet, it's been recommended to me a few times, as I said to Ms Stan when Cortez was played on the radio the other day, it's almost time for another Neil phase.

Her reaction went something like this..... :roll:

Tactful Cactus · Postby **Tactful Cactus** » 10 Feb 2006, 16:22

Happiness Stan wrote:Not yet, it's been recommended to me a few times, as I said to Ms Stan when Cortez was played on the radio the other day, it's almost time for another Neil phase.

I'd recommend it. Great, great book. Well written, great research (he even recommends the best bootlegs), input from at least one person who was in the same room each time, and of course Neil himself. Took ten years to write, and it shows. Buy it now.

secondhandsocks · Postby **secondhandsocks** » 10 Feb 2006, 16:24

Tactful Cactus wrote: Buy it now.

Right, I will...well I'm off into town for a look anyway.
Maybe I'll just go and get drunk watching Reading v Saints, which pubs take book tokens?

Kenji · Postby **Kenji** » 10 Feb 2006, 16:30

Last weekend I read Patrick Humphries boigraphy about Nick Drake.
It was great....

It was very sad.

Sea Of Tunes · Postby **Sea Of Tunes** » 10 Feb 2006, 19:33

Tactful Cactus wrote:
The Right Summery Profile wrote:I'm also interested in Barney Hoskyns's book on the LA music "scene" in the 1970s. Not so much because that's my type of music (it isn't really), but there's some really fascinating stories to be told, and there's certainly enough ego, hubris and schadenfreude to last an entire book. Has anyone got it yet?

Yeah, that caught my eye too. He's already done a book on the LA music scene which was a great read, Waiting For the Sun, it covers the 50's to the 90's, with a heavy emphasis on 1966/7. Well worth a tenner.

Waiting For The Sun is one of the best music books. A superb read. Unputdownable.

Andrew Lou Goldman · Postby **Andrew Lou Goldman** » 10 Feb 2006, 20:03

The Smamfy wrote:

What in the hell is this book about?

Johnny Fartpants · Postby **Johnny Fartpants** » 10 Feb 2006, 20:59

I'm about half way through Heavier Than Heaven, the biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles Cross. Pretty interesting read so far, a good insight into what motivated him, where things started to go wrong and why he was such a contrary bastard.

I've just got to the bit where he meets Courtney Love for the first time. Oh dear .....

sloopjohnc · Postby **sloopjohnc** » 10 Feb 2006, 21:09

Johnny Fartpants wrote:I'm about half way through Heavier Than Heaven, the biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles Cross. Pretty interesting read so far, a good insight into what motivated him, where things started to go wrong and why he was such a contrary bastard.

I've just got to the bit where he meets Courtney Love for the first time. Oh dear .....

I liked this too. Better than I thought.

I'd recommend any Richie Unterberger book and Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, a collection of Lester Bangs' reviews and features.

The Write Profile · Postby **The Write Profile** » 10 Feb 2006, 21:21

sloopjohnc wrote:I'd recommend any Richie Unterberger book and Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, a collection of Lester Bangs' reviews and features.

The companion anthology, Mainlines, Blood Feasts and Bad Taste is also worth getting, even if it does concentrate more on Bangs' more "streamlined" (read: coherent, yet dimmed) later work for the Village Voice. It's still very good, but a huge vein of disappointment runs through the writing, with a few exceptions- the items on Patti Smith, Brian Eno and Wire, for instance.

His pieces on the Rolling Stones' post exile tour and ELP are absolutely hilarious, really cutting through the gargatuan stupidity and turning a mirror on itself.

And if you're going to pick up Crosstown Traffic, then Murray's companion Shoots from the Hip, a collection of his writings in the 70s and 80s, is also good for a laugh. Very entertaining and enlightening.

Again, I really would recomend This is Uncool : The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk and Disco. Perhaps Mulholland isn't the most eloquent of writers, but I've yet to read a recent book which sets out his agenda about the modern pop single so forcefully. It tails off when he covers the 1997-99 years, but then the Appendix dealing with the first two years of this decade gets things up and running again

Jeff K · Postby **Jeff K** » 10 Feb 2006, 21:50

The kind of music covered in this book may not be everybody's cuppa tea but I enjoyed it immensely...

Tape Delay - Charles Neal

It deals the prime movers of the 80's underground - the REAL underground with artists such as Throbbing Gristle, Matt Johnson, Neubauten, Swans, Sonic Youth, Jim Thirwill, etc.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is not a fan of the above mentioned groups but it's an interesting book about interesting people.

Kenji · Postby **Kenji** » 11 Feb 2006, 13:51

bhoywonder wrote:Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music is generally agreed to be the best history of soul. It's a suprb book, absolute solid class, as are all of his books. It's ne I go back to over and over.

I haven't read his Sam Cooke book yet, but his Elvis books are the best music books, I think...

sloopjohnc · Postby **sloopjohnc** » 11 Feb 2006, 13:56

Another great book is Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azzerrad (sp?) which follows 8 to 10 original American punk bands like Husker Du, Sonic Youth, The Replacements, Black Flag, the Minuteman, and others, and chronicles how they formed, their early touring, the early indie record scene and their thoughts on the scene they were originating.

bhoywonder · Postby **bhoywonder** » 11 Feb 2006, 14:53

goldwax wrote:
bhoywonder wrote: Remember that he doesn't talk about Motown (obviously, as that's pop, not soul, right Goldwax?

You seem to have me confused with an addle-brained, in-bred member of the Lone Star royal family.

King Cnut · Postby **King Cnut** » 20 Feb 2006, 15:02

Maxwell's Golden Pickaxe wrote:
Happiness Stan wrote:
Maxwell's Golden Pickaxe wrote:I know you don't rate my opinion highly

substitute highly for at all.

Maxwell's Golden Pickaxe wrote:too dry to hold my interest.

pot, kettle

Cnut.

Yes, sonny?