Music Biographies

Some of them in my collection of books, and this is not a complete  list as I have many books on boxes, the majority of them on film and theater where I also will attempt to create a thread.

So here we go, and a few comments about these books:

Funny, strange, but somehow it all makes sense. And she seems like she was more mature than many of the others!

Great book, but it stopped before TD changed to his son, and then added Linda and Iris and then Hochiko. I imagine that there is some on this ear, but it might not be cleaned up or may be a bit raw.

My favorite of all biographies and probably the one that makes you not only feel good, but also tells you a sort of history of the time and place. AWESOME lines, and when you read the one about Syd Barrett, you will be floored, and many musicians will not get it!

Many have dropped him, but he was an actor that could sing, and sadly (he admits it) his attitudes often take center stage, but in the end, he knows what he was doing, despite a lot of producers he fought with to do what he wanted, and the story about BOOH is one of those!

Almost all quotations, but it is excellent, and you get to see the English Courts in action, and you end up loving every minute of it. No wonder he wrote lyrics like he did. With insanity like that even the lyrics were ... simple!

A sad book, since you know what is coming, but it is VERY detailed about the time, the place, and a lot of what JG was on about and his work.

A  very nice book, however, it is incomplete and has Andy talk about all the early material but it skips "The Big Express" and then goes to the next album with Sod Rungoon, and it is a sort of love affair with the early material and the rest? Was there anything?

I don't think that many folks will enjoy this book, and for some folks I am not sure they can get how she can do such heavy drugs and next week she has several weeks in West End doing various plays. I think the book is honest, but I think she hides a bit too much behind her relationships, and appears to be uneasy about some aspects of them. Some revealing things, but nothing major.

A nice look at her band and art work. It actually is a better book about the art scene in NY than it is about her band! But it is interesting, although I am not sure that we got a real feel for what some of the music was about and where it came from. 

A wonderful book, though it seems like it was mostly a book for musicians than a book for fans. We find how he felt about many folks, and his eventual change and improvement as a drummer, though in the end, you don't get a good feel for how things went from him to there and then to there. But it seems that it was just his attempts at changing and improving his drumming.

One of the saddest books EVER, but in so many ways, it is just like listening to the band ... a bunch of kids having fun! He has a wicked sense of humor and displays it, but his love affair with playing with Mickie will forever be one of the best duos ever.

I'm not sure this was well done, and I think it was a bit depressing, although we finally get the feel that he came out OK and was able to create so much music. But I'm not sure that he is capable, or willing, to discuss various pieces of music, and as such the book seems like a taped conversation about his occasional mental problems for which he probably had to take many drugs.

A very nice book, and I have a review of it on PA, though PA does not list Book Reviews! Detailed in many things, and specially the Dave/Nik thing that did not end up well, and both have not buried the hatchet, which is sad ... two old men, not appreciating the beauty of so much work they did!

Have not checked on this for some 30 or 40 years, and will have to revisit it. It was pretty darn good and revealing, and had some poetry in it if I remember it right. However, it does not talk about Jim and his personal feelings about anything, other than expressed in te music of the band.

One of the most loving things I have ever seen, actually showing JJ in almost all of her ways and aspects, and done by both family, friends and many lovers. Sad in a way, but strong all the way, and the footage will make you cry ... that woman could rip your heart and take it in pieces.

Something about Fairport Convention that made better sense and specially my favorite voice of Sandy Denny. 

Something about Sonja Kristina ... there should be something about her that would detail a lot of her early time (the first HAIR production in London), band, marriage, and what not. I saw a small special and she talks about Francis and Darryl, but it seems weird and off since they worked together so well for many albums. 

SIDEBARS: (Books about ... )

All of these were "famous" groupies that gave some bands a lot more than most fans knew or realized. Some outstanding moments, and Roxane's book is probably one of the best.

I'm not a great fan of her books and how later in life she became a regular middle class nobody, though her two famous books discuss in hidden terms, her life on the road on the first and then with her 1st husband in the next. I am not sure, that it is all here and that it is meant to be any more than a tease off her LZ time.

One of the strongest of all books but also one of the saddest, and it has by very far one of the most incredible opening paragraphs of any book, and it was the thing that she had to live down for a long time, and in the end, it brought the whole story down to just sex, and not the art behind it and what it might have been about, or how the relationship helped or not. The filmed special suggests that she was one of the dope dealers. I suppose there is always a downside to things somewhere, and this might have been one. I can enjoy this and that just fine, but there are times when it means something a bit more than just a moment of relief and enjoyment ... a lot of it, is part of the fabric that helped many folks, regardless of their art.