Your favourite rock biography?
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Topic: Your favourite rock biography?
Posted By: Moogtron III
Subject: Your favourite rock biography?
Date Posted: May 06 2005 at 06:47
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Just another thread I wanted to start: about rock biographies. I like some of the a lot and I just liked to know if you could recommend any yourself. There's nothing earth shattering about my top 3, but the books themselves are great: 1. Yes - The Authorized Biography - Dan Hedges 2. I Know What I Like - Armando Gallo (about Genesis) 3. Yes In Their Own Words - Tim Morse ad 1. Any good band deserves a biography like this. Laboured with love, written with a lot of humour and great anecdotes, you really learn about the different characters in Yes. Wonderful pictures... ad 2. A bit like 1, though without the humour. ad 3. A great idea to make a biography. Let the Yes-members speak for themselves. Very enjoyable, and I especially like Bruford's comments, and it's nice to know about the musical tastes of the different Yes members. |
Replies:
Posted By: Certif1ed
Date Posted: May 06 2005 at 06:53
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Scar Tissue - Anthony Keidis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's amazing how anyone can do so many drugs and build a career with one of the most amazing rock bands of the 1980s and be still alive. ...and it's surprisingly engaging, with jaw-dropping stories of car accidents, jumping from high buildings and sex... |
Posted By: Cluster One
Date Posted: May 06 2005 at 07:12
Nick Mason's "Inside Out" is well written, full of great pics, and
frequently humourous in a drummer-puke-on-the-floor kind of way!
------------- Marmalade...I like marmalade. |
Posted By: sigod
Date Posted: May 06 2005 at 07:20
Dream Brother (the biography of
Tim & Jeff Buckley) by David Browne is well worth a read and uses
the rather unique style of telling both stories in alternating chapters
which I very much enjoyed. The most readable autobiography in recent time was however was A Cure For Gravity by Joe Jackson which although not being as 'out there' as some rock tales who regail the reader with stories of outlandish debauchery and excess, is a very witty and honest account of one very talented man with a singular vision.  ------------- I must remind the right honourable gentleman that a monologue is not a decision. - Clement Atlee, on Winston Churchill |
Posted By: Man Erg
Date Posted: May 06 2005 at 07:45
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Led Zep - Hammer of the Gods (V.funny book)
Syd Barrett - Crazy Diamond 
Neil Young - Shakey Jonathan Green - Days of the Underground(Study of underground politics,art & culture scenes predominately in London late 1950s-late 1970s.From Trad Jazz to Mods to Hippies to Punks.)A superb book. ------------- 
Do 'The Stanley' otherwise I'll thrash you with some rhubarb. |
Posted By: Jim Prog Wizard
Date Posted: May 06 2005 at 08:28
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"In The Court of King Crimson" by Sid Smith is the best rock biography I've read. Combining interviews with band members past and present, historical information and reviews of all the albums. Every good band deserves a bio as great as this one. ------------- "Progressive Rock is the ultimate form of music" (Mikael Akerfeldt, 2003) |
Posted By: threefates
Date Posted: May 06 2005 at 08:34
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Keith Emerson's autobiography: Pictures of an Exhibitionist (Very interesting look at an insecure, but extremely talented musician) I also recommend "In the Court of King Crimson"... great book ELP: The Show that Never Ends: by George Forrester, Martyn Hanson and Frank Askew (which is being reillustrated at this time and the updated version should be out soon) ------------- THIS IS ELP 
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Posted By: Dick Heath
Date Posted: May 06 2005 at 08:52
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Jim and TF
I'm taking the liberty to pass your comments about In the Court of King Crimson to Sid, I know he appreciates these unsolicited thing and doesn't affect his wonderfully small ego.
Sid Smith's book is excellent - best he writtes extremely well, doesn't treat the reader as a fool and is not shy of providing insightful criticisms of his favourite band - too often rock biographers are fans who can't escape the fanzine (ie. 1500 word max vocabulary)/sychophantic style of writing. Mike Barnes Captain Beefheart biography is particular good. Lost In The Woods Syd Barrett's bio is excellent and a rather good social history of the London Underground in the mid /late 60's. Ian MacDonald Revolution In The Head is a very good analysis of the lyrics of the Beatles tunes is a very good, and because the research provides a great social history of British popular culture. I'm afraid there are too many poor biographies of bigger players in the prog rock industry: yet to find a satisfactory one on Yes (Chris Welch's was the last I read, and he had to keep mentioning he is a friend of the band......................). I found Rick Wakeman's autobiog disappointing - in part because in TV interviews he has told much stronger, risque stories. In passing, biographies on U2 and Queen have been found in remainder bookshops - and after reading them I realised why they have been discounted down to 2 quid for a hardback! Vivian Stantiall's biog Ginger Geezer finds Chris Welch as co-author being more objective. |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: May 06 2005 at 12:00
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I like the Keith Emerson autobio as well.Packed full of anecdotes as you can imagine
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Posted By: Progger
Date Posted: May 06 2005 at 17:24
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RICK WAKEMAN - THE CAPED CRUSADER ALICE COOPER - ME, ALICE IAN GILLAN - CHILD IN TIME DAVID BYRON - BORN TO PERFORM
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Posted By: Moogtron III
Date Posted: May 06 2005 at 17:56
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I must say I do like the Wakeman autobio myself. The Crimson bio: I heard of that one, but I didn't know if it was any good. Now I do. There's also a good book about Fripp. I forgot the writer. So there are good ELP / Emerson biographies? I always missed them in the bookshops, so I thought they just didn't exist. Well, I'm glad to hear that I was wrong. Thanks guys!
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Posted By: threefates
Date Posted: May 06 2005 at 22:39
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Any book about prog you want to know about... Go here: http://www.progbibliography.de - http://www.progbibliography.de Or course my favorite page there is: http://www.progbibliography.de/elp.htm - http://www.progbibliography.de/elp.htm And this is pretty interesting there: Macan, Edward L.: The Endless Enigma: A Musical Biography of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. ------------- THIS IS ELP
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Posted By: marktheshark
Date Posted: May 06 2005 at 23:10
| If prog, I'd say "Pictures of an Exhibitionist" by Keith. As far as rock in general I'd go with "The Beatles Anthology". If your looking at Yes, don't go anway near the Yesspeak DVD. It sucks! I know books are better but if want a good doc video on Yes, try and get an out-of print VHS copy of the 1990 Yessyears video. This was done during the Union tour, so it covers more ground interviewing past and present members. Bill Bruford is a real kick with his dry sense of humor (did you know the opening of Yours Is No Disgrace was inspired by the theme song to Bonanza?). |
Posted By: TBWART
Date Posted: May 07 2005 at 04:20
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yesyears dvd has been released...so don't go copying some old vhstape and just order the dvd instead! ------------- ''progression is trying to eliminate boundries'' |
marktheshark wrote:Posted By: TBWART
Date Posted: May 07 2005 at 04:22
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there are some pretty interesting stories to be found in the ''in a word'' box from yes.
------------- ''progression is trying to eliminate boundries'' |
Posted By: marktheshark
Date Posted: May 07 2005 at 11:48
Really! Hadn't seen it. Is it all region ? Hadn't gotten around to getting In A Word yet mainly 'cause I already got most of the stuff on it. |
Posted By: Cygnus X-2
Date Posted: May 08 2005 at 02:46
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I really like Moon: Biography of a Mad Man (I least that is what I think the title is), the 620 page Keith Moon biography, it was quite a read, but damn it was good. As was A Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey, and then I got a bunch of assorted Beatles bios. ------------- 
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Posted By: Joren
Date Posted: May 08 2005 at 09:54
| The Real Frank Zappa Book |
Posted By: AngelRat
Date Posted: May 08 2005 at 12:35
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Real FZ Book for me also. Another autobiography I enjoyed very much was Tom Gabriel Fischer's "Are You Morbid?" about Celtic Frost. -------------  |
Posted By: Velvetclown
Date Posted: May 08 2005 at 12:37
------------- Billy Connolly Dream Theater Terry Gilliam Hagen Quartet Jethro Tull Mike Keneally |
Posted By: Richardw
Date Posted: May 08 2005 at 12:49
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My favourite singer ever. David Crosby's autobiography is simply breathtaking. This guy's lived life to the max. Good thing he's still with us. |
Posted By: marktheshark
Date Posted: May 08 2005 at 17:12
That one's a sure winner. Could've used more road stories though. |
Posted By: Moogtron III
Date Posted: May 08 2005 at 18:18
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Great, thanks everybody, for all the information thus far. So there is a website for prog-books. I didn't know that. Speaking of Ed Macan (Threefates did, thanks!): I love his book Rocking The Classics, about the origins of progrock and the description of the early progressive "counterculture". |
Posted By: threefates
Date Posted: May 09 2005 at 10:12
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Well supposedly he has 17 chapters (over 1200 pages) on ELP. Even I couldn't write that much about them!! So I can't wait to see it published! ------------- THIS IS ELP
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Posted By: Moogtron III
Date Posted: May 09 2005 at 14:23
| Me too! I love the way he wrote about ELP in Rocking The Classics. |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: May 11 2005 at 03:39
But have you tried "The Negative Dialectics Of Poodle Play" - now that's heavy  .
By the way, has anyone here read Ian McLagan's book "All The Rage"? I've heard it's supposed to be an excellent read. ------------- 
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Intruder
Date Posted: May 19 2005 at 06:01
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I caught a contact high from reading DCrosby's book, "Long Time Gone". ------------- I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there..... |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: May 31 2005 at 18:56
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Theres a great book about the Nice out there, unfortunately all the way through the author felt he had to to take endless digs at ELP. He seems never to have forgiven Emerson for leaving the Nice to go to ELP.
ps. i w ent to see Emerson and the Nice in Glasgow in 2002 and 2003 and they were brilliant. |