I intended to open this new thread in addition to the novel talk thread, because not everyone might be interested in reading posts about novels.... so this is only for non fiction books about music, musicians,... and other books that are one way or another related to music...

Anyway, I read three books about music so far and I'm about to read a third one...

Charles R. Cross, The Biography of Kurt Cobain is a good account of Cobains life as far as I know, enjoyable to read... But as there are many other books about Kurt, I can't say how this one relates to them...
David Browne, Dream Brother, the lives and music of Jeff and Tim Buckley, again enjoyable to read, shifting from one chapter about Jeff to one about time and vice versa, but that never annoys the reading pleasure
Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life, scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991, spoke about this one before, very good descriptions of this period building up to "Smells Like Teen Spirit", this way I got into Mission of Burma, Minutemen,...

and I still have to read Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman's No One Gets Out Here Alive, a bio about Jim Morrison...

I'm intending to read something from or about the famous music journalist Lester Bangs, the Led Zep bio
Hammer of the Gods seems interesting as well... and I'd like to read something about Jimi Hendrix, Tom Waits, Janis Joplin, etc.
So much to read... I love it

No one here gerts out alive is quit good.

One of the best biographys I ever read is about Herman Brood, a dutch rock 'n' roll Junkie. It's called "Broodje gezond" by Bart Chabot. (only available in nw-europe i think)

I also enjoyed "Deep in a dream: the long night of Chet Baker" by James Gavin.

"Jaques Brel: de passie en de pijn" by Johan Anthierens (I guess It's only available in Belgium)

Other books I enjoyed, about music, not being biography's are
"A day in the life: the beatles and their music" by Mark Hertsgaard. Great analysizing of the beatles music, and how their personal life influenced some great hits.
"Strange Fruit" by David Margolic, how one song can have such an impact....

And last some cool photobooks
William Claxton's Jazz Seen
And Young Chet alkso by William Claxton. A great photographer who worked with....all of them actually

get in the van - henry rollins...

it's a collection of his journals detailing his time as the frontman with black flag... even if you don't agree with all his personal views it's still an interesting look into what a 'real' touring band puts up with... the witty anecdotes in this book are about survival not rockstar decadance... and the pictures are pretty cool too...

As a book dealer and rock music freak my list of favorite non-fiction music titles would take too long to list (or maybe I'm just to lazy too).. But basically, I have read probably five bios on Hendrix, 3 on the Doors, a dozen or so on Floyd, 3 or 4 on Zeppelin, and scores of other compilation rock biographies and reference books. I have also read over 50 books about the Beatles as well as dozens of interviews (periodicals and tape) when I was doing research for my own book years ago...

But, over the last month I have been reading and analyzing a book called "Which One is Pink" by Phil Rose that radio mute member NewDawnFades gave me... It is really an interesting book on the most popular albums by Pink Floyd (Dark Side thru The Wall)... More of a dry text type research book, but still intresting when read in short sessions...

I also picked up a very rare rock encyclopedia published in the early 70's at a book sale recently... It is interesting because it delves into rock and pop acts (pre-1974) that the more popular guides like Rolling Stone and Allmusic either just touch on or totally ignore...


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I gotta check that out. Henry Rollins is awesome. Saw him do a club gig where he read some poetry and ranted and raved a little bit and was very entertaining. Interesting guy all around.

I just finished reading Nick Drake's biogrpahy. The poor boy...

... actually, most of these are really not books about *music* ... they're more about people who create music...

<----------------- drsquid

...as for music or whatever style you prefer, there's no book that can really adequately describe it or tell you about it... the best way, of course, is to go directly to the source... ... nothing beats listening...

...just my two centavos...

--- drsquid

(sorry, squidquotes are unavailable today...)

I'm reading "Waiting For the Sun: Strange Days,Weird Scenes,and the Sound of Los Angeles" by Barney Hoskyns. Lotsa good inside stuff about the sixties bands and the dynamics of the record business. Well-written and fun.

my neighbor got me the Diary of Kurt Cobain for xmas but i never really got into it. It actually kinda freaked me out. I think Nirvana fans would enjoy it though

Beneath the Underdog: Composed by Mingus

Fünf Urlinie-Tafeln: Heinrich Schenker

On the Theory of Modulation: Max Reger

In a museum on Jupiter somewhere: Brahms' treatise on parallel fifths (well, maybe it's just a collection of parallel fifths)

Baker's Dictionary of Music & Musicians / The Lexicon of Musical Invective / Perfect Pitch: Nicolas Slonimsky

Structural Hearing, Tonal Coherence in Music: Felix Salzer (Schenker without the megalomania)