Rock books and literature

[Flower]

I love this book ...

 

[Odysseus]

Cool! I just clicked off payment for the "Blues-Explosion Book" in PayPal from the Ugly Things website.

Good choice and an excellent website Fox. Ugly Things is an good read as well. It's published twice a year.

The Bomp website is also an excellent source for the music we love here at CRF.

Bomp Mailorder

 

[Sox]

 

[Abraxas]

In The Court Of King Crimson by Sid Smith is a great book to read if you want to find out more about King Crimson. Like I mentioned in the King Crimson thread it talks about each album and every track in great detail.

 

[ishu161]

Didn't Page and Plant said that most of the stuff in "hammer of the Gods" was untrue?
i haven't read it yet, but when i was planning to, i read some reviews that made me rethink. Thus far, i've stuck with Documentaries like "No Direction Home" plus, the History Channel's History Rocks

 

[rtbuck]

I read a lot of books on music & I'm just curious on everyone's thoughts on how most books about an artist are written. Do you enjoy reading the chapters on how a musician grew up or would you rather just have the book start with their music career?

Lately I tend to care less about how a musician's childhood went. I don't count it against the book but did I really need to know that Johnny Winter had to go & stand at the front of the class to read the chalk board because his vision was so bad, or that Gene Simmons bought comic books from people for one dollar per pound, or when & where Cherie Currie had her first period???

I am currently reading 'Raisin Cain: The Johnny Winter Story' & 'Highway to Hell: the Life & Death of the Legendary Bon Scott'

 

[gregjohnson1229]

Slash's autobiography is very entertaining and it gives you insight what it would be in a band with axl rose.

 

[runtfan]

I'm just finishing up "Moon",a bio of Keith Moon. Excellent book. Moon was a great drummer, a funny character, but also the legendary booze and drug habits and some real emotional and psychological issues.

 

[FretBuzz]

Those sound like some informative reading Dave78.

A couple worthwhile books Davorp are The Harmony Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock. First published in 1976, it is revised every few years. It's quite comprehensive.

Another is Blues-Rock Explosion (2001). An exhaustive, informative book with individual chapters devoted to a group or solo artist. I highly recommend it.

I love The Harmony Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock! I lent mine to somebody and never got it back, and I missed it so much that I bought another copy. It's indispensable, IMO. And their book on jazz ain't bad either! (BTW Odysseus, I dig your Big Daddy Roth avatar - He was DA MAN!) Haven't seen 'Blues-Rock Explosion', will definitely order a copy soon.

I like Victor Bockris' books a lot. I've read 'Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story', 'Keith Richards: The Biography ', and 'Beat Punks', which were all written by him.

Let's see...I also really like Stanley Booth a lot. His book 'The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones' is a classic, probably the best book written on the Stones (aside form Bill Wyman's 'Stone Alone', that is).

I recently bought the Beatles Anthology book - boy, it's huge and chock full of fascinating quotes and photos. HIGHLY recommended.

If you're into 60's psychedelic and garage bands, the magazine 'Shindig' is excellent. It's a very high quality mag, and they cover a lot of obscure bands, with some very in depth articles and interviews. Its pretty hard to find though, I live in a big city and only know of one store that carries it. (they probably have a website though).

I read Hammer of the Gods a long time ago. Its a fun read, tends to focus on the sensational side of the Zep legend perhaps too much though. Looking forward to Keef's autobiography (which is supposed to come out later this year), it'll be interesting to see if he can actually remember anything!

 

[Death on Credit]

The works of Lester Bangs are pretty incredible. It seems like he hates a lot of the musicians that he reviews, but it seems to me that he's just covering up for his head-on hero worship. Anyway, he's such a great writer that he can say anything and it'll be interesting.

Chronicles by Bob Dylan is great too.