Books about music.

[SoulDischarge]

Personally, I like dancing about architecture. Anything good, essential, illuminating, trashy, or obsessive that everyone should know about? My library has a way better section on music than it has any right to and I plan on devoting some time to sorting through it while I'm here.

'Please Kill Me' is a great read about the original New York punk scene told through first hand accounts. Quick, brutal, and hilarious. Lester Bangs is great even though he's kind of the Nirvana of the music writing scene, spawning countless grating imitators. Greil Marcus has some interesting perspectives although sometimes he tends to over-intellectualize. The All Music Guide books are extremely helpful in navigating the genres they cover. The electronica one is what dragged me out to the library in the first place. I can't exaggerate how much it helped me find out about great shit when I was a teenager.

What are some of yr favorites?

(Also, fuck you if this thread already exists. 'Music' and 'books' are way too vague of terms to search for on this board.)

[212margarita]

"Pleas Kill Me" is an excellent read! Good Call.

"Can't Stop Won't Stop" by Jeff Chang is pretty awesome too. It's a history of hip-hop and while it isnt 100% complete...its still a great book.

"Cash" by Johnny Cash is also great. It's Johnny's autobiography...gets a bit preachy, but its still Johnny fucking Cash.

[bmack86]

I really liked Can't Stop Won't Stop. It was a useful first step when I did some research papers on Hip Hop. I also really like Our Band Could Be Your Life. It's not a thorough account of 80s underground music by any means, but it is a good chronicle of the bands that it follows, and they all have some very interesting stories. I love the chapter on Big Black.

Also, the 33 1/3 series is a fantastic grouping. The one on In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was great.

[greghead]

Greil Marcus is shit, his overly-romantic chapter on Elvis in "Mystery Train" turned me off to his work completely. Lester Bangs still reins.

I like some of the work by Simon Frith, "Performing Rites" was an interesting discussion on how we as listeners judge music as being good/bad, authentic/fake, subjective/objective, etc. I enjoyed it immensely. Nick Brommel's work, "Tomorrow Never Knows" seriously examines the role that psychedelic drugs played in the creation of music in the years between '65 and '71. A very fun and interesting book to read.

[SoulDischarge]

I also really like Our Band Could Be Your Life.

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that one. The Butthole Surfers chapter is one of the single funniest things I've ever read in my life.

[bmack86]

Butthole Surfers-We shit where you sleep

I think that was their motto at one point.

[rskapcat]

Chuck Klosterman - Fargo Rock City.

Mmmm...hair metal...

[sames44]

Also, the 33 1/3 series is a fantastic grouping. The one on In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was great.

The one on Unknown Pleasures was quite good. Thanks for the reminder, going to read it again.

[bmack86]

Yeah it was. The only one that I've read that was disappointing so far was the PJ Harvey one. It wasn't really a comment on the album at all.

[sames44]

Yeah it was. The only one that I've read that was disappointing so far was the PJ Harvey one. It wasn't really a comment on the album at all.

Oooh, thanks for the tip - I would have picked that one up. Any others you can recommend/suggest to avoid?
Edit: thinking of getting Doolittle & Pretty Hate Machine...

[menikmati]

[bmack86]

Oooh, thanks for the tip - I would have picked that one up. Any others you can recommend/suggest to avoid?
Edit: thinking of getting Doolittle & Pretty Hate Machine...

I loved the ones on Trout Mask Replica and Velvet Underground and Nico. Loveless is a good one too.

[menikmati]

[algunz]

I'm actually looking forward to the book on Britney Spears. I'm extremely curious.

[sbessiso]

Chuck Klosterman - Fargo Rock City.

Mmmm...hair metal...

you beat me to it. Klosterman is fucking brill. Sex, drugs, and cocoa puffs as well as killing yourself to live all have really interesting things to say about music in general. I love when he describes how "Kid A" unintentiionally predicted the 9/11 attacks.

[Tylerdurden31]

I too am a fan of the 33 1/3 series. I've read Loveless, OK Computer, ...Endtroducing and reading Grace.

the OK Computer book was horrid. The other 3 are fantastic.

[212margarita]

Both of the Lester Bangs essay collections are worth reading.

[C DUB YA]

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby is a classic and to borrow a tired cliche - much better than the film.

Also the Peter Saville design restropective (Designed by Peter Saville) is a must own for any music fan. It's basically everything visual that was Factory records (New Order, Joy Division, Happy Mondays).

Sampler (Volumes 1 and 2) - also record packaging and design, some of the best cover art and packages you never saw. These are harder to find but worth the search.

U2 Faraway So Close - a great insider view of the Zoo TV tour years by BP Fallon.

[wmgaretjax]

Also, the 33 1/3 series is a fantastic grouping. The one on In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was great.

Yes. I have read about a dozen of these and they are all fantastic.

[whynotsmile99]

If you are into Zeppelin or straight up rock n roll debauchery "Hammer of The Gods" is amazing
Great, great book

http://clarkblog.typepad.com/clarkbl...9/zeppelin.jpg

[Memorial_07]

I have to a biography soon on someone and I will probably pick Prince.
Is there any good books on him and his life or music?

[thewindowliquor]

I can't believe this thread has gone on this long without anyone mentioning either of the two best books ever written about music.

Get in the Van, by Hank Rollins and
Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band, by Motley Crue.

[Memorial_07]

I can't believe this thread has gone on this long without anyone mentioning either of the two best books ever written about music.

Get in the Van, by Hank Rollins and
Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band, by Motley Crue.

I seriously couldn't put down Get In The Van.
It was one of the best books ever about music.

That and Scar Tissue if that counts

[wmgaretjax]

"The Music and Art of Radiohead" by Joseph Tate is a fantastic collection of essays... Some of it is a bit heady though...

[thewindowliquor]

jesus. every fucking thread.

[Memorial_07]

jesus. every fucking thread.

Yup.
It gets a little old after a while.

[thewindowliquor]

the worst part is the comment about it being "a bit heady."

like, oh, I understand it, because I'm a true radiohead fan... but you guys that don't love radiohead as much as me are obviously illiterate retards that won't comprehend a word of it.

[wmgaretjax]

the worst part is the comment about it being "a bit heady."

like, oh, I understand it, because I'm a true radiohead fan... but you guys that don't love radiohead as much as me are obviously illiterate retards that won't comprehend a word of it.

Actually, you fucking brainless troll, I meant it was a little too academic. A few of the writers get a little caught up in their own "heads." It was a complaint about the book. Try again you fucking illiterate retard.

[Donaldj]

Last Night A DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton

[wmgaretjax]

Last Night A DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton

I completely forgot about this book, it was such a fun read, and I'm not even into DJ culture...