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Books - any interesting memoirs lately?


BruceM

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Here's a few I'm either reading or just read:

Led Zeppelin - The Biography by Bob Spitz.  It was published in 2021.  Yikes!  What a tale, which of course has been told many, many times before.

Last Chance Texaco - Chronicles of an American Troubadour by Rickie Lee Jones.  This one was a page turner and it focused on her early life and up through the release of her first record.  She's lucky she survived her teenage years.  I'm lucky I got to see her perform locally in 2000.

Soul Mining - A Musical Life by Daniel Lanois.  This one was published in 2010, but I just picked it up from the library.  Wow, this book is really interesting as he discusses recording techniques he employed on many of the biggest selling albums of the 80s, including Peter Gabriel's So, U2's The Joshua Tree and many others.  I'm about halfway through this one. He worked with so many people, including Brian Eno, Dylan, Emmylou, the Neville Brothers.  What a life for a simple Canadian kid from a broken home.  

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When I get through with the book I'm currently reading, Fred Haise's autobio is next, but it's not about music or guitars. All he did was go to the Moon and return safely in the most dramatic and remote rescue effort in history.

A biography of luthier Roger Fritz (Roy Buchanan guitars, Fritz Bros., Kay re-issues) is in the works.

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I just read Hard To Handle, by Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman. Not really a fan, but it was a very good read.

Lonely Boy, by Sex Pistol Steve Jones is also very entertaining. The recent FX series Pistol was based on it (and took a few liberties).

Running W/ The Devil by VH manager Noel Monk has been discussed here, as well as VH Rising. Sammys book, Red, also fun.

Confess, by Rob Halford was good. KK Downings book wasn't (IMHO), lots of whining and complaining (which Rob mentioned was a trait of KKs).

John Fogerty also came off as lots of whining and complaining (to be fair, he really did get fucked professionally). The CCR documentary & live concert film I just saw was great, one of my fave bands.

Just read Bruce Dickinsons book, it was good but he comes off kinda conceited to me, which I guess is understandable as he's had an amazing life.

Rex's Pantera book 100 Proof was pretty good, but he also comes off kinda conceited to me. Didn't paint Vinny in a good light, ha. I Read some book on Dime that wasn't very well written.

"Willie" (Nelson) was a good read, as was Townsend's Who I Am (a little more engaging than Daltry & Moons books). I do like reading 2 sides of the same story (like Iommi's & Ozzys books); I have both Ray & Dave Davies books in my to-do stack.

Flea's book Acid For The Children was scattered and kinda goofy. Anthony Kiedies book Scar Tissue was better, but didn't paint him in a good light.

Speaking of "didn't paint him in a good light", the books I've read about Miles Davis (as well as Jaco) were somewhat entertaining. Jacos story was tragic. Same w/ Steve Earle's bio. Same w/ the few Hendrix books I read.

Probably my fave musician bio was Andy Summer's One Train Later, it reads like a real novel, not a list of gigs and gripes. Hammer Of The Gods comes in as a close 2nd (I think Motley Crues The Dirt was trying to hard to out-debauch Led Zep, and came off as contrived IMHO).

I have read most of the books about my fave band, IMHO the best 2 were How Black Was Our Sabbath (by road crew members Grahm Wright & David Tange), & Black Sabbath - Symptom Of The Universe, by my fave music biographer Mick Wall. Micks bio, Paranoid, was excellent & reads like Bukowski.

FWIW, Bukowski's stuff reads like a debauched musicians bio w/ all the drinking, fucking, & fighting. I read all his novels and actually started reading his poetry (oooh I'm sensitive, ha). I try to read some non musician books from time to time (especially focusing on some more well know authors) with varying results; I just read 2 of Hemmingways more famous books (Old Man And The Sea, & A Farewll To Arms), meh... Ok but not as engaging as Bukowski or Hunter S Thompson (my 2 fave authors). Jack Keauoacs On The Road was fun, but his style is hard to read because he seems allergic to punctuation (I actually started and abandoned several of his other books). Read some Ann Rand last year (felt compelled as a Rush fan to read Anthem, which was ok, and I have The Fountianhead in my to-do stack). I couldn't hang w/ Nietzsche, the one I tried to read was referencing a lot of philosophy, which I'm not at all familiar with. Currently reading Empire Of The Summer Moon (about the war w/ the Commanche Indians), it is BRUTAL and a real page turner!

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3 hours ago, Brooks said:

I just read Hard To Handle, by Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman. Not really a fan, but it was a very good read.

Lonely Boy, by Sex Pistol Steve Jones is also very entertaining. The recent FX series Pistol was based on it (and took a few liberties).

Running W/ The Devil by VH manager Noel Monk has been discussed here, as well as VH Rising. Sammys book, Red, also fun.

Confess, by Rob Halford was good. KK Downings book wasn't (IMHO), lots of whining and complaining (which Rob mentioned was a trait of KKs).

John Fogerty also came off as lots of whining and complaining (to be fair, he really did get fucked professionally). The CCR documentary & live concert film I just saw was great, one of my fave bands.

Just read Bruce Dickinsons book, it was good but he comes off kinda conceited to me, which I guess is understandable as he's had an amazing life.

Rex's Pantera book 100 Proof was pretty good, but he also comes off kinda conceited to me. Didn't paint Vinny in a good light, ha. I Read some book on Dime that wasn't very well written.

"Willie" (Nelson) was a good read, as was Townsend's Who I Am (a little more engaging than Daltry & Moons books). I do like reading 2 sides of the same story (like Iommi's & Ozzys books); I have both Ray & Dave Davies books in my to-do stack.

Flea's book Acid For The Children was scattered and kinda goofy. Anthony Kiedies book Scar Tissue was better, but didn't paint him in a good light.

Speaking of "didn't paint him in a good light", the books I've read about Miles Davis (as well as Jaco) were somewhat entertaining. Jacos story was tragic. Same w/ Steve Earle's bio. Same w/ the few Hendrix books I read.

Probably my fave musician bio was Andy Summer's One Train Later, it reads like a real novel, not a list of gigs and gripes. Hammer Of The Gods comes in as a close 2nd (I think Motley Crues The Dirt was trying to hard to out-debauch Led Zep, and came off as contrived IMHO).

I have read most of the books about my fave band, IMHO the best 2 were How Black Was Our Sabbath (by road crew members Grahm Wright & David Tange), & Black Sabbath - Symptom Of The Universe, by my fave music biographer Mick Wall. Micks bio, Paranoid, was excellent & reads like Bukowski.

FWIW, Bukowski's stuff reads like a debauched musicians bio w/ all the drinking, fucking, & fighting. I read all his novels and actually started reading his poetry (oooh I'm sensitive, ha). I try to read some non musician books from time to time (especially focusing on some more well know authors) with varying results; I just read 2 of Hemmingways more famous books (Old Man And The Sea, & A Farewll To Arms), meh... Ok but not as engaging as Bukowski or Hunter S Thompson (my 2 fave authors). Jack Keauoacs On The Road was fun, but his style is hard to read because he seems allergic to punctuation (I actually started and abandoned several of his other books). Read some Ann Rand last year (felt compelled as a Rush fan to read Anthem, which was ok, and I have The Fountianhead in my to-do stack). I couldn't hang w/ Nietzsche, the one I tried to read was referencing a lot of philosophy, which I'm not at all familiar with. Currently reading Empire Of The Summer Moon (about the war w/ the Commanche Indians), it is BRUTAL and a real page turner!

Kinane has a long bit that is calling bullshit on most of Nikki Sixx's Heroin Diaries tales of debauchery, it's probably better than the book which probably isn't saying much.🤣

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I recently read Flea's Acid for the Children. I liked it.

Now I'm reading Elvis Costello's book Unfaithful Music. So far it's a good read.

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6 hours ago, Brooks said:

Currently reading Empire Of The Summer Moon

That's a good one. I'm reading The Earth Is Weeping, about the end of the Civil War to the end of the Indian Wars. Lotta good history in it. 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BAU2L2S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins. he is an engineer that worked for some of the big international contracting firms like Schlumberger. some say its all conspiracy theories but its pretty convincing.  I don't think they cared much about the US government as the statement below suggests. I think they are using the gov't as a tool and are more interested in the money.  Schlumberger was in the news this week about not withdrawing from Russia.  anyway,  heres the intro: 

His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the U.S.—from Indonesia to Panama—to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development, and to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to U. S. corporations. Saddled with huge debts, these countries came under the control of the United States government, World Bank and other U.S.-dominated aid agencies that acted like loan sharks—dictating repayment terms and bullying foreign governments into submission.

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a well connected, super powerful company worth billions, very low profile but bigger than Halliburton (who does the same things). they started in oil field support and service (both are active here in my state of AK for over 50 years, and... they own a certain political party. how would you feel if some of your top politicians were literally on the payroll of oil companies?)(some of ours are). anyway, long ago they moved into other energy venues like powerplant, dam construction, and even nuke plants. also into mining, road, and bridge building. all kinds of stuff. mostly the biggest and most expensive projects

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Not music related, but you guys should try Keeper of the Moon by late NC-based author and Renaissance man Tim McLaurin. A stellar memoir written by a blue collar guy who almost literally did it all before Leukemia took his life at a young age.

 

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Recently finished Bitten By The Blues by Bruce Iglauer. Fantastic look at the history of Chicago Blues and some interesting insight into the contributing factors that lead to the demise of recorded music sales. 

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I just finished Brian Johnson's the Lives of Brian.  He's a great story teller and pretty funny.  The book stops when he joins AC/DC and records and starts touring for Back in Black, but it was a great read none the less.  Fascinating insight into growing up in post-war Newcastle, trying to make it in the music biz with his previous bands, and the crazy dumb luck you have to have and risky decisions you have to make in order to be successful in the music business.  I really wish he would do another book covering the post Back in Black years, but I doubt he will.

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Not a bio, but in the middle of "They just seem a little wierd"  cool book,  which I think would appeal

to many here...    don't quite get the amount of pages dedicated to Starz but I guess I understand the

Aucoin/Kiss machine a little better...                      

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I love music bios.  Recently finished Shakey: Neil Young's Biography by Jimmy McDonough, which is apparently unauthorized, or the subject of some litigation from NY, but it was equal parts fascinating, sad, and perplexing.  I enjoyed it a lot, though it did change the way I think about Neil a bit, who is one of my favorite song writers/recording artists of all time.  The man's early life in Canada, and how it led to where he went in life is highly improbable.  It reminded me of a good novel I read a couple years ago called Canada by Richard Ford.  Brought to mind the same sort of hard scrabble experience of living just north of the US border in the mid-20th century.    

 

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On 10/29/2022 at 8:09 AM, Brooks said:

Bukowski's stuff reads like a debauched musicians bio w/ all the drinking, fucking, & fighting. I read all his novels and actually started reading his poetry (oooh I'm sensitive, ha).

My first exposure to Bukowski was very Bukowski in itself...

When I was 20 years old, I drank a fifth of bourbon with my English professor, she was about 35.  At some point following a viewing of the film Singles on VHS, she reached over from her nightstand and gave me a collection of Bukowski poems called Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame.

I still have it.

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I really liked the Daniel Lanois book.  His writing style took a little getting used to, but there's lots of interesting information about his approach to recording, and about his approach to handling very famous recording artists.  He talked about his approach to mixing and how it evolved over the years.  He and Eno used to have an exercise where they would take turns doing a "15 minute mix" for a couple of hours and wind up with 6 different mixes of a song, each produced within a 15 minute time window.  They would then play these back to the recording artists and session musicians.  Each mix would highlight something a little bit different in the session, and they were free to discuss what ideas they liked in the mixes, and make sure those were included in the final mix.

I'm not a recording artist, but I know quite a few.  It seems to me that this would be a great help in moving the process along.  I've seen people get hopelessly mired at the mixing stage.

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On 11/2/2022 at 12:34 PM, DaveL said:

Not a bio, but in the middle of "They just seem a little wierd"  cool book,  which I think would appeal

to many here...    don't quite get the amount of pages dedicated to Starz but I guess I understand the

Aucoin/Kiss machine a little better...                      

I've got that one to read later.  I went straight from the Brian Johnson one to Bon Scott: Have a Drink on Me written by his first wife.

I just don't get Starz.  A lot of people who love the same bands of that era as me (Cheap Trick, AC/DC, Nugent, Molly Hatchet, etc.) REALLY love bands like Starz, Riot, Shooting Star, and Angel.  I've listened to those other bands many times trying to understand and they just don't connect for me.  The production was nowhere close and none of them were nearly as good as players or as consistent as songwriters.  Different strokes, I guess.

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7 hours ago, tommy p said:

REALLY love bands like Starz, Riot, Shooting Star, and Angel.  I've listened to those other bands many times trying to understand and they just don't connect for me.  The production was nowhere close and none of them were nearly as good as players or as consistent as songwriters.  Different strokes, I guess.

You don't like Riot? A lot of hit or miss tunes on their albums, except for Fire Down Under which is all killer no filler, IMHO

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I recently read this, after Mary Spender talked about it on her YT channel.  It’s not a memoir, but a look at the lives of stars both during and after stardom.  It’s very well-written and made me laugh out loud while dining alone (business trip) on several occasions.

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On 11/7/2022 at 4:06 PM, Brooks said:

You don't like Riot? A lot of hit or miss tunes on their albums, except for Fire Down Under which is all killer no filler, IMHO

Just listened to it yet again.  It's OK, but I don't connect with on the same level as the other bands I mentioned.  Like DaveL, I just thought it was funny that the "They Just Seem a Little Weird" book is all about Cheap Trick, Kiss, Aerosmith and...Starz.  One of these things is just not like the others and it reminded me of the many times over the years that people raved about Angel, Riot, and Shooting Star (along with Starz) and I'd listen to them and just shrug my shoulders.

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