What music biographies have you enjoyed?

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: Allen in Oz
Date: 22 Nov 10 - 10:59 PM

" Joan Baez" Autobiography

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Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: open mike
Date: 22 Nov 10 - 11:43 PM

not musical but the biographies i have read
are Tony Hillerman author of Jom Chee and Joe Leaphorn mysteries
and Farley Mowat author of Never Cry Wolf, and other books/movies

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: open mike
Date: 22 Nov 10 - 11:56 PM

Follow the Music is about jac holtzman and Electra records...included is a c.d.
and Christine Lavin has recently published an autobigraphical book
Cold Pizza for Breakfast

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 23 Nov 10 - 11:55 AM

The best books on Woody Guthrie are not Joe Klein's. "Cisco, Woody and Me" accurately describes Woody's personality written by Joe Longhi who served with them in the merchant marine.

Ed Cray's "Travelin' Man" is by someone who actually knew Woody in California as did I.
Ed's writing style is witty and sharp.

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: Nicholas Waller
Date: 23 Nov 10 - 04:10 PM

It's from a rather different angle than most music bios, but Ian Copeland's autobiography Wild Thing is a good read. Brother of manager and record co founder Miles III and Police drummer Stewart, Ian Copeland was mainly a booking agent in the 70s-90s. He discovered The Average White Band, toured Wishbone Ash (who rehearsed in his parents' basement) and dealt with several pre-punk bands in London. He then broke a lot of New Wave British bands in the US, such as Squeeze, The Cure and The Police, through relentless gigging in small clubs under the radar of the bigger venues and agencies.

All that stuff is interesting enough - plus squiring Marianne Faithfull and Courtney Cox, though he is mostly discreet about that - but he was also a soldier in Vietnam and spends time on that, and he was an academic fuckup and rebellious teen expat - when his siblings were more like straight arrows - in 1960s Beirut (hence "wild thing"). Actually, I discovered his book first through a segment that was then online when I was searching for stuff on Beirut a few years ago. He was ten years older than me and apparently lived about 300 yards away from me when I was a toddler in Beirut in the early 60s (his father Miles Copeland Jr was CIA station chief there, and a friend-cum-watcher of Kim Philby). Through friends, I got to meet his mother and daughter in France earlier this year; unfortunately, IanC died in 2006.

One folkish character we meet in London a few times is Al Stewart, as IanC was a flatmate of Stewart's manager. I like Al Stewart a lot, but sadly the bio of him by Neville Judd is a bit of an organisational mess and clunkily written. Conflicting opinions here, and I am at the less-flattering end of the range.

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 11:05 AM

I don't think anyone's mentioned it yet but Last Cavalier: The Life and Times of John A. Lomax, 1867-1948; by Nolan Porterfield, is an absolute must for anyone interested in American folk music.

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: Cool Beans
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 04:09 PM

Okay, Frank, I picked up Ed Cray's "Travelin' Man" on your recommendation. I like it so far (the introduction).

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 04:09 PM

I'd second the recommendations for Tommy Sands' 'The Songman' and Hamish Imlach's memoirs (for which, btw, we have to thank Ewan McVicar as well, who sat him down with a tape recorder and edited the result into a highly readable text).

Not a music biography as such, but Tim Neat's biography of Hamish Henderson gives a rounded picture of Hamish's achievements. I tremendously enjoyed vol 1 and am looking forward to vol 2.

Also: "Er ruehrte an den Schlaf der Welt", a biography of German singer Ernst Busch (from my home town of Kiel, but with a unique career in Berlin both before and after World War II) by Jochen Voit. Not available in English yet, though.

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 04:29 PM

Not mentioned yet -- "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? The Carter family and their legacy in American music", by Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg, covered a lot of interesting ground: not only their own story, but the people they affected, like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, etc.

Additional seconds on the Woody Guthrie biographies, both Klein and Cray, 'How Can I Keep from Singing' (Dunaway on Pete Seeger - I need to re-read since the 2008 update), and the John Lomax biography.

I also need to read about Alan Lomax and I want to get Shirley Collins's 'Across the Water'.

~ Becky in Long Beach

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: mandotim
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 04:42 PM

'Innocent When You Dream', a collection of interviews and conversations with Tom Waits is very good; Waits likes to feed journalists on highly creative bullshit, but in doing so reveals a great deal about his character and ideas.

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 May 16 - 05:29 PM

Just started Maire/Moya Brennan and her fifteen-year-old autobiography, The Other Side of the Rainbow. She actually had a grandfather who told her a story about encountering the end of a rainbow, a leprechaun, and a crock of gold when she was a little girl. Before a copy of the book came into my hands, I read where someone had asked her if she would write another volume of memoirs, and she was not for it: it was the hardest thing she'd ever done, comparing it to the labor of four or five record albums, and took so much out of her.

It's a little paperback book, and yet I can see that it will take a long time to read, slowly and carefully. She must have drawn the line somewhere, to stay within good taste, and yet it has to be said that her writing is rich in detail both good and bad. If I read right, she is a recovering alcoholic, so her book is yet another way of coming clean. When the book was published, it said Maire on the cover, even though now she goes by Moya. Anyone else look at it?

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 09 May 16 - 06:57 PM

I really enjoyed "life" by Keith Richards, the story of a man on both an intellectual and musical journey. a very smart guy sharing his life. great read,
I also really enjoyed "under The Ivy" , a biography of Kate Bush , one of the most influential musicians of the last forty years. hopefully a better biography will appear, but so far this will have to do.Good but not great.

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 09 May 16 - 08:45 PM

More Than a Life - The biography of John Meredith an Australian icon written by Keith McKenry.

A superb read and a real insight into the Australian traditional folk music scene running (almost) parallel to the English revival.

I am aware that the scene in Australia can be even more fractious than the petty differences on the English scene that occasionally or perhaps all too often occur. However for all his percieved faults John Meredith is a man I would have loved to have met and known.

In a different vein the autobiography of Steve Waugh the Australian cricket captain is a delight - and it is not all about cricket but describes a man with real depth.

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: GUEST,silver
Date: 10 May 16 - 10:15 AM

"The Mountain of the Women" by Liam Clancy, and "Theo - An Autobiography" by Theo Bikel. Both guys were great storytellers. Especially Liam makes his childhood come very much alive.

Also enjoyed "Daybreak" by Joan Baez, "The Incompleat Folksinger" by Pete Seeger, "Bound for Glory" by Woody Guthrie, and "How can I keep from singing" by David Dunaway.

Subject: RE: What music biographies have you enjoyed?
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 May 16 - 11:05 AM

We Called it Music by Eddie Condon started the journey for me. My mum bought it for me from the remaindered bin in Woolworths when I was fifteen. over fifty years ago.
A picareseque adventure through America with a great guitarist encountering Bix Beiderbecke, Al Capone. Bessie Smith etc.

Any other biography you can get of Bix is worth looking at. The Sudhalters, Jean Paul Lyon, etc. they all help