Guitarist Autobiographies

EricTheWeary

HAL9000 said:

Enjoyed the Ronnie Wood and Clapton ones.

Disliked Keef's 'Life' which was basically him portraying himself as some knight in shining armour rescuing damsels from bad relationships etc. Looking after number one anf basically dismissing anyone he doesn't see eye to eye with as a 'prick'.

Faves so far are Wilko Johnson's Looking Back at Me, and Buddy Guy's one which I've forgotten the title of.

oh, forgotten Wilko's one. It's how I like a book - short and with pictures.

Danny1969

richardhomer said:

Danny1969;576473" said:

Eric Clapton - written in a style that constantly deflects Clapton from taking responsibility for his own actions ...... he became a heroin addict because his dealer insisted he buy it when he brought his coke ..... please !!!!

I am by no means an expert on how drugs are sold - but one of the arguments which is regularly put forward for legalisation, is it takes dealers' 'influence' out of the equation.

What EC ultimately did take responsibility for, was getting clean and sober.

I often think if he'd died a 'rock and roll' death at a young age, he would be viewed more favourably. He wouldn't have lived long enough to record with Phil Collins, long enough to wear Armani - or long enough to be compared unfavourably to his younger self....

I really don't get the approbrium that EC receives.

As I've often said on here before - I'm highly partisan; EC is a childhood hero. Tomorrow he is 70 years old.

I wish him well - he's made a genuine difference to my life.

Nothing wrong with Clapton as a guitarist but he took heroin because he wanted to .... he could have thrown the smack away and tooted the coke if it had to be included in the deal. I just found the whole book defensive in his nature where in The Dirt for example they own up to what they did ....  and don't try and sugarcoat it in an effort to still be a sell able commodity to easily offended people. 

littlegreenman

An essential read for any musician, IMHO:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dc/Real_frank_zappa_book_front.jpg

axisus

Another big fan of the Dirt - essential reading, an amazing life of debauchery. Also read and enjoyed Tommy Lee's book and Vince Neil's. Nicki Sixx's heroin diaries is pretty harrowing but very good, a troubled man in a bad place at the time. Highly recommended.

steamabacus

littlegreenman said:

An essential read for any musician, IMHO:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dc/Real_frank_zappa_book_front.jpg

Wisdom for this.

Barry Miles's biography (just titled 'Frank Zappa') is also very good and gives some insight into how Frank turned out like he did (that you don't quite get from Frank's own version).

Grunfeld

Okay, not cheap any more but you can get it second hand:

17 Watts?:  The First 20 Years of Rock Guitar, the Musicians and their Stories

by Mo Foster, who played bass on just about everything and was there as Clapton, Page, Beck, May, Van Morrison, Hank Marvin, everyone was emerging.  It's a great book, a unique book, and even though that's not "my" era of music it explained so much of the vibe and feel of the early days that it was like an education.  Great book.

usedtobe

Diary of a Rock n Roll Star, anyone?

Loobs

I enjoyed Andy Summer's 'One Train Later'.

andyoz

I will order that Andy Summers one as well.  I assume the Police years are interesting...watching the Sting/Copeland fights from a distance.

boogieman

Dear Boy about Keith Moon is the best rock bio I've ever read.
Oh and whoever mentioned Deke Leonard. Yes, excellent stuff.

usedtobe

I need to check out the Deke Leonard one!

scrumhalf

All of Deke Leonard's books are good, although the most recent one is a bit sad as it describes the tailing-off of the band and also Micky Jones's decline.

Noddy Holder's autobiography is a great one, all through it there's an undertone of "how lucky we've been" and he comes across as a great guy.

If you can get hold of it, the Jim Platt/Chris Dreja book about the Yardbirds is a good one, far too little has been written about such a great band.

Iommi's is okay, not the best but not the worst I've read.

As for Clapton, the only book with a built-in wah-wah. He doesn't come across as a nice guy, whines way too much.

They're not guitarists, but both Graham Bond (The Mighty Shadow) and Dick Heckstall-Smith (Blowing The Blues) have had biographies published that are essential for those who lik the music of that early 60s R&B era.

RocknRollDave

Loobs said:

I enjoyed Andy Summer's 'One Train Later'.

His film version is just about to come out, I believe. Alas, the one review I read slated it.. Shame as it's a good book.

mart

Grunfeld said:

Okay, not cheap any more but you can get it second hand:

17 Watts?:  The First 20 Years of Rock Guitar, the Musicians and their Stories

by Mo Foster, who played bass on just about everything and was there as Clapton, Page, Beck, May, Van Morrison, Hank Marvin, everyone was emerging.  It's a great book, a unique book, and even though that's not "my" era of music it explained so much of the vibe and feel of the early days that it was like an education.  Great book.

There's also a follow-up/expanded version:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Rock-Guitar-Musicians-Stories/dp/0857160001/ref=pd_rhf_ee_s_cp_1_GRYC?ie=UTF8&refRID=1GRSH3TRPK9FECQGK2W8

tbm

Music books I've read lately:

Slash - Fun read, little that wasn't already known. Comes across as a genuine guy with more humility then you'd expect.

See a Little Light by Bob Mould (Husker Du, Sugar) -  Fascinating and well written. He doesn't half hold a grudge, but you'd forgive him because he's a sodding genius.

White Line Fever (Lemmy) - Utter, utter, tosh.

You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup  - Basically a financial history of the Beatles and Apple Recs. Sounds dull, is in fact completely fascinating. 

Nico, Songs They Never Play on the Radio - Story of the last few years of the erstwhile Velvet Underground singer while living skagged out and washed up in Manchester in the early 80s. Hilarious and tragic, it might be the best music book I've ever read.

Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir - Very funny. Mustaine was a huge figure for me growing up, but he's a bit of a clown really. Still, great read.

gubble

Skipped said:

Tony Iommi: Very entertaining

When I read this I felt like he'd had a lot of spinal tap moments (and not in a good way).

andyoz

Managed to order hard copies of Iommi's and Townsends off Amazon.

andyoz

You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup  - Basically a financial history of the Beatles and Apple Recs. Sounds dull, is in fact completely fascinating. 

That one sounds interesting....anything on the Beatles is.

57Deluxe

The Clapton one was a big disappointment and amounted to a list of endless gigs he did but didn't want to and his damaged relationship with his Mother and the negative effect it had on his personal relationships with women, No bloody guitar / gear talk anywhere!

Ronnie Woods was better, but he seems to have breezed through life without any regard for anything (except how we all have taken away too much of his painting time) and with the attitude -  loose a fortune, just do another Stones Gig or two...

Apparently Rod Stewarts is supposed to be a god read though... but guitar-less of course...

andyoz

Ronnie never whinged in his...I think that's the difference. He's been through some hard times as well I assume.