The Beatles

Davies, Hunter, 1936-. The Beatles, New York : W.W. Norton, [2010]

408 pages of very well written, behind-the-scenes, deeply researched, honest, and insightful summaries about how the most famous group in musical history functioned—and then didn’t. Hunter Davies, as the only authorised biographer, was granted unparalleled access—not only to The Beatles, but also to their friends, family, and colleagues—and spent eighteen months with the Fab Four at the peak of their brilliant career. This book is like getting a window view directly through to John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s world: how John the rebellious school student met then chubby Paul, how Paul met George on a school bus, how Ringo became the official drummer, how they went from a group of Liverpudlian kids playing music, to the famous band with the inestimable Beatlemaniacs following. First published in 1968, in this updated edition the London based author has included a new introduction and addresses the changes that have since taken place: Paul’s marriage, George’s death and their new records. This book defines a band that defined a generation.

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Strange Fascination: David Bowie: The Definitive Story

Buckley, David, 1965-. Strange fascination : David Bowie : the definitive story, London : Virgin Books, 1999.

To date, this 533 page book is the most complete account of London born singer/songwriter David Bowie and his impact on pop culture ever written. With exclusive and revelatory interviews with the Thin White Duke's closest collaborators and the man himself, and an unrivaled degree of access to excessively photographic material, the Liverpudlian music journalist David Buckley presents a lot of detail with great precision. Readers can sense the extensive research that is behind this updated and revised biography. Focus on the art not the gossip, Buckley knows what—or who—he’s talking about. Very academic and thorough.

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Bad Seed: The Biography of Nick Cave

Johnston, Ian (Ian Robert). Bad Seed : The Biography of Nick Cave, London : Little, Brown, 1995.

This 344 page chronicle is fun to read, well researched, befittingly dark, gripping, and seedy, yet perfectly paced. Mick Harvey as well as a lot of other close members give insight and direct quotes into Nick and the band which makes the book feel real and engaging. Although this biography only covers the time up until the release of Let Love In, the freelance music and film writer Ian Johnston does a great job revealing the inside story of this maverick Australian post-punk songwriter—it presents a timeline of Cave’s staggering body of work, balancing with heroin, riots, fights, electrocutions, stolen cars, and exploded cars. A must-have biography for Cave’s fans.

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I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen

Simmons, Sylvie. I’m your man : the life of Leonard Cohen, New York Ecco Press, 2012.

This vibrant, enthusiastic, and carefully researched chronicle has deftly narrated Leonard Cohen’s evolution. San Fransisco based rock historian Sylvie Simmons craftily explores the extraordinary life and creative genius of arguably one of the most important and influential musical artists of the past fifty years. Following Cohen’s trail from his birthplace in Montreal, to how Cohen found fame as a poet in the fifties; to New York where he first launched his music career in the sixties; through to his simultaneous successes of a happy marriage to a beautiful actress and selling a million copies worth of albums; to a rocky mountain top above Los Angeles where he entered a monastery; and finally to his re-emergence for his sold-out world tour almost fifteen years later. A 570 page compulsive read for Cohen enthusiasts seeking details regarding sex, religion, power, and meaning of love.

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Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited

Heylin, Clinton. Bob Dylan : behind the shades revisited, New York, NY : William Morrow, c2001.

This unauthorised biography is deemed by The New Yorker as “the most readable and reliable” of all Bob Dylan biographies. This recommendation is probably due to the fact that Manchester native Clinton Heylin wrote it with a close-up and personal narrative-style which is refreshingly free of either uncritical worship or parochial judgments. Originally published in 1991 as Behind the Shades, in 2001 Heylin added new sections, substantially reworked text, and brought the story up-to-date with the American singer/songwriter’s explosive career in 2000. Though he was denied access to Dylan for this book, his exhaustive research and 260 interviews with important people in Dylan’s life—George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Emmylou Harris, Robbie Robertson, to name a few—give Heylin story considerable depth. In 780 pages, the readers follow the story of Dylan from his humble beginnings in Minnesota to his arrival in New York in 1961, his subsequent rise in folk circuit of Greenwich Village and continued with his Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde success, his motorcycle accident, his protest-fuelled songs, to his controversial conversion to born-again Christianity. The fans will be given what they have always wanted: a chance to get to know the man behind the shades.

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A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead

McNally, Dennis. A long strange trip : the inside history of the Grateful Dead, New York : Broadway Books, 2002.

This 684 page biography is presented as a kaleidoscopic narrative, with the same zeal and spirit that the Californian band Grateful Dead brought to their music. The band’s historian and publicist Dennis McNally packs this book full of intimate details previously unavailable, such as how the Dead treated their tie-dyed, drugged up and devoted fans 'the Deadheads' as equals—as “companions in an odyssey,” or the time the group’s janitor vetoed a suggestion from multimillion-dollar promoter Bill Graham as “too commercial.” If you want to know what happened, why it happened, how it happened, and what it was like to be in one of the most long-lived and legendary bands in rock history, this is for you.

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Fleetwood Mac: The Definitive Story

Evans, Mike, 1941 October 30-. Fleetwood Mac : The Definitive Story, New York : Sterling, c2011.

“Definitive” probably the most apt word to describe this book, which is more akin to a fascinating but not too in-depth coffee table book. Overall, it is a nice overview of the British-American soft-rock legend, Fleetwood Mac, complete with incredible pictures and illustrations throughout—featured on almost every other page. Presenting excessive photos of the band, album covers, tour books, other odds and ends, the London based author, Mike Evans triumphantly tells the tale of Fleetwood Mac in his written-meets-visual combination. If you are new to the band or a long time Fleetwood Mac pack rat, this book represents a 288 page encyclopaedia: each album is given it’s own page with album info (tracks, credits and full cover artwork) including most of the solo albums up through Stevie Nick’s Rock a Little. Along the way, most of the famous stories—sexual affairs within the band, high consumptions of drugs and alcohol, partnership breakup and reconciliations—told.

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When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin

Wall, Mick. When giants walked the earth : a biography of Led Zeppelin, London : Orion Books, 2008.

This 534 page biography of Led Zeppelin provides second-person narrative style, fan fiction-esque interlude, and is written as if the author had almost insight into the main characters (Led Zeppelin). Written by British veteran rock journalist Mick Wall who happens to also be a former associate of both Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, the biography is rich and revealing: delving into the depths of the four band members unique personalities (Page is fascinated with English occultist Aleister Crowley and his active Ordo Templi Orientis religious practice) and the chronology of events is well-organised; starting with the time of Jimmy Page in the Yardbirds and his struggle to bring together an “album-centered” band through every obstacle, as well as great stories about the album covers, management, Elvis, The Who, the rise and sad loss of Bonham, everything you should know about the Biggest Band in the World.

•Image: Goodreads | Citation: Trove | Annotation: Goodreads, Amazon