INTRO

This blog introduces biographies from the rock industry's biggest musicians—in alphabetical order, suitable for older teen boys or girls and adult men or women. The focus is, in particular: American, British, and Australian artists that have sold more than a million records worldwide. I picked books that are included in Goodreads' selection of Popular Rock Biographies Books.

I originally planned to (1) include self-written memoirs and autobiographies in this blog, but I ended up changing my mind, based on the fact that I have very limited space. Also, I honestly find that I much prefer to read a book written by a “real” writer—it pretty much guarantees that the book will be enjoyable. Let musicians be musicians—and master their songwriting. So from the list of 15 bibliographies all you see is biographies written by either (current or former) music writers/journalists or popular culture authors/historians. (2) I intended to include Dave Marsh’s chronicle of Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen's, Born to Run,—I presented that very book in the original proposal to Julie, to which she agreed—but in the end it slipped my mind. I guess I got too carried away with other rock biographies—they are a ton of them, and while not all of them are truly great, it’s always tempting to find out who Jagger took to bed, what Cohen did not do at Chelsea Hotel, or confirm that the excellent “Dazed and Confused” is actually an act of plagiarism by Led Zeppelin.

On the GIGS page you can also find similar types of rock-n-roll books—focused on the mega rock stars who have all died at age 27. The page represents the Manly Library current “live”—real or virtual—storytelling activities.

Rock on!

Putu Wismaya

•Image: brucespringsteen.net