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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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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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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Enter Night: A Biography of Metallica

Wall, Mick. Enter Night : A Biography of Metallica, New York : St. Martin’s Press, 2011.

This narrative-style biography is straightforward and fast-paced. The wordy storytelling-style by British music journalist Mick Wall successfully provides an in-depth portrait of the infamous thrash metal group: the personalities of all key—and ex-key—members of Metallica (Dave Mustaine might be a bitter alcoholic jerk but he was kicked out of the band because he was a threat to the leadership Lars Ulrich held within the band), the various incarnations of the LA quartet (James Hetfield, in the beginning, wasn’t all that comfortable being the front man and the face of the band), the bad musicianship (especially the drummer), and many other wild, wonderful, emotionally draining never-known-before and other somewhat uncomfortable truths. Written in two main parts—pre and post And Justice For All—this 480 page Metallisaga is the ultimate chronicle for both old cracks and newbies, young-at-heart adult and young adult ‘tallica fans.

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