Happy New Year! If you're anything like us, you've about had enough of every website publishing its own Top 10 of everything for the year and of certain Sirius stations playing the same countdowns every day during your commute and watering down an otherwise diverse channel. The Hollywood Reporter has down the unthinkable and published a list of the best books (?!?) of the year, all of which deal with the topic of music. Check out a brief summary below and then head to your local library or bookstore.
01) Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. by Viv Albertine
Albertine was the guitarist in The Slits, one of the more under appreciated members of the UK punk/post-punk world during the late '70s. This tome tells the tale of Albertine's impact on the influential band to her tumultuous relationship with The Clash's Mick Jones.
02) Is That All There Is? The Strange Life of Peggy Lee by James Gavin
If swing singers were stereotypers as divas, Peggy Lee is the reason why. For context, The Muppets' Miss Piggy was originally named "Miss Piggy Lee" before a potential lawsuit changed its course.
03) Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyoncé by Bob Stanley
Don't look at this tome as a step-by-step guide through the development of pop and rock 'n' roll as if it were a college textbook. Instead, Stanley bombards the reader with an Alex Trebek-ian level of trivia on the music industry.
04) Brian Jones: The Making of The Rolling Stones by Paul Trynka
If you enjoy conspiracy theories and alternate accounts than this book is for you: Trynka writes this biography of deceased Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones as an attempt to downplay the influences of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger et al while establishing Jones as the true core of the original band.
05) Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story by Rick Bragg
Take this biography with a grain of salt, or don't: Jerry Lee Lewis has an ego like many a rock star and Bragg is a Pulitzer prize winner. There's a decent chance some of these stories are stretched beyond reality and there's a chance the writer is letting some color slide past his disbelief for our enjoyment.
06) Becoming Belafonte: Black Artist, Public Radical by Judith E. Smith
It's tough to listen to "Day-O" in the modern day and hear anything but a pleasant pop tune from yonder year. Smith does us the favor of explaining Harry Belafonte's hits in context with the political climate of the era when he performed them.
07) Play On: Now, Then & Fleetwood Mac by Mick Fleetwood and Anthony Bozza
As anyone knows, the story of Fleetwood Mac and the controversies within its many personalities cannot accurately be told by just one member. However this prolonged interview with Mick Fleetwood is about as good a bio as we're going to get until all parties sit down together for what will surely be a massive missive.
08) Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography by Fred Schruers
For some reasons the performer himself decided to opt out of this project, leaving Schruers by himself to rewrite the biography of Billy Joel from his own perspective. Based on reviews, it lives up to the "definitive" in the title.
09) Sound Man by Glyn Johns
If you want someone who's been there and seen it all in the music industry, it's tough to beat the life of Glyn Johns. He got his start as an engineer for the young Rolling Stones, before going on to record and produce for The Beatles, Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin. He was close enough to the stars he worked for that Bob Dylan asked him to ask members of both the Beatles and Stones to come together to form a super-super-group.
10) Rocks: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith by Joe Perry with David Ritz
It seems, based on The Hollywood Reporter's reports, that Rocks isn't for the reader who wants in-depth stories behind the most classic of Aerosmith hits, but rather those interested in the juicy tales behind Perry and vocalist Steven Tyler's contentious relationship over the last 40 years.
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