Started this on Audiobook yesterday. Love that there’s music! Too many of these are just someone reading the musician’s biography or autobiography. Such a missed opportunity!
The Music Lesson, by the great bass player Victor Wooten, is a wonderful allegorical journey based on his own experience of growing through music. I was lucky to attend a master class he presented a few years ago at The Musical Instrument Museum, which was about the convergence of music and his philosophy of learning and life. Brilliant! Though not an autobiography per se, I highly recommend this book, which is so much more.
I really liked Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, Volume 1. It was published in 2004 and unfortunately, there’s no volume 2 in sight. It isn’t chronological, so it doesn’t really matter, but still…
Yes! Yes! Yes! I knew who Kim Gordon was but never got into Sonic Youth but I absolutely adore this book. You don’t have to be a SY fan to appreciate it.
Loved it!! But I had to stop listening to it on my way into work. I was afraid I’d drop the MF bomb! It’s interesting how it’s used in this, but it is used a LOT.
This doesn’t count as an autobiography, however “Beethoven’s Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved” by Russel Martin was a fascinating read about how a lock of Beethoven’s hair that was snipped upon his death and kept by a Danish family was subjected to forensic testing, which revealed all sorts of information about him, his health and with history as a backdrop. Highly recommend!
Low Side of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits by Barney Hoskyns, excellent biography of the man behind the self-mythologising. Also reading Tom Waits on Tom Waits just now, a collection of interviews on articles and interviews, very revealing, utterly fascinating. As much of Waits’ life and music is. Bob Dylan’s Chronicles is characteristic of him, and thoroughly recommended.
Patty Smith’s
I second that!
Third!
I just started listening to the audiobook of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run. Love listening to his voice! ?
And flashbacks of his butt hanging on my wall in the 80’s ?
Great one!
Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen.
Keith Richards book. I think the title is My Life.
Best book! He is indestructible
Bruce Springsteen, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Gregg Allman, Carole King, Rod Stewart, many more that I’ve enjoyed. Here’s a list: https://bookriot.com/2016/11/23/100-must-read-musician-memoirs-and-biographies/
Coal Black Mornings by Brett Anderson from Suede
Not an autobiography but still good: Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon–and the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller
@Lynne I agree this is a wonderful book and will make you realize how much progress women have made.
Boys in The Trees by Carly Simon
Started this on Audiobook yesterday. Love that there’s music! Too many of these are just someone reading the musician’s biography or autobiography. Such a missed opportunity!
The Music Lesson, by the great bass player Victor Wooten, is a wonderful allegorical journey based on his own experience of growing through music. I was lucky to attend a master class he presented a few years ago at The Musical Instrument Museum, which was about the convergence of music and his philosophy of learning and life. Brilliant! Though not an autobiography per se, I highly recommend this book, which is so much more.
I really liked Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, Volume 1. It was published in 2004 and unfortunately, there’s no volume 2 in sight. It isn’t chronological, so it doesn’t really matter, but still…
Dark Days by Randall Blythe is so good!
I’ll Sleep when I’m Dead. The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon by Crystal Zevon. Great book
Keith Richards
Girl in a band…… Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth).
Yes! Yes! Yes! I knew who Kim Gordon was but never got into Sonic Youth but I absolutely adore this book. You don’t have to be a SY fan to appreciate it.
@Mary no you don’t….great stories she has….I was a huge SY fan…and like any teenage boy in the 80s. Had a huge crush on Kim Gordon. ?
Tony Bennett
Miles Davis
X1,000,000!!! Miles’ autobiography is amazing, and the audiobook is read by a guy doing a spot-on Miles impression and it’s soooo good.
Loved it!! But I had to stop listening to it on my way into work. I was afraid I’d drop the MF bomb! It’s interesting how it’s used in this, but it is used a LOT.
Dylan by Bob Spitz
A long strange trip by Dennis McNally
No one here gets out alive by Jerry Hopkins
Not an autobiography
No One Here Gets Out Alive is great
I Am Brian Wilson
No Compromise: The Life Story of Keith Green
Loved this book
Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography
https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/13/just-kids-patti-smith-biography
Mosaic by Amy Grant
Not about a musician specifically, but more of a biography of a song. This is one of my favorite songs, and I absolutely LOVED this book!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13547619-the-holy-or-the-broken?ac=1&from_search=true
Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Brian Wilson.
Boys In The Trees, Carly Simon.
These are the ones I have read most recently
Oooooooo ????????❤❤
What Happened, Miss Simone? about Nina Simone.
My daughter loves Nikki Sixx book
Patti Smith book or Carly Simon
Springsteen
Anthony Kiedis
Springsteen and Tom Jones’ autobiography.
This doesn’t count as an autobiography, however “Beethoven’s Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved” by Russel Martin was a fascinating read about how a lock of Beethoven’s hair that was snipped upon his death and kept by a Danish family was subjected to forensic testing, which revealed all sorts of information about him, his health and with history as a backdrop. Highly recommend!
Carly Simon.
I enjoyed Keith Richards autobiography.
Yes!
MILES: The Autobiography by Miles Davis
COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER, by Loretta Lynn. Also, SID AND NANCY.
Bruce Springsteen’s.
Born to Run
This is a very well written book and I couldn’t put it down.
Working Class Boy and Working Class Man by Jimmy Barnes.
@Tracey Only read the first, but loved it.
Nick Drake
Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis
Slash; the autobiography
Frank Zappa
Jim Morrison…I think it’s called “no one gets out alive”….
Inside Out, by Nick Mason, Pink Floyd’s drummer.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/265734.Inside_Out
Wonderland Avenue by Danny Sugerman.
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Loved it!
Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn.
Neil Young has a couple books out there!
Patti Smith (already mentioned), Kim Gordon (already mentioned), Moby (whiny but an interesting picture of the time), Johnny Marr
A Life by Keith Richards (amazingly well written & interesting) Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young. Both excellent!
Steven Adler
A Life In Music by Zakir Hussain (the tabla virtuoso).
Low Side of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits by Barney Hoskyns, excellent biography of the man behind the self-mythologising. Also reading Tom Waits on Tom Waits just now, a collection of interviews on articles and interviews, very revealing, utterly fascinating. As much of Waits’ life and music is. Bob Dylan’s Chronicles is characteristic of him, and thoroughly recommended.
Kill ‘em and Leave – James Brown by James McBride
Just Kids by Patti Smith.
Eric Clapton
I just read Face the Music by Paul Stanley of KISS. It was a very interesting read.