Reviews (75)

Biased book that reads like "The National Enquirer"
I wouldn't reccomend this book to ANYONE. It made my blood boil. Only a few pages are dedicated to Kurt Cobain, and the rest is boring Courtney-bashing. The authors admit they have never met Courtney Love NOR Kurt Cobain, and their information is based on what they read in tabloid magazines, such as "Globe" and "Vanity Fair", and Hank Harrison's (Courtney's father who gave her acid as a child) drug-induced ramblings and stories. The book often contradicts itself, becomes boringly confusing, and is VERY hard-to-beleive. For example, the book claims that Courtney Love offered some overweight metal band-leader dressed in leather and chains named "el Duce" $50,000 to kill her husband, then they say that Kurt died of not suicide but a herion overdose, and then the drug dealer came along and blew his head off and wrote a fake suicide note (In Kurt's exact handwriting? I don't think so) to make it look like he killed himself..... THEN they ramble on about how they think COURTNEY killed him. The only good points are in the back of the book, there are some interesting photocopies of Kurt's suicide note, missing person reports, and letters from Courtney Love, ect. There is also a morbid picture of Kurt Cobain's body being carried away.... but overall, don't waste your money. If you want to read a REAL, tear-inducing book that focuses on reality and Kurt's LIFE (with a chapter on his death in the end), go out and get Michael Azzerad's "come as you are: The story of Nirvana".

A MUST READ FOR ALL COBAIN FANS
This book is brilliant and easy to read. It covers the life of Kurt pretty well and it also really makes you think about how he died. Did Courtney have anything to do with his death? Well, after reading this great book I must admit that I've got every reason to think she has something to hide. Wether or not she killed him or got someone to kill him you have to decide yourself after reading the book. The book dosen't answear a lot of questions but it sure raises alot of them ! A MUST READ FOR ALL COBAIN FANS.

Want the TRUTH? read Kurts Journals!
i believe the authors of any "murder theory" books are trying to make some money while raping Kurt in the process. Kurt felt like he was being raped by the media since Nevermind broke out, and now 10 years later, its still happening. I think the authors need to read Kurts Journals. There's even a time where he says "I bought a gun today and was going to kill myself, but I have a baby coming soon, so I got some herion instead". Read the journals for the truth. Its the truth from Kurt, not the guys who are raping him. You will also see his handwriting in the journals. The SAME handwriting that the authors say wasnt his (in the sucide note). You can tell when Kurt is on drugs by the difference of things he writes about and his handwriting. In Utero was originally titled "I hate myself and want to die", that sounds pretty straight forward to me. Kurt busted out of rehab and killed himself the next week. Why was Courtney calling Tom Grant? Because her husband busted out of rehab and he's mentally unstable. It makes sense. If Tom Grant had all this evidence with cassett tapes, why didnt se give them to the police? Why is it taken 10 years for this information to come out? For me, that doesnt add up.

what I thought
I thought this book was awesome. It helped me get an understanding of his life and death. I am now convinced that he was murdered and if you read this book, I hope you will too. Nirvana is one of my favorite bands even though I don't know much about them and when my sister got this book, I started reading it and knew alot within the first chapter. This book has a lot of details about ways it could've been a murder and I seriously think Courtney Love had something to do with it.

The Truest book I have ever read
This is by far one of the truest books I have ever read in my life. Kurt Cobain is my hero and he has changed my life in so many ways that you*will never understand. He was uaken from life way too soon and he will always be remembered. Courtney Love may have been able to get away with his murder for now but one day, she will be brought to justice and all of the TRUE Nirvana fans will be waiting for that day to come. I believe that even though Kurt is no longer physically with us, and Courtney may have been able to take him away, he will always be in our hearts and you can never take that from us! I strongly believe that Kurt Cobain was murdered and I strongley believe that Courtney Love had 100% to do with it all. It wouldn't take any idiot to know that. All you have to do is read the book and see all of the compelling evidence that has been found and brought up to convict her. The only problem is that no one has enough guts to stand up against her but I have a feeling that one day we will be heard and that one day she will be brought down. ... Read more

Book Description

Started in the band's very earliest days, from 1986 until the year 2000, Propaganda was the only official U2 fan-club magazine to ever exist. Each issue carried exclusive in-depth interviews, plus behind-the-scenes insights into U2 operations and unique never-seen-elsewhere photographs. An impressive selection of the best features appear here in this very first Propaganda anthology, offering a fascinating chance to see the extraordinary development of one of the biggest bands in the world through the writers and photographers who have been closest to them throughout their successful career.U2's Propaganda includes 250 color photographs--some of which have never appeared anywhere else, a tribute CD made up of various artists appearing in stores in October 2002, articles written by the band members themselves, exclusive band member interviews never printed before, and a full discography. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Excelent book!!!
This book contains only the best of the best of U2. You can understand some of the decitions of the band or event the songs just to take a look to the book. The best book of U2 ever.

Mea non culpa
I'm glad readers are enjoying this U2 compendium. A word, though, about the typos and spelling errors. This book is a snapshot in time, a record of U2's Propaganda magazine, warts and all. The very earliest magazines were punky and rough around the edges, and occasionally contained grammatical errors. We made a conscious decision to keep them in to make the book a truer guide to the journal's development. To correct them would have been to airbrush history. I hope this helps to explain matters.

(By the way, apologies for my appalling arrogance in awarding the book five stars here - Amazon don't allow you to post a review without awarding the book a star rating!).

u2: The Best of Propaganda
This book is a great insight into the world of U2, great reading for the U2 fan although i think Ian Grittins forgot to proof read this material and also forgot to hit spell check because there is alot of spelling and grammer mistakes, still a fantastic buy, lots of stuff here that you wont find anywhere else.

Must-have for a die-hard U2 fan
As the title indicates, this book is a must-have for those of us who are passionate about U2. The photos are great, the articles cover a wide range of styles, authors, perspectives, etc....it is especially interesting to read interviews with the band at vastly different stages of their career. However, I wouldn't suggest this book as an introduction to U2. Unless you know the history of the band quite well, most of these articles would be confusing to you because they are highlights from U2's magazine, and background knowlege is assumed--sometimes very little context is given. But as I said, for those of us who know U2 well, context is not necessary. My only complaint is the editing, or lack thereof. There are so many typos in this book you would think that it wasn't proofread at all; or perhaps it was simply produced very quickly. Overall though, an essential addition to any fan's collection.
I am adding a p.s. to this review after reading Ian Gittins' (the editor himself!) response to mine and others' complaints about the typos. I thank Mr. Gittins for explaining; the fact that the typos were present in the original articles did not occur to me. If I had thought a little harder about it, maybe it would have occured to me, or maybe it wouldn't. At any rate, though the typos are still distracting, they are not as irritating now that I know why they're there. I am dutifully chagrined for any implications about Mr. Gittins' editing abilities... ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A Thousand Shades of Gray
The author claims this is a work of fiction, but that's just because I didn't grant permission for him to use my life in his story. Actually, we've never met, but reading this book, I felt like it was 1985 all over again.

My favorite quote was:

"We figured any teenage kid living through those Reagan years who said The Smiths were too miserable for them was either a liar, an imbecile, or so thoroughly [messed] up, they had no idea just how miserable they were."

Yeah. That's just how it was.

It's a short book, as are the others in the series. If you were a fan of The Smiths in the 80's, grab a copy of this gem.

Anyone who has ever found a connection with another person though music will appreciate this one: "Meat is Murder was the giant shaded area of intersection in our Venn diagram." Poor Joe. Poor Morrisey.

Same old suit since 1962
In the mid-1980's music collecting was a hard job. There was no internet, of course, and the radio couldn't be depended on and music television was lame. If you weren't into Billy Ocean or Billy Joel then you had no environment to lean on. Smiths fans in the U.S. all had this in common, we all had to search high and low for an obscure release here and there, and then quickly network with like-minded friends and swap. Joe Pernice captures and chronicles the plight and obsession we all made part of our lives back then. This book is highly entertaining for it's rich and accurate nostalgia for those days, which, in hindsight, were just better. I grew up on the west coast at the same time Joe Pernice was on the east coast and it's uncanny how similar his and my experiences with this band were. It leads me to believe that there was a universal, or at least national, desperation. Smiths-fans from Europe may not understand completely how rare The Smiths and bands like them were to us back then, and how hard (and in the end, sweet) it was to acquire one album or the next. I still count my 45RPM of Sandie Shaw with The Smiths as one of my most prized possessions. And I like how Mr. Pernice picked Meat Is Murder to focus on, perhaps because he was at the right age to attribute so many memories to it (though, he calls this little book a work of fiction - I don't believe him!). I recommend this book to Smiths fans who want to relive how exciting it was to be their fan back then, and I guarantee you will have Meat Is Murder on the turntable for as long as it takes you to read it, as well as it swimming through your head endlessly.

I only read an excerpt, but...
...Joe, did you get the channel wrong that you finally caught "How Soon is Now?" In the excerpt I saw, you wrote V68. Wasn't it V66? That's what I used to watch. Good old David O'Leary's launching pad (I think).

Hard to describe, but a great little book
First off, let's state the obvious: This is not a work of music criticism. If you want to know about what The Smiths were doing when they recorded MIM, who was in the studio when, what Andy Rourke was drinking etc, then you need to look elsewhere. If on the other hand, you want to know (or be reminded of) what it was like to be a teenager when this extraordinary band were at the height of their powers, then this is a darn good place to start.

Pernice (and his publishers) claim that this book is a work of fiction. But, like the best fiction, there's a whole lot of truth in here. It's the story of a few months in the life of a Boston based teenager - we never know his name - in 1985, the year MIM came out. And the story is full of humor, sadness, death, bitterness, poignancy, all of that intense adolescent stuff. For such a short book (its only just more than a hundred pages long), there are some incredibly vivid characters, and scenes that I can't get out of my head.

Naturally, I read this book while blasting MIM on my headphones. It takes about 2 hours to read. Please, please, if you buy this book, read it like that. The whole experience is like a portal to another time, an era that is probably best forgotten. Thank God The Smiths were there to help me get through it. And thanks to Mr Pernice for bringing it all back. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (25)

A solid behavioral profile within the context of the times.
Echols provides rich and detailed insights into the motivations and behaviors of Janis Joplin. Her interviews with Joplin's friends, associates, and lovers, adds a complexity and understanding as to why this great talent was so self-destructive. Echols does all of this with a historian's need to place the events within their context...the 60's. I came away with a better understanding of this cohort. Myra Friedman's book pales in comparision.

Janis: Sweet Paradise
I have just recently finished reading my first book about the legendary blues-rock singer, Janis Joplin. Now that I have finished Alice Echols' Janis Joplin - Scars of Sweet Paradise I want to recommend this book to other readers anxious to read a good and highly-detailed book about this person's life. What really makes Scars so interesting is the fact that Miss Echols really helps the reader to understand what was going on in Janis' life by entertainingly explaining the growing cultural rise and fall of the 1960's. Alice Echols doesn't miss a beat whether she's writng about Janis' horrendous days in Port Arthur, Texas(where she grew up), her early days in San Francisco, her days with Big Brother and her other bands, or her sad spiral towards her death. So please, if you are reading this review go to your nearest bookstore immediately and buy Alice Echols wonderfully interesting and well-written book, Janis Joplin: Scars of Sweet Paradise.

Excellent
Alice Echols skillfully weaves the cultural nuances of the complicated '60s with the life and times of the great Janis Joplin. Informative and painstakingly researched. This book is far superior to Myra Friedman's overrated "Buried Alive," which is a vast pile of stinky doo-doo rather than a definitive biography. Avoid "Buried Alive" and get this book instead.

Nothing but scorched earth
Wow, how this woman lived! She devoured life with such ferocity and hunger that eventually circumstances devoured her. And Echols tells her story with literacy and passion, always carefully putting it into context. Janis shared chart dominance with Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross. Imagine how she must have sounded coming out of your radio in those days! What a radical departure, what a unique talent. And Echols explains how much her unconventionality cost her. In addition to portraying Janis as an artist, moved by the music, she also unapologetically shows Janis as a career-oriented woman. I appreciated this, for the dominant male stars of the 60s (like Jagger and McCartney) are allowed and even applauded for making artistic decisions with an eye on the long-term impact they would have on their careers. The only thing I didn't like about THIS book was the author's ongoing critques of OTHER books. I don't care what Echols thought about Peggy Casserta's or Myra Friedman's books. Biography shouldn't be a competitive sport.

Excellent chronicle of the woman and the culture.
This book was such an interesting read that I had a hard time putting it down. Ms. Echols delves into Port Arthur in a way that is very similar to that of Mary Karr. She also looks at aspects of Janis that have not been well-contructed before this. The milieu of San Francisco and the 1960's music scene there is shown in an open and matter-of-fact way. The beginnings of the bands were more haphazard than I ever realized.One cannot understand a person unless they understand the politics and atmosphere, as with this remarkable musician.
On the personal side, Janis was a woman who wanted what we all want- to love and be loved. Echols defines where many of us let one another down by not being honest with others when they are in too deep.
As Janis wrote "It's so sad to be alone."

I highly recommend this biography to fans and people who are interested in the culture of the times. ... Read more

Book Description

Updated and expanded: The definitive inside story of three musicians whose influence echoes from Woodstock to the present

Crosby, Stills & Nash created some of the most indelible songs and beautiful harmonies of the late 1960s and early 1970s: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," "Woodstock," "Teach Your Children." Now the story behind the songs has been told in this engrossing account of the trio's personal and musical history. Zimmer, with the full cooperation of the band, traces each of the performers from their early musical roots to their first song together in L.A.'s storied Laurel Canyon, from their addition of Neil Young to Woodstock, from their stormy years of creative conflicts through their reunions and reconciliations. A new chapter delves into Crosby's recovery from drug addiction, CSN's ongoing solo and group projects, and the making of the new CSN&Y album. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

CSN---Blah,Blah,Blah.......
OK--I bought this book,because I really do love those guys---but I am sorry to say that the author's sugary treatment of his subjects are probably all that one is ever going to get of CSN. I know that Crosby has written an account. I wish that Graham would write a book--but out of respect for his Bandmates,probably won't---and that's a shame. Because I think he would write an honest account,of how things really went down.But the saddest thing is that Stephen will probably never write an honest,open account---too much pain to re-live,again.

A must!
This book is simply a must for anybody who wants to know what it is really like in the worlds of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. The author, Dave Zimmer, doesn't merely describe events, he takes you there to watch as an insider. In the process, the book captures all the vibrance of the best of their live concerts. I have met both Crosby and Stills, and can say that Zimmer hits the mark with these guys, time after time, including some little-known stories never before told. My favorite is Stills' reaction to Nash stealing his girlfriend -- well, you just have to read it for yourself! The photos are outstanding, showing the evolution of the rock stars in the past generation, but what really works is the way Zimmer has crafted the work, along with his intimate knowledge and ability to make Stills, Nash, Crosby, as well as Neil Young and others, to open up and spill their guts. This book is like a great movie. You keep going back to it, over and over, because of the way it makes you feel.

disappointing
The book was particularly interesting in describing the early history of the members of my favorite band, including each man's separate childhood and previous musical ventures, the story of their coming together and falling apart in the early '60s and '70s. But I found it frustratingly superficial in following CSN after about the mid-'70s; too much quoting the band and not enough talking to other people in their orbit, surprisingly circumspect on some of the problems of those times, notably those of David Crosby, both medical and legal. And different parts of the book are inconsistent - early on, the boys' enthusiastic embrace of the drug culture is presented as they expressed it at the time, w/o any recognition of later changes in viewpoint. While Zimmer and Diltz have had access to the band for a long time, a little more sense of historical overview would seem to be in order after more than 30 years - not simply undigested and un-reflected upon statements dating from the times of the original events.

Glad to have this book back in print
The new chapter makes this book worth while to those that own the 1984 edition. The only thing I miss is the color pictures that appeared in the original version.

A Great Book for any CSNY fan!
I bought this book when the group did their 2000 Reunion Tour and thoroughly enjoyed both. Looking back, I'd say that I liked the book in the same way that I liked the group....the early days and the early struggles were the best.

What we forget about these guys was that their most productive years were from about 1968 to 1974 as a group and as individuals. All the years after this time, they have been only a shadow of themselves. If you like this book and are more of a Stills fan, be sure to read Richie Furay's book, For What It's Worth which is even more personal and detailed about the early days.

As a CSN fan, I'll always treasure those first two albums as a couple of my all-time favorites. I would hope that there is a live album from the last tour.

I also wish that someone would help Stills write a book, too. I'd love to hear his version of all that happened. ... Read more

Book Description

A complete and fascinating chronicle of Beatles music and history, Beatlesongs details the growth, evolution, and dissolution of the most influential group of out time.

Drawing together information from sources that include interviews, insider accounts, magazines, and news wire services, this is a complete profile of every Beatles song ever written -- from recording details such as who played which instruments and sang what harmonies to how each song fared on the charts and how other musicians and critics felt about it. Chronologically arranged by U.K. release date, Beatlesongs nails down dates, places, participants, and other intriguing facts in a truly remarkable portrait of the Liverpudlian legends.

Behind each song is a story -- like Paul's criticism of George's guitar playing during the Rubber Soul sessions, John's acid trip during the Sgt. Pepper's session, and the selection process for the Revolver album cover. And carefully examined along the way are the Beatles' evolving musical talents, their stormy private lives, and their successful -- and unsuccessful -- collaborations.

Beatlesongs is truly an inside look at the Fab Four and a treasure for all their fans. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

This is the second best Beatles book ever written
If not for the "Anthology," this book would be the best Beatles book ever written. However, the "Anthology," bumps this book down to No. 2. No shame, of course, to be author of one of the best books ever written by THE best musical group of the twentieth century!
This book has everything you'd want to know about each individual song. It has every single instrument or vocal and who performed it. It includes not only the dates each song was recorded but, (for most songs), what was recorded on each date. It includes the real authorship of each song. For example, it will say under "Can't Buy Me Love,":
"McCartney (.9) and Lennon (.1), meaning McCartney wrote 90% of the song, and Lennon 10%. The book includes information about each single and album, how it did on the charts, and roughly how many copies were sold. There are quotes by the Beatles and other musicians and people about songs. This is definitely one of the best Beatles book ever written. To quote the author in his introduction, "This is the book I always wanted to find in a bookstore." If you want to know the details about each Beatles song, this is the book for you.

A Closer Look at the Songs
I realize I am in the minority, but I hated the Beatles Anthology Cd sets. The little music on the cd's was not worth the price. In contrast, this book is worth every penny for Beatles fans as it gives the reader a new look at the songs.

Dowlding takes a look at each Beatle song in this book and explains the authorship, meaning of the song, where it was recorded, quotes about the songs, as well as other miscellaneous information. I picked this book up several times at a book store. After reading through the book so many times in the store, I had to purchase and read the whole book. I was not disappointed.

While the book is not written in s story format, it is an easy read. You can skip around to your favorite Beatles songs and not miss a thing. I suggest reading the story behind "Octopus's Garden". It is a very interesting story as are many of the other stories.

An examination of authorship
William J. Dowlding has written an incredibly useful guide detailing the authorship of each individual Beatle song. It is written in chronological order, beginning with Please Please Me's "I Saw Her Standing There," and ending on the single "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)." All the albums have a lengthy introduction and each song is provided with information on authorship, instrumentation, recording date, and a good deal of comments from the Beatles themselves to famous fans of their music. My favorite bit is Richie Havens' comment on "With A Little Help From My Friends", which he calls "...my favorite song in the whole universe." The book shares a great deal on how the Beatles felt about individual songs. Lennon has the most quotes and is more open about the songs he disliked. It works as a biography though better than a history of the band itself because it is simply a history of the music. Only someone who loves their music will enjoy the book. It is written with a love for the band and the music and is presented with less bias than other examintaions I've read. The book is perfect for reading while listening to an album, but be warned: You may find yourself scrounging to throw another one in your player.

Thanks fo a nice book!
Quick service, take care.

Tired of arguing over which Beatle did what?
This will solve your problem. It's great Beatles trivia for the completist. Each song has an entry showing you who played what and who wrote what plus the Beatle's own comments on each song. You'll also find the input of friends, producers and fellow musicians. Great info on production techniques too. Some entries are shorter than others but all the major hits have excellent coverage. Good fun and cool for settling bets. ... Read more

Book Description

Jann Wenner, editor-in-chief and publisher of Rolling Stone, wrote, "the classic [Jefferson] Airplane lineup were both architects and messengers of a psychedelic age, a liberation of mind and body that profoundly changed American art, politics, and spirituality. It was a renaissance that could only have been born in San Francisco, and the Airplane, more than any other band in town, spread the good news nationwide."

Jefferson Airplane, the most successful and influential rock band to emerge from San Francisco during the 1960s, created the sound of a generation. Their smash hits "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" provided the soundtrack to the Summer of Love, virtually inventing the era's signature pulsating psychedelic music, and came to personify the decade's radical counterculture. Their appearances at the landmark Monterey Pop, Woodstock, and Altamont rock festivals -- the only band to play at all three -- placed them on the front lines during one of the most exciting, tumultuous times in American history. Their confrontational lyrics and alternative lifestyles often cast them as "outlaws in the eyes of America." Jefferson Airplane didn't just dominate American popular culture at the peak of the '60s; they transformed it.

Got a Revolution! is the first full-length biography ever written about Jefferson Airplane. Jeff Tamarkin, veteran music writer and historian, has worked closely with the former members of Jefferson Airplane for more than a decade and penned more than twenty-five Airplane-related album liner notes.Those who lived it tell the story: the band members, their families, friends, lovers, crew members, and fellow musicians. The book's all-star cast includesFellow rock legends David Crosby, Janis Joplin, Donovan, the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, and Paul McCartney, to such larger-than-life cultural figures as Robert F. Kennedy, Bill Graham, Abbie Hoffman, the Hell's Angels, and even Richard Nixon. It's a tale of complex people with complex relationships living under the spotlight during a complex time.

To the public, they were prototypical free-loving, good-time hippies, but to their inner circle, Jefferson Airplane was a paradoxical bunch -- constantly at odds with one another. Jefferson Airplane's members were each brilliant, individualistic artists who became the living embodiment of the ups and downs of the sex, drugs, and rock and roll lifestyle.

... Read more

Reviews (30)

A good history lesson for those who weren't there
Because I was too young to be aware of them during the 60s, my first memory of this group was thru the songs Miracles and Runaway during the 70s and it's Starship period. Although I have certain fondness for these songs, many older fans view this era as lacking compared to their Airplane material. Even more fans find their 80s stuff less appealing...a sentiment with which I happen to agree. (We Built This City has to be one of the more excruciating songs of the 80s.)

Learning about the Airplane thru articles and Behind the Music episodes, I was not impressed. All the members struck me as extremely self involved, childish, drama prone and spoiled. There seemed to be a lingering bitterness especially in regards to Marty Balin's feelings toward Grace Slick. But since the 60s are a continuing source of fascination for me, I picked up this book.

Reading the book, I'm still not impressed with the individuals in the band as people. (No one comes off as particularly pleasant) But I did come away with an appreciation for their desire to push the envelope with their music. Even Grace Slick who has often appeared to take a blase attitude toward her music and life in general is shown as a relatively strong composer and musician.

Tamarkin is effective at capturing the environment and atmosphere of San Francisco in the 60s and 70s. He also gives a fuller if not complete picture of peripheral band members such as Papa John Creach, Signe Anderson (the original female singer of Airplane) and others. We also learn of the band's failed business dealings and contract disputes. Overall it's a good history of the culture of the 60s and all it's craziness.

I'd recommend that one read Joel Selvin's Summer of Love as a companion to this book. Those not familiar with the history will receive a fuller picture as a result.

Not For Fans Only
For anyone interested in the history of pop music and/or culture during the last half of the 20th century, the story of Jefferson Airplane is a great one to be familiar with... With its roots in the early 60's and a hitmaking career that lasts into the 90's, to follow Airplane's storied career is to take a tour of decades of popular music eras that they themselves helped to define.

Many band biographies are merely chronologically arranged trivia books, with an appeal that ultimately does not extend far outside of a circle of hardcore fans. Tamarkin's extraordinarily well-researched book rises above this by painting a richly textured picture of the culture that Airplane (and its various offshoots) sprang from and contributed to.

Tamarkin also succeeds in bringing strong insights into the music with his critical assessments. Here, even the most casual reader can glean why the author would try to iron out such a sprawling, Wagnerian epic... The people who made such music MUST have a fascinating story to tell. They do, and Tamarkin conveys it brilliantly -- setting the bar a little bit higher for music journalism in the process.

revisit a time
Jefferson Airplane's music will survive as part of the soundtrack to an amazing era of personal innovation & public transformation. Who the members of the band were & how they lived their lives has now been captured in telling & serious details.

Rebeccasreads recommends GOT A REVOLUTION! as a thorough, if humorless, biography of one of the founding forces in the pantheon of rock'n'roll bands & its influence those changing times.

got a revolution
this was the best book i have ever read about a rock group. it was researched thoroughly and presented in a very literate style. i loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to relive the 60's or just wants learn about the 60's through the historical perspective of a very famous rock band

And anyone still believes in the 60s?
Ok, I will admit right up front. I am a conservative. However, I grew up in the 70s, when the 60s were cool. So I am very familiar with the whole glorious iconography of the brilliant rebels and free spirits who fought the power, man....Ran across this book in the library, and picked it up. The Jefferson Airplane were a band that I always wondered what happened to...a few great early hits, then the descent into pop mediocrity ending in the excreable "We Built This City". So I figured I'd read this and find out. Immediately, it is clear that the author is a fan and supporter of the hippie movement, and Paul Kantner, the guitar player, writes the introduction, complaining of how people only want to talk of the drugs and destruction and disregard the art of the movement. So imagine my enjoyment when the book turns into nearly a primer of the complete and total failure of all hippie ideals. The Airplane and the people around them are a bunch of rich kids who basically rebel against anything that has anything to do with common sense or practicality. They do things for seemingly only the purpose of being obnoxious. None of them can get along with any other for more than a couple months at a time. Grace Slick (who is married to Jerry Slick the entire time until Kantner finally gets her pregnant) sleeps with nearly EVERYONE in the band. Once as a "thank you" for membership. A woman pops up, I forget her name, who is involved with one of the band members. Her history is a microcosm. She is a mayor's daughter, who runs off with David Crosby. Because she is underage, she marries a different musician so she cannot be sent home for her own good. She ends up having a baby by yet another musician, and eventually falls from the scene because of her drug addiction. Hmmm. This is definitely one of the beautiful people. There is another running subplot in which the only member who seems even slightly rational, Marty Balin, comes and goes due to his disgust with the rest of the band. The funny part is they only seem to be successful when he is involved, keeping the collection of drug addled nitwits somewhat on track. Eventually, the former idealists, who are now all cocaine addicts or alcoholics, form a series of bands named with variations of "Jefferson" that become steadily more commercial for the purposes of making money. One by one, the original members drop out, and the pop-oriented lead singer who was hired well after the 60s ends up using the name to tour state fairs doing the old hits. For me, the best part of the book is the end, where the author does an extended "where are they now?" segment. Everyone, except Balin, who has not died from drug related health problems is on their seventeenth marriage and living somewhere in the hills doing therapy. The other guitar player, Jorma Kaukonen, lets on that his ex-wife, who he divorced in the 80s after a tempestuous drug filled relationship, died homeless. He says she looked really bad the last time he ran into her on the street. Wonderful. Gracie makes her last public appearance shortly after 9/11, at a benefit concert, (?!), wearing a burka which is removed to display a T-shirt reading "F@#k Fear". Priceless. Highly recommended as it is an unwitting indictment of the whole 60s mindset. ... Read more

Book Description

From his childhood in Dublin, to his superstardom, to his emergence as one of the world's great philanthropists: here is the story of Bono. Not only is Bono a crucial element in the most dazzlingly inventive band since the Beatles, he is also the most overtly politicized rock superstar since John Lennon, and the biggest espouser of interracial harmony and spiritual "one love" since Bob Marley. He is also one of the very few major rock artists to open up about his deepest spiritual beliefs, his religion, both in interview and in song, and not be despised for it, or thought less of.

As a result, though it was for U2's music, pure and simple, that the name Bono first became famous, the vast international reach he now enjoys has to do with more than mere rock stardom. It's to do with the huge social responsibility he has decided comes with it. With a long history of campaigning behind him—from the movingly rousing "Sunday Bloody Sunday" to the moment he phoned Bill Clinton live on-stage as images of war-ravaged Sarajevo flashed across giant screens behind him—politics and rock 'n' roll have always been linked in Bono's mind. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

good charlotte is the BEST!!
i just bought this book yesterday and i read it all in one day..there were alot of things in there that i didn't even know about them and i have been a big fan of GC since their first cd came out.

i don't think that this book is targeted to "new fans or old fans" actually it is not targeted to anybody..there a lot of things in this book that even people who been fans for a very long time of GC even knew about..

i am so HAPPY that this book focuses more on the Madden twins..because first of all, they are the ones who started good charlotte, so they should have the spotlight.

the one thing that disapointed me was that there isn't enough pages..there were only like 94 pages..they should have made the book longer.

The Story of Good Charlotte
Being a big GC fan, I bought this book the second I saw it. However, after reading all of its 94 (not 64) pages, I was quite disappointed because I already knew everything that was in it.

This book is pretty much targeted towards the "new" fans, the ones who want to learn most of the basic four-one-one on the band. If you're a pre-"Lifestyles" fan, then you'll most likely already know everything they tell you in here.

Something else that irk-ed me throughout my reading was that the book, like most media on the band, mainly focused on Benji and Joel.

It's a lovely book, Dough Small obviously did his research, but my overall opinion is, if you don't know much about the band, go for it, if not, just get it for the few exclusive pictures.

Also, some of the information in the book is wrong. Unauthorized books are tacky, don't waste your money.

hey, chill!
Hey, Eggplant, first of all let's hear you write down a few songs, ok? Why do people base their maturity level on how many people they can piss off? I read the book, it is good. I know that many people might not like it because GC has fulfilled their goals and they haven't but instead of hating GC for it; get a life, use their example and stop acting like middle school asses! Punk or not punk, GC have given us a lot of proof that if we want to acheive something, we can! So, again, chill!

Great for Long Time Fans, Excellents to newer Fans
I thought personally it was a very good book. Being a big fan ever since they're first CD came out, I appreciated this book alot. Although the main focus is on the twins it also has alot of info and quote from Paul and Billy. The only thing I was disappointed about was the fact that some of the information was wrong in the book. On one of the pgs (don't wanna search for it..), it mentions on how great NFG and GC are friends. Yeah that true and all, and the lead singer on NFG has the GC tattoo, but it mentions that Billy has a NFG tattoo on his lower leg. That is wrong. Benji is the one who has the tattoo which you can cleary see in alot of pictures. That was the only part of the book that really made me raise a eye brow cause obviously the guy who wrote it never did his homeowrk. Over all it was a great book and I urge GC fans to run out and buy it, you won't regret it.

- -
....No one's better than no one... Good Charlotte is not better than the haters, and vice versa. Sarah, you need to chill.... Basically, don't buy this book; because everything in this book you already know. Buy this book if you saw them on TRL and think they are so cool and the best band ever after you heard two of their songs or...saw the twins and thought they were so hot, then this book is yours..read..learn. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The life of rock band roadie would hardly inspire the likes of say, Emile Zola. But Steve Parish's 30+ year tenure with the Grateful Dead, the Jerry Garcia Band, and its survivors makes for compelling reading, even if his low-key, often self-deprecating reportorial style can't hope to begin to unravel the complex psychology that drove the symptomatic excesses---and all too many tragedies--of the 60's most enduringly emblematic American band. There's more here than sex, drugs, and rock and roll, even if Parish's writing struggles to encompass the meaning of it all. And make no mistake; The Dead and their coterie were, in the estimation of unlikely Deadhead Joseph Campbell, nothing short of potent modern mythology evolving before his very eyes. In the fallout of one memorable backstage incident, the author even found himself parodied by John Belushi in an SNL skit written by Deadheads Al Franken and Tom Davis. Parish casts little judgment on the oft-debauched actions of his cohorts here, though he often stops to note the brightness of their humanity. A paradoxical marriage of unrestrained hedonism and radical Christian social conscience, The Dead's world seems to still baffle Parish. His continued wonderment at it all is one of the book's charms; his tortured sense of helplessness in the addiction-fueled decline and death of Jerry Garcia, its spiritual and musical leader, its most tragic mystery. --Jerry McCulley ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Steve Rules
This is easily the best book on the Grateful Dead that I've read--and I've read 'em all. There is so much cool stuff about the band that I've not read anywhere else. Also, Parish provides a look behind the scenes at what it's like on tour with a major rock band. It's wild, it's funny, it's nuts, and it's kind of heartbreaking at times too. I definitely recommend this book.

A big-hearted book from a big-hearted, classy guy
Steve Parrish has been a justifiaby much-loved member of the Grateful Dead circle for decades, and this is why his book has been so anticipated. More than most, Parrish has earned the right to speak his peace. He's just a real, plain-spoken big-hearted fella - and it's this approach to writing his book (with Joe Layden) - as to why Parrish's book succeeds. Parrish manages to write with honesty but with compassion. For this reason many readers may prefer this simpler work over McNally's and Skully's books.

No, Steve Parish does not write with the sophistication and finesse of, say, Blair Jackson (still the best writer on the GD scene), it's the emotional directness that separates this book from many of the rest. True, there are a few minor inaccuracies with times and dates (believe me, you've seen worse). But it's the overall emotional quality of Parrish's stories and insights, for me at least, that I found more compelling than some of the other, more polished works that have come out. And don't let the plain-spoken nature of this book fool you: There are numerous observations, anecdotes and insights (I wish there were more), that only Steve Parrish could deliver (the meeting with Garcia and Sinatra is a riot).

So for those of us who loved the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, Phil, Bobby and the rest of the crew, and for whom the emotional quality of the band mattered (and matters) more than anything else, Parrish's effort is one of the better ones there at this time. Recommended.

Steve Parish does a fine job here
Bought it and read it all and I enjoyed it very much. Steve Parish does a great job of describing behind the scenes at what happens on tour with the Dead - escpecially during the 70's. The book was very good to read and not to hard to understand.

Same old song and dance...
...we've heard it before; we've read it before: young man goes to the West Coast in search of direction, drugs and girls, stumbles into a dream job and then spends the next 30 years with drugs and girls. The book is another 'insiders' look at the crust of the Dead pie (when will someone tell us about the magic filling?)..and what's truly sad is reading about everyone just standing around and watching their friends/musicians/employers die. Shame on you Parish.

Worth It, but....
For any long time deadhead, this book is worth the price of admission. There are some cool stories from an inside perspective.

The only downside, but a big one in my opinion, is the continual rehashing of the sexual conquests. I didn't purchase the book to hear about how many times Mr. Perish and the other rodies scored, but unfortunately a good deal of print was dedicated to this subject. I'm from the sixties as well and have had my share of free spirited times, but to be honest, I found some of this material offensive. Offensive in both content and substance. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Cantankerous and secretive, Neil Young has banished authors from hisinner sanctum--until now. In Shakey, Jimmy McDonough distills more than300 interviews (including guarded yet revealing interrogations of Young himself)into the definitive biography: the skyrocket success, willful disasters, healthhorrors and triumphs, stunning comebacks, and highly colorful scuffles withequally impossible characters like Stephen Stills, David Crosby, and theincompetent yet brilliant musicians of Crazy Horse. Young is not quite the noblesoul some thought--he's an astounding control freak. But he is never less thanfascinating. "As ruthless as I may seem to be," Young tells McDonough, "yougotta do what ya gotta do. Just like a f-----' vampire. Heh heh heh." --TimAppelo ... Read more

Reviews (92)

The heart and soul of a loner.
"After the Gold Rush" (1970) and "Harvest" (1972) were two of the first records I ever owned, and I've been listening to Neil Young ever since. His music has influenced my life. Since 1967, Young has released nearly fifty albums and over four hundred songs (p. 16). However, as Village Voice journalist, Jimmy McDonough's 786-page biography reveals, although Young's "music might ooze with raw emotion," as a person, "stoic, inward Neil" is "frequently an impassive, impenetrable fortress" (p. 68). In writing his ambitious biography, McDonough followed his elusive subject for six years, talked to more than three hundred of Young's closest associates (p. 20), and interviewed Young himself for more than fifty hours between 1989 and 1996 (p. 741). As a result, McDonough triumphs not only in bringing his engmatic subject to life in these pages, but also in revealing how Neil Young has survived in the better-to-burn-out-than-to-fade-away business of rock and roll.

Interspersing his biographical discussion with "one endless, ongoing interview with Young" (p. 20), McDonough takes us on a journey through Neil Young's past, from the singer-songwriter's birth in Toronto on November 12, 1945 (p. 37), to his 1951 polio infection (p. 44), to meeting Stephen Stills in the Greenwich Village folk scene in 1964 (p. 112), to arriving in Los Angeles in 1966 to start Buffalo Springfield (p. 155), which remains a "painful memory" for Young, "linked forever to epilepsy and inner turmoil" (p. 231). "Epilepsy, band problems, management hassles, arrests," McDonough writes, "if you want to know how Neil Young was feeling circa mid-1966, pull out that beat-up copy of "Buffalo Springfield" and play "Out of My Mind" (p. 181). McDonough then follows Young through "a lotta destruction," a painful relationship with actress Carrie Snodgrass and two marriages, and numerous musical configurations in the uncompromising pursuit of his dreams. While Young avoids offering any insights into the meaning of any of his song lyrics, McDonough succeeds, at least, in providing us with the context of Young's life in which many songs were written, including his collaborations with Crazy Horse and Crosby Stills Nash and Young. About Neil Young--difficult artist, ferocious guitar player, poetic folkie, unpredictable control-freak, reclusive songwriter, model-train mogul, rancher and Ronald Reagan supporter (p. 18)--David Crosby says, "they don't call him Shakey for nothin'" (p. 232), and Graham Nash says "he's a very strange human being . . . very strange" (p. 249).

This "shouldn't be a book that makes me look like I'm great and that everything I did is perfect," Young advises McDonough. "So obviously it's not gonna be that kinda book . . . There are ways to say things where the reader can put things together. Draw their own conclusions (p. 11). In following Young's advice, McDonough's fascinating book examines the rock and roll life of a tortured, but musically-gifted loner in a way that will offer new insights to Neil Young's music.

G. Merritt

A Good Read For All Manner Of Neil Fans ...
If you're a Neil Young fan (whether rabid or just a sometime fan) this 700+ page book may be intimidating, but it's well worth the effort. It's very much a "life and times" book and the cultural landscape of the '50s-'70s, particularly, is well told. And, while the story is obviously the music, Neil's non-musical pursuits -- including his filmmaking efforts and business venture with Lionel Trains -- are addressed in detail.

The interviews with a wide array of Neil's family, friends, and musical colleagues, as well as an ample helping of Neil's own words, help dig deep into a complicated, funny -- and often cranky -- musical genius. And, while Neil gave his blessings to the bio (more or less), it's far from sugar-coated. In fact, it seems almost gleefully harsh in places.

My only criticism is that for many pages, the book seems less a biography of Neil Young, than an autobiography of author Jimmy McDonough. Initially it adds a bit of color, but eventually, it's as though a painfully talkative "hey, I'm important, too" fella invades the pages, and you can't get him to leave. I was mostly struck that McDonough seems to have harsh criticism for nearly every Neil Young album and a good number of his live performances. As I read, I began to feel guilty for liking many of the albums that were callously written off and I wondered why McDonough would write about someone whose body of work was ultimately so disappointing to him.

But, that's a minor annoyance. Music. Love. Drugs. Polio. Epilepsy. Politics. Cars. Trains. Crabby diatribes. And, the overarching influence of mom. They're all here. "Shakey" is a compelling, deeply researched, and well-told story -- the best Neil Young bio available.

GOD REST DAVID BRIGGS, He Drove Neil for years
An amazing Journey through Neils life made me reflect on my own life growing up with Rock and Roll!

Long May You Run
Jimmy McDonough, who obviously has a penchant for rubbing people the wrong way, crawled uphill in a hail storm to get this monster biography published. The struggle was well worth it. Young's formative years in Canada with his irascible mother Rassy make for an "innaresting" story of a frail, sickly boy who latches onto the sounds drifting north over the plains. This exhaustive study of his eventual career, though it celebrates the prodigious output of an insanely talented songwriter, never descends to idol worship. McDonough maintains a sharp critical eye throughout, and his unaffected prose is loose, often biting. When covering the Buffalo Springfield era, the author justifiably savages the pastiche excesses of "Broken Arrow" while praising the majestic "Expecting to Fly," a song that took Young and Jack Nitzsche a whole month to get right. And boy did they ever get it right.

The book fleshes out a large supporting cast and literally drips with atmosphere. You can smell the hippie idyll of Topanga Canyon slowly sour and feel the chemical depravity of sessions dragged down to stupor by honey slides, tequila, and the memory of fallen comrades. Interviews with Young, interspersed throughout the biography, reveal a self-absorbed artist enslaved by his quixotic muse. Changing musicians like they were flannel shirts or guitar strings, Shakey Deal admits to leaving a considerable wake in his tenacious pursuit of the perfect vibe.

me first
Here's what I came away with after reading 'Shakey':

1) the age-old lesson that wealth and fame corrupts applies to the idols of the counterculture as much as everyone else who came before them. To Young's credit, he has recognized and attempted to avoid their trappings. Unfortunately, Young apparently started life with an illusion of self-importance that, like many of the other figures in the book, was only magnified by wealth and fame. In fact, it seems to be a reality of life that wealth and fame only magnify whatever it is that you are, good and bad.
2) it is possible to believe you are superior to others because you don't overtly try to make yourself superior to others.
3) having musical talent doesn't make you in any way better than anyone else. It is what it is: musical talent. It's no different, really, than being talented on the baseball field, the battlefield, or even the kitchen.
4) Neil, Stephen Stills, David Crosby, the record producers and managers, virtually everyone in the book, has had a lot of pain dished out to them in their lives, and dished out a lot of pain on others. There's an abundance of bad parenting and selfish living that is brought to the fore here. It's interesting how fame and wealth puts a gloss over people's lives that makes the grass seem greener on the other side. I don't think many people would enjoy trading places with Neil given the hardships he's had to endure, including bouts with polio, epilepsy, introversion, and having a disabled child.
5) It's interesting how beautiful music somehow rises to the surface in the midst of such suffering and selfishness. That is the inspiring and compelling phenomenon running throughout this narrative. It is the portions of the book that detail this process, whether taking place in songwriting or performance, that truly held my interest.
6) I excuse the writer for falling into self-excess. Just proves he's no different than anyone else he's writing about. No surprise that in illuminating everyone elses run for the spotlight, some of the photons fell on himself.
7) If there's a Neil Young lyric you've always thought was deep and mystical, forget about it... even Neil can't tell you what it means. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Now I know the true Jimi Hendrix
This book shed a lot of light onto one of the greatest and most tragic figures in modern music. Much of what I knew about Jimi was based on rumors and vague interpretations about what he and his music stood for. However, this book presented a detailed look into his life. Through personal accounts from those around him, the author paints a detailed portrait of who Jimi really was. Although I have always been drawn to Jimi by his music, the book showed his personal side, which is equally as compelling. The weakness in my opinion was the lack of detailed information on his early childhood years. Although his father Al would play an important role in the Jimi Hendrix legacy (and still does to this day), their relationship (or lack thereof) is rarely mentioned. Also, there could have been more written about how much influence he had on music. The discography is very inclusive, but it lacks detailed commentary. Overall, I enjoyed the book a great deal and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about Jimi Hendrix.

Jimi Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight
This biography was written to, as the title states , set the record straight. After Jimi Hendrix's 6-year career wasw cut short by a drug overdose he was viewed as an anti-establishment, sex and drug addict. However, no one ever focused on his serious vision and path of his music. He started his career as a backup musician for such artists as Curtis Knight and the Squires, the Iskey Brothers, and Little Richard. After that he was signed by Chas Chandler ( formally of the Animals0 signed him and moved to England. There the Experience began. The book shows that Jimi spent hours and hours in the studio to get a song right and kept to himself alot. Totally unlike his stage personallity. I would recommend this book to any music lover. The other musicians' insight into Hendrix's talent and personality makes the book especially interesting. It provides an interestingperspective into the most unique period in music History

An interesting and engaging read
This is a pretty interesting book about a very interesting virtuso musician. There a lot of good information provided in a somewhat dry and detached delivery that somehow remains engaging somewhat like a Wall Street journal article.

My only issue with the book, the absolutely horrid photo on the cover aside, is the business orientation of the book which leaves questions about other issues, all of which interelate to each other.

As one example, the issue of drug use is treated in a very shallow fashion. While I am not looking for sensationalism, it seems clear that but for his drug use Hendrix would never have gotten behind the contractual eight ball so far - which the book implies the monetary impact of which had some effect on his eventual death.

On the other hand, I have learned quite a bit about Hendrix, his business deals, and perhaps most importantly, about his music. I was never aware of some his side projects including the Gypsys Suns & Rainbows or his all too brief session work with John McLauglin. There are also some interesting photos included in the book.

Cover photo aside, this book is probably the best $ I've spent in a long time.

At last, The Real Story of Jimi Hendrix's Life!!!
This book takes an inside look at the life and legend of the man that was James Marshall(Jimi) Hendrix. His troubled youth and how he had to suffer tremendous hardships just to be noticed. His love affair with blues music and his affinity for the guitar are also well intact. What puzzles me is why so many people would want to drag Jimi's name through the mud and desecrate his legacy and good fortune with lies and deceit. Why couldn't people have respect enough for Jimi and his music to take it seriosuly and treat it like gold, instead of commercializing for their own personal gain and profit? Jimi was a serious artist and this book certainly attests to that. He wasn't in it for the money or fame or recognition. He was simply in it for the music.
He deserved to be treated better by people who called themselves "His Friends." Jimi was a incredible man and amazing guitar player as well, but he was also very human. He had a very vulnerable side to him as well. He had enough problems without people wanting him to be everything to them. He couldn't do that.
He needed someone to love him and someone to respect him and take him at face value instead of having him always be Mr. Rock guitar god. he wanted people to listen to his music and be taken seriously. He was sick and tired of doing the same theatrical tricks that he had done with the guitar night after night, and now he just wanted people to listen to him, and not look at what he was doing with his guitar. he didn't need to prove anything anymore. he'd already done it. it was time for him to move into a new direction. Unfortunately, that new direction was never fully realized during hendrix's lifetime. Only now, after his death do we fully know just exactly what he was trying to achieve. Some things we'll never know. That was the genius of Hendrix. To keep people guessing. He'll never know how much of an impact he has had and continues to have on people's lives even to this day. God Bless You, Jimi. We Love You, Man!!!

Unbiased Biography of Jimi Hendrix
An interesting and well written account of James Allen Hendrix's transformation into "Jimi" and the tremendous influence Chas Chandler had on his development into a major star. ... Read more

Amazon.com

With his collection of personal vignettes, I Want More, Iggy Pop gives us a highly charged and stylized view into one of rock music's more colorful and important characters. Ranging from a few terse paragraphs to several pages, the book's sections chronicle the patchwork of Iggy's early life, following Jimmy Osterberg as he makes the complete transformation into Iggy Pop.

While detailing the escapades in his life and career up to the 80s, Iggy's nakedly autobiographical style bridges the public view of the rock innovator (first famous for rolling in glass onstage) with the private man from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who swore that "I will not let myself disappear." We see Iggy high on coke, stabbing himself with drumsticks, and living through what most people can only read about. But by the end of the book, Iggy has become more than a punk rock icon; he has become a real person with a tangible history.

The anecdotes and philosophical musings in I Need More are surrounded by a wide variety of black-and-white photographs as well as lyrics from songs written throughout Iggy's rise to international stardom. The photos are diverse, with baby photos of Jimmy Osterberg and Iggy's first bands, The Iguanas and The Prime Movers, set next to ones taken during Stooges years and during Pop's collaborations with David Bowie. Many of the photos are live and candid, though there are also a number of professional rock portraits familiar to Rolling Stone readers.

I Need More provides an open, honest view into one musician's life at the beginning of the punk rock movement, a musical and political period both inspired and influenced by Iggy and his best band, The Stooges. The book's raw prose manages to capture the excess and power that marked punk rock's rebellion against the establishment, drove the Stooges' sound, and propelled the man and the band to a rock-and-roll recklessness that had been lost in popular music. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Essential
Punk grandfather Iggy Pop writes! Or maybe not. Much of the book sounds as if it was transcribed from tape recordings of Iggy talking. Oh well, it's still crammed with stories about his youth, his stint in the Stooges and other misadventures, all engaging and amusing. My only (minor) disappointment is that it is perhaps too anecdotal: fleshed and expanded, this would make a killer autobiography. I need more!

"Where's your underwear?"
"I Need More" is a collection of over 40 vignettes written by rocker Iggy Pop. Subjects range from Iggy's hero worship of Mickey Mantle, Iggy's success at dodging the draft, early Stooge gigs, and Iggy's brief marriage. There is no particular organization to the stories, and everything is written in a very haphazard style. This may be annoying to some readers, but it also results in dropping all the formalities while Iggy engages the reader with a few anecdotes. Things occur to Iggy, and he includes them. In the first story, for example, Iggy begins, "yeah, so when I was in the Stooges a lot of dumb things used to happen to me." Iggy then proceeds to tell a story involving a $3,000 check ("actually a bum check"), a rental car ("which was basically stolen"), and a case of mistaken identity. His matter-of-fact style--which includes all sorts of qualifiers and explanations is hilarious. I laughed out loud at many of the stories.

The biggest thing to consider about this book is that it's not an autobiography. Iggy leaves out HUGE gaps in his life, and quite frankly admits there are bits he doesn't want to think about. But for the Iggy fan, this hard-to-find book is worth reading. It's full of photos (including a full frontal of Iggy), lyrics from Iggy's songs, and a discography. But best of all, there are Iggy's words themselves. And I discovered that Iggy Pop has a sense of humour. For the hardcore Iggy fan, this book is a must, but it is not a substitute for a biography. If you are looking for an A-Z rundown of Iggy's life, this book is not for you. "I Need More" is just one piece in the puzzle of Iggy Pop--displacedhuman

Less is not More
If you want a transcript of an interesting cat talking into a tape recorder for a few hours, check this out. Practically no information of interest or entertainment to be had here. Just an extension of style far, far better served by listening to the great music he's produced over the years. Stick to that unless you want a graphically puffed up magazine article, as presented in this "book".

THE IG ON THE IG
Good book. Iggy writes about Pre-Iggy, Iggy and The Stooges, and Post-Stooges. Also some really cool photos as well as lyrics to a few songs.
While Iggy offered some good insight into him and his band, I felt the book was a little unfocused and did not really follow any particular format and was not really in any type of chronological order. I persoanlly feel this book would have been better served with an actual author who could have done a more in depth profile on this true innovator. An author would also have given us a more chronological and more focused book.
It was also dissapointing that the book only covered up til the early 1980's. Who knows what kind of condition and state of mind Iggy was in when he wrote this book.
I still give it 4 stars and reccommend due to the fact that there are not alot of other options and it was cool to hear Iggy in his own words. There are also some cool pics as previously stated.
Hopefully we will soon see a true autobiography by a true author giving Iggy Pop the coverage he so deserves.
Perry

I need more, too
Iggy is the man.. plain and simple. No one will ever be like him. We all know about his crazy stage antics, so I won't get into that.

This autobiography is great. It tells about his life in Detroit, some of his crazy stories, including when he lost his virginity (which is hilarious). He also talks about shows with the Stooges, which is very entertaining. However, the book is short, and Iggy has a unique way of writing. It may take some getting used to, but I recommend this book to any lover of Iggy Pop, the Stooges, or just a good book. ... Read more

Book Description

Keith Moon was the bad boy of rock & roll, the most manic member of an aggressive and fabulously successful band, a full-throttle hedonist who lived at the center of an unending party. He was also a musical genius who inspired whole generations of artists, a generous friend to nearly everyone who crossed his path, a guileless man of immense personal charm to whom the sweetest sound on earth was surf music.A generation after his death, Moon is still revered as the greatest drummer in rock history and the single wildest personality in an age of pop excess. Here is the truth behind the legend, the result of more than three years of research in which music journalist Tony Fletcher interviewed dozens of Moon's friends, colleagues, and associates. The result is an instant classic that brilliantly illuminates both the tender and self-destructive sides of this singular personality. This is the story of one of the most outrageous rock stars ever born -- and Moon is one of the greatest rock biographies ever written. ... Read more

Reviews (41)

This "Moon" Casts A Riveting Glow
The Who's notorious drummer Keith Moon helped create the archetypal image of the anarchic rock star, modulating from likable prankster and good-time Charlie to philanderer, wife beater and perpetually zonked bad boy before his death in 1978 from a drug overdose.

In the skilled hands of British-born music journalist Tony Fletcher, the richly anecdotal Moon is a terrific read. Absorbing, too, is the detailed treatment of the social and cultural scene in 1960s and '70s London.

The author treats his subject reverentially, sometimes dismissing Moon's destructive, manipulative and often thuggish behavior -- he broke his wife's nose three times -- in favor of extended passages analyzing his talent, which Fletcher calls "unique yet impenetrable."

Fletcher interviewed over 100 people in researching the book. A slight flaw, the testimony of outspoken bandmates Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, two indispensable voices, is mysteriously missing.

This recount of Moon's rise and fall casts a riveting glow.

An Engrossing, Well-Researched Biography
Think of Tony Fletcher's Moon: The Life And Death Of A Rock Legend as the serious, analytical counterpoint to Dougal Butler's comic, anecdotal Full Moon: The Amazing Rock & Roll Life Of Keit