Cash by Johnny Cash

The Dirt - Motley Crüe.

-"no one here gets out alive" - danny sugarman
-"wonderland avenue" - danny sugarman

"True Adventures of the Rolling Stones" by Stanley Booth

SO WHAT the life of miles davis

BIRD LIVES the high life and hard times of charlie (yardbird) parker

"Hammer of the Gods" - even if you aren't a Zeppelin fan, there's plenty of bad behavior to keep things interesting...

"Our Band Could be Your Life" By Michael Azzerad chronicles indie rock in the eighties. There's chapters on black flag, fugazi, minutemen, mission of burma, big black, dinosaur, butthole surfers, beat happening, sonic youth. Really well written, more of a historical account, but with tons of anecdotes.

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung

Fucked By Rock- Confessions of a rock star.
Collateral Damage- Tour Diary of Zodiac Mindwarp

Both by Mark Manning aka: Zodiac Mindwarp. Both hilarious and pretty revealing.

Coal Miner's Daugher by Loretta Lynn. I have not actually read it, but I have been told it is excellent. It was made into a movie starring Sissy Spaceck (sp?) in the early 80s I think. Anyway, Loretta Lynn is a goddess and has lead a fascenating life.

I haven't read it yet, but Shakey by James McDonough, about Neil Young, is supposed to be amazing. I have three or four friends who read it, and they said it was great, and they're music journalists, so you know they're snobby about music bios.

I'm currently reading Down the Highway, by Howard Sounes, about Bob Dylan, recommended by LE. But it's one of several books I'm reading, so I'm making slow progress.

Nick Tosches is a great writer, if that's what you're looking for. He's written books about Jerry Lee Lewis and Dean Martin, as well as books on early country, minstrelsy, and "unsung heroes of rock & roll. He's also written a bio of Sonny Liston, and a little greeting card of a thing callled The Last Opium Den.

He kicks butt.

i've read man in black, but it has this weird pro-christ thing going on.

is the cash autobiography all new, or are some parts just carried over?

-bobby

McDonough's "Shakey" is definitely the definitive bio on Neil Young... plus I'm looking to pick up Jeff Tamrakin's book on the Jefferson Airplane (should be a much better look at the band's history than Grace Slick's autobiography).

Babe In Toyland, The Making and Selling of a Rock n' Roll Band - Neal Karlen

If your looking for some good coffee table reads, both editions of "Fuck you Heroes" are awesome.

Great early punk/ skate/ hip hop photography and captions by Glen Friedman!

I'd say check out:
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History Of Punk
by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

Seconded! This book will tell you more about why we are all here than any other book mentioned in this thread.

Um, unless one of those books is about hot naked girls.

Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie. It's a semi-fictional autobiography, and very good, funny, and enlightening. I also liked it because of the insight it provided into early Oklahoman life.

hammer of the gods and the long hard road out of hell.

and of course my favorite, anything by henry rollins.

[Edited on Aug 20, 2003 by schoolgirl]

If you're interested in the artistic and technical ideas behind music I'd recommend Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound by Eric Tamm and Radiohead: Back to Save the Universe by James Doheny. You won't get many gory details about their personal lives, but you'll learn a lot about music.

That is a great book, but I recommend reading it along with Clinton Heylin's "From the Velvets to the Voidoids" for a more complete history of American punk.

My Way - story of Frank Sinatra
Lords Of Chaos - story of black metal