6 books every music lover should read
For many people, music isn’t a huge part of their lives, but rather something they just have playing in the background to fill the silence in the car or while doing the housework.
For others, however, music is their life. They grew up obsessed with The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley and countless others, and it became the soundtrack to their youth.
If you’re one of the latter group, we’ve got six fantastic books just for you.
1. Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties by Ian MacDonald
This “Bible of the Beatles” captures the iconic band’s magical and mysterious journey from adorable teenagers to revered cultural emissaries. In this fully updated version, each of their 241 tracks is assessed chronologically from their first amateur recordings in 1957 to their final “reunion” recording in 1995. It also incorporates new information from the Anthology series and recent interviews with Paul McCartney. This comprehensive guide offers fascinating details about the Beatles’ lives, music, and era, never losing sight of what made the band so important, unique, and enjoyable.
2. Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music (Sixth Edition) by Greil Marcus
In 1975, Greil Marcus’s Mystery Train changed the way readers thought about rock ’n’ roll and continues to be sought out today by music fans and anyone interested in pop culture. Looking at recordings by six key artists – Robert Johnson, Harmonica Frank, Randy Newman, the Band, Sly Stone, and Elvis Presley – Marcus offers a complex and unprecedented analysis of the relationship between rock ‘n’ roll and American culture. In this latest edition, Marcus provides an extensively updated and rewritten Note and Discographies section, exploring the recordings’ evolution and continuing impact.
3. Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon – and the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller
Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon remain among the most enduring and important women in popular music. Each woman is distinct. Carole King is the product of outer-borough, middle-class New York City; Joni Mitchell is a granddaughter of Canadian farmers; and Carly Simon is a child of the Manhattan intellectual upper crust. They collectively represent, in their lives and their songs, a great swath of American girls who came of age in the late 1960s. Their stories trace the arc of the now mythic sixties generation – female version – but in a bracingly specific and deeply recalled way, far from cliché. The history of the women of that generation has never been written – until now, through their resonant lives and emblematic songs.
4. Frank: The Voice by James Kaplan
Frank Sinatra was the best-known entertainer of the twentieth century-infinitely charismatic, lionized and notorious in equal measure. But despite his mammoth fame, Sinatra the man has remained an enigma. Now James Kaplan brings deeper insight than ever before to the complex psyche and turbulent life behind that incomparable voice, from Sinatra's humble beginning in Hoboken to his fall from grace and Oscar-winning return in From Here to Eternity. Here at last is the biographer who makes the reader feel what it was really like to be Frank Sinatra-as man, as musician, as tortured genius.
5. Put the Needle on the Record: The 1980s at 45 Revolutions Per Minute by Matthew Chojnacki
In the 1980s, music defined the moment: "Video Killed The Radio Star" ushered in MTV, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" ruled The Breakfast Club, and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" became the anthem of a generation. The 1980s were also the most visually provocative era of the last millennium. Every new vinyl single hit the stands wrapped in eye-catching sleeves that reflected the latest trends. Put the Needle on the Record is pop culture historian Matthew Chojnacki's definitive guide to 7- and 12-inch vinyl single artwork from the '80s. He presents and compares more than 250 vinyl single covers representing nearly every prominent musician of the decade. Read previously untold stories behind the '80s' most iconic images from the designers and visual talent behind Madonna, Prince, Pink Floyd, Queen, Adam Ant, Iron Maiden, The Clash, Pet Shop Boys, Van Halen, and more. Coupled with exclusive commentary from more than 100 of the '80s biggest musicians, including Annie Lennox, Duran Duran, Run-DMC, Devo, The B-52's, Erasure, The Human League, Scorpions, The Knack, and Yoko Ono, this is an authoritative journey back to the songs and images that continue to influence our culture.
6. Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me by Pattie Boyd
For the first time, rock music's most famous muse tells her incredible story. Pattie Boyd, former wife of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton, finally breaks a forty-year silence and tells the story of how she found herself bound to two of the most addictive, promiscuous musical geniuses of the twentieth century and became the most legendary muse in the history of rock and roll. The woman who inspired Harrison's song "Something" and Clapton's anthem "Layla," Pattie Boyd has written a book that is rich and raw, funny and heartbreaking-and totally honest.