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Top 5 music related biographies

5) Hellfire ... Nick Tosches
Biography of Jerry Lee Lewis

4) I Was A Teenage Punk Rocker ... Andy Blade
Autobiography

3) Renegade ... Mark E. Smith
Autobiography

2) Man Enough To Be A Woman ... Jayne County
Autobiography

1) Tearing Down The Wall Of Sound ... Mick Wall
Biography of Phil Spector

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Curmudgeonly Rock 'n' Roll time traveller from ye olden days

2nd verse same as the 1st...

That Mark E Smith autobiography is a great read.

I will also add:

Julian Cope - Head On (Autobography)

Deborah Curtis - Touching From A Distance (biography of Ian Curtis)

Nick Fish - Industrial Evolution (biography of Cabaret Voltaire)

Tony Wilson - 24 Hour Party People (autobiography/Factory Records History)

John Peel/Sheila Ravenscroft - Margrave Of The Marshes (Autobiography/Biography)

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If Ian Curtis had lived, and enjoyed the ale…

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Not just because I like the band, but because it's a cracking book:

Spacemen 3 (& The Birth Of Spiritualized) by Erik Morse

Also

Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile! by Dominic Priore (written about the recording of The Beach Boys' 'Smile' album)

Agree with the Margrave Of The Marshes shout

Thank You For The Days by Mark Radcliffe

The Stone Roses & The Resurrection Of British Pop by John Robb

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Definitely isn't inbred...has the GCSEs to prove it!

REVOLUTION PURITY LOVE SUICIDE ACCURACY

http://www.thesoundofconfusion.com

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If Ian Curtis had lived, and enjoyed the ale…

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A few recommendations that didn't make my top 5.

Black Monk Time ... Eddie Shaw & Anita Klemke
Autobiography/The Monks

Be My Baby ... Ronnie Spector
Autobiography

Where Dead Voices Gather ... Nick Tosches
Biography of Emmett Miller

The Life & Times Of Little Richard ... Charles White

The Legendary Joe Meek ... John Repsch

Violence Girl ... Alice Bag
Autobiography

A Disfunctional Success ... Eric Goulden
Autobiography of Wreckless Eric

Uptight ... Victor Brockis & Gerald Malanga
Biography of The Velvet Underground

A Fistful Of Gitanes ... Sylvie Simmons
Biography of Serge Gainsbourg

I've had Eye Mind by Phil Drummond (biography of Roky Erickson & The 13th Floor Elevators) on my shelf for ages, but haven't got round to reading it yet and am also keen to read Growing Old Disgracefully by Alan Lakey (biography of The Pretty Things), but it's out of print and 2nd hand copies are quite pricey. High expectations of both of those.

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Curmudgeonly Rock 'n' Roll time traveller from ye olden days

2nd verse same as the 1st...

Just Kids - Patti Smith
Chronicles - Dylan
Bedsit Disco Queen - Tracy Thorn
Things The Grandchildren Should Know - Mark Everett

I tried hard to like Falling and Laughing: The Restoration of Edwin Collins - written by his Missus. It's a pity it didn't come from his own quill.

I enjoyed ones by Luke Haines, Louise Wener, Julian Cope, Marc Almond and Billy Bragg

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Mod Supreme, Demon Headmaster

What about Morrissey - did he succeed in converting any of you to vegetarianism? I thought about it for a second. Well, probably not even that long.

I have it on the shelf and it'll probably remain there because everybody who has read it has panned it for being self indulgent bitter tripe, desperately in need of a good edit (or any kind of an edit!). He apparently comes across as the sad old rambling drunk who sits in the corner and regales anyone within earshot of some uninteresting anecdote... repeatedly.

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Mod Supreme, Demon Headmaster

Autobiography by Morrissey – digested read
John Crace reduces the much-hyped reminiscences of the Smiths singer and tortured vegetarian enigma to an intensely poetic 600 words

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/o ... ested-read

Very highly recommended!

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Curmudgeonly Rock 'n' Roll time traveller from ye olden days

2nd verse same as the 1st...

He's all spleen save for the odd nods of affection towards the matriarchs in his life. A spectacularly disappointing read in which he himself appears detached from the subject via tedious references to himself in the third person. That eerie tale of his night ride in the Dales give me a shiver though.

This actually probably covers my top 5. Apart from Our Band Could Be Your Life, which is great, and hugely expensive in back catalogue purchases if you like properly gods 80s hardcore/alternative rock. It inspires you to get the lot.

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Pukka Pie pest

Embrace the margin
Always Changing at Retford http://sptxx.tumblr.com/
Not Changing at Retford http://sptxx2.tumblr.com/

Liked the Cope and Yorkston books, and Eye Mind is still on my reading pile. Other great books -

Mike Barnes: Captain Beefheart - the biography
Rob Jovanovic: Big Star - the Story of Rock's Forgotten Band
Bill Sykes: Sit Down, Listen To This - The Roger Eagle Story
Charlie Louvin: Satan Is Real
John Sinclair: Guitar Army

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Alas, not actually Gryff Rhys Jones...

"Little Jack Horner sitting on the corner
With no shoes and clothes
This aint funny, but he took his money
And sniffed it up his nose"

I can recommend these (not strictly biographies, but whatever)

Grit Noise and Revolution - The Birth of Detroit Rock N Roll - David A. Carson
Women Make Noise (Girl bands from Motown to the Modern) - ed. Julia Downes
Sweet Soul Music (Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom) - Peter Guralnick
Our Band Could Be Your Life (Scenes from the American indie underground 1981-1991) - Michael Azerrad
Where Have All The Good Times Gone (The Rise and Fall of the Record Industry) - Louis Barfe

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Has something against Spotify...

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Alas, not actually Gryff Rhys Jones...

"Little Jack Horner sitting on the corner
With no shoes and clothes
This aint funny, but he took his money
And sniffed it up his nose"

Am halfway through Vic Galloway's account of the various Fence folk. Interesting in a low-key way.

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Pukka Pie pest

Embrace the margin
Always Changing at Retford http://sptxx.tumblr.com/
Not Changing at Retford http://sptxx2.tumblr.com/

What say the soundsxpers of Robert Forster's 10 Rules of Rock and Roll?

Ah, well. I haven't read it yet. I did hear him reading bits at the Latitude festival around the time it came out. I remember him desparing at AC/DC. I was erm, in a festivally frame of mind (as in beer festivally) so went with a few others to say hello after. I tried to explain that I was something of an AC/DC fan, for whom winning a copy of 16 Lovers Lane helped broaden my musical tastes, but that it was perfectly possible to like both. His expression was, quite justifiably, equal parts pity, despair, bafflement and "You're telling me this because..?" - so I slunk away.

I'll check if it's cheap on the kindle...

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Pukka Pie pest

Embrace the margin
Always Changing at Retford http://sptxx.tumblr.com/
Not Changing at Retford http://sptxx2.tumblr.com/

Just got a new kindle (after, in a typical Soundsxp piece of buffoonery, sitting on the old one while camping which destroyed the screen).

Picked up this JAMC biog for 99p http://www.amazon.co.uk/Barbed-Wire-Kis ... 1846972493

So far so not bad. There's a little bit much in the way of "imbibing of tinctures", but it's enthusiastic about what they did without falling into the trap of taking the band too seriously.

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Pukka Pie pest

Embrace the margin
Always Changing at Retford http://sptxx.tumblr.com/
Not Changing at Retford http://sptxx2.tumblr.com/

SoundsXP piece of buffoonery?

Only Westie is capable of such nonsense, providing huge amounts of alcohol has been consumed.

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Mod Supreme, Demon Headmaster