The 50 best music books - according to OMM

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50. The Faber Book of Pop ed. Hanif Kureishi and Jon Savage
49. The Covert War Against Rock by Alex Constantine
48. Margrave of the Marshes by John Peel, Sheila Ravenscroft
47. The Recording Angel by Evan Eisenberg
46. Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil by Caetano Veloso
45. Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton
44. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil, Gillian McCain
43. Miles: The Autobiography by Miles Davis, Quincy Troupe
42. Take It Like A Man: Autobiography of Boy George by Boy George with Spencer Bright
41. Early Jazz by Gunther Schuller
40. We Gotta Get Out of this Place by Gerri Hirshey
39. Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King by Lloyd Bradley
38. The Dirt - Mötley Crüe: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band by Neil Strauss,
37. The Death of Rhythm and Blues - Nelson George
36. Bound for Glory - Woody Guthrie
35. This is Serbia calling - Matthew Collin
34. Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds by David Toop
33. Howling at the Moon - Charles Yentikoff & David Ritz
32. Boogie Man: The Adventures of John Lee Hooker in the American Twentieth Century by Charles Shaar Murray
31. The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the demise of British Rock - John Harris
30. Why Sinatra Matters - Pete Hammil
29. Our Band could be your Life - Charles Azzerrad
28. Head On/Repossessed - Julian Cope
27. Stoned - Andrew Loog Oldham
26. Last Train to Memphis - Pete Guralnick
25. The Birth of Tragedy:Out of the Spirit of Music - Friedrich Nietzche
24. Elvis - Albert Goldman
23. Lords of Chaos - Michael Moynihan & Didrik Soderlind
22. But Beautiful - Geoff Dyer
21. 45 - Bill Drummond
20. Rock Dreams - Nik Cohn & Guy Peellart
19. Deep Blues - Robert Palmer
18. A Year with Swollen Appendice - Brian Eno
17. The Last Pary - Anthony Haden Guest
16. Flyboy in the Buttermilk - Greg Tate
15. Stairway to Hell - Chuck Eddy
14. Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung - Lester Bangs
13. Revolution in the Head - Ian MacDonald
12. Mystery Train - Greil Marcus
11.You Don't Have To Say You Love Me by Simon Napier-Bell
10. Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star by Ian Hunter
9. Beneath the Underdog by Charles Mingus
8. Starlust by Fred and Judy
7. The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones by Stanley Booth
6. Groupie by Jenny Fabian and Johnny Byrne
5 Shostakovich and Stalin by Solomon Volkov
4. England's Dreaming by Jon Savage
3. Feel: Robbie Williams by Chris Heath
2. Chronicles by Bob Dylan
1. Hellfire - Nick Tosches

Good list, bad list?

Good call on 'Beneath the Underdog'. Surprised that Simon Reynolds or Paul Morley didn't make it. Astonished that the Robbie Williams bio is #3, though I've never read it. Is it really that good?

Personal favourites of mine, which must have been numbers 51-54; It's Only Rock N' Roll by Ray Lowry, Ball the Wall by Nik Cohn, Pet Shop Boys vs America by Chris Heath, Sound Effects by Simon Frith.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 19 June 2006 09:15 (nineteen years ago)

Talk about it here if you like...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 19 June 2006 09:27 (nineteen years ago)

kinda meh IMHO too many canonical rockcrit choices.

the ones I have read/enjoyed and recommend:

1. Hellfire - Nick Tosches
2. Chronicles by Bob Dylan
4. England's Dreaming by Jon Savage
9. Beneath the Underdog by Charles Mingus
14. Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung - Lester Bangs
15. Stairway to Hell - Chuck Eddy
17. The Last Party - Anthony Haden Guest
19. Deep Blues - Robert Palmer
20. Rock Dreams - Nik Cohn & Guy Peellart
24. Elvis - Albert Goldman (w/grain of salt or whole shaker)
26. Last Train to Memphis - Pete Guralnick
37. The Death of Rhythm and Blues - Nelson George
43. Miles: The Autobiography by Miles Davis, Quincy Troupe
44. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil, Gillian McCain
45. Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton
46. Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil by Caetano Veloso
47. The Recording Angel by Evan Eisenberg

the one I've never been able to find:

10. Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star by Ian Hunter

the only one I read and really disliked:

22. But Beautiful - Geoff Dyer

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 19 June 2006 09:36 (nineteen years ago)

The Ian Hunter book goes for £3 to £9 on ebay, and there's about 4 on there currently.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 19 June 2006 09:42 (nineteen years ago)

think they mean '2stoned' by ALO. or should do.

― Seriously, Try Punching This Guy in the Face and See What Happens (Enrique), Monday, 19 June 2006 09:57 (nineteen years ago)

Both are fine books. Waiting for 3Stoned. Presumably covering the Immediate/Small Faces years.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:03 (nineteen years ago)

Simon Reynolds or Paul Morley didn't make it

They were disqualified on the grounds of having written for the OMM.

― carson dial (carson dial), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:09 (nineteen years ago)

what a bunch of dick.

― Seriously, Try Punching This Guy in the Face and See What Happens (Enrique), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:11 (nineteen years ago)

26. Last Train to Memphis - Pete Guralnick
25. The Birth of Tragedy:Out of the Spirit of Music - Friedrich Nietzche
24. Elvis - Albert Goldman

HAHA! most unlikely threesome ever?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:11 (nineteen years ago)

Simon Reynolds or Paul Morley didn't make it
They were disqualified on the grounds of having written for the OMM.

Really? Haven't Jon Savage and Chris Heath also written for OMM

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:14 (nineteen years ago)

why nietzche and not adorno? whatever, it's a very tokenistic and lame choice given that omm concentrates on 20th-21st century, and really post-war music, on the whole.

― Seriously, Try Punching This Guy in the Face and See What Happens (Enrique), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:18 (nineteen years ago)

Even if we're talking post-war music, Val Wilmer's As Serious As Your Life is a serious omission.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:21 (nineteen years ago)

Stockhausen On Stockhausem? (OK, there are six volumes, but, you know, crucial and key text...)

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:22 (nineteen years ago)

or Stockhausen On Stockhausen even...

John Litweiler's The Freedom Principle?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:22 (nineteen years ago)

As for Tosches - right writer, wrong book; Dino's his masterpiece.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:23 (nineteen years ago)

LIKE PUNK NEVER HAPPENED

― Seriously, Try Punching This Guy in the Face and See What Happens (Enrique), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:24 (nineteen years ago)

not great, but should really be OMM's subtitle.

― Seriously, Try Punching This Guy in the Face and See What Happens (Enrique), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:24 (nineteen years ago)

BEN WATSON'S BAILEY BIOG

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:27 (nineteen years ago)

Yellow Punctum: The Rise And Decline Of New Pop 1979-86 by Marcello Carlin

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:28 (nineteen years ago)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0954970403.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Seriously, Try Punching This Guy in the Face and See What Happens (Enrique), Monday, 19 June 2006 10:35 (nineteen years ago)

Where is "My magpie eyes are hungry for the prize"?

― flowersdie (flowersdie), Monday, 19 June 2006 11:08 (nineteen years ago)

What no

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0793564409.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 19 June 2006 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.marionboyars.co.uk/Web%20images/Book%20covers/silence.jpg

― JimD (JimD), Monday, 19 June 2006 11:22 (nineteen years ago)

vg, dom passantino.

― Seriously, Try Punching This Guy in the Face and See What Happens (Enrique), Monday, 19 June 2006 11:28 (nineteen years ago)

:-( I have only read about 8. I'll have to rectify that. The Dirt but not the Led Zep bio? Huh?

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Monday, 19 June 2006 11:53 (nineteen years ago)

The Ian Hunter book was available in either HMV or Virgin very recently, I can't remember which though. It is ace, too.

― alext (alext), Monday, 19 June 2006 11:58 (nineteen years ago)

I like the list in the Book Of Rock Lists better... even though it's a decade old.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Monday, 19 June 2006 12:33 (nineteen years ago)

that's Michael Azerrad, not Charles, btw

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 19 June 2006 12:38 (nineteen years ago)

Ha ha, I'm pretty sure I like this list better. (Since I only made the Book of Rock Lists as one of the "most annoying people in rock" or something. Though Weird Al Yankovic was admittedly good company.) (Serious question: Does anybody know whether my book, the one on the list, is still in print in England? Because if so, it'd be nice if I see at least one royalty check for it, at some point in my life.)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 19 June 2006 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.united-mutations.com/c/captain_beefheart/books/cbbarn.jpg

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 19 June 2006 13:02 (nineteen years ago)

Stairway to Hell:Chuck Eddy

Availability: usually dispatched within 4 to 6 weeks. Please note that titles occasionally go out of print or publishers run out of stock.

Amazon.co.uk sales rank: 884,168

I'd guess that means it's out of print here

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 19 June 2006 13:11 (nineteen years ago)

40. We Gotta Get Out of this Place by Gerri Hirshey

of all the books about women in rock, they pick this one???

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Monday, 19 June 2006 13:57 (nineteen years ago)

I'm embarrassed by how few of these I've read.

But I wish they'd included this one:
http://www.soulexpressradio.com/marsh.1.jpg

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 19 June 2006 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

Since I only made the Book of Rock Lists as one of the "most annoying people in rock" or something.

Dude, you're on a list called "Shaddafucup" at No. 72... and you apparantly need to "shadda" more than Weird Al, who's at No. 73.

Personally, I think that's a better honor that being on the OMM list any day.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Monday, 19 June 2006 19:07 (nineteen years ago)

I've read "Groupie," which was okay. Very dated, and probably a lot more entertaining since I actually knew who the people in the book were supposed to represent. In the groupie genre, "I'm With the Band" was more fun and more name-droppy (which is the point when reading a book about a groupie).

― musically (musically), Monday, 19 June 2006 19:52 (nineteen years ago)

good to see "Bass Culture" in there

and "the Dirt" is probably the most entertaining book I've read in at least 5 years

― grapple (grapple), Monday, 19 June 2006 23:18 (nineteen years ago)

No "Crazy From the Heat"? What is wrong with people - the Roth is so wonderfully looney and self-serving. Just fabulous.

― EZ Snappin (EZSnappin), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 00:38 (nineteen years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0306802872.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 02:52 (nineteen years ago)

33. Howling at the Moon - Charles Yentikoff & David Ritz

should be Walter Yetnikoff BTW. The scene of Dylan eating dinner with his mother and grandmother and large Jewish family is not to be missed.

― Jake A. Brown (Jake Brown), Tuesday, 20 June 2006 03:35 (nineteen years ago)

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