good books about songwriting & production

can ilx recommend some of the best (preferably autobiographical)?

i recently read the will hodgkinson book 'song man', where he spoke to various people (ranging from hal david to ray davies to gruff sfa) about how they wrote songs, with the aim to use this advice to help create a record of his own. he's a pretty awful writer but there were interesting points made by the people he spoke to.

but i'm also thinking of books by songwriters/producers themselves, like quincy jones, lieber-stoller, doc pomus, etc - are they worth reading? are there good ones by abba or carole king? books by barry white, neil sedaka and mike stock are all worth reading - they don't go heavily into the songwriting/production process but there's a fair amount in there.

there's one called "Songwriters on songwriting" that has a bit of wisdom + a bunch of horseshit.

thanks! that looks like it has some great stuff in - madonna on working with prince

bump for monday morning

"White Bicycles" by Joe Boyd.

http://mixonline.com/mixline/swedien_studio_michaeljackson_2807/index.html

The Songs of John Lennon: The Beatles Years
by John Stevens (berklee press)

sample: http://akamai.www.berkleemusic.com/assets/display/381987/50449504_chapter.pdf

And that book uses the official Berklee songwriting terminology so you can easily read other books in the series.

that mj book looks cool

i read the first edition of this ten years ago. can't comment on the technical expertise but it was chock-full of good anecdotes and readable if not exactly "literary"

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518B2QT8WFL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg

^^ good vibrations: a history of record production by mark cunnigham

thanks guys!