Saw on AA earlier this week that Phil Lesh's released a new biography of his life with (and maybe beyond?) the Dead:
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/music/rock/messages/48102.html

Well, I happened to be in a Barnes & Noble last night, so I looked for it. Didn't find it, but that's not the point :-) Perusing the shelves of music books (i.e., homages to individuals and bands, not "You Too Can Play Led Zepplin on the Kazoo"), though, got me to thinkin'...

Most of these books are more or less trashy, written to capitalize on a popular musician's fame at the moment. Others are written to capitalize on dead folks' fame (typically including the lurid circumstances of their deaths). Some of 'em must actually be good, enduring literature of some sort?

What do y'all think?

BTW, I don't actually have a nominee. Frank Zappa's ghosted autobiography was pretty interesting, but I wouldn't call it great literature. I've read several "Dead" books, but again none that I'd call excellent. I found and read a copy of "Papa John" Phillips autobiography. It was quite interesting, but a mammoth downer. That guy had problems!

There must be some good ones?

Caveat: I am thinking of popular music/musicians, but books about 'serious' music and musicians are viable targets, too.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446394319/qid=1114027347/sr=2-3/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_3/002-1402999-5350400

I love this book. If you like Jimi, this one is a good read. Spent an entire weekend reading it while listening to Jimi jam. A very cool experience. :)

I recently reread Julian Cope's two-books-in-one autobiography Head-On/Repossessed. Very entertaining memoir with more about his drug habit, collecting classic toys, and paranoia than about his music. Main fault is that it arbitrarily ends in mid-story and cries out for a third volume -- Foe

Anything by Peter Guralnik or Timothy White. White's book on the Beach Boys is amazing.

A Spectacular visual and oral history - The Art of Rock - Posters from Presley to Punk.
From Paul Grushkin.
He was the director of the Museum of Rock and Roll in San Francisco and the coauthor of Grateful Dead:The Official Book of the Dead Heads.

The Clash - Before & After ( Photographs by Pennie Smith,and cmments by the band ).

Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991

by Michael Azerrad

He profiles bands like Black Flag, The Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Minor Threat (Fugazi), Husker Du, The Replacements, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Big Black, and Dinosaur Jr.

I loved his chapters about the Replacements and the Minutemen. It is a great read.

John

The best one I have read was On The Bass Cleff...by bassist Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, ABWH, Paul Simon, and a trillion more)...tremendous sense of humour.

My favorite is:

"Fleetwood Mac: The First Thirty Years" by Bob Brunning

dysfunctional.......drugs........a nice read.

"Shout: The Beatles In Their Generation" by Phillip Norman.

I haven't read this book in years so I checked the ratings over at Amazon to see if my memory was playing tricks on me. (It happens a lot lately at my advanced age.)

Judging by the reviews I saw, apparently it isn't. Great, great read.

The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle by Michael Moorcock.
The Boy Looked at johnny (The Obituary of Rock and Roll) By Julie Burchill and Tony
Parsons.