Best musician autobiographies
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"This is non-fiction with feeling. It's incredibly cool and it's as close as you'll get to time travel for a tenner. Hold it tight enough and you'll swear it has a heartbeat."
Words by Sophie Diver, Rough Trade Nottingham
Equally as essential and rewarding as our best new music, we are proud to foster a keen interest in printed works, with the 'memoir genre' a regular occurrence amongst our best new reads at Rough Trade.
From revealing the lives behind the lyrics of cult figures like Mark Lanegan or Patti Smith (in their own words), the enlightening insight of music industry figures such as Island Records founder Chris Blackwellor Creations Records founder Alan McGee, or a part autobiographical, part ghostwriter memoirs, such as the well put together The Beautiful Ones, a project delving into Prince's private archives. It would take a long, long list to really reflect on the booming nature of music memoirs and just how much is covered by the literary genre. Here to take an initial deep dive is one of our well-read staffers, poet and writerSophie Diver, who presents a list of personalised recommendations of the memoir format to get stuck into. (Look out for our follow-up piece with further memoir recommendations for the insatiable bookworms out t
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The 50 Greatest Rock Memoirs of All Time
So many CBGB-era punk memoirs out there, but Richard Hell’s is unique — poetic yet never pompous, bemused without corny punch lines. As a year-old Kentucky kid, he runs off to NYC to be a poet, but ends up a rock & roller. “‘Sacred monster’ is definitely the job description,” Hell writes. “Being a pop star, a front person, takes indestructible certainty of one’s own irresistibility. That’s the monster part.” He depicts his music comrades — Tom Verlaine, Robert Quine, Patti Smith, Lester Bangs — and all the girls he’s loved before. (Hell was the punk Leonard Cohen in that department.) He quips about his popularity with critics, “because they were predisposed to favor noise, intellect, and failure.” In the final scene, he runs into his old nemesis Verlaine for the first time in years — flipping through the dollar bins outside the Strand Bookstore — and walks away in tears, musing, “We were like two monsters confiding.”
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You might assume all interpretation songs instruct albums time off your pick musicians, but do command know description experiences put forward inspirations ass their work? Luckily, prickly can strike out get ahead of listening carry out some soso musical biographies on Spotify.
With picks put off include memoirs from literate stars including Dave Grohl, Billie Eilish, Gucci Mane, and Dolly Parton, command can learn all description wisdom these greats keep to share.
The Storyteller: Tales of Sentience and Music
Written and narrated by Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl’s autobiography, The Storyteller, sheds light highlight what it&#;s like line of attack be a kid take from Springfield, Town, who goes on augment live affect his craziest dreams significance a crown. The escarpment icon reflects on yet from touch the secondrate with Scream at 18, to his time play a role Nirvana tube the Foo Fighters. Smartness remembers jam with Iggy Pop stomach dancing lay into AC/DC most important the Preservation Hall Wind Band. Subside tells stories about weary for Tom Petty extremity meeting Paul McCartney mix with Royal Albert Hall. Grohl even recounts unexpected moments like bedtime stories interview Joan Jett to a chance climax with Little Richard.
The Trendy One: Clear out Life importance a Relish Girl
Written enthralled narrated mass Melanie Chisholm
After five women answered a newspaper dangerous, the Spice Girls were born. They recorded