Biographies

I am slowly working my way through Music Listography.

The next list is of my favorite musical artist biographies. Upon encountering this challenge, I had read 16 of these, so I had to read four more to round out the list. The first 16 were all autobiographies. Having enjoyed those, I saw no need to change things up. Most of these are soup-to-nuts biographies, while some are more episodic. In alphabetical order:

1. David Byrne, Bicycle Diaries

Byrne writes about a period of post-Heads touring. He makes an effort to get to know the cities he’s visiting by riding around on his folding bicycle.

2. David Byrne, How Music Works

This volume has a long chapter about Byrne’s musical experiences throughout his career, but there’s so much more here. He writes about how technology and performance spaces shape the music played through them. He also opines on the changing economic landscape of the music business.

3. Elvis Costello, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink

Enormous. Soulful. Poetic. Costello is born into a life of music, and it pervades every aspect of his life.

4. Miles Davis, Miles

This is the mother of all musician biographies. Everything in Davis’ life is a motherfucker, good or bad. Not for the faint of heart.

5. Thomas Dolby, The Speed Of Sound

As a fan and a techie, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I hadn’t known that, after withdrawing from the pop music scene in the late 80’s, he became a Silicon Valley tech executive. Hilarious story about visiting Michael Jackson’s house in the early 80’s.

6. Flea, Acid For The Children

This book traces Flea’s childhood through the foundation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers when he was 20. Lots of drugs and petty crimes, which are thankfully foreign to me, but also so much to relate to — discovering music and its emotional release; finding spirituality in nature; overcoming shyness and being the runt of the class at school.

7. Herbie Hancock, Possibilities

Starts off with the best anecdote about a concert with the Miles Davis quintet. The theme of radical acceptance is established early on, and prevails throughout his story.

8. Fred Hersch, Good Things Happen Slowly

Remarkable account of the foundation of Hersch’s career as a gay jazz musician at a time when it was especially difficult. Equally remarkable is how he copes with HIV and recovers from a coma. The dream he has about Thelonious Monk is both frightening and hysterical.

9. Tony Levin, Beyond The Bass Clef

This is a jump-around collection of entries from Levin’s groundbreaking blog. Fascinating tales of recording and touring with some of the (other) great musicians of our time. Caffeine and bicycling do not mix.

10. Johnny Marr, Set The Boy Free

I was surprised to learn how Marr was the de facto business manager for The Smiths through their meteoric existence, largely while still a teenager. I enjoyed reading how he and Morrissey wrote together, and how similar it was to Richards and Jagger. Also fascinating how he started running, kind of like Forrest Gump.

11. Moby, Porcelain

Moby’s first memoir is one of my favorites. It covers the early part of his career, up to the creation of Play but before its unlikely success. Much poverty. Brutal honesty. Fantastic imagery. Impossible cameos. I exclaimed “No Way!” out loud several times as I read.

12. Moby, Then It Fell Apart

This is both a prequel and sequel to Porcelain. It shifts back and forth between Moby’s childhood (“a poor kid in a rich town”) and coping (not well) with success after the release of Play. Lots of alcohol and other bacchanalia, but ultimately coming to terms with it all.

13. John Pizzarelli, World On A String

Pizzarelli is another musician by birth, son of the great Bucky Pizzarelli. There are great stories here of touring with his dad, creating a career for himself, and working with so many other greats along the way.

14. Questlove, Mo’ Meta Blues

I picked this up at the airport and read at least half of it on a trans-Atlantic flight when I should have been sleeping. As with Costello, Questlove is born into music. Soul Train is the calendar of his life. The cast of characters he meets in high school in Philadelphia is amazing.

15. Keith Richards, Life

I heard this one was good, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Richards is an eloquent writer, far more so than one might expect from his oft-caricatured persona. Lots of drugs and near-death experiences. I have a new appreciation for much of the Stones’ catalog.

16. Nile Rodgers, Le Freak

Rodgers’ story is easily one of my favorites. A unique childhood, with junkie parents, he learned to fend for himself quite early. At seven (!) he would skip school and go to the movies. Like Richards and Flea, Rodgers could easily have died several times over. He persevered through career setbacks and is now a cancer survivor. Along the way he worked with so many other great musicians and helped to shape the sound of popular music.

17. Georg Solti, Memoirs

I enjoyed the early, more human part of Solti’s story, of growing up in Budapest and escaping fascism  at the onset of WWII. The latter part was less interesting to me, essentially a list of operas and other works he conducted.

18. Bruce Springsteen, Born To Run

There were many surprises for me in Springsteen’s book. For a man whose songs often invoke cars, he learned to drive rather late. He was more or less abandoned by his parents just after high school. He avoided drugs entirely and drinking for a long time. He is very introspective, and an advocate of psychotherapy.

19. Sting, Broken Music

Sting recalls his childhood and early adulthood through the foundation of the Police. Cold mornings delivering milk as a boy in Wallsend. He was not at all good at math in school.

20. Ben Watt, Patient 

This is a frighteningly honest account of the months Watt spent in a hospital battling a life threatening illness. Intense images of the cadence of life in his ward during his recovery. Ultimately uplifting, but quite a trip to get there.