WORST BOOKS ABOUT ROCK MUSIC (Part 1 of 2)

[NightTrain]

From THE NEW BOOK OF ROCK LISTS by Dave Marsh & James Bernard (1994):

1. ELVIS - Albert Goldman

Not so much a biography as a malignancy, characterized by an old fogey's sense of hipsterism, a middle-brow intellectual's parochial sense of what's important (not to mention self-important), an extraordinary writing style that manages to be both flaccid and overblown, and truly fetid racism, which the author generously extends to both blacks and all non-elite southerners.


2. NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE - Danny Sugerman & Jerry Hopkins

The rock bio for those who believe that what's truly cool and heroic is making big poetic pronouncements and living up to them by the most ridiculous and pathetic sort of childish self-destructive behavior.


3. ROCK ON: THE SOLID GOLD YEARS, 1950-1963 - Norm N. Nite

An "encyclopedia" based on rewritten (or at least, retyped) press bios, reciting and spreading all manner of factual errors and observational cliches without offering a shred of insight.

4. ELVIS WORLD - Jane & Michael Stern

These pop culture "lovers" have never found a subject to which they could not condescend. The problem here isn't that their Elvis exists amidst a mound of tacky trivia, it's that the authors are so goddamned smug about their superiority to the junk they've collected. Whatever the Sterns may feel about Elvis, their hatred of his audience runs rampant through these pages.


5. THE LIVES OF JOHN LENNON - Albert Goldman

The bigotry--homophobia, anti-Asian racism, idle whacks at black people--picks up where ELVIS left off, as does the hysterical overwriting, the cultural myopia, and the nonfactual research. Less horrid only in its effect--almost no one took this bullshit for anything but the desperate ravings of a hack with a "debunking" formula.


6. RAISING PG KIDS IN AN X-RATED SOCIETY - Tipper Gore

Lies, damned lies, and statistics.


To be continued....

[Fenris]

1. I forgot about Goldman's book on Lennon

[flamingyouth]

2. No One Here Gets Out Alive

By the guy who's made a career out of the fact he ran errands for Jim Morrison. :eyes:

[Fenris]

3. This list is seriously lacking some des Barre

[flamingyouth]

5. Hey, "I'm With The Band" is a great book

If you're into that sort of thing. ;)

[Fenris]

6. This list will never, ever have Lester Bangs' "Blondie" on it.

;)

[flamingyouth]

7. Nor any Lester Bangs stuff, period

He was the Master.

[mitchum]

9. I'm certainly into selling copies of it :)

[tigereye]

15. I really liked Pamela des Barres books

she's a lot of fun and pretty insightful. Hi FY.

[mitchum]

8. A day without reading Des Barres is like a day without reading...

hackneyed, gushing, arrested adolescent prose :)
In Miss Pamela's defense though: I have made quite a bit of money flogging copies of her out-of-print "memoir"

[flamingyouth]

13. I have her second one

It has all the hackneyed, gushing, arrested adolescent prose of the first and none of the charm. :D

[mitchum]

17. LOL!!!

You can buy her used Denny's cups, salt shakers, toe nail clippers, etc from Miss Pamela herself on ebay. Honest.

[mitchum]

4. Victor Bockris' "Keith Richards: The Biography" is a shoddy clip...

job. As I was reading it, I remembered the damn magazine articles from which Bockris pulled his "research" However, Bockris' Lou Reed bio is first rate.
Stanley Booth's skagiography, "Keith" is horrible. As is A E Hochtner's "Blown Away" (rife with errors)

[SiouxJ]

10. I have Rock On part 2

it's just as bad as part 1. I bought it (and read most of it) when I was a kid and didn't know any better. Now when I look at it, I find it pretty funny.

[Beware the Beast Man]

11. "Kiss and Make-Up" by Gene Simmons.

I can sum up the book in a few short talking points:

1. He likes money. Lots of it.
2. He's shtupped a lot of women, including Cher and Diana Ross.
3. He likes money. Lots of it.
4. He hates Ace Frehley and Peter Criss
5. He likes money. Lots of it.
6. I could tell from reading it, he doesn't give a damn about making music. Absolutely nothing in-depth about the making of Kiss' albums (then again, who wants to admit that most of their crap is recorded by session musicians?).
7. He likes money. Lots of it.

[flamingyouth]

14. I can't believe you were able to read that

I loathe the man so much, I don't know that I'd be able to sit through the whole thing. But yeah, I think I've heard him mention his love of money a few times. :D

[tigereye]

16. plus he pissed off Terri Gross

that has to count for something!

[Beware the Beast Man]

19. I skimmed it over in the bookstore, so I never actually bought it.

I gave up lining that man's pockets in 1979. For some odd reason, I just enjoy reading things that piss me off. It's intellectual self-flagellation, I guess. ;)

[mitchum]

18. Even worse is his follow up "book" where he outlines...

his "philosophy" and design for living

[WilliamPitt]

12. Hammer of the Gods

Awful.