Favorite Muscian Biographies?

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Nick Tosches (born October 23, 1949) is an American journalist, novelist, biographer, and poet. His 1982 biography of Jerry Lee Lewis, Hellfire, was praised by Rolling Stone magazine as "the best rock and roll biography ever written."

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LINK ]Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era by Ken Emerson



LINK ]Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues by Joel Selvin



The Brill Building was rock & roll's Tin Pan Alley, the home of music publishing companies and songwriters in cubicles cranking out hits. At its height in the early '60s it provided songs for everyone from Elvis to girl groups like the Shirelles.

These two books both look at the music which came out of that insular little world, but from very different perspectives.

Always Magic In The Air tells the story through seven songwriting teams (three of them married), including future stars Carole King and Burt Bacharach. Here Comes The Night focuses more narrowly on the legendary cult figure Bert Berns (1929-1967), writer of "Twist & Shout", "Hang On Sloopy", and "Piece Of My Heart".

The great difference between the books is that Here Comes The Night goes into considerable detail about the role of organized crime in the music business, through the career of Berns and his connection to shadowy figures like the notorious Morris Levy of Roulette Records and his associates, Sonny Franzese and the Pagano Brothers of the Genovese mafia family. The book details how Berns got the latter (inadvertently, the author claims) to lean on Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records so Berns could get out of a contract, a la Johnny Fontane.

Both books are must-reads for anyone interested in classic songwriting and/or the music business.

LINK ]CBS This Morning feature on Bert Berns

Bert Berns with Van Morrison during the recording sessions for "Brown-Eyed Girl", 1967:

Commando- Johnny Ramone
Grievous Angel- Gram Parsons
A Life...well lived- Ray Wylie Hubbard
Otis Redding, an unfinished life

A few I've read/listened to over the past couple of years.. all were outstanding..

Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements - Bob Mehr
Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk - John Doe and Tom DeSavia
Let's Go (So We Can Get Back) - Jeff Tweedy

Life. - Keith Richards

Running with the devil - VH bio
Open Up and Bleed - Iggy bio
Mystery Train
Heroin Diaries - Nikki Sixx

Miles: The Autobiography

You don't need to be into his (Miles Davis) music. Dude was a bad motherfricker who lived a remarkable life.