Books about music

Irish Guitarist

I've noticed that a lot of books about musicians are about their personal lives rather than how they created their music. I know that a musicians personal life can influence their songwriting but some books barely mention music at all. For instance most books about Led Zeppelin focus on how many groupies they had and how much cocaine they took rather than their music (I'm just using that as an example, I'm not really interested in reading about Led Zeppelin).

I'm interested in things like what instruments were used on a song rather what sleazy activities a band partook in. The only book I can think of that mentions things like this is Revolution In The Head: The Beatles Records And The Sixties by Ian McDonald. It goes into a lot of detail about how The Beatles songs were recorded and who played what instrument. It only talks about their personal lives when it's relevant to their music. Out of all the Beatles books and magazine articles I've ever read I can't think of any other that mentions what musicians played on Within You Without You for instance.

Does anyone else know of any other music books that focus on music rather than musicians personal lives?

Rigsby

I think the reason why these books contain sordid details of a artist's life is because that is what 99% of fans want to know. The screaming teenage girls you see in old footage of the Beatle's concerts, could not give a f--k whether Paul McCartney was playing a violin bass or a Ric, or what type of strings Lennon used. The information you are looking for, would generally only be of interest to fellow musicians, who probably would not buy the book anyway.

A book which I found interesting, and IMO was balanced in both the music and the man's life was "Jack Bruce : Composing Himself".

teekayd25

Only one I can remember is "Stripped", a book about Depeche Mode. It goes into detail about how they recorded a lot of their stuff. Probably too much detail really.

For instance, a saucepan lid was used to create the sound at the beginning of this track :cool:

Waking-Dreams

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I've noticed that a lot of books about musicians are about their personal lives rather than how they created their music. I know that a musicians personal life can influence their songwriting but some books barely mention music at all. For instance most books about Led Zeppelin focus on how many groupies they had and how much cocaine they took rather than their music (I'm just using that as an example, I'm not really interested in reading about Led Zeppelin).

I'm interested in things like what instruments were used on a song rather what sleazy activities a band partook in. The only book I can think of that mentions things like this is Revolution In The Head: The Beatles Records And The Sixties by Ian McDonald. It goes into a lot of detail about how The Beatles songs were recorded and who played what instrument. It only talks about their personal lives when it's relevant to their music. Out of all the Beatles books and magazine articles I've ever read I can't think of any other that mentions what musicians played on Within You Without You for instance.

Does anyone else know of any other music books that focus on music rather than musicians personal lives?

As stated, these books are not written for musicians only, but for fans of the band. The best method for finding out about the music and recording techniques on albums would be things like documentaries; I think the video format makes for a better medium. For instance, I know I’d rather watch studio footage than read about it in a book.

Amazotheamazing

"I just wasn't a made for these times" goes into how Brian Wilson wrote and recorded Pet Sounds. Decent read.

Most music books are rubbish.