Musical biographies - What’re you reading?

[Doctor Jeff]

Almost through the Jerry Garcia/Grateful Dead book Here Beside the Rising Tide, by Jim Newton. Newton, who was a long-time reporter for the LA Times (and IIRC quite a crime reporter) does a great job outlining Garcia’s great talents and broad interests, as well as providing short bios of every GD member. He also sets the story in the larger context of Bay Area and national cultural events, like the elections of Reagan in CA and Nixon as president.

Great read. Newton himself reads it for the audio version, and he is an excellent narrator as well. I would put this in the top 5 musician bios I’ve ever read, right up there with Lou Reed: The King of New York by Will Hermes and autobiographies by Springsteen and Miles.

There are a lot of interesting tidbits here, including the story of a boy being brought by his mother to a party at the Dead retreat at Olompali in Marin county. The 15-year-old got high, got nekkid, and jammed with his harmonica with the Dead. That boy was Hughie Lewis, whose stepfather was the Beat poet Lew Welch, a big friend of the band.

Also noted—Garcia’s side project with David Grisman, Old and In the Way. They recorded a live show and shelved the tapes. At some point Garcia or his management decided to release the recordings, and it became the best-selling bluegrass album of all time, until the Oh Brother soundtrack came along. Grisman sold his rights for $1000 prior to this, and only belatedly was compensated for his work on the album.

[Doctor Jeff]

Prior to this I listened to the audio version of The Name of This Band is REM by Peter Carlin. Also an excellent, incisive and encyclopedic history of the band. Highly recommended.



BTW I listen to these mainly in the car, on drives to and from work. A great advantage of listening to these through Apple Car Play is that I can ask Siri to play whatever song is being discussed in the narrative, without having to click on anything. That was a godsend for Dylan’s quirky Philosophy of Modern Song book, since I was not familiar with about 25% of the songs

[blackcat]

Herbie Hancock - 'Possibilities' and 'But Beautiful' by Geoff Dyer - both excellent.

[wolflen]

While celebrates lives seem interesting and some a bit surreal ..As time goes by.I review my own life .. in retrospect.

If I edit it to enhance the highlights it could be a good read.

I often wondered why some top celebs who had no money worries seemed to self-destruct by various means.

While many of us may fantasize of fame and fortune..Ahh..Dylan said it..

"..Up on Housing Project Hill, it's either fortune or fame
You must pick up one or the other
Though neither of them are to be what they claim .."

[Ingo Lee]

I recently read this one. Not strictly a biography but interesting to jazz fans. I never realized how big a part organized crime played in jazz of the 20th century.

Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld by TJ English


Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld by T.J. English | Goodreads

[Ingo Lee]

Almost through the Jerry Garcia/Grateful Dead book Here Beside the Rising Tide, by Jim Newton. Newton, who was a long-time reporter for the LA Times (and IIRC quite a crime reporter) does a great job outlining Garcia’s great talents and broad interests, as well as providing short bios of every GD member. He also sets the story in the larger context of Bay Area and national cultural events, like the elections of Reagan in CA and Nixon as president.

Great read. Newton himself reads it for the audio version, and he is an excellent narrator as well. I would put this in the top 5 musician bios I’ve ever read, right up there with Lou Reed: The King of New York by Will Hermes and autobiographies by Springsteen and Miles.

There are a lot of interesting tidbits here, including the story of a boy being brought by his mother to a party at the Dead retreat at Olompali in Marin county. The 15-year-old got high, got nekkid, and jammed with his harmonica with the Dead. That boy was Hughie Lewis, whose stepfather was the Beat poet Lew Welch, a big friend of the band.

Also noted—Garcia’s side project with David Grisman, Old and In the Way. They recorded a live show and shelved the tapes. At some point Garcia or his management decided to release the recordings, and it became the best-selling bluegrass album of all time, until the Oh Brother soundtrack came along. Grisman sold his rights for $1000 prior to this, and only belatedly was compensated for his work on the album.

The Dead are a big part of musical and cultural history. I recently read :

Loud and Clear: The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound and the Quest for Audio Perfection by Brian Anderson

This is the story of the Dead's incredible live sound system; how it evolved and how it became a big part of the Dead story.

[Mick-7]

There are a lot of interesting tidbits here, including the story of a boy being brought by his mother to a party at the Dead retreat at Olompali in Marin county.

That's a state park now. Many years ago I went there and I could see remnants of old Fillmore posters on the walls of the "broke down palace" that was there, which they renovated or perhaps tore down later -- History — Friends of Olompali

[Aiq]

Last three:

Jazz Revolutionary: The Life and Times of Eric Dolphy by Jonathon Grasse

Artie Shaw, King of the Clarinet by Tom Nolan

The Trouble With Cinderella by Artie Shaw, out of print and $$$ on resale market so I read it on Internet Archive.

[j.l]

Really enjoyed James Kaplan's 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool, now loving Robin D.G. Kelly's Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. Both highly recommended!

[James W]

I really like The Miles Davis Autobiography. That and Herbie Hancock's. And Lewis Porter's study of John Coltrane's life and music.

[sgcim]

I read "Weighted Down:The complicated life of Skip Spence" by Cam Cobb.
I figured, what could they write about a guy who was chosen by Marty Balin to be the drummer for The Airplane, just because he saw him in club, and thought SS looked like a drummer!
It turned out SS had never played drums in a band before, because he was a guitarist!
I figured, how could they write a book about a guy who was fired by The Airplane before they recorded their first album?
Then I noticed that the cover said he was a co-founder of Moby Grape, and I always wanted to find out what they were about, so I gave the book a chance. It turned out SS wrote one of my fave JA songs, "My Best Friend", although he didn't play on the record.
Moby Grape was an interesting band that had three guitarists, and they came up with some interesting polyphonic arrangements. The whole band sung, too. SS unfortunately got heavy into drugs, and suffered from serious mental illness.