books about 80s rock

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13 books every rock fan needs to read

These indispensable books should take pride of place on every discerning rock fan's shelves.

Chock full of colourful characters, constantly adrift on a sea of international adventure and not shy of a plot-twist or 25, the rock world feels predestined to generate some of the most horrifying, inspiring and downright incredible stories imaginable. We’ve stopped short of naming the 'top 13' rock biographies – simply because there are literally hundreds out there more than worth your time. Instead we have listed thirteen of the best rock music books you should read right now.

The Dirt: Confessions Of The World’s Most Notorious Rock Band (Mötley Crüe with Neil Strauss, 2001)

The classic. A title that’s become synonymous with the bad-boy rock biography, The Dirt feels like the ultimate chronicle of the genre’s ’80s excess. Looking back now, the idea that Mötley Crüe classics like Wild Side and Girls, Girls, Girls only scratched the surface of their unshackled debauchery seems almost unbelievable. A kaleidoscopic odyssey of booze, drugs, groupies, dealers, cops, tour buses, strip-clubs and car-wrecks, both figurative and literal, it’s a tale that needs to be read to be believed. If you only pick up one rock bio today, probably best to make it this one. Devotees should be sure to grab Nikki Sixx’s bleaker but equally essential 2007 follow-up, The Heroin Diaries, too.

Tranny: Confessions Of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout (Laura Jane Grace, 2016)

Known, during writing, as Killing Me Loudly, the autobiography from Against Me! ’s Laura Jane Grace draws extensively from the journals she had been compiling since third grade. Its eventual title ‘Tranny’ is a term the singer hates, but its appropriation here is symbolic of her taking ownership of a personal struggle through which she noted the supposedly accepting punk community were “more closed-minded than the church”. Illuminating. Poignant. Inspiring. It’s equally essential reading for individuals struggling to come to terms with themselves and those same closed-minds struggling to understand.

White Line Fever: The Autobiography (Lemmy Kilmister, 2002)

Possessed of a godlike air like few others, Lemmy always seemed like something of an unapproachable icon even for those of us fortunate to make his acquaintance. As such, this exceptionally grounded autobiography – charting the life of Ian Fraser Kilmister, son of an RAF chaplain from Stoke-On-Trent – brought us brilliantly closer to the man behind the myth. Of course, from his early musical exploits with Jimi Hendrix and Hawkwind to decades-long scene leadership at the helm of Motörhead , the man led a life that most of us could even imagine. “It’s a fallacy to say I taught him how to drink,” the legend writes at one point, remembering a young Lars Ulrich. “I actually taught him to throw up, and that’s what he did, all over himself. That’s what he got for trying to keep up with older people’s habits…”

Girl In A Band (Kim Gordon, 2015)

Sonic Youth were never a band to shy away from unpleasantries in their dogged pursuit of beauty and authenticity. Fittingly, bassist Kim Gordon’s chronicle of her break-up with guitarist Thurston Moore and the dissolution of their seminal indie-rock outfit isn’t just a tale of heartbreak; it’s one of the sporadic mundanity, unpredictability and seat-of-your-pants adventure of holding a prime seat on the alt.rock roundabout for the best part of three decades. Girl In A Band proves itself essential reading for anyone with even a passing interest in the New York noiseniks – or the scene they helped define.

Hammer Of The Gods (Stephen Davis, 1985)

Another of the classics. It’s probably not that difficult to write a rollicking recount of one band’s tumultuous journey when that band is Led bloody Zeppelin . From quaaludes to bathtubs full of baked beans to the extremely questionable use of one taxidermied shark, many of the anecdotes here have slipped into rock’n’roll folklore, but that takes little from the experience of finding them compiled into this singular volume. It's best not to spoil them too much further here. Let’s just say this is another must-read addition, for rockers or anyone else with a heartbeat…

This Is A Call: The Life And Times Of Dave Grohl (Paul Brannigan, 2011)

It can be difficult, at times, to get a real sense of what goes on under the surface with The Nicest Man In Rock™. K!’s own Paul Brannigan charts his fascinating story with a dextrous grip on the evolving scenes through which Dave Grohl has endured and a spectacular sense of the adventure he’s experienced along the way. From the kid from the D.C. suburbs who dropped out of school to go on tour with Scream, to the sticksman catapulted to superstardom with Nirvana , to the iconic Foo Fighters frontman called upon to play for the Obamas on the White House lawn, few lives share the rollercoaster momentum of Dave’s.

Slash (Slash, 2007)

Most rock bios are about the gritty build and the glitzy payoff. Safe to say, the Slash bio is virtually all payoff. Born Saul Hudson in England in 1965 to a white British graphic artist father and a black American costume designer mother, Slash’s story was never going to be that of your garden variety guitarist. Growing up in Los Angeles’ ’70s bohemia, his mum dated David Bowie, hung out with Joni Mitchell and taught the youngster that “being a rock star is [about finding] the intersection between who you are and who you want to be”. As the story of Guns N’ Roses’ meteoric rise and incendiary fall-out (their latter-day reconciliation is not part of this 2007 volume) unfold, they seem like simply the logical narrative developments of one of music’s most dramatic life stories.

Lords Of Chaos (Michael Moynihan, 1998)

Before you see the movie, read the book. As feels inevitable for any volume skewering the adolescent, corpse-painted pomposity of the ’90s Norwegian black metal scene – and laying bare the narcissistic inhumanity of the suicide, church burnings and murders that followed in its wake – the accuracy of Michael Moynihan’s Lords Of Chaos has been called into question by many of those involved at the time. Regardless, this is a fascinating trip into metal’s most evil sub-genre, and a chilling reminder of what can happen when the lines blur between trve cvlt theatre and stark reality. Special mention to Dayal Patterson’s Evolution Of The Cult (2013) and The Cult Never Dies (2015) for further deconstructing the scene’s horrifically compelling progression, too.

Heavier Than Heaven (Charles R. Cross, 2001)

Much (perhaps too much ) has been written about the life and death of Kurt Cobain . This first (arguably definitive) long-form retelling of his life story does spectacularly well to disperse the rumour that hangs around an individual who was, at his core, a musically prodigious slacker from the lower-middle-class of North Seattle. Even better, it charts Nirvana’s explosion of incredible cross-cultural success – one that, we should remember, lasted a fleeting three years – with a remarkable blend of cool analysis and awe. It’s in a chilling final forensic analysis of Kurt’s self-destructive streak, though, that Heavier Than Heaven comes into its own: daring the reader to put aside music and mythos to pass judgement on the individual in the harsh light of the bare facts.

Smash: Green Day, The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX And The ’90s Punk Explosion (Ian Winwood, 2018)

It’s strange how the story of ’90s skate-punk has been distorted through the retrospective lens of the last two-and-a-bit decades: its lineage conflated and confused with that of the pop-punk genre it helped inspire. Veteran K! contributor Ian Winwood’s book shatters those perceptions, transporting us back to the poverty, addiction and unhinged chaos of the era that spawned so many of our favourite bands. Finding The Offspring guitarist Noodles working as a janitor, Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong living in a Salvation army shelter and Green Day maestro Billie Joe Armstrong infested with body lice during a debut European tour, it’s a fascinating look at the underground grit and shit before the platinum-rated sheen that followed.

Get In The Van: On The Road With Black Flag (Henry Rollins, 1994)

Something of a gritty yin to The Dirt’s glamorous yang, Get In The Van is a superb, zero-bullshit diary of life on the road with LA hardcore legends Black Flag . Fronting the band between 1981 and 1986, punk’s storyteller supreme Henry Rollins had a drivers-seat view of the violence, squalor and sheer chaos of hardcore’s early days. From roadies forced into eating dog food to hard-nut cops to borderline psychotic fans, it’s a dirt-beneath-the-fingernails classic unafraid to show the bleak underbelly of life in a touring band – albeit one with an ultimately triumphant arc. Any fledgling rock star wannabes out for fame and fortune should really stop to read this first…

Dark Days: A Memoir (D. Randall Blythe, 2015)

On May 4, 2010, in the Abaton club in Prague, during a concert by Virginian metal legends Lamb Of God , 19-year-old fan Daniel Nosek sustained injuries to his head. Over the weeks that followed, he would slip into a coma and pass away. Although, following his initial release on bail, legal counsel advised against returning to the Czech Republic to face trial, frontman Randy Blythe insisted he "could not run away from this problem while the grieving family of a dead young man searched hopelessly for answers that he might help provide". Those events provide the tragic backdrop for the singer’s stunningly frank account of the dark days (and months) that followed his indictment on manslaughter charges and incarceration in a Czech prison. Even years since Randy’s release, it’s a story that delivers gut-churning jailhouse anecdotes, tales of galvanising camaraderie and an ultimate redemption that even the most optimistic dramatist might’ve struggled to conjure up.

Metallica: Enter Night (Mick Wall, 2010)

It’d be unreasonable to compile a list of great rock biographies without including at least one on the biggest metal band in the world . Tracking a path from the thrash kings’ spandex-clad genesis to their coronation as globe-straddling, genre-transcending megastars, this packs in all the drugs, booze and drama any self-respecting fan would expect. From early acrimony with Dave Mustaine through the devastating loss of Cliff Burton to the callous early treatment and furious departure of Jason Newstead, all the personal drama is captured. As are the band’s mid-’90s creative swerves, the (ever-more hilariously redundant) Napster fiasco and the cringing in-studio therapy that formed the basis of seminal rock-doc Some Kind Of Monster. Crucially, though, Enter Night perfectly charts the band’s place in the rock and metal scene forever evolving around them.

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The 50 Greatest Rock Memoirs of All Time

By Rob Sheffield

Rob Sheffield

Funny thing about rock & roll memoirs: They tend to have the same plot. Our heroes begin with big dreams about making it as rock stars. There’s the sleazy bars, the cheap motels, the shady managers. Then they get a taste of the big time: hit records, limos, drug orgies, groupies, diseases, the works. What could go wrong? Craaaash! But, hey, Elizabethan revenge tragedies all have the same plot too, and nobody complains when the royal family gets butchered in the final scene. Great rock memoirs don’t always come from great artists: Sometimes it takes one-hit wonders, losers, hacks, junkies, crooks. Every rock & roll character has a story to tell. Here are 50 of our favorites.

Steven Tyler: ‘Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?’ (2011)

If you can find a single coherent sentence in this book, write and tell the publisher, so they can correct this error in future editions. But happy hunting, because Steven Tyler’s brain is located, as he puts it, “in the way-out-a-sphere.” From Aerosmith to American Idol , Tyler has been “61 Highwayed and I did it my wayed; Little-Willie-Johned and been-here-and-goned; million-dollar riffed and Jimmy Cliffed; cotton-picked and Stevie Nick’d.”

[ Find the Book Here ]

Nikki Sixx: ‘The Heroin Diaries’ (2007)

This one gets the “truth in packaging” award — Nikki Sixx does so many drugs in this book it should come in an aluminum-foil dust jacket. It’s more personal than The Dirt , but just as juicy. It might be cheating to mention  The Heroin Diaries on a list like this, since there’s barely any mention of his music, but anyone even vaguely interested in Mötley Crüe is going to be fine with that.

Alice Bag: ‘Violence Girl’ (2011)

A Chicana punk coming-of-age story from East L.A., where a barrio kid named Alicia Armendariz starts a hardcore band called the Bags, battles her way to the stage, then finds she has to keep on battling. Raised on the Mexican ranchera records of her immigrant parents, baptized in 1970s glam rock, Alice Bag thrives on her confrontational dust-ups with the slam-dancing mosh pit crew, in her pink dress and high heels. For her, it’s all about “the giddy adrenaline rush of the fight.”

Billy Idol: ‘Dancing With Myself’ (2017)

Billy Idol seems to show up at least once in every Eighties-Nineties memoir, usually when some sort of pharmaceutical dessert is consumed. So it’s only fitting he wrote his own. Hell, Billy’s index has more drama than most books: “Idol, Billy, cocaine use of,” “GHB overdose of,” “hair of,” “police anti-crack sting,” “violin lessons of.” From “White Wedding” to “Cradle of Love,” his purple prose is a thing of beauty, as when an early punk romance breaks up because the drugs “dashed my hopes on the rocks of desire as the sea poured into our kingdom.” No matter where he is, Billy never idles.

Debbie Harry: ‘Face It’ (2019)

The Blondie grande dame has told her story before — most notably in Making Tracks , her great 1982 photo-history with Chris Stein and Victor Bockris. But Face It has the complete saga: how Debbie Harry came out of nowhere to seduce the world, from CBGB to The Muppet Show , then lost it all, yet refused to give up and quit. Her whole book has the glorious sneer of a tough old punk queen who knows how cool she is and does not care if you agree. “My Blondie character was an inflatable doll, but with a dark, provocative, aggressive side. I was playing it up, yet I was very serious.”

Rick James: ‘Glow’ (2014)

Fame — it’s a hell of a drug. Rick James begins his chronicle in Folsom Prison after flaming out on crack, in the hard times between his “Super Freak” peak and his Chappelle’s Show comeback, which explains why it’s not titled I’m Rick James, Bitch . In the Sixties, he plays in a hippie band with a not-yet-famous Neil Young, stays up all night with Joni Mitchell grooving to Sketches of Spain , cruises the Whiskey a Go Go with David Crosby, gets turned on to acid by Jim Morrison. Then he sees KISS and gets a lesson in showmanship. Rick becomes the King of Punk Funk, hitting Studio 54 (“Tanya Tucker was my best friend”?) and beefing with Prince. And along the way, he meets some very, very kinky girls.

Elton John: ‘Me’ (2019)

When Elton published his long-threatened memoir in late 2019, the world learned why the biopic Rocketman was such a humorless drag — it turned out Captain Fantastic was saving all the juiciest dish for his own superb book. Me has the right mix of salty gossip and even saltier self-mockery. A shy English schoolboy named Reginald Dwight decides to become a glitter-rock starlet, dubs himself Elton, peacocks through the Seventies, only to end up a respectable elder statesman. Hello, yellow brick road.

Gucci Mane: ‘The Autobiography of Gucci Mane’ (2017)

Dean Wareham: ‘Black Postcards’ (2008)

Dean Wareham led the great New York guitar band Luna through the 1990s, after the breakup of the Boston indie pioneers Galaxie 500. He shares the dirty details of how tedious it can be to plug away in a semi-famous, halfway-to-the-big-time rock band: the airports, the motels, the bickering band politics, the broken relationships, the constant asking around to see who’s got the drugs. Nobody in this story gets rich, or even seems to break even — all anyone gets out of the experience is a few dozen excellent songs. And that ends up being enough.

Bobbie Brown: ‘Dirty Rocker Boys’ (2013)

Peter Hook: ‘Substance: Inside New Order’ (2016)

Neil Peart: ‘Ghost Rider’ (2002)

In the summer of 1997, Neil Peart’s teenage daughter Selena dies in a car crash. Less than a year later, his wife Jackie dies of cancer. So he gets on his motorcycle and hits the road, from Quebec to the Yukon, then down south to Mexico and Belize. He rides thousands of solitary miles, brooding over his grief, with no home to go back to, while his brothers in Rush give him the time he needs to fire up the willing engine. Ghost Rider is different from anything Peart wrote for Rush — an unusually personal statement from such a shy and private writer. But the Professor brings all his analytical rigor to these road journals — and leans on the healing power of mechanical music.

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Tegan and Sara: ‘High School’ (2019)

Donald Fagen: ‘Eminent Hipsters’ (2013)

Joe Boyd: ‘White Bicycles’ (2006)

John Lydon: ‘Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs’ (1993)

The former Johnny Rotten has all the dirt about how the Sex Pistols pissed off the world. But he’s also got poignant details about his hardscrabble youth in London’s Irish-immigrant squalor, raised by a mother even more badass than he was. He also shares his deep hatred for religion, the Queen, the other Sex Pistols, hippies, rich people, racists, sexists, the English political system, Malcolm McLaren, and, of course, Pink Floyd . “A lot of people feel the Sex Pistols were just negative,” he says. “I agree, and what the fuck is wrong with that? Sometimes the absolute most positive thing you can be in a boring society is completely negative.”

Gregg Allman: ‘My Cross to Bear’ (2012)

A Southern Gothic rock epic. The Allman Brother sings “Whipping Post,” he snorts himself senseless, he rats on his drug roadie. And, of course, he marries Cher . On their first date, he even manages to stay off heroin until right after dinner. “I went to her house in a limousine, and when she came out, she said, ‘Fuck that funeral car,’ and handed me the keys to her blue Ferrari.… She didn’t have shit to say to me, and I didn’t have shit to say to her. What’s the topic of conversation? It certainly ain’t singing.” The second date goes a little better: “We made some serious love.”

Boy George: ‘Take It Like a Man’ (1995)

The confessions of a natural-born poseur. Boy George grows up as the “pink sheep” of his working-class Irish Catholic family, getting his start on the London club scene as a coat-check boy with a face full of cosmetics and a reputation for picking the customers’ pockets. He becomes an international pop sensation with Culture Club, while having a torrid affair with the drummer. The Boy doesn’t worry about making himself seem likable — quite the opposite. He bitches himself out along with everybody else, which is why his catty recollections make this book addictive.

Marilyn Manson: ‘The Long Hard Road Out of Hell’ (1998)

Luke Haines: ‘Bad Vibes: Britpop and My Role in Its Downfall’ (2009)

Brian Wilson: ‘I Am Brian Wilson’ (2016)

Robbie Robertson: ‘Testimony’ (2016)

Lemmy: ‘White Line Fever’ (2002)

Neil Young: ‘Special Deluxe’ (2014)

Henry Rollins: ‘Get in the Van: On the Road With Black Flag’ (1994)

Did Jack Kerouac ever write a book this great? In a word, no. This is the real on-the-road American adventure: a band of antisocial maniacs who hate each other crammed in a van, bumming from town to town, sleeping on floors when they’re lucky, getting clubbed by the cops when they’re not, doing it all for those few minutes of glorious noise. Black Flag were hardcore pioneers who paved the road other bands have traveled ever since, and Rollins’ tour diaries are the essence of that pain-is-my-girlfriend punk spirit.

Kim Gordon: ‘Girl in a Band’ (2015)

Jay-Z: ‘Decoded’ (2010)

If you’re curious about what it’s really like to be Shawn Carter , you’ll learn more about his hard-knock life from his albums, which have always gone heavy on the In My Lifetime narrative. But what he’s really trying to do here in Decoded is write the whole story of hip-hop, merely using himself as a prime example, as he rises from criminal-minded fan to industry kingpin. Like he says, “Rap is built to handle contradictions.” Most surprising moment: Hov defends the Coldplay duet “Beach Chair” as “one of the hidden jewels of my catalog.”

Tommy James: ‘Me, the Mob and the Music’ (2010)

The Goodfellas of rock & roll literature. Everybody knows the Tommy James oldies — “Mony Mony,” “Hanky Panky,” “Crimson and Clover,” etc. But according to Tommy, these songs got on the radio because he had some influential mobbed-up friends pulling the strings. (And, of course, pocketing the loot.) The whole topic of criminal connections in the music business is still taboo — see Fredric Dannen’s 1990 classic Hit Men for the full picture. But Tommy James is the first star to tell the story from the inside: How the Mafia gave the world “I Think We’re Alone Now.”

David Lee Roth: ‘Crazy From the Heat’ (1998)

You know what’s crazy? How underrated this book is. Diamond Dave’s book of pensees really deserves to be read wherever generally insane ramblings by generally insane dudes are read. Crazy From the Heat barely got noticed because it came out in the late Nineties, when public interest in Van Halen was at an all-time low. But every page abounds with his stark-raving lunatic eat-‘em-and-smile rock & roll Zen wisdom. Preach, Dave: “I’m not real good with baby steps. My specialty is ass-kicking. Does that sound unreasonable? It may well be, but I guarantee you, you will find no reasonable man on top of big mountains.”

Kristin Hersh: ‘Rat Girl’ (2010)

Even if you don’t know Kristin Hersh’s band Throwing Muses, Rat Girl is a crucial first-hand account of the Eighties indie-rock uprising. Her narrative voice is warm, friendly, and surprisingly funny. When Hersh gets pregnant and decides to have the kid, without giving up her band, she shrugs, “I’ll cross the living-in-a-van-is-probably-child-abuse bridge when I come to it.” Deep down it’s a story about messed-up kids finding one other, starting a band, and accidentally scrounging up an audience of similarly messed-up kids. It belongs on the shelf next to Michael Azerrad’s classic Our Band Could Be Your Life .

Morrissey: ‘Autobiography’ (2013)

Richard Hell: ‘I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp’ (2013)

Chuck Berry: ‘The Autobiography’ (1987)

The “Johnny B. Goode” man who invented rock & roll tells a few stories about what he saw along the way. As a Fifties black pop star, scoring hit records in a land full of violent racism, his story seems to touch on all the contradictions and injustices of American culture. In the early Sixties, while bands like the Beatles , the Stones , and the Beach Boys were hero-worshipping him, Berry himself was rotting in jail, railroaded in a blatantly racist trial. That’s where he wrote the deeply ironic “Promised Land” — a classic celebration of American dreams, written in a prison cell.

David Bowie: ‘Moonage Daydream: The Life and Times of Ziggy Stardust’ (2002)

It’s a massive coffee-table art book, with lavish images of Bowie in the Seventies from photographer Mick Rock . But the main attraction of Moonage Daydream is the text by the man himself. He’s in top form, whether he’s shopping for shoes with Cyrinda Foxe (who teaches him to wear “palm-tree’d fuck-me pumps”) or sipping tea with Elton John (“We didn’t exactly become pals, not really having that much in common, especially musically”), or partying it up with Mick Jagger (“I have absolutely no recollections of this party at all”). The closest this world will ever get to a straight-up Bowie autobiography — but who’d ever want anything straight-up from Bowie?

Rod Stewart: ‘Rod’ (2012)

Anthony Kiedis: ‘Scar Tissue’ (2004)

The Red Hot Chili Pepper tells a quintessential made-in-L.A., rise-and-fall-and-rise story, complete with all the californicatory details. Kiedis muses about his childhood, his band, his face time with the Dalai Lama, and his many, many, many ex-girlfriends, most of whom inspire him to share a kind word, a nude photo, or both. (Ione Skye was “an au naturel, soft, soulful forest nymph.”) Scar Tissue has the best final sentence of any book on this list, starring Keidis’ lovable pooch Buster: “And when I do think, ‘Man, a fucking motel room with a couple of thousand dollars’ worth of narcotics would do me right,’ I just look over at my dog and remember that Buster’s never seen me high.” Let’s hope Kiedis writes a whole book about Buster some day.

Ronnie Spector: ‘Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness’ (1989)

The New York doll of the Ronettes had one of rock & roll’s biggest voices. She also had one of rock & roll’s most famously nightmarish marriages, as she was practically kept captive by Phil Spector for years. But if you’re looking for self-pity, you’ll be disappointed, because her book, like her voice, is full of cocky, smart, self-aware humor. And, yes, in case you were wondering, it totally sucked to be married to Phil Spector.

John Taylor: ‘In the Pleasure Groove’ (2012)

Paul McCartney: ‘Many Years From Now’ (1997)

Officially this is an “authorized biography,” by longtime Macca friend Barry Miles. But that’s just a front, because the book really exists as a vehicle for Paul to tell his story in his own words. Every page has killer lines, like when he reveals “Can’t Buy Me Love” was recorded after a nine-day orgy with Miami Beach’s finest hookers: “It should been ‘Can Buy Me Love,’ actually.” Some fans were put off by the way he squabbles over credits, even breaking down songwriting by percentages. (To pick one controversial example, he calculates that “Norwegian Wood” as 40 percent his and 60 percent John’s.) But on the page, as well as in song, his voice overflows with wit and affection. And he did less to fuck up his good luck than any rock star who has ever existed, which might be why his memories make such marvelous company.

Nile Rodgers: ‘Le Freak’ (2011)

The “sex, drugs, and disco” revolution of the Seventies, as seen by the Chic guitarist who permanently changed the way music sounds and feels and moves. This is a cerebral and unabashed celebration of disco; as Nile Rodgers puts it, “We shared Afrobromantic dreams of what it would be like to have real artistic freedom.” He also reveals that when he and Bernard Edwards wrote the classic “Upside Down” for Diana Ross , everybody at Motown hated it. The song would have been axed forever, if not for the one listener who recognized its brilliance. “We played it for Gene Simmons of KISS , who was recording next door, and he told us it was great. We respected Gene, but he was dating Diana Ross at the time, so what else would he say?”

Carrie Brownstein: ‘Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl’ (2015)

The RZA: ‘The Tao of Wu’ (2009)

How do you choose between the RZA’s two excellent memoirs? ( Choose the sword and you join me. Choose the ball and you join your mother. You don’t understand my words, but you must choose! ) The first installment, The Wu-Tang Manual , is more of a beginners-guide handbook to the Shaolin mythology. But The Tao of Wu digs deeper, as the RZA broods on hip-hop and spirituality. He combines esoteric Buddhism, true mathematics, kung-fu flicks, chess tactics, and comic books into his own unique theosophical ruckus.

Slash: ‘Slash’ (2007)

There’s no shortage of Sunset Strip metal-sleaze gossip books out there, including other excellent GN’R memoirs — see Steven Adler’s My Appetite for Destruction or Duff McKagan’s It’s So Easy (And Other Lies) . But Slash’s book is surprisingly reflective, yet hilariously blasé about all his decadence. Low point: Slash collapses during a hotel drug binge and gets rushed to the hospital, where the doctors restart his heart. He complains, “I had no remorse whatsoever about my overdose — but I was pissed off at myself for having died. The whole hospital excursion really ate into my day off.”

Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz: ‘Beastie Boys Book’ (2018)

Viv Albertine: ‘Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys’ (2014)

Keith Richards: ‘Life’ (2010)

Like a lot of books on this list — only more so — Life makes you marvel that the guy who lived through all this chaos could end up remembering any of it. In fact, it’s hard to imagine how a guy who lived the rock & roll myth as hard as Keith Richards could still talk his way through a transaction at the drive-through window, let alone a book this great. Despite all the cranky bitching about Mick , this book exceeded any reasonable expectation for literary Keefness.

Questlove: ‘Mo Meta Blues’ (2013)

Bruce Springsteen: ‘Born to Run’ (2016)

Patti Smith: ‘Just Kids’ (2010)

An incredibly romantic portrait of two young hustlers in the big city: Patti Smith and her best friend, artist Robert Mapplethorpe, have to keep telling each other how great they are, because nobody else will believe it. The most amazing thing about this book is the warmth, the lack of bitterness — what Smith seems to remember most about New York bohemia in the 1960s is all the moments of awkward kindness. Best scene: Allen Ginsberg buys Patti a cheese-and-lettuce sandwich at the Automat, because he thinks she’s a pretty boy. When she breaks the news that she’s a girl, she asks, “Well, does this mean I return the sandwich?” Ginsberg just keeps talking to her about Jack Kerouac while she eats — a gentleman as well as a poet.

Bob Dylan: ‘Chronicles, Volume One’ (2004)

Everybody knew this guy had a way with words. But it’s safe to say that nobody expected his autobiography to be this intense. He rambles from one fragment of his life to another, with crazed characters and weird scenes in every chapter. It all hangs together, from his Minnesota boyhood (who knew Dylan started out as such a big wrestling fan?) to the “deserted orchards and dead grass” of his Eighties bottoming-out phase. He evokes his early folk-rogue days in New York, even though he hated being perceived as the voice of a generation: “I was more a cowpuncher than a Pied Piper.” So where’s that Nobel Prize already?

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80s Music Books – 10 Books You’ll Want to Read

If you love music, then you likely keep your favorite bands’ or artists’ albums, posters, and other merchandise. Maybe you listen to them every morning or in your free time.But aside from listening to music, you can also learn more by reading books about them. Some books can tell you lots of information about your favorite bands, artists, and music genres, while other books can give you some ideas about what type of music or songs werepopular in different periods.

We are going to share with you tenmusic books that you’ll want to read if you’re a fan of 80s music or if you simply want to know more about it.

1. Songs of the 1980s: The New Decade Series with Online Play-Along Backing Tracks

Songs of the 1980s is a songbook by Hal Leonard Corp. Aside from being a songbook, it also doubles as a time capsule because it preserves more than 80 of the 80s best-arranged tracks, which will enable you to play and sound like a pro. This book will give you access to stream or download the records online. Some of the songs included in this music book are, “Addicted to Love”, “Don’t Stop Believin’”, “Every Breath You Take”, “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, “The Way It Is”, “The Wind Beneath My Wings”, and many more.  

2. Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s Music Book

Mad World is a book written by Lori Majewski. It is an oral history that will tell you all about the New Wave music phenomenon of the 1980s through interviews with 35 of the most famous artists of the period. Each chapter of this book starts with a talk about the artists’ most popular songs and leads to the stories of the songs’ histories. Aside from that, this book also includes mixtape suggestions, fashion sidebars, and quotes from contemporary admirers. Some of the popular artists featured in this book are The Smiths, Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, New Order, Thompson Twins, Devo, INXS, and Adam Ant. This is a wonderful book to own if you want to know more about New Wave music.  

3. 80s Music Trivia Quiz Book: 350 Multiple Choice Quiz Questions from the 1980s (Music Trivia Quiz Book – 1980s Music Trivia)

Clint Glover writes the 80s Music Trivia Quiz Book. If you think you know a lot about the artists, songs, and popular hits of the 1980s, then you need to try this book. Aside from seeing how much you know, this book will also take you to a trip down memory lane and remember all the great music from the 80s. It’s also a great book to read with your friends if you want to test your knowledge of 1980s music. This book includes 35 quiz rounds with 350 questions covering the whole of the fantastic 1980s decade of music.  

4. Man in the Music 2nd Edition (The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson)

If you’re a fan of Michael Jackson, then the Man in the Music 2 nd Edition book by Joseph Vogel is perfect for you. It is about the creative life and work of Michael Jackson. His songs such as Off the Wall and Thriller have shattered records, collected awards, and set a new standard for popular music. His songs are still being played today.However, they are rarely given serious critical attention.

This is the first book that is dedicated to Michael Jackson’s creative work. It will guide you through an unparalleled analysis of his recordings, album by album. It features rare archival material and dozens of original interviews with songwriters, producers, engineers, and collaborators who helped in bringing his music into the world. This book reveals Michael Jackson’s inspirations, demos, studio sessions, and as well as his failures and triumphs. This is also an excellent book to give all Michael Jackson fans.  

5. The Most Requested Songs of the ’80s

The Most Requested Songs of the ‘80s is a songbook by Hal Leonard Corp. It contains the most popular songs of the ‘80s which are often requested on the radio. This songbook will make you remember jamming to your favorite 80s songs while wearing shoulder pads and parachute pants. Some of the songs included in this songbook are, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”, “Hello”, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, “Time After Time”, “Uptown Girl”, “Down Under”, and many more. If you want to remember all the songs you’ve requested back in the ‘80s, this is the perfect book for you.  

6. The Official Eighties Hits Book

The Official Eighties Hits Book is written by Graham Betts. It is a companion volume to The Official Albums and Singles Chart books of the 1980s which replicate the weekly charts throughout the eighties. This book, on the other hand, takes the data and produces artist by artist listings of hit singles and albums.

You will also find in this book brief biological information of artists, including the date and place of their birth, and as well as their awards and honors. It also contains singles and albums that reached silver, gold, platinum, and multi-platinum status. If you want to know more about the hit music in the 80s, this is the best chart trivia book you can have.  

7. The Virgin Encyclopedia of 80s Music

The Virgin Encyclopedia of 80s Music is written by Collin Larkin. This is a complete handbook that is filled with information and opinion about the history of 80s music, which is considered to be the most fragmented and frequently maligned decade in the history of popular music. This book contains a thousand entries on the bands, musicians, songwriters, producers, record labels, and everyone who had an important impact on the development of rock and pop music in the 80s.

In this book, you’ll be able to read about the New Romantics who brought color and image and as well as about stadium acts who provided a launchpad for Live Aid. It also includes the giants of the 1980s music such as artists who flourished briefly and yet were exemplary to the decade. If you are looking for the perfect mix of fact and informed opinion about 80s music, then this is an excellent book for you to have.  

8. WLS Weekly Music Charts: The Eighties

WLS Weekly Music Charts is a book written by Frank W. Hoffman. From the 1960s through the 1980s, WLS was the leading Top 40 AM radio outlet in Chicago. Its signal was able to reach much of North America at night. This book is dedicated to WLS, and it reproduces many of the station’s pop music surveys from the 80s. Aside from that, this book also includes a tribute to Larry Lujack, who’s a deejay employed by the station from the 60s to the 80s.

The goal of this book is to provide a convenient chronological compilation of weekly surveys. The author of this book used multiple sources in compiling each radio chart volume to provide you with the most accurate data. If you’d like to know about the weekly music charts in the 80s, this is the perfect book for you.  

9. One-Hit Wonders of the 80s

One-Hit Wonders of the 80s is a book written by Frank DeAngelis. It is a comprehensive reference guide to the artists who only got to the Top 40 portion of the Billboard Hot 100 chart one time. The information that this book contains was researched from written and video interviews. There is also some information that was directly from band members.

This book documents more than 230 artists including their chart positions, dates, and stories about their one hit singles that brought them mainstream fame in the 80s. If you want to know every one-hit wonder from the 80s, from pop, rock, the British invasion, new wave, instrumentals, and more, then this is the best book for you.

10. The 80s Music Compendium (1 st Edition)

The 80s Music Compendium is a book written by Dave Kinzer. It is an entertaining and informative book for those who love 80s music and for music geeks everywhere as well. This book can be your ultimate source of 80s music, deejay, and cover band. The author of this book compiled 113 lists that include over 3600 songs after listening to over 4000 songs that made Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in the 80s.

Aside from those, this book also contains 80s music trivia, facts, and tidbits that music trivia buffs will surely love. It is also a great book for music teachers because it includes songs with countermelodies, syncopation, ostinatos, and foreign languages. Deejays can also find this book handy because it comes with ready-made playlists.

These are 10 of the best 80s music books we found that you’ll want to read. All of these books can give you additional knowledge about 80s music. They are wonderful to have, especially if you’re a fan of the 1980s music, or if you simply want to know more about the music in that decade.

• 80s Music Books

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A-Z of '80s Rock (Rockdetector) Paperback – July 1, 2003

Fueled to the max by bubblegum power chords, skyscraper backcombed hairdos, eyeliner, and spandex, artists such as Quiet Riot, Ratt, Mötley Crüe, Skid Row, Dokken, Guns N' Roses, Warrant, Slaughter, L.A. Guns, Great White, W.A.S.P., and Bon Jovi reigned supreme in the 1980s. Established bands too fully embraced the "image is everything" culture and Kiss, Aerosmith, Van Halen, Alice Cooper, Whitesnake, and Heart all enjoyed renewed flushes of success. This book chronicles every cheap thrill and maps out every mascara-caked moment. Each and every band, whether able to pack out Wembley or Wigan, is documented with full biographies and global discographies direct from the world's biggest rock-devoted database—Rockdetector.

• Print length 735 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Cherry Red Books
• Publication date July 1, 2003
• Dimensions 5.9 x 1.83 x 9.2 inches
• ISBN-10 1901447219
• ISBN-13 978-1901447217
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cherry Red Books (July 1, 2003)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 735 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1901447219
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1901447217
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.76 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.9 x 1.83 x 9.2 inches
• #570 in Heavy Metal Musician Biographies
• #1,480 in Heavy Metal Music (Books)
• #8,345 in Rock Band Biographies

About the author

Garry sharpe-young.

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30 Great Rock Memoirs

Many legendary musicians have taken literary guitar solos off-stage by penning great rock memoirs. Music fans adore delving into their favorite artists’ juicy, tell-all autobiographies. Rock memoirs allow average Joes to experience the scandalous debauchery of the rock and roll lifestyle. From hit records and red carpets to drug addiction and sleazy groupies, these memoirs take readers on the rollercoaster ride of stardom. Whether written in 1960 or today, rock memoirs capture the drama of music heroes journeying towards their big dreams.

However, rock memoirs aren’t always the fascinating, soul-baring reads you’d expect. The genre has plenty of autobiographies filled with fluff already well-known on the Internet. Rock memoirs can also become garbled, indecipherable accounts by musicians who are more accustomed to writing notes than paragraphs. The best memoirs avoid the usual road-worn clichés and plots to eloquently share unhindered truths about rock stars.

Below we’ll recognize 30 great rock memoirs that deserve a sacred space on your bookshelf or Kindle library.

#1 – I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir

Brian wilson.

Releasing in October 2016, this much-anticipated memoir tells the story of Brian Wilson, the co-founder of the Beach Boys. Starting with his turbulent childhood with an abusive father, Wilson relays the mental illness, drugs, and sorrow that plagued his early life. He also offers glimpses into the songwriting process for hits like “Good Vibrations.” Readers witness his never-ending climb to survive the industry and remain one of music’s most revered figures.

#2 – Walk This Way

Divided in two,  Walk This Way  chronicles the history of the legendary hard rock band Aerosmith. Members Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer, and Brad Whitford take turns sharing recollections never publicly released. Book One focuses on the early years after their album  Toys in the Attic  debuted. Book Two takes place after their 1980s downfall and resurgence. Candid stories of concerts, drugs, partying, and women abound.

#3 – The Dirt

Motley crue.

Perhaps the world’s most notorious rock band, Motley Crue collaborated to publish  The Dirt  in 2001. Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, Vince Neil, and Nikki Sixx detail their 30-year career without holding back. Fans journey beyond their immortal music to learn about backstage scandals, love affairs, and addictions after their rise to fame. Over 100 photographs are included to depict the pleasures and perils of decadent rock star lifestyles.

#4 – Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir

Carrie brownstein.

Named a  New York Times  Notable Book of 2015, Carrie Brownstein’s novel allows a deeply personal look into how she redefined gender limitations in rock. From her childhood in the Pacific Northwest, Brownstein depicts the search for her true calling. The exuberant guitarist details her rise to prominence with Sleater-Kinney in the growing feminist punk rock movement. She also shares the experiences that spawned the TV hit  Portlandia.

#5 – Born to Run

Bruce springsteen.

After his Super Bowl halftime show, “The Boss” himself began writing an extraordinary autobiography detailing his life from a childhood in Freehold, New Jersey. Set for release in September 2016,  Born to Run  vividly recounts Springsteen’s relentless drive for music. Readers watch as his career progresses from playing bar bands to headlining the E Street Band. Bruce Springsteen details the light and darkness of his experiences with raw honesty.

#6 – Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts and Madness

Ronnie spector.

Ronnie Spector published this 384-page tell-all novel about her time as lead singer for the Ronettes, the hit 1960s “girl band.” Although there are glimpses into the glamour of rock stardom, much of the memoir centers on her rocky relationship with Phil Spector. She details how her powerful producer husband turned cruel and reclusive. Follow her inspiring battle to break free, overcome alcoholism, and recreate a life worth living.

#7 – Crazy From The Heat

David lee roth.

Van Halen lead vocalist David Lee Roth produced the ultimate rock memoir with  Crazy From The Heat  in 1998. The archetypal rock star shares his life’s narrative in guerrilla style with plenty of expletives. With candor, Roth depicts the backstage life for the Guinness Book’s highest paid American rock group of the ’80s. David Lee Roth also shares his recording experiences as a solo artist and several unpublished poems.

#8 – Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs

Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, wrote this unique rock memoir about his time with the ’70s punk band. The “God Save the Queen” singer depicts how the Pistols were working-class rockers with families, friends, and financial woes. Lydon is unabashedly spiteful in shedding light on the British class system and the music industry. John Lydon also adds perspectives on his band mates, including the notorious Sid Vicious.

#9 – Long Hard Road Out of Hell

Marilyn manson.

America’s most controversial rock idol Marilyn Manson published a shocking memoir titled  Long Hard Road Out of Hell.  Born as Brian Hugh Warner, Manson discusses his unstable childhood, including his grandfather’s sexual fetishes. Its pages go in-depth on how the Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids formed and recorded the infamous “Antichrist Superstar.” Like other rock memoirs, the book references bitter breakups and dysfunctional relationships.

#10 – Many Years From Now

Paul mccartney.

With author Barry Miles, Paul McCartney wrote  Many Years From Now  to disprove that the late John Lennon was the Beatles’ only creative leader. The 650-plus memoir centers on the duo’s 50-50 songwriting partnership through hits like “I Feel Fine” and “A Hard Day’s Night.” From Beatlemania on, McCartney reminiscences on the genesis for every song penned with Lennon while taking credit for the band’s immersion into the avant-garde.

#11 – Moonage Daydream: The Life and Times of Ziggy Stardust

David bowie.

David Bowie’s debut novel gives unprecedented insight into his intriguing, sexually ambivalent stage persona Ziggy Stardust. Photographer Mick Rock assists in chronicling imagery from Ziggy’s stratospheric two-year stardom. Vast albums of images compile to detail the onstage performances and backstage scandals through his blockbuster retirement. It’s among the finest rock memoirs that beautifully immortalizes the late icon in high-definition.

#12 – Chronicles: Volume One

Through his own eyes,  Chronicles: Volume One  details the critical crossroads in Bob Dylan’s early life to begin the planned three-volume memoir. The National Book Critics Circle Award finalist shows Dylan’s first arrival in magical Manhattan. The story poignantly shares details about his 1960s breakthrough album. From nightlong parties to fleeting loves, readers witness Bob Dylan’s rise into fame as the “spokesman of a generation.”

Johnny Cash

Having sold over 90 million records globally, Johnny Cash is deemed one of the most influential musicians for songs like “Ring of Fire” and “Man in Black.” Cash’s deep baritone voice crossed lines from country and blues to rock and roll. From his boyhood in Arkansas to super-stardom in Nashville,  Cash  reminiscences on the legend’s lifetime. The autobiography highlights his 40-year career, including his marriage to June Carter, with wry humor.

#14 – Scar Tissue

Anthony kiedis.

Released five years after  Californication,  this rock memoir follows the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ lead vocalist through his drug addiction battle. Son of Blackie Dammett, Anthony Kiedis first experienced drugs with his father at 11. When the band formed in the ’80s, Kiedis had a hardcore addiction. He details the effect of Slovak’s overdose death on his downward spiral. Audiences witness his fight against relapses to restart a productive, happy life.

#15 – Just Kids

Patti smith.

Chosen for  Publishers Weekly’s  top 10 best books, Patti Smith’s memoir provides the same lyrical quality as her influential album  Horses.  Beginning in 1967, the book portrays Smith’s early career homeless and hungry in Brooklyn. That’s when she encounters Robert Mapplethorpe, a young photographer, and her life forever changes. Patti Smith tells their inseparable friendship’s moving story during the halcyon days of the Hotel Chelsea.

#16 – My Damage: The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor

Keith morris.

Hardcore punk icon Keith Morris chronicles his revolutionary 40-year career as one of music’s hardest working men. Beginning with his childhood in Los Angeles’ South Bay, the book provides a lens into Morris’ development to legend status. From leading the Circle Jerks to appearing in cult films like  Repo Man,  Keith Morris shares interesting perspectives on the entertainment industry and his battle with diabetes.

#17 – The Beatles Anthology

The beatles.

Released with the documentary series in 2000,  The Beatles Anthology  is a large-format hardcover book infused with photographic artwork. Archived interviews with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr as well as producer George Martin are combined into one epic rock memoir. Every page is brimming with recollections from their early days in Liverpool to their ultimate breakup, including Lennon’s marriage to Yoko Ono.

#18 – I, Tina

Tina turner.

Adapted to the film  What’s Love Got to Do with It  with Angela Bassett in 1993, Tina Turner’s rock memoir retells her life from growing up as Anna Mae Bullock. The best-seller transports readers from her meager beginnings in Tennessee to her volatile relationship with blues musician Ike Turner. Her superstar account shares the pain and abuse that sparked one of rock music’s greatest comebacks.

#19 – Slash

Legendary Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash opens up to share his own experiences with the sex, drugs, and rock and roll lifestyle. The notoriously private musician pens a jaw-dropping memoir detailing the factors leading to the band’s demise. Beyond wild parties, groupies, drugs, and never-ending tours, Slash depicts the dictatorship rule of Axl Rose. He explains how Axl’s determination to change the band’s sound with synthesizers ripped them apart.

#20 – I Am Ozzy

Ozzy osbourne.

Prized for its laugh-out-loud humor,  I Am Ozzy  provides a rambling memoir of the Black Sabbath frontman’s life. Born John Osbourne, he grew up within an impoverished British family in Aston and seemed destined for manual labor. On a trip to prison, Ozzy became enamored with the darker side of rock and roll. Life spirals out of control with recording, drinking, drugs, and women. But the unpolished autobiography then shares the satanic rocker’s rebirth.

#21 – Clapton

Eric clapton.

Clapton  portrays the rock star’s life in an unseen light starting with his debut in Cream and their untimely breakup two years later. Eric Clapton shares his experiences working with Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, and long-time friend George Harrison. Here readers discover his love for George’s wife, Pattie Boyd. His heartbreak leads to heroin, despair, and hit songs like “Wonderful Tonight.” Life seemingly improves as he wins Pattie’s affection, until the devastating death of their four-year-old son.

#22 – Amy, My Daughter

Mitch winehouse.

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse’s memoir was written in 2013 by her closest advisor and friend, her father Mitch. The intimate account separates fact from fiction by detailing the true events that shaped her music career. Mitch doesn’t shy away from discussing her drug addiction that inspired the hit song “Rehab.” Audiences witness what happened behind-the-scenes in the months leading to the talented musician’s tragic death.

#23 – I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp

Richard hell.

Since retiring from the music industry in 1984, Richard Hell has published countless books, including his own rock memoirs. This novel renders his shift from a bucolic childhood in Kentucky to New York City’s punk rock movement. Known for co-founding bands like The Heartbreakers and working with artists like Patti Smith, Hell forever cemented CBGB as the epicenter for punk. The memoir celebrates his passion while warning of its implicit risks.

#24 – Journals

Kurt cobain.

Originally contained in over 20 notebooks,  Journals  presents a collection of Kurt Cobain’s handwritten notes and drawings. From a kid in Aberdeen, Washington, to a morbid punk rocker, the entries depict Corbain’s unlikely rise to fame. Readers glimpse his innermost thoughts as Cobain signs with Sub Pop, forms Nirvana, and writes “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” But entries turn darker as coping with the fame ultimately leads to heroin addiction and suicide.

#25 – Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

Laura jane grace.

Laura Jane Grace, the lead singer for Against Me!, will offer this vivid memoir of her tumultuous search for self-identity in November 2016. Born Thomas James Gabel, Laura shares how she grappled with feeling detached from her body.  Tranny  shares her struggles with gender transition, sex, failed relationships, and drug addiction while becoming a punk rock icon.

Keith Richards

As winner of the 2011 Norman Mailer Prize, Keith Richards’ memoir  Life  was written with journalist James Fox to chronicle the Rolling Stones guitarist’s rousing stardom. Richards delivers an unfettered story of his career from small gigs to sold-out stadiums. Rock fans are entranced with firsthand accounts on his love for Patti Hansen, rocky relationship with Mick Jagger, tax exile in France, and more. His journey becomes immortalized like the riffs of “Satisfaction.”

#27 – The Autobiography

Chuck berry.

Pioneering rock and roll guitarist Chuck Berry’s memoir not only shares his own past, but also uncovers dark truths about race in America. Growing up in a poor, segregated St. Louis neighborhood, Berry discusses his family roots and his feeling “black.” From performing with Johnnie Johnson’s trio to signing with Chess Records, he recounts his galloping success redefining rhythm and blues to the distinctive rock sound.  The Autobiography  also includes a discography of his musical masterpieces.

#28 – Don’t Try This at Home: A Year in the Life of Dave Navarro

Dave navarro.

After messy breakups with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction, guitarist Dave Navarro partnered with writer Neil Strauss to chronicle 12 months of his life. He purchased a photo booth to record every celebrity, dealer, and hooker who stopped by his house. The resulting 57 chapters speak to the quasi-glamorous rock and roll lifestyle. However, readers eventually witness Navarro’s sobriety as his career and marriage restarts.

#29 – Girl in a Band

Published in 2015,  Girl in a Band  shares the autobiographical story of Sonic Youth’s bass guitarist and fashion icon Kim Gordon. The memoir’s vivid pages open several chapters of her life for inspection from California to New York City. She visually details her music and passion for taking women into the unchartered territory in the Alternative revolution. Gordon also describes her personal life, marriage, and relationship with her daughter, Coco.

#30 – Take It Like a Man

Boy George strutted into rock stardom in the early ’80s with “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” His platinum Culture Club hits, avant-garde style, and captivating melodies fueled media’s obsession with the English singer. That’s until his life took a downward spiral. Boy George’s relationship with Jon Moss disintegrated, Culture Club collapsed, and drug addiction wreaked havoc.  Take It Like a Man  retells his highest highs and most desperate lows in mesmerizing detail.

Search for these 30 great rock memoirs to read profound, inspiring recollections from one-of-a-kind music icons who’ve experienced successes and downturns in the public eye.

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80s and 90s rock music books

12 of the best books about prog for you to read

Want to catch up on some reading? Here are 12 of the best books about progressive music

Got some time on your hands? Tuck in to one of these progtastic books, all published or revised in the last decade. From detailed band biographies to in-depth history books charting the highs and lows of progressive rock, we’ve selected 12 tomes you really must read. Grab a cuppa and some biscuits, and get stuck in!

• The best books about music ever written
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In The Court Of King Crimson: An Observation Over 50 Years – Sid Smith

What makes this expanded edition an exceptional, engrossing and complete read is the amazing access its author has. Sid Smith first saw the band at Newcastle in 1972, some 20 years later he met Robert Fripp, who has since described Smith as ‘ King Crimson ’s historian’. 

Drawing on interviews with all members of the band past and present, the book charts their 50-year career. Authoritative, revealing, and just a damn good read, this is as close as most of us will get to The Court.

A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock & the 1970s – Mike Barnes

What makes Mike Barnes' account on progressive rock stand head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd is the way he's placed the experience of the actual players themselves front and centre of his compelling narrative. 

Barnes, a seasoned journalist whose 2000 biography of Captain Beefheart should be on any aspirant rock writer's reading list, has interviewed all of the key movers and shakers on the scene over the years and it's their voices that give the book its narrative drive and force. At more than 600 pages this is the detailed and comprehensive account that the genre has been waiting for.

10cc: The Worst Band In The World: The Definitive Biography – Liam Newton

Updated and expanded edition of Liam Newton's definitive 10cc biography. The story’s solidly told, from the pre-history (Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart were of course key players in the 60s), through the Strawberry Studio days to the hits and halcyon albums. 

Then there’s the difficult period, with fall-outs and Stewart’s grim 1979 car accident. It's a thoroughly enjoyable and informative read. As Kevin Godley’s said, “Quite a story. Lots of stuff in there I didn’t actually know.”

Jon Anderson and The Warriors: The Road To Yes – David Watkinson

This diligently researched document of Jon Anderson 's musical formative years reveals his learning curve, thankfully without (completely) blowing the mystique. 

David Watkinson, author of the Yes biog Perpetual Change, interviews Jon and tracks down various Warriors, peeking into diaries, presenting memorabilia. There’s charming nostalgia within these enlightening pages. 

The Ballad Of Jethro Tull (Classic Edition) – Jethro Tull

Billed as their first ever official illustrated history, The Ballad Of Jethro Tull is a sumptuously presented hardback volume packed with striking, often unseen photography as befits a band who at the height of their success were as much about visual as musical entertainment. 

Constructed purely as an oral history and compiled by writer Mark Blake, who also conducted many of the interviews, it’s essentially a rolling tapestry of quotations from band members and management – which makes for some great anecdotes and lots of quirky detail.

The First 40 Years [40th Anniversary Edition] – Pendragon

An exquisite multimedia retrospective package that celebrates the band's first 40 years and also includes live and remastered albums. 

It is presented in a handsome book that includes Pendragon’s characteristic Arthurian artwork, a smart essay from frontman Nick Barrett , and photos from every era. Pendragon have still got it, and may that never change.

The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock: Third Edition – Charles Snider

American writer and record collector Charles Snider covers such a wide musical area here, that his definition of the progressive rock genre is temporal rather than stylistic, in that it was initially made by a particular generation of (mostly) men who were mainly from the UK, although he also includes groups from across Europe. 

The format consists of chronologically arranged album reviews – now over 500 – some of which include mini histories and references to other releases by the bands in question. This is a convincing personal choice presented with critical acuity and a fan’s enthusiasm.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Every Album, Every Song (On Track) – Mike Goode

ELP have basically admitted that they never again reached the heights of 1973’s Brain Salad Surgery and while Goode writes in a lively and enthusiastic style throughout, he clearly relishes chronicling the group’s classic period, while keeping a cool critical head when assessing later albums such as Love Beach and Black Moon . 

He also highlights ELP’s widening creative differences and their attempts to preserve their identity when under pressure to modernise their sound.

Citizens of Hope & Glory: The Story of Progressive Rock – Stephen Lambe

Prog expert, and Summer's End co-founder, Stephen Lambe guides readers through prog's early years looking at how the music was received and adapted outside the UK, particularly in the USA, Italy and Scandinavia. 

He also explores the 70s scene, 80s revival and 90s movement, following through to prog in the present day. Lambe is knowledgeable, passionate and enthusiastic about his chosen subject.

Mountains Come Out Of The Sky: The Complete Illustrated History of Prog Rock – Will Romano

Insightful and detailed account from New York Post journalist Will Romano. 

Mountains Come Out Of The Sky chronicles prog's artful beginnings from The Beatles, Zappa and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd , through to modern greats Marillion, IQ and Spock's Beard, via Rush, Yes, ELP and Genesis. Big, bold and beautifully illustrated.

The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock – David Weigel

 Behind-the-scenes story of the extraordinary rise, fall and rise of progressive rock, written by The Washington Post national reporter David Weigel. 

Along the way, he tackles that tricky question - what is prog? – and explores how it arose from psychedelia and heavy metal, why it dominated the charts and what fuels its resurgent popularity today.

Wonderous Stories – Jerry Ewing

Published in a generously illustrated coffee table format, Wonderous Stories travels in roughly chronological order from the genre’s birth in the hazy aftermath of psychedelia right up to the present day. 

Prog Editor Jerry Ewing casts his eye over the cornerstone albums that built the genre, as well as those more recent releases that have provided extensions and renovations. Plus, there are scenic detours via krautrock, art rock, fusion, the Canterbury scene , and progressive metal along the way.

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A music journalist for over 20 years, Grant writes regularly for titles including Prog, Classic Rock and Total Guitar, and his CV also includes stints as a radio producer/presenter and podcast host. His first book, 'Big Big Train - Between The Lines', is out now through Kingmaker Publishing.

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Pop Culture & Performing Arts

Music in the '80s

Author lynn goldsmith.

Chances are you’ve seen numerous iconic pictures by award-winning portrait and documentary photographer Lynn Goldsmith at some point in your life. Her images have graced the covers of magazines worldwide from Life to Sports Illustrated , Newsweek , Rolling Stone , People and many more. She has also published 14 monographs of her photographs, including the New York Times best-selling photobook New Kids (Rizzoli, 1990). Over the past 50 years, Goldsmith has photographed hundreds of musicians in studio portrait sessions, at live concerts, on the road and at home.  Her new book, Music in the ‘80s , showcases an incredible range of artists during a decade when many new forms of music were gaining popularity: New Wave, Electronica, Rap, Metal, and Ska had chart topping success, as did R&B and Pop. Michael Jackson, Philip Glass, Run DMC, Miles Davis, Judas Priest - these are but a few of the names that during this period became icons. The 80’s was a time like no other in history, and the photographs chosen for this book are as diverse in their style as the music and dress of the decade. The book also features quotes from many of the people featured in Goldsmiths’ photographs—including Iggy Pop, Tina Turner, Keith Richards, Alice Cooper, Elvis Costello and more—as well as those who were influenced by the tremendous cultural importance of the decade, proving that Music in the ‘80s is sure to hit the right note for all lovers of music.

About The Author

Lynn Goldsmith is a celebrity portrait photographer, as well as a fine art photographer and painter. In the past she has been an entrepreneur, film director, recording artist, and lyricist.

• Publish Date: September 27, 2022
• Format: Hardcover
• Category: Music - Genres & Styles - Rock
• Publisher: Rizzoli
• Trim Size: 10 x 13
• US Price: $75.00
• CDN Price: $100.00
• ISBN: 978-0-8478-7225-1

Author Bookshelf: Lynn Goldsmith

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A community for people who are passionate about music. Stimulating, in-depth music discussions aren't rare here.

What are some must-read music related books?

One of my goals for the year is to read more books, and so far it's going pretty good. I've finished Meet Me In The Bathroom (though I began reading it last year), Nick Cave's The Death of Bunny Munro and Jeff Tweedy's Let's Go (So We Can Get Back) and loved all of them, and now I'm on the lookout for more music related books to read.

Fact or fiction, doesn't matter, as long as music is one of the book's main themes.

25 Classic Rock Books You Must Have

When you’re a fan of bands, musicians, and artists, more than listening to their songs and music, there are times when you also want to know more about them. Sometimes you wonder how they lived their lives, how they were able to come up with the wonderful and popular hits, and more. If you’re a fan of classic rock, maybe you also want to know more about it. Maybe you want to know how your favorite artist felt during rock ‘n’ roll’s most exciting era.

If you’re looking for more information about classic rock, then you’ve come to the right place. Today we are giving you a list of the 25 classic rock books that you must have.

1. Goodnight, L.A.: The Rise and Fall of Classic Rock

This book will show you a behind-the-scenes journey through the rise and demise of the ‘70s and ‘80s classic rock era. It is written by longtime music-business insider Kent Hartman. He filled this book with troves of never-before-told stories about the most creative and important period and place in rock ‘n’ roll history. It includes interviews with classic rock artists and famed record producers. It also reveals what went into the making of some of the best music of the past years.

 2. Classic Rock: Photographs from Yesterday & Today

This book features the original, high-quality performance photography of Jim Summaria, a veteran photojournalist. You will be able to see in this book a front-row view of lots of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers in performance as well as other artists that were often overlooked but whose contributions are captivating. The photos in this book are mostly full color. Aside from photographs, it also includes interesting facts, figures, trivia, and quotes which were researched by Mark Plotnick to give readers more enjoyment while seeing the photos.

3. Classic Rock Stories: The Stories Behind the Greatest Songs of All Time

This book is written by Tim Morse. It includes the stories of classic rockers about the process of creating popular songs that you can still sing aloud. These stories are in the own words of rockers like Pete Townshend , John Lennon , Elton John , Keith Richards, and Stevie Nicks. You will be able to read about the drugs, the pain, the love gone bad, and the accidents that resulted in their greatest hits.

 4. The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2: 1964-1977: The Beatles, the Stones, and the Rise of Classic Rock

This book is written by Ed Ward. He weaves together a narrative told through colorful anecdotes. He shares here the behind-the-scenes stories of the megastars, the trailblazers, record executives, DJs, concert promoters, and producers who were at the forefront of one of rock’s most exciting eras. It includes stories about Bob Dylan , Bill Graham, Jimi Hendrix , Janis Joplin , The Byrds, Aretha Franklin , The Rolling Stones , and many more. It reveals how the different sounds, players, and trends came together to create the music most of us know and love in the present time.

 5. Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll

The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia is more than just a reference book about rock and roll because it is the bible of rock & roll. This is the third edition which includes all the facts, phenomena, and flukes that make up the history of rock. It has the biographical and discographic information of more than 2,000 artists. It includes essays that reveal the performers’ musical influences, first breaks, and critical and commercial hits and misses. It is also filled with historical photos that you will enjoy looking at.

 6. The Great Book of Rock Trivia: Amazing Trivia, Fun Facts & History of Rock and Roll

If you are the type of rock fan who is not satisfied with simply listening to the radio and you want to know more about the lyrics, what they mean, or if they have some stories behind them, then this is the best book for you. This book is written by Bill O’Neill and it contains hundreds of riveting facts about the popular rock songs out there. You can read here about how your favorite rock and roll group got together. You can also find out through this book what your favorite musicians like to do in their free time and where they get ideas for their songs. To make it more fun, there are quizzes you can answer at the end of each chapter.

 7. Listen to Classic Rock! Exploring a Musical Genre

This book is written by Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith. It provides an overview of classic rock for scholars and curious novices alike. It focuses on 50 must-hear musicians, songwriters, bands, and albums. This book also explains classic rock composition and songwriting techniques and as well as studio production values. It also includes often-overlooked contributors to classic rock such as Marvin Gaye , Tina Turner, The Ventures, and Jim Croce . This book offers historical context of the development of classic rock and it discusses its lasting impact on popular culture and its legacy.

 8. Encyclopedia of Classic Rock

This encyclopedia is created by David Luhrssen and Michael Larson. It examines one of the most popular and enduring genres of American music. It is an encyclopedia of classic rock from 1965 to 1975 which provides an indispensable resource for cultural historians and music fans. You will be able to read in this book the summaries of the careers of all significant rock artists during a peak period in the music’s history.

 9. Fossils: Relics of the Classic Rock Era: Volume Two: The 1960s – ‘80s

This book is written by Rev. Keith A. Gordon, an award-winning rock critic, and music historian. Through this book, he looks at the advertisements found in frayed and graying copies of a cherished old music magazine. It offers insightful and informative commentary on nearly four-dozen ads, and he explores this overlooked artistic aspect of the classic rock era. It will take you to the time when record labels didn’t have a network of blogs, artist websites, and social media to market new music. Back to the time when they only had FM radio and advertisements in a handful of music rags like Rolling Stone, Cream, and Trouser Press that help provide hype for new releases.

 10. A Concise History of Rock ‘n’ Roll

This book is written by Kevin W. Buck. It brings each decade of Rock to life. It also includes chapters about The Beatles , Elvis , Music in the Video Age, Women in Rock, Rock Festivals, and a lot of urban legends which are both true and mythic. This book is great for those who are looking into reading more about the history of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

 11. The Art of Classic Rock: Rock Memorabilia, Tour Posters, and Merchandise

This book is created by Paul Grushkin and Elton John. It is the ultimate collection of tour posters, memorabilia, and merchandise from the greatest classic rock bands of all time. It is a must-have for anybody serious about rock and roll. It has a foreword by Alice Cooper and afterword by Elton John . This book will tour you through rock’s visual history. It also includes commentary from rock historian Paul Grushkin. This book will take you through years with Led Zeppelin , Pink Floyd , The Rolling Stones, Queen , David Bowie , and many more.

 12. Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Led Zeppelin

This book is written by Benjamin Darling. You will be able to find deep wisdom and profound poetry in the lyrics featured in this book. It is part self-help, part anthology, and part philosophical essay. Through the band members’ lyrics and quotes, this book will provide you with minted aphorisms and maxims on the timeless topics about love, life, and happiness. All ofthe advice is wittily presented and cleverly illustrated.

 13. I Hate New Music: The Classic Rock Manifesto

This book is written by Dave Thompson. It is funny and relentlessly thought-provoking. This book is a movement against everything that is not what rock ought to be. The author of this book examines the sacred cows of the past 30 years from U2 to Days of the New, from Radiohead to The White Stripes. It includes his outrageous opinion, hilarious anecdote, and as well as wild accusations.

 14. The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll

The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll: The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Musicis written by James Henke, Holly George-Warren, and Anthony DeCurtis. It contains eye-opening portraits and critical assessments of Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry , The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, James Brown and Bob Dylan , and many more. This book brings to life the evolution of a dynamic, revolutionary art form.

15. Classic Rock T-Shirts: Over 400 Vintage Tees from the ‘70s and ‘80s

This book contains more than 400 vintage classic rock t-shirts from the ‘70s and ‘80s. It will take you to memory lane when you go through the pages of this book. It features classic rock t-shirt designs of The Rolling Stones, Kiss , Led Zeppelin, and many more.This book is also a great addition to the collection of all classic rock fans out there.

 16. Rock Trivia Madness: 60s to 90s Rock Music Trivia & Amazing Facts

This book is written by Bill O’Neill. It is a great book for those who are eager to learn some of the crazy, random facts of rock. This book is a collection of rock stories from the 1960s to the 1990s. When you read this, you’ll be able to learn things about how The Beatles helped the Rolling Stones score their first hit, how David Bowie almost turned his back on fame and fortune, what Black Sabbath has in common with James Bond, and many other interesting trivia and facts.

 17. Queen – Deluxe Anthology: Updated Edition

This deluxe anthology by Queen is a piano, vocal, guitar, and artist songbook. It includes 35 hit singles from Queen featuring the vocal stylings of Freddie Mercury. You can find here popular hits such as Another One Bites the Dust, Bohemian Rhapsody, Don’t Stop Me Now, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Radio Ga Ga, and many more. This book is a must-have for all Queen fans out there.

 18. The Beatles Anthology

The Beatles Anthology has been made possible when Paul McCartney , George Harrison , and Ringo Starr decided to tell their collective story,exclusively for this book. Each page of this book is brimming with personal stories and as well as rare vintage images. It includes snapshots from their family collections which will take you back to the days when John Lennon , Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Richard Starkey were just boys growing up in Liverpool. This book is a once-in-a-lifetime collection of The Beatles ’ memories.

 19. The Sound and the Fury: 40 Years of Classic Rock Journalism: A Rock’s Backpages Reader

This book is created by Barney Hoskyns, a longtime music writer, and editor. He decided to build an archive of articles by his favorite rock writers through this book. It includes some of the articles by Al Aronowitz, Jon Savage, and Nick Hornby. It features contemporary and retrospective articles on The Beatles, Joni Mitchell , ABBA , Madonna , Otis Redding , David Bowie , Bruce Springsteen , and many more.

20. Inside Classic Rock Tracks

This book is written byRikkyRooksby. Itoffers an amazing selection of songs that range from vintage rock ‘n’ roll to the electronic dance music of today. It analyzes in fine detail the writing and recording techniques behind 100 selected singles and album cuts for you to see what makes a great track great. It is a unique combination of critical appreciation and hands-on insight. You will discover in this book how different sounds within songs are achieved and the different ways engineers throughout the history of popular music have recorded and arranged them.

 21. Classic Magnolia Rock: History of Original Mississippi Rock and Roll 1953 – 1970

This book is written by John Sumrall. It is a history of original Mississippi Rock and Roll music from 1953 to 1970 and its impact on the national music scene. It features stories from countless interviews with the artists and members of the various bands. With this book, the author aims to preserve the important part of the state’s musical heritage. This book will take you to a trip down memory lane to re-live the glory days of their teenage years. It is a wonderful addition to your collection and as well as a great way to celebrate the music.

 22. Classic Rock, Woodstock and the Bands that Saved Us from the Beatles

Classic Rock, Woodstock and the Bands that Saved Us from the Beatles: Lessons from Z’s School of Hard Rocksis written by Tom Zaleski, a television news anchorman and longtime rock and roll aficionado. This book will be eye-opening, nostalgic, and fun to graying baby boomer rockers out there. Compiled in this book are more than 100 stories about the bands, songs, and rock events. It will take you back to Ed Sullivan, Woodstock, and the Top-40 and FM radio songs that you grew up with. This book is a fun read that you won’t be able to put down.

23. Classic Rock Posters Sixty Years of Posters and Flyers, 1952 to 2012

This book features more than 500 classic music posters and a lot of them are unseen for years. These posters are chronologically organized from the 1950s to the present. It is a gallery of images from the very best illustrators of classic rock. It captures the interplay of music and art and it reveals how they both evolved over the years. This book shows the most famous names in music such as Muddy Waters , The Beatles, James Brown , The Who , Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead , the Sex Pistols, Pearl Jam, and many more.

 24. Jimi Hendrix: The Intimate Story of a Betrayed Musical Legend

This book is written by Sharon Lawrence. It talks about Jimi Hendrix , the genius we never understood, the man we never knew, the truth we never heard, and the music we never forgot. This is a revealing portrait of a legend which is created by a close and trusted friend.

 25. The Eagles Faq: All That’s Left to Know About Classic Rocks Superstars

This book is written by Andrew Vaughan, a music critic. In this book, he brings an insider’s view into the different chapters of the group’s fascinating history. It shows how The Eagles blended the best folk, rock, and country sounds of the ‘60s into a worldwide soundtrack of the ‘70s. You can find here the story of their rise, fall, and rebirth, and as well as the band members’ solo work and their triumphant reunion.

These are the 25 classic rock books that you must have. All of these books will surely give you lots of information about classic rock and as well as facts about your favorite rock ‘n’ roll bands and artists of all time.

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Nonfiction Books » Music & Drama » Music » Rock

The best books on punk rock (in 80s america), recommended by kevin mattson.

We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America by Kevin Mattson

Punk is more than just a musical genre. It is an ethos. Channelling one’s anger against the triteness of the culture industry’s offerings can be a spontaneous and creative act of resistance and rebellion. Moreover, as Kevin Mattson shows in this selection of books about punk in the 1980s in America, attending a rock concert by a band like the Dead Kennedys was a formative political experience for a generation of citizens, akin to attending a rally or a party convention. It was a spirit of constructive anarchy that can still channel the political anger of the alienated in the 21st century.

Interview by Romas Viesulas

England's Dreaming, Revised Edition: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond by Jon Savage

Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century by Greil Marcus

Dead Kennedys' Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (33 1/3) by Michael Foley

We Were Going to Change the World: Interviews with Women from the 1970s and 1980s Southern California Punk Rock Scene by Stacy Russo

Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History by John Patrick Diggins

1 England's Dreaming, Revised Edition: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond by Jon Savage

2 lipstick traces: a secret history of the twentieth century by greil marcus, 3 dead kennedys' fresh fruit for rotting vegetables (33 1/3) by michael foley, 4 we were going to change the world: interviews with women from the 1970s and 1980s southern california punk rock scene by stacy russo, 5 ronald reagan: fate, freedom, and the making of history by john patrick diggins.

B efore we discuss your selected books, what is or what was punk rock?

Citing its origins in the Midwest I think is important. Punk migrates and moves up through New York City, CBGB being the famous club where a lot of original punk acts performed: Patti Smith , the Ramones, Television, and many others. In my work I tried to not focus too much on CBGB because there’s been so much written about it, and it extends to a lot of what happened in the 70s. There is a decisive shift at the end of that decade. Patti Smith, for instance, drops out of music entirely in 1979. The band Blondie, which was closely connected with CBGB, hit the big time with their single “Heart of Glass”, and so you get a number one Disco song – a far cry from punk – that’s very popular.

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And so I think that by 1979 to 1980, things change and there’s a break to a certain extent. You see the rise of what were called teeny punks, kids in their teen years, who are basically entering music scenes, creating scenes, and very often much more suburban in terms of their background. So the 80s takes on a different feel to the music and movement of either the 70s or maybe even the late 60s. Punk has a long history, and my focus has been on what could be called its third chapter. The first would be the origins, then the 70s phase, and then I think it’s important to add on the 80s, the third chapter of punk, which was unique and different from what had come before it.

What motivated you to write your book about this chapter in the history of punk?

Well, it will probably come as no surprise to learn that I was a participant in the Washington DC punk scene in the 1980s. I always felt that it was misrepresented, even back then. And it’s still misrepresented in many people’s minds today. Looking back, in the 1980s there were all these awful television shows and movies that portrayed punks as mindless and violent, just aggressive and awful. One of the films that best typifies this cliché is called The Class of 1984, in which the punk kids have taken over the school, they wind up raping the pregnant wife of a school teacher, I mean, it’s just terrible. The image of punk in many circles back then was rather negative, to say the least. This was definitely a movement that was widely misrepresented. Some people still associate punk with a kind of cynical, violent nihilism. There are many books on Punk Rock. In my book I wanted to show that there were large elements of Punk during the 1980s that were the furthest thing you could imagine from that dark caricature.

The caricature of punk in some ways perhaps reflects the sum of all fears of established segments in society. Think back to the original reaction to the Sex Pistols or to anarchic acts prior to them.  

I think that this third chapter of punk that extends into the 1980s is actually directly associated with the demise of the Sex Pistols. They broke up in acrimony in 1978, having formed only two years prior. Then their bassist Sid Vicious overdoses and takes leave of us on Earth. There was a shift. In my research I reviewed a ton of fanzines published at the time to investigate this shift. There are many people who remember the 1978 Winterland music performance that was the Sex Pistols’ last performance as both a kind of apogee and a nadir for the band. And that was in San Francisco, in the United States.

A few of the authors that you selected among punk rock books were in fact there for that final Sex Pistols concert in person.

Let’s talk about the first of the punk rock books in your selection, England’s Dreaming , which puts the Sex Pistols front and centre. It seems that almost everybody who saw them live, particularly in that fateful last concert in 1978, ended up forming a band of their own. They spurred the DIY ethic that Punk stood for. Were the Sex Pistols then a kind of seedbed for punk to really take root?

You might say the converse about the second book in the lineup, Lipstick Traces , which rather than looking at the descendants of punk, traces its genealogy and finds all sorts of seemingly unlikely and unexpected affinities and echoes of earlier anarchic movements. This book was absolutely fascinating, and unexpected for a street culture like punk, a narrative history of art and rebellion throughout the 20th century. And, indeed, centuries prior. 

Absolutely. One of the things that Marcus does, for example, is to bring to our awareness the Situationist International. Supposedly – although this is debatable – the Situationists were influential on Malcolm McLaren , the avaricious Sex Pistols manager. That’s perhaps apocryphal, but the fact of the matter is that the Situationist International , with its critique of spectatorship and of ‘The Spectacle’, as modern society was described by them, became a key theme that I believe had a profound influence on punk music. Its underlying message is one of DIY, to stop looking at your television screen, stop going to the movies and stop watching movies. To create your own culture rather than waiting for it to be handed down to you by the powers that be. In that act you become truly rebellious. Even though it was an international organisation, it was based in France and was very French in spirit.

“Punk was a movement with a lot of humour at heart”

That sets us up for a discussion of both the Dead Kennedys and Ronald Reagan, which in your telling almost feel like two sides of the same coin. The presidency of Reagan was almost the embodiment of ‘The Spectacle’ in the Situationist sense. I’m reminded of that great Frank Zappa quote:  “Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex”. In Reagan we had a Hollywood actor who had become the commander in chief. The West Coast band the Dead Kennedys were railing precisely against this very Reaganite, conservative American spectacle, and the third book deals directly with one of their most famous albums, Fresh Fruit For Rotten Vegetables .

That’s right, the country’s turning. If there’s a new chapter of punk as we move from 1979 to 1980, the country is also turning the page to a new chapter and moving to the right with the successful election of Ronald Reagan and the defeat of Jimmy Carter. Michael Foley’s book about the Dead Kennedys does a really good job of teasing out the kind of political and social criticism that was quite serious on the part of the Dead Kennedys, with an element of shock and surprise, but also with humour. One of the things that’s important to keep in mind is that punk wasn’t just dire seriousness, whether it was criticising the Queen of England or criticising America as it existed under the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Punk was a movement with a lot of humour at heart. Much of it dark humour, gallows humour, but equally a humour tempered by an understanding of theory or a political earnestness or seriousness of someone like the Dead Kennedys’ lead singer, Jello Biafra.

It’s probably significant that they were formed in 1978. Here again we find a direct temporal linkage to the demise of the Pistols, not just to the creation of the Kennedys but to a lot of other very influential bands on the West Coast of the United States.

It is significant. The Sex Pistols’ final act in San Francisco was witnessed by many people who were in bands or went on to create bands. The Dead Kennedys crystallised out of that as well. On the West Coast, an earlier generation of musicians, numerous bands formed in the 1970s, basically call it quits in the last 70s, most famously the Avengers. This opened up a path for new bands like the Dead Kennedys to become even more dominant – although they would probably balk at the term – within the San Francisco scene. I’ve noted that one of the things that Jello Biafra gets very, very excited about is when he started seeing the composition of the audience changing toward an ever younger crowd coming in as we move into the 1980s. It’s not quite generational, because I don’t think it’s that big of an age difference, but it had the feeling of being something different. There’s new blood coming onto the scene that hadn’t been there before, perhaps as they were only just coming of age. It lends the scene a new energy.

That was certainly the case for me. As a young teen, I didn’t have enough pocket money to take the trips to go and see these mythical bands as they toured around the country. One argument that really struck me in Foley’s book is the underlying argument that to attend a concert by a band like the Dead Kennedys can be a formative political experience for a generation of citizens, almost akin to attending a rally or a convention.

Whenever he performed in theatres in San Francisco or as the Kennedys started to tour the United States, Jello Biafra would always make it a point to say things to the audience like, ‘Go out and read a book!’. Don’t stop here, when the concert ends. We the Kennedys are gonna pummel you with political criticism, but don’t take our word for it, think for yourself, go to a library and read some political theory! The other thing that I really enjoyed discovering was another of the most pioneering bands for this generation of teeny punks, the Minutemen . They were notorious when they toured. But not for the reason that the Sex Pistols were notorious. They would hit the tour circuit, going what they called ‘jam econo’ by doing it all as cheaply as possible – driving a van, crashing on people’s couches, doing their performance and moving on to the next town. On the way, they are said to have gotten into these huge arguments. Typically, it was the lead singer D. Boon versus their bass player Mike Watt in epic arguments  about things like the finer points of British history. They would literally head into a town, stop the van and go to a library to resolve their debates. That’s so punk rock! It’s just a marvellous story.

“It was about disagreements concerning the way we look at the world”

This anecdote maybe also illustrates why this sort of movement could never be successful ever again. The Internet has changed that sort of autodidactic experience that I believe a lot of the people involved in that scene were dedicated to. It also shows up the typical stereotype for being much more than just a kind of violent thug culture. Read the lyrics of Dead Kennedys songs and they are brimming with biting, well-informed social and political satire.

The other thing I loved about this book is the 33 1/3 format, a book about an album. I’ll be keen to explore a few others. What a great concept.

There’s a great volume called Double Nickels on the Dime , the title of the Minutemen’s double album that was released in 1984. It’s an excellent book which explores the ideas and historic background of the movement. One thing to keep in mind was that my official training in graduate school was American intellectual history. I’m probably being audacious in saying so, but I actually believe that punk zeroed in on powerful ideas. This was intellectual life. It was young and riotous, but it was an intellectual life. Perhaps it wasn’t as well informed or articulated as we would expect intellectual life to be, but it was about ideas, it was about debates. It was about disagreements concerning the way we look at the world. This perhaps is the most forgotten or misunderstood aspect of punk rock, if indeed it was ever understood in the first place.

One of the challenges you must have encountered in your research is the very ephemeral nature of a lot of the archival material: fanzines, posters, articles in local papers. I admire your tenacity in assembling this material.

Stacy Russo, in her book We Were Going to Change the World accomplishes a similar archival feat in assembling some very interesting material that might otherwise be lost, not just to the Academy, but to a wider understanding of this moment in music.

Absolutely. One of the ghastly things is that people are selling their archival material on the market rather than depositing valuable records at places where scholars and others who simply have an interest in this sort of stuff can go through and peruse them. That’s one of the crimes that I discovered as I wrote my book, the many people who have sold precious archives that I didn’t otherwise have access to. One advantage that I devised was to use Maximumrocknroll, a nonprofit monthly zine of punk subculture founded in 1982 and based in San Francisco, as a way of cross-checking what was going on in other cities in the US. If I came across word of a fanzine that was say, out of Tulsa, Oklahoma – which believe it or not had a profound political punk scene – I would test by seeing if Maximumrocknroll was talking about it.

Needless to say, I would also sometimes, trying not to do this too often, deploy the ‘bullshit detector’. Of course I didn’t remember every single moment of my engagement in the scene and what I knew was going on nationally, but I had enough experience of it to be able to crack through the thin veneer of the evidence and say, ‘OK, yes, this is something significant’. Russo’s book does this very well, and that’s one of the reasons that I chose it for my selection.

The dominant way of writing punk history is to compile interviews alone. Some of your readers may be surprised at one of the books I did not include in my list, which is Please Kill Me , just a series of interviews with people on the scene pasted together. I find that sort of oral history to be dangerous. I don’t trust people’s memory. I don’t even trust my own memory!

There’s also clearly a risk of people promoting their own agenda or skewed perspective via their reminiscences….

Exactly, you’ve got to know where people are coming from. It’s the music scene, and so you will always find self-aggrandisement somewhere, that ‘I was there for the formation of this or that or that band’ or whatever. What Russo does so well is to blend together the memoirs and the evidence which allows for a longer narrative rather than just a paragraph statement from any given individual. Like the author here that I suppose I most admire, Jon Savage, there’s a narrative development that goes beyond oral history. England’s Dreaming is such a good book because it’s not merely an oral history. He did conduct interviews, of course, and these have been released uncut in a follow-up edition, the England’s Dreaming Tapes . But for the most part, he’s going back to the record and recreating events in a way that’s actually quite alarmingly literary. It’s a beautifully written book. That’s no exaggeration.

“Punk isn’t just about music. It’s about building a wider popular movement”

One of the things that I wanted to reject and not fall prey to in my own work was the reliance on oral interviews with the participants. I kept that to an absolute minimum, and only contacted people and interviewed them when I couldn’t find a specific piece of ephemera, be it a zine, poster, bootleg recording, or a booklet attached to a record or something like that. True primary sources were key, and only having exhausted these I might consider an interview. Even when I did those interviews, I was quite hesitant about relying upon the person’s memory and what the person wanted to convey to me in terms of what they saw as being significant.

We Wanted to Change the World is also striking for its levity. There’s a light-heartedness that Russo conveys about the scene that counteracts the prevailing stereotype of punk being all dark and negative. What comes across very clearly in these pages is the extent to which it was an inclusive, even celebratory movement.

The levity is a common thread in almost every single interview she chose for this book. Many of the protagonists say that this was an act of politicisation, that they became politically aware though Punk Rock. In my book too it’s one of the things that I wanted to emphasise. Punk isn’t just about music. It’s about building a wider popular movement that can include engagement in politics in different ways than was possible before. You can see this in the art of the time, you can see it in movies, you can see it in many different forms of self-expression.

Something else that gets overlooked is the extent to which women were very much a driving force in the early days of punk. Bands like the Runaways, the Slits, the Stilettos may be less well known than the artists they gave rise to –  Debbie Harry , Chrissie Hynde , Joan Jett , all of whom became household names in the years that followed.

I wanted to get away not only from the over-reliance on oral history which dominates the study of punk, but also the way in which we usually tell the story as a narrative of different bands, their playlists and their members. This is an approach that usually silos things rather than giving you a wider perspective on what makes punk truly interesting as a social phenomenon. The forms of creativity that punk mobilised were much more diverse and inclusive than I believe people recognise.

In these books, you also draw out the repercussions and refractions of punk rock across a range of the arts. Rifling through the pages of a favourite among punk rock picture books, Punk 365 , you stumble across Burroughs hanging out with Allen Ginsberg and Andy Warhol , we see film-maker Jim Jarmusch and artist Raymond Pettibon , famous for his Black Flag covers and now represented by mega-gallery David Zwirner . Also a writer like William Gibson , who found a lot of his formative ideas in this movement during this period.

Another important artist here is Winston Smith , who did a lot of the Dead Kennedys’ promotional materials. Like Pettibon, he was knowledgeable about art history and the history of the avant-garde in modern pictures and painting. Pettibon would take part in the epic Minutemen discussions with Mike Watt, for example, in recounting the story of Surrealism , Dada and how they influenced him as an artist. He had this wonderful way of doing things where his technique would confront the viewer with a radical disjuncture – between the actual image and then the accompanying text, usually written either above or below in such a way as to be a provocation and a puzzle. This was part of what made him successful and it’s part of the power of punk. Like Winston’s cover art, Pettibon makes you sit up and say, ‘What is this?’.

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Speaking of jarring juxtapositions, let’s talk about Ronald Reagan! Punk was a kind of rage against the machine, the all-devouring beast of modern consumerist society, which arguably Reagan’s America came to exemplify. For your final entry among punk rock books, why did you choose Diggins’s book on Reagan? It almost reads like a hagiography, describing Reagan as one of two or three great presidents after Lincoln.

This is a work of intellectual history and history of ideas, as opposed to a settling of scores or taking account of the Reagan presidency. It’s not unimportant, making sense of the politics, but I just didn’t find it as interesting as trying to get inside a president’s worldview. Diggins goes so far as comparing Ronald Reagan to Ralph Waldo Emerson , which is just remarkable! I totally disagree with the interpretation, but I do recognise how many Americans probably saw Reagan in this light. My favourite episode described in this book is welcoming Michael Jackson to the White House, when Ronald Reagan goes on record as saying, ‘What a Thriller it is to have you here…!’. He’s flagrantly showing off just how much he’s indebted to celebrity culture for his status, which is something that absolutely no self-respecting punk in the 80s would ever saddle up to. With his almost foolish obsession with dreaming and optimism Reagan was a Romanticist, and I think Diggins is right to draw this out. The more important question is obviously whether or not one thinks that he was a good or even fitting head of state.

Celebrity of course is anathema for punks. Any whiff of success becomes a sure sign of selling out, of corruption, and celebrity has to be the ultimate sellout, compared to the sort of authenticity that punk was striving for.

Kill your idols. Which I don’t think is a literal statement! But anybody who appears as a celebrity or as a star deserves rejection and ridicule in the punk worldview.

 ‘Anger is an energy’, sang John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of Public Image Ltd in 1986 . There’s lots to be angry about still today. America in particular, seems to have become a society that is the apotheosis of The Spectacle. So who are the anarchists, the true heirs of punk today?

That’s difficult to say, as these things often only come to light in retrospect. For sure, there are hip hop artists who are writing brutally critical songs about Trump’s America. If we consider the DIY ethic of punk, this also seems to be very much alive and well. When asked this question I often give an example that’s very local to me. Early in the pandemic , which we’re still going through, just a block away from where I live, neighbourhood citizens put together a spontaneous recurring performance where people will sit in their front yards and play music to one another. All the while they are social distancing, and using masks and taking relevant precautions, but they are without a doubt creating their own culture. To the extent that there is a central theme of my book, it’s the call to act, to create your own culture. Creating your own culture also changes your consciousness. Channelling one’s anger against the triteness of the culture industry’s offerings can be an organic, spontaneous and creative act of resistance and rebellion. That’s probably the best place to look for the successor to punk in the 80s.

January 27, 2021

Five Books aims to keep its book recommendations and interviews up to date. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at [email protected]

Kevin Mattson

Kevin Mattson grew up in the suburban sprawl known as the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. It was here that he first experienced the "punk rock world" that fuelled his formative years. He played in bands, wrote for zines, and became politically active, helping to cofound the organization Positive Force. He now teaches American history at Ohio University and is the author of numerous books that explore the intersection between culture and politics, including Upton Sinclair and the Other American Century , What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President? , and, most recently, We’re Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America .

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Drawing from Lynn Goldsmith's 50-year tenure as an award-winning photographer of concerts, studio portrait sessions and musicians, this book will appeal to anyone who lived through (or simply loves) the decade." What are some must-read music related books? : r/LetsTalkMusic England's Hidden Reverse by David Keenan. Mostly covers Coil, Current 93, and Nurse With Wound and related post-Industrial acts. How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt. Covers the rise of MP3s and how decisions within the music industry made it, and piracy, all but inevitable. Future Days by David Stubbs covers Krautrock. 25 Classic Rock Books You Must Have Today we are giving you a list of the 25 classic rock books that you must have. 1. Goodnight, L.A.: The Rise and Fall of Classic Rock. This book will show you a behind-the-scenes journey through the rise and demise of the '70s and '80s classic rock era. It is written by longtime music-business insider Kent Hartman. The best books on Punk Rock (in 80s America) Interview by Romas Viesulas. by Kevin Mattson. 1 England's Dreaming, Revised Edition: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond by Jon Savage. 2 Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century by Greil Marcus. 3 Dead Kennedys' Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (33 1/3) by Michael Foley. The Best Of 80s Rock : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming An illustration of an open book. Books. An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video. An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio. An illustration of a 3.5" floppy disk. ... the-best-of-80s-rock Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s2jc5sdgv4j Ocr tesseract 5.3.0-3-g9920 Ocr_autonomous true Ocr_detected_lang la Ocr_detected_lang_conf ... Category:Elektrostal Media in category "Elektrostal" The following 200 files are in this category, out of 222 total. (previous page) () Elektrostal In 1938, it was granted town status. [citation needed]Administrative and municipal status. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as Elektrostal City Under Oblast Jurisdiction—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, Elektrostal City Under Oblast Jurisdiction is incorporated as Elektrostal Urban Okrug. Elektrostal Elektrostal, city, Moscow oblast (province), western Russia.It lies 36 miles (58 km) east of Moscow city. The name, meaning "electric steel," derives from the high-quality-steel industry established there soon after the October Revolution in 1917. During World War II, parts of the heavy-machine-building industry were relocated there from Ukraine, and Elektrostal is now a centre for the ... 10 Underrated Kids Books From The 80s That Are Worth Reading Today The influence of the most beloved classic children's and YA books of the 1980s has lived on into the present time, but there are a few truly underrated books of the '80s that deserve to be read today. Elektrostal Elektrostal. Elektrostal ( Russian: Электроста́ль) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It is 58 kilometers (36 mi) east of Moscow. As of 2010, 155,196 people lived there. case study cover letter presentation problem solving rewiew prompts websites tips