I recently read 5 Against 1 (Pearl Jam/Vedder), and in the recent past read Scar Tissue (Anthony Kiedis). Read Jim Morrison’s bio years ago.
While my interests are more rock/alternative, I am happy to branch out for a good bio. Any recommendations on biographies of musicians?
Aerosmiths autobiography “Walk this Way” is really really awesome
you can find it here Amazon.com
Ray Coleman’s Lennon: The Definitive Biography is a fine work.
Deborah Spungen’s And I Don’t Want to Live This Life is the story of her daugher Nancy and has information on the Sex Pistols. It was recently rereleased with a new introduction by the author. Very good read.
Not a “from birth to star” type of biography, and more about life on the road, Dougal Butler’s “Full Moon” about Keith Moon is very entertaining. Butler was Moon’s personal assistant (now there’s a job that wouldn’t pay enough !). Moon went through more lives than a dozen cats - some pretty crazy stuff.
Crystal Zevon’s I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon is very difficult to read at times; Zevon was an alcoholic, and a really ugly drunk. But his story is moving and fascinating.
I loved (when I was 16) Hammer of the Gods about Zeppelin…
Joe
Carl Magnus Palm wrote Bright Lights, Dark Shadows, the definitive tome about ABBA. And an updated edition is being issued next month!
I am swamped at work, so don’t have a lot of time to elaborate, but here goes:
I have read plenty of others, but that is what comes to mind. I would strongly recommend other books about music happenings though:
Gotta run…
The Long Road out of Hell about Marylin Manson is very fun and interesting to read and I am not a fan of his music but I find him interesting.
Oh - and **The Mansion on the Hill ** is a great book on the transition from rock as an outsider music to becoming Big Business. Lots of focus on Dylan, the Beatles, Springsteen, the Eagles. Very, very insightful.
Same with **Hit Men ** by Dannen (?) - but that is more focused on the folks who run the record labels. Fascinating…
Anybody read Shakey, the Neil Young biography? Is it any good?
Dark Star: The Roy Orbison Story is a pretty good biography.
I found Ronnie Spector’s biography, Be My Baby, to be interesting, if a little obviously ghostwritten. Even if you’re not interested in girl groups, she interacted with a lot of major figures of the '60s and '70s. Of course, her marriage to Phil Spector was also soap opera-crazy.
I’ll second Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life. Simon Reynolds has written some terrific stuff as well: Rip It Up and Start Again (post-punk) and Energy Flash (rave and dance culture). I’m about to start George Harrison’s I Me Mine, so I’ll let you know how that goes.
Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector by Mick Brown focused far too much on the later events of his life, but it was a pretty good read. Any recommendations on bios that are about his production techniques?
Seconded on One Train Later by Andy Summers of the Police. He’s a great writer.
I did, and I enjoyed it. I had to reread it, and plan to reread it again.
IMHO it is strictly for fairly fervent Neil fans (which I am. 
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A few years ago I read A Twist of Lennon, by John’s ex Cynthia(?) Twist. Entertaining stuff.
Thomas Kitts, Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else.
I’m on the acknowledgements page
**Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison ** by Patricia Kennealy is a really good read. Especially if you’ve read No One Here Gets Out Alive or seen the movie.
I didn’t read the whole thing, or even start from the beginning, but this book has a whole chapter describing Manson groupies including the tale of a very short, deaf girl who agreed to strip naked and stand in a pool of urine while the band pelted her with bologna slices.
Needless to say, I did not go back to the beginning.
I highly recommend Stevie Ray Vaughan : Caught in the Crossfire, but then, I read it shortly after its original publication, and the impact of his death was still with me. And the impact of this passage I will never forget: