Musicians autobiography recommendations?

zepp76

I've recently read the Slash and Eric Clapton autobiographies and they were great. Have any of you fine people got any recommendations for other musicians autobiographies? It doesn't have to be guitarists just musicians as a whole. Thank you.

HAL9000

Roger Daltrey
Johnny Marr
Buddy Guy

...are all excellent reads.

littlegreenman

octatonic

littlegreenman said:

This is one of my top 3 books- not just muso biographies, of anything I have ever read.
It is brilliant.

Brad

Anthony Kiedis - Scar Tissue.

failed_astronaut

I went on a bit of an autobiography binge recently so here are my recommendations...

Andy Summers book is one of the best I've ever read, and not just for fans of The Police, he's a really good writer. 

Stewart Copeland's book is as manic as you'd expect, there's about a page and a half on The Police and then he goes veering off on some other mad tangent!

Bad Vibes by Luke Haines is quite good from a pre-Britpop perspective but he does come across as a total knob.

The Gospel According to Luke from Steve Lukather is sweary and excellent.

Outside the Jukebox by Scott Bradlee give a good account of what it's like to make a career out of being an excellent musician with a novel idea and by being very social media savvy.

From the other side of the desk...

Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust by Ken Scott is good if a bit dry but it's funny to hear how his wife evidentally was a bit of a radge who wound people up. Lot's of lovely stories about George Harrison.

Are we still rolling? by Phil Brown is a lot more colourful and chemically altered than Ken Scott's book and features Talk Talk and Mark Hollis alot. It made me listen to and appreciate Robert Palmer beyond "Addicted to Love".

DrJazzTap

The miles davis one pissed me off, he comes across like a right prick. 
I found the Keith Richards one to much into the drugs side of things. The zappa one is ace. I enjoyed the Michael caine one and the Bob Dylan chronicles.

stimpsonslostson

Mark Everetts autobiography is heart breaking. 

Keefy

Tony Visconti - Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy
Brian Eno - A Year With Swollen Appendices

I realise there is a bit of a Bowie slant there...

zepp76

Thank you for the suggestions so far, I've ordered the Keith Richards and Frank Zappa books. That's the one good thing about eBay, you can pick books up cheap as chips!

scrumhalf

Allof Deke Leonard's books about his time in Man, Iceberg and the rest.

The man can write.

KKJale

An autobiography about musicians rather than by a musician, but would really, really recommend White Bicycles by producer Joe Boyd. Insightful stories of Nick Drake, Dylan, Aretha, Fairport, Floyd, Muddy Waters and loads more. 

McSwaggerty

The Best Seat in the House - Jerry Shirley, Humble Pie

Mark1960

Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run, an excelent read particularly as it covers his bouts of depression in a very open way.

Emp_Fab

I've had Rod Stewart's book recommended to me by our drummer.

Panama_Jack666

I enjoyed the Ozzy one!

deano

Nikki Sixx - A Year In The Life of a Heorin Addict

Ozzy Osbourne's  but I can't remember the title. Very, very funny.

ICBM

John Taylor (Duran Duran) - In The Pleasure Groove. Well worth reading even if you don't like/can't stand Duran Duran - it's a great story about someone driven to succeed who ended up battling the other things that come with success, including drugs - and his eventual recovery.

I'm currently reading Mark Kermode's (the TV film pundit) How Does It Feel? which is about his varied musical adventures. I didn't know anything about that before I started, but it explains the way he dresses, and it's not a reference to 50s cinema staff... or only accidentally!

blobb

The Real frank Zappa book is just so good.

...but if you want a hardcore Zappa biography have a go at Neil Slaven's Electric Don Quixote.

Can also second Deke Leonard's books, if you can find them. Actually anything written by him is brilliant. He used to review new releases for a magazine, hilarious.

The holy grail for me are the Gong Dreaming books by Daevid Allen, but so hard to find copies.

Out-Bloody-Rageous (Graham Bennett) - how Soft Machine shaped psychedelic rock

Different Every Time: Robert Wyatt Biography (Marcus O'Dair) - This was released with two companion records, so you listen as you read. One of our greatest musical icons, the whole Rock Bottom thing is so powerful.

duotone

I enjoyed "bit of a blur" by Alex James.  

not_the_dj

Nick Mason's book "Inside Out" is good (and very funny)