In another life, we’d all like to think of ourselves as famous musicians — musicians who could play more than the main riff to “Rebel Rebel.” But in this life, we’re relegated to reading about them.
Remember when you were a little kid, and you practically peed your pants at the excitement of a kickass summer reading list (maybe that was just me)? Well, here’s a killer one for you: five summer must-reads for the music freaks.
Kim Gordon, Girl in a Band: A Memoir
Not only is Kim Gordon a prolific musician, but she’s also a talented writer. Gordon gives us a vivid picture of her days in the ’80s and ’90s New York art and music scene, her friendships with fellow artists like Iggy Pop and Kurt Cobain, and, of course, her life-defining love affair with bandmate and fellow Sonic Youth founder Thurston Moore. But on the flipside, we get a glimpse into the life of a grunge idol of which many people aren’t aware: her struggles growing up with a schizophrenic brother, her surprisingly successful side career as an artist, and the eventual demise of her marriage to a cheating husband. No matter your feelings toward Sonic Youth, “Girl in a Band” is a book you’ll be glad you read.
Dee Dee Ramone, Poison Heart: Surviving the Ramones
The Ramones have always been an enigma, those guys with their mops of black hair, leather jackets and fake last names. In Poison Heart, Dee Dee, one of the band’s original four members, lays it all out, and as you might guess, it’s not all pretty. He and Joey were the hearts and souls of the band, writing a big chunk of The Ramones’ defining hits. But Dee Dee was the sensitive one, the tall, gangly bassist who resented the fact that he couldn’t sing, the guy who struggled with bipolar disorder and heroin addiction (to which he eventually succumbed). Poison Heart is dark, twisted, and full of scenarios that seem too out-there to be true. (Sid Vicious shoots up with toilet water. Phil Spector holds the band at gunpoint in his Beverly Hills mansion.) But it also provides a gripping, first-hand look at a legend of the ’70s New York punk scene who won’t easily be forgotten.
Stuart Murdoch, The Celestial Café
Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch kept a diary on the band’s website from 2002 to 2006, and The Celestial Café is the printed result. Essentially a character study, the book presents less about Stuart the artist and more about Stuart the individual. As any B&S fan would expect, this isn’t your typical musician’s memoir. Rather than drug-fueled rants, we get quirky, existential musings. Rather than words rife with an overwrought God complex, we get passive mentions of one of the most infamous indie-pop bands in between lists of its leader’s favorite mathematicians and dealings with catastrophic waitresses. Debauchery it isn’t, but delightful it sure is. Murdoch comes across as the type of guy you could jam with on a Saturday night and enjoy a hangoverless brunch with on a Sunday.
Legs McNeil, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Like Poison Heart, legendary music journalist Legs McNeil’s Please Kill Me gets you so close to the punk movement that you can practically smell the rancid sweat. Spanning from 1965 to 1992, this 400-plus page book presents first-hand interviews with every formative rocker and groupie imaginable — Lou Reed, Nico, Iggy Pop, John Belushi, Debbie Harry, David Bowie, Edie Sedgwick, and Joe Strummer, among others — and everybody seemed to know everybody else. They all hung out. They shared ideas. They swapped guitarists and girlfriends like kids used to do with Pokémon cards. This one will leave you going, “Holy crap. What just happened?” But in a good way.
Patti Smith, Just Kids
At this point, it’s practically a cliché to include Just Kids in any list containing the words “music” and “book.” But who cares? Patti Smith’s memoir is a seminal look into the “times they are a’changin’” era of the 1960s, providing a fresh perspective in the sense that we’re discovering it all right along with her. The artistic world was forever changed on a chance afternoon in Brooklyn when Patti, a young bookstore cashier at the time, became friends with a bowlegged, dungarees-clad, curly haired boy named Robert Mapplethorpe. Just Kids follows Patti and Robert’s love affair and friendship as they both struggle to find themselves as artists — from their ramshackle first apartment and prized record collection to their surreal moments with Allen Ginsberg and Andy Warhol to the year they camped out at the infamous Chelsea Hotel. Even if you know nothing about Patti and Robert, you’ll want to soak up anything and everything you can find about them. This is a book you won’t ever want to put down.
