Other Reviews

The Last Sultan: The Life and Times of Ahmet Ertegun: by Robert Greenfield

A writer trying to organize fifty years of popular music—a sprawling and unruly topic—has several options. One possibility is to pick a single genre, say the blues, and trace its birth and development. Another is to follow the history of an influential record label. A more dynamic approach is to tell the story of one influential musician or band, though any artist’s story is restricted by the particulars of his or her career.

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Storm Large Crazy Enough

The wild fluctuations of Storm Large come at the reader fast and heavy while she describes her life and growing up in not the most normal of circumstances.  She is a sentence or sometimes a mere word or syllable away from proclaiming something The! Best! Thing! Ever! before wanting to destroy whatever it was.  Grand statements don’t always end up as amazing events, but Storm has an obvious flair for the dramatic that is on display instantly

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Trust Me, I

It is a little disturbing how many people with very serious problems wrote to the former (and future) Black Sabbath front-man regarding serious medical problems, and while he was always willing to put his two cents in, Ozzy told every single one of them to visit a real doctor. Trust Me, I’m Dr. Ozzy isn’t going to change the way you live day to day, but it will provide you with plenty of entertaining anecdotes that just may prove to be applicable to your life.

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Tom Waits on Tom Waits: by Paul Maher Jr.

Tom Waits On Tom Waits brings together a large number of interviews conducted throughout the great man’s storied career. Covering a remarkable 35-year span from 1973 to 2008, this collection employs Waits’ own words to paint a vivid self portrait of a highly original American artist and iconoclast. The book makes for a very intriguing chronology of Waits’ development as a songwriter, recording artist and performer. Fiercely protective of his private life and notoriously reclusive, Waits nonetheless has always been a lively and unpredictable interview subject.

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So Much to Say: Dave Matthews Band–20 Years on the Road: by Nikki Van Noy

If you aren’t already aware of Dave Matthews Band fans and their fanatical devotion, So Much to Say: 20 Years on the Road will reveal the myriad ways in which they’ve made being crazy about DMB look easy.  If you’re not already familiar with (or a fan of) DMB, the book certainly won’t make understanding that psychosis any easier. 

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Dancing Barefoot: The Patti Smith Story: by Dave Thompson

Dancing Barefoot recalls many events that may already be familiar to fans of Smith’s career and readers of NYC music history. But the author does bring a deeper insight to the artist’s motivations and a great deal of much-needed perspective on the era in which she blossomed.

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This is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography & Life Through The Distorted Lens Of Nikki Sixx

Every once in awhile, you come across someone who knows exactly what Jim Marshall was talking about and becomes inspired by his images to pick up a camera and seek out the soul. You wouldn’t think that person would be a tattooed former smack-addicted rock star, who still commands the stage with loud music and tales of past belly-of-the-beast adventures. But for awhile now, Motley Crue bassist and primary songwriter Nikki Sixx has taken his photography very seriously

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Keith Richards: Life

If the measure of a good autobiography is the extent to which the writing reflects the progression of the life under inspection, then Keith Richard’s Life is an exceptional piece of work. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a stunning read all the way through, but only that it reveals the true nature of its subject, blemishes and all.

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Sex, Drugs & Blueberries: by Crash Barry

Barry’s Maine is one of sun-scorched blueberry barrens, just enough gas to get through the evening (providing the pickup doesn’t end up in the puckerbrush), cheap beer (none of that microbrew stuff), and, yes, drugs. And the thing is, Barry’s Maine is just as real as that postcard version – but you’d have to know about it to write about it.

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