Required rock reading? Tony Clayton-Lea compiles his wish list
The book that turned out to be required reading for music fans in 2004 was the book that many were anticipating but few were truly expecting to be any good - Chronicles: Volume One (Simon & Schuster ) by Bob Dylan. Yet the man confounded critic and fan alike by producing one of the least predictable autobiographies of recent times. In truth, Dylan could have lied through his crooked teeth (he's done it loads of times before in song, so why change?) or he could have written perplexing doggerel (ditto). Instead, in a chronologically challenged fashion, he wrote something far more insightful and, occasionally, staggeringly lyrical.
Every year there are a few books about The Beatles; most are a waste of time/space/trees. The exception to this rule is the rather wonderful The Beatles: 10 Years That Shook The World (Dorling Kindersly; Editor-in-Chief: Paul Trynka ). Put together by the Mojo/Q magazines team, it's a design-driven publication that documents the years 1961 to 1970: everything from start to finish, from Liverpool and Hamburg to solo albums. Great magazine-style layout, fab images and writing from the likes of Nick Kent, Paul Du Noyer, Hunter Davies, Jon Savage and Charles Shaar Murray - if there's one Beatles book you need to buy this year, etc.
Other music books that made an impression for various reasons include Feel: Robbie Williams (Ebury Press ), by Chris Heath (it's probably the closest we'll ever come to understanding the brazenly complex character of one of the most entertaining and annoying pop stars of the past 10 years); Scar Tissue: The Autobiography (Time Warner ), by Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis (a life of hard drugs, easy sex and lotsa ego); Cash: A Tribute to Johnny Cash (Virgin Books; the editors of Rolling Stone ), a fascinating mixture of recycled and recently commissioned articles; and, finally, one of the best Irish music books published in the past few years: Irish Folk, Trad & Blues (Collins Press ), by Colin Harper and Trevor Hodgett; it's a well-researched tome on the famous and not-so-famous names that have populated the Irish music scene from the early 1960s onwards. Fascinating in its scope, salutary in the telling, it comes highly recommended.
Now, Santa, I'd like a word with you, please. . .
