Music Biographies

Friends often ask me what I read for fun. That’s easy — biography. My favorite in the genre are books about musicians and songwriters. I’ve read nearly every music biography published in the last five years from bestsellers by Patti Smith, Keith Richards, and Carole King to more obscure books about Paul Weller, The Clash, Morrissey, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, and a terrific autobiography penned by Joe Jackson. And I’m not too embarrassed to admit that I’ve read my fair share of biographies written by spouses of rockers like Patti Boyd (wife to George Harrison and later Eric Clapton), Ingrid Croce (married to Time in a Bottle’s Jim Croce), and Crystal Zevon (wife of the original Excitable Boy, Warren Zevon). (I admit I am a little embarrassed to have read Don Felder's memoir about his seedy days in the Eagles.) My better half, who always helps feed my music curiosity, recently bought me a copy of Fire and Rain by Rolling Stone contributor David Browne. It tells the story of four major forces in music: the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash during the year of 1970, a watershed year in popular music. Browne is an excellent writer who finds a way to be scholarly and gossipy at once. Through rich anecdotes he captures the struggles inherent in making music, and the hopeful sensibility of the 60s giving way to an era that was starting out much dimmer on the political front. It was fascinating to learn that while Bridge Over Troubled Water was a number one hit in America and abroad, Paul Simon was still finding time to teach music composition at New York University while Art Garfunkel was out of the country filming Carnal Knowledge, intent on becoming a major film star. If you are a music buff and enjoy reading about it, this book is definitely worth checking out. I loved it.