Most music book publishers release their best books in the fall — roughly August to January, depending on the publishing house — and I had the opportunity just a few months ago to plod, trudge, or breeze through door-stopping memoirs by Elvis Costello and Chrissie Hynde, among others.
The spring season is now upon us, with a few big books hitting the shelves here and there. Outside of a new biography of Paul McCartney and Bobby Brown’s setting-his-own-story-straight autobiography, though, there are plenty of books hitting the shelves between now and June to keep you heading to your local independent bookstore for that will part you from your dough-re-mi.
Paul McCartney: The Life, Philip Norman (Little, Brown)
Norman, who wrote John Lennon: The Life, delivers what looks to be the authoritative biography of the enduring songwriter and musician since he had full access to McCartney’s family and friends, who share some never-before-heard stories. (May)
Perpetual Becoming, Alanis Morissette (HarperOne)
The little jagged pill girl arrives with her memoir of her spiritual journey. (Feb.)
My Prerogative, Bobby Brown (Morrow/Dey Street)
It’s all here, and Brown leaves no stones unturned as he tells his story, from his days with New Edition to marrying Whitney Houston, and beyond. (June)
Small Town Talk: Bob Dylan, the Band, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Friends in the Wild Years of Woodstock, Barney Hoskyns (Da Capo)
The story of that little town in upstate New York, from its days as an artist colony to its life as a center of a culture that spawned, and continues to generate, some of America’s most enduring music. (March)
Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter (Grand Central)
Composer-lyricist Miranda offers a behind-the-scenes look — with plenty of photographs — at the hit musical of this season … and probably many seasons to come. (April)
Old Records Never Die: One Man’s Quest for His Vinyl and His Past, Eric Spitznagel (Plume)
Vinyl is final, and we often remember just the groove at which our favorite record skips. Journalist Spitznagel sets out to find exact vinyl records from his past, exploring questions about music and memory along the way. (April)
Kill ’Em and Leave: Searching for the Real James Brown, James McBride (Random/Spiegel & Grau)
McBride weaves memoir through his search to discover the “real” James Brown and the ways that Brown has helped shape our popular music culture. (April)
American Epic: When Music Gave America Her Voice, Elijah Wald and Bernard McMahon (S&S/Touchstone)
This books is the companion book to the PBS and BBC documentary series celebrating the pioneers and artists of American roots music — blues, gospel, folk, Cajun, Appalachian, Hawaiian, Native American. (February)
Ten Ways Not to Commit Suicide: A Memoir, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels (Amistad)
Rap star DMC opens up in this memoir about the emotional struggles that took him to the brink of suicide. He offers insight he hopes will help others who might face these issues. (June)
Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century, Simon Reynolds (Morrow/Dey Street)
Get out your heels and your makeup for this pop culture history of the wild-in-the-streets early ’70s, and the phenomenon of glam and glitter.
Virgil Thomson: The State of Music & Other Writings by Virgil Thomson, edited by Tim Page (Library of America)
The title mostly tells what is here, but it’s a follow-up to the 2014 critical edition of Thomson’s collected newspaper criticism. (March)
Your Song Changed My Life: From Jimmy Page to St. Vincent, Smokey Robinson to Hozier, Thirty-Five Beloved Artists on Their Journey and the Music That Inspired It, Bob Boilen (Morrow)
The host and creator of NPR’s All Songs Considered and Tiny Desk Concerts presents an essential oral history of modern music, told in the voices of famous and up-and-coming musicians, including Dave Grohl, Jimmy Page, Michael Stipe, and Carrie Brownstien, all of whom answer the question: “is there an unforgettable song that changed your life?” (April)
Why You Love Music: From Mozart to Metallica—the Emotional Power of Beautiful Sounds, John Powell (Little, Brown)
Another book — in the vein of Oliver Sacks and others — that explores the science of music and the ways that our brains respond to the joys of music. (June)
Confessions of a Serial Songwriter, Shelly Peiken (Backbeat)
Grammy-nominated songwriter Peiken (“What a Girl Wants”) proves just what the title of her memoir promises — the ups and downs of being a songwriter in today’s rapidly changing music industry. (March)
Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty, Ben Ratliff (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
New York Times music critic Ratliff offers his own lessons in how to listen to the music of our world, providing insights into his own critical aesthetics. (February)
How to Listen to Jazz, Ted Gioia (Basic)
Gioia provides an introductory guide to the art of listening to jazz. (May)
Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac: Interviews and Encounters, Sean Egan (Chicago Review Press)
The title says it all, and the collection includes interviews from across the band’s entire career. (June)
Kanye West Owes Me $300: And Other True Stories from a White Rapper Who Almost Made It Big, Jensen Karp (Crown Archetype)
The true story of Karp, Jewish rapper “Hot Karl,” and the performers with whom he brushed wings, including a not-quite-yet-famous Kanye West. (June)
Toni Tennille: A Memoir by Toni Tennille, Caroline Tennille St. Clair (Taylor Trade)
A little muskrat love will keep us together in Tennille’s candid memoir of growing up in the segregated South, to her rise to fame in the Captain and Tennille and her life today. (April)
Better Git It in Your Soul: An Interpretive Biography of Charles Mingus, Krin Gabbard (University of California)
This volume looks closely at Mingus as a writer as well as composer and musician. (February)
Adios, Motherfucker: A Gentleman’s Progress through Rock and Roll, Michael Ruffino (Ecco/Anthony Bourdain)
Unband bassist Ruffino takes us on a journey to meet mute Christian groupies, crack-smoking Girl Scouts, beer-drinking chimps, and thousands of head bangers who cannot accept that hair metal is dead. He provides uncensored portraits of Ronnie James Dio, Anthrax, Sebastian Bach, Lemmy of Motorhead, and others, along the way. (February)
The Humorless Ladies of Border Control: Touring the Punk Underground from Belgrade to Ulaanbaatar, Franz Nicolay (New Press)
Over the span of five years, Nicolay crossed the world with guitar and banjo in hand and accordion on his back, exploring the past and future of punk rock culture in the post-Communist world. (May)
Porcelain: A Memoir, Moby (Penguin)
The story of Moby’s rise to fame out of poverty, in his own words. (May)
The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built, Jack Viertel (FSG/Crichton)
Drawing on a range of examples — including Carousel, Wicked, The Music Man, and The Book of Mormon — Viertel provides an insider’s look at the ways Broadway musicals are built, from opening numbers to finales. (February)
