The best time of the year for new books on music is the fall. Not only do they make for good Christmas gifts, but publishers know that the winter is the best time to curl up with a good book.
Here’s another list of recommended titles to go with one I offered a few weeks ago.
Fashioning the Beatles: The Looks That Shook the World, Deirdre Kelly (Sutherland House Books)
Will we ever exhaust our fascination with The Beatles? No matter how many years pass, there always seems to be more to discover, explore, and learn. Kelly takes us back to the early 1960s when The Beatles were not only changing music but changing how music looked. Long hair on men. Facial hair. Glasses. Stage costumes. Street clothes. Shoes. It wasn’t just about fashion, either. The Beatles’ look expanded the generation gap and in the process influenced everything from societal development to politics.
Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans, Kenneth Womack (Dey Street)
Not only do The Beatles get their own books, but so do the people who worked them. There are a number of good books on producer George Martin. Geoff Emerick, the band’s favourite sound engineer, has a bio. And don’t get me started on all the books written about Abbey Road Studios. Now there’s the story of Mal Evans who worked as a road manager and personal assistant for the band throughout the 1960s. After their breakup in 1970, he continued to work with the individual members. But on Jan. 5, 1976, he died in a hail of bullets fired by members of the LAPD. After he was cremated, his ashes were lost in the mail. And that’s just the start.
Goth: A History, Lol Tolhurst (Hachette Books)
When I interviewed Lol Tolhurst for a documentary earlier this year, I asked him if The Cure was, in fact, a Goth band. His reply surprised me. “I’ll explain everything in detail with a book I have coming out in the fall.” Goth: A History isn’t the linear narrative that I expected featuring tales of Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Joy Division. Those artists are covered, but Tolhurst also goes very deep into the origins of the Goth subculture, citing the influences of T.S. Eliot, Edgar Allan Poe, and Sylvia Plath. It’s about the most scholarly look at the scene I’ve read — and it’s from a man who was there as it was being born.
My Effin’ Life, Geddy Lee (HarperCollins)
Geddy enjoyed putting together his massive coffee table tome, Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass (it’s being spun off into a documentary on Paramount+ next month). The next logical step would be a memoir. How does a nerdy kid named Gary Lee Weinrib, the child of Holocaust survivors, bust out of a Toronto suburb to become part of one of the most successful Canadian rock bands of all time? It’s all here.
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101 Fascinating Canadian Music Facts, Dave MacPherson (Dundurn)
MacPherson is slowly carving out a space as a chronicler of Canadian music. With previous books on the history of the legendary Horseshoe Tavern and Massey Hall, his latest project compiles 101 stories from decades of the past. To go back to Rush for a second, McPherson explains the secret airline code of their instrumental YYZ. And if we go back to the Beatles, he reveals that the term “Beatlemania” was actually a Canadian invention. If you’re the kind of person who loves pub quizzes, you’ll enjoy this one.
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), Sly Stone with Ben Greenman (AUWA)
Here’s another overdue memoir. Sly Stone was at the tip of the spear of late 1960s counterculture, finding a way to blend R&B, funk, and rock in entirely new ways. But after a rocket ride to the top as a performer and producer, Sly fell on rough times and by 2009 was destitute and living in a camper van on the same street where the movie Boyz in the Hood was set. He tried to recover tens of millions in lost royalties but wasn’t successful. Questlove, the drummer for The Roots, helped this memoir become reality.
Elvis and The Colonel, Greg McDonald and Marshall Terrill (St. Martin’s)
Colonel Tom Park (real name: Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk) was one of the most evil and exploitative managers of all time. Did he escape from Europe after killing a man? Is his inability to travel internationally related to him being a wanted man? How did a guy who sold candy apples at carnivals end up guiding the career of one of the most influential rock’n’rollers of all time? How much money did he skim away from Elvis? If you thought the Baz Luhrman movie starring Tom Hanks was damning, just wait.
The Woman in Me, Britney Spears (Gallery)
Even though so much has already spilled into the press from this book (the abortion, her fractious relationship with her father, the hideous conditions of her conservatorship), there’s still much to tell. Put it this way: When it was announced Britney was going to write a tell-all, a bidding war erupted. It’s rumoured that she got a US$15 million advance for this book.
My Name is Barbra, Barbra Streisand (Viking)
Babs has been active as a singer, actress, filmmaker, philanthropist, and activist since 1960. She’s an EGOT-er (winning Emmy, Grammy, Oscars, Grammys). She’s mingled with presidents and queens and ambassadors. No wonder this book weighs in at 992 pages and took 10 years to finish.
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