rockingreads

[rockingreads]

Dick Wagner (w/ Susan Michelson): Not Only Women Bleed: Vignettes from the Heart of a Rock Musician (2012)

Maybe the worst example of a book title trying to establish a tenuous connection with totally tasteless results, Not Only Women Bleed (named for Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed") chronicles the adventures and (mostly) misadventures of underrated songwriter/frontman and in-demand session guitarist, Dick Wagner.

You may not think you know Dick, but, trust me ... you know Dick!

Probably not through the bands he led, including The Frost, which shared the fabled Grande Ballroom stage with The Stooges, the MC5, and other Detroit-area legends, and surely not through his cult, one-and-done hard rock trio, Ursa Major.

(Both groups are absolutely essential for fanboys and fangirls of obscure '60s and '70s hard rock obscurities, by the way.)

No, you'll know Dick, or at least his many iconic six-string contributions, to classic rock anthems by Aerosmith (that's him, not Joe Perry, playing the solo on "Train Kept A-Rollin'"), Alice Cooper (School's Out, Welcome to My Nightmare, etc.), Kiss (Destroyer), and Lou Reed (Berlin, Rock 'n' Roll Animal), among others.

That's right: when your favorite rock star was too fucked up to play his parts, producers like Bob Ezrin and Jack Douglas called on Wagner, who can therefore share priceless behind-the-scenes perspectives into our heroes' recording and touring escapades in gory detail.

And I do mean gory, because Dick indulged in all the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll he could get his hands on with reckless abandon, and eventually suffered the heart attacks (two of them!), a stroke, and a brain surgeries (again, two of 'em) to prove it.

Ultimately, Wagner's is a gripping but cautionary tale about the cost of putting selfish ambition ahead of family and friends, and no one is more regretful about his dubious life choices and the destructive effect it had upon his loved ones than Dick himself.

Wagner passed away from respiratory failure in 2014, at the age of 71, and, to his credit, this book served as a form of repentance for both the self-inflicted wounds and oft-unheralded accomplishments of rocker whose work so many people still don't know they know.

Featured Records:

Ursa Major: Ursa Major (1972)

The Frost: Through the Eyes of Love (1970)

Alice Cooper: Muscle of Love (1973)

Aerosmith: Get Your Wings (1974)

Buy from Amazon

[rockingreads]

Michael Lavine & Pat Blashill: Noise from the Underground: A Secret History of Alternative Rock (1996)

Hardly ...

The publishers of Noise from the Underground: A Secret History of Alternative Rock couldn't seem to decide whether they were assembling a photo book or a brief written chronicle of punk and alternative rock, so neither mission was properly accomplished.

The images were snapped by photographer Michael Lavine, who was in the right place at the right time -- Seattle, the early '90s -- to document the grunge explosion, its immediate precedents and aftershocks, in the "secret club called the indie rock scene."

The words were written by Pat Blashill, who covered a broad swathe of the rock and pop music scenes of the late '80s and early '90s for major rags like Rolling Stone, SPIN, and Details, and a foreword from Henry Rollins adds legitimacy to this endeavor.

But Lavine's snaps are generally reproduced in surprisingly small size against a LOT of wasted white background, and Blashill's text, while not uninformed, is more random recollections than authoritative history of Lavine's subjects.

These include, but are not limited to, Soundgarden, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, Mudhoney, Monster Magnet, Pearl Jam, Bad Brains, L7, Lunachicks, Hole, Tad, Primus, White Zombie, Dinosaur Jr., Sugar, Screaming Trees, the Butthole Surfers, Supersuckers, Meat Puppets, Beastie Boys, Urge Overkill, Redd Kross, Pussy Galore, The Breeders, The Cramps, the Ramones, Rancid, Unsane, Deee-Lite, Brian Eno, Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, Liz Phair, Evan Dando, Paul Westerberg, Chuck D, and, of course Nirvana.

Impressive, right?

Well, I wish I could say the same about Noise from the Underground, but I'm afraid this is the kind of book you'll flip through once or twice, at best, and then forget under a pile of other books for a few decades -- or at least that's what I did.

So why DIDN'T Lavine share HIS valuable impressions and recollections of shooting these artists, instead of leaning on Blashill's personal view of this musical revolution in process?

My only guess is that, at the time, it made more sense to give newly converted indie rock fans some ammunition to explain why they suddenly gave up their Poison and Bon Jovi records, then to share the interactions between photographer and his superstar clients.

In fact, the story of how this book came into my possession may be more interesting than the book itself ...

For most of the late '90s, it sat around the A&M Records office, where I worked in the radio promotion department; left there by some hopeful, long-forgotten music industry colleague who'd asked my boss to get it autographed by Chris Cornell.

Well, Cornell and the other Soundgarden guys never did stop by the office, so there it remained -- unsigned and unclaimed -- until the office closed, so I took it home along with other unwanted rock 'n' roll ephemera.

Maybe it didn't even deserve that!

p.s. -- Lavine snapped the band portrait used in the Smashing Pumpkins' first album, Gish, which is why I chose to include it amongst this blog's ...

Featured Records:

Smashing Pumpkins: Gish (1991)

Primus: Frizzle Fry (1990)

Monster Magnet: Dopes to Infinity (1995)

Sugar: File Under: Easy Listening (1994)

Soundgarden: Badmotorfinger (1991)

Buy from: Amazon

[rockingreads]

Johnny Rogan: Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance -- The Definitive Story of The Smiths (1992)

Morrissey: Autobiography (2013)

Are we still mad at Morrissey? Were we ever NOT mad at him? And what are we mad at him for now? Race, politics, gender ... for refusing to reform The Smiths? I'm not very good at keeping up with the latest gossip and "who's canceled" scoreboard.

Well, it's Pride Month and I'm about to get into real trouble with my LGBTQIA+ friends for associating the semi-disgraced, sexually ambivalent, and oft-controversial singer with their already embattled yearly observation.

So maybe I'll just shut up (too late) and talk about these two books, which I read in quick succession a few years ago ...

Johnny Rogan's Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance notably managed to eschew much of the rampant sycophancy that taints too many discussions of one of Britain's all-time-great songwriting partnerships; this is biography, not hagiography.

If anything, Rogan is especially harsh with Morrissey, never hesitating to expose his perplexing complexities, caustic personality, and endless contradictions, while hardly sanctifying Marr either, and unsentimentally assessing both the friendship and tensions that fueled their rare creative alchemy.

Finally, I learned a lot about The Smiths' mercurial run through the 1980s (even living in Europe, aware of many post-punk bands, I didn't register them until years later) and their peculiar internal dynamics, including the oft-overshadowed and underrated contributions of bassist Andy Rourke (R.I.P.) and drummer Mike Joyce.

Morrissey obviously hated it ... every word, so he eventually penned his own, simply named Autobiography, to set the record straight, or at least settle the score with his many enemies, both real and imagined -- what's the difference, anyway?

And whatever you think of Moz, he finally gives fans some valuable insights into his Manchester outsider's upbringing, his obsessive musical fandom, his pivotal hook-up with Marr, and The Smiths' meteoric career, as well as more invective than you want to hear about the subsequent trial -- plus his solo exploits.

But Morrissey spins just as many new enigmas in his familiarly idiosyncratic voice: witty, articulate, poetic, passionate, biting, catty, cruel, even kind, sometimes, but always melodramatic and self-absorbed, while neatly skirting his personal life and romantic relationships.

In sum: everything that would make Autobiography essential reading for every serious Morrissey fan -- though I'd obviously recommend reading an outsider's history of The Smiths, be it Rogan's or someone else's, to offset the singer's more outlandish qualities.

Featured Records:

The Smiths: The Queen is Dead (1986)

The Smiths: Meat is Murder (1985)

The Smiths: Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)

Buy from: Amazon / Amazon

[rockingreads]

Dayal Patterson: Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult (2013)

Dayal Patterson's Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult may well be the definitive historical account of arguably the most extreme music genre of all time (grindcore fans may like a word ...), AND its most outrageous, theatrical, bloodstained, controversial, cartoonish, and, therefore, disrespected.

It's complicated ...

Formally baptized in the early 1980s by New Wave of British Heavy Metal outsiders Venom (who, believe it or not, were considered a laughing stock in their time), black metal was handily overrun by thrash, death metal, and other styles until the end of the decade, when a few, bored Scandinavian kids decided to take it seriously.

Waaaaaay too seriously ...

And yet, their misanthropic music and heinous crimes (headlined by Norway's infamous 'Inner Circle') crystalized black metal's core features and brought the style to sonic maturity, eventually turning it -- against all odds -- into one of heavy metal's most sophisticated, adventurous, and eclectic offshoots.

Now, this (still) ugly duckling may come preceded by a vast range of qualifiers, e.g. raw, melodic, symphonic, atmospheric, folk, pagan, depressive, industrial, war, traditional, and post-black metal (don't forget blackgaze!) -- all of which Patterson tries to address and contextualize here, across a weighty 600 pages.

Why oh why couldn't it have been 666?

Well, the more recent expanded edition apparently tops 800, and Patterson diligently covers as many bands as (in)humanly possible, backed by countless interviews and engaging historical perspective to keep the almost inevitable reader exhaustion at bay.

More importantly, Evolution of the Cult avoids the urge to glorify or sensationalize black metal's many scandals, while correcting some of the most absurd myths and plain misreporting that tainted previous books on the subject, including the seminal, since amended Lords of Chaos.

So put on your corpse paint, don your spiked gauntlets, and clutch your invisible oranges ... Beelzebub is coming to town in search of new recruits to his demonic legions, and those indoctrinated in the black metal cult will get a free meet & greet.

Featured Records:

Venom: At War With Satan (1984)

Emperor: In the Nightside Eclipse (1994)

Rotting Christ: Triarchy of the Lost Lovers (1996)

Dissection: Storm of the Light’s Bane (1995)

Bathory: Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987)

Darkthrone: Under a Funeral Moon (1993)

Enslaved: Hordanes Land EP (1993)

Buy from: Decibel (Expanded) / Amazon (Original)

[rockingreads]

Tom Werman: Turn it Up! My Time Making Hit Records in the Glory Days of Rock Music (2023)

Tom Werman's name was all over my formative record collection: Cheap Trick, Dokken, Mötley Crüe, Molly Hatchet, Krokus, Kix, Love/Hate, that scumbag, Ted Nugent ... but, no, not fucking Stryper or Poison!

Now Werman has landed on my bookshelf with 2023's Turn it Up! My Time Making Hit Records in the Glory Days of Rock Music, even though his matter-of-fact prose is nowhere near as electrifying (more like watching paint dry, to be honest) as the albums he produced.

A privileged, Ivy League kid who landed an entry level A&R job based solely on a well-written letter to Clive Davis, Werman initially stood out for the bands he suggested and saw rejected by Epic Records: Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Rush, among others.

When he finally got his way (REO Speedwagon was an early win), it was as a producer, spearheading late '70s hit albums by the aforementioned Nugent, Hatchet, Trick, plus overlooked acts like Hawks, Gary Myrick & The Figures, and funk metal pioneers Mother's Finest.

Bolstered by this growing track record, Werman transitioned seamlessly into the '80s, producing mega-selling hair metal LPs by the Crüe, Dokken, Twisted Sister, and Poison -- some of whom would later criticize him for his lack of technical knowhow, relying on his engineers to work the recording console.

More than an indictment of Werman's contributions (we all know how selfish and fickle rock stars can be), this situation illustrates this book's biggest weakness: that Werman rarely established a deep personal rapport with his artists, and that's what fantastic rock 'n' roll war stories are made of.

That being said, anyone who grew up pumping their fists and banging their heads to Werman's productions will enjoy even his less juicy behind-the-scenes anecdotes, among which those concerning southern bad boys Molly Hatchet are especially amusing.

And Werman's recollections did remind me of how working at a record label used to be so SOCIAL -- before emails, iPhones, and pandemics stopped us from wandering the halls to exchange ideas and interact with fellow music-loving creatives and our visiting heroes.

Finally, there's no denying Werman's sizable contribution to hard rock history based on the length (1976 to 1990) and breadth (I didn't even include one of his commercial triumphs with the Crüe) of the featured albums I chose to photograph here.

Featured Records:

Ted Nugent: Free-for-All (1976)

Molly Hatchet: Molly Hatchet (1978)

Mother's Finest: Mother's Finest (1976)

Dokken: Tooth and Nail (1984)

Love/Hate: Blackout in the Red Room (1990)

Cheap Trick: Dream Police (1979)

Buy from: Amazon

[rockingreads]

Geezer Butler: Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath -- And Beyond (2023)

Black Sabbath fans could have guessed that Geezer Butler's autobiography -- 2023's hotly anticipated Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath -- And Beyond -- wouldn't be quite as essential, authoritative, or provocative as either Tony Iommi's or Ozzy Osbourne's.

But we also knew it would be mandatory reading, given Butler's crucial roles as resident peace-keeper (or as close to it as anyone) and conceptual architect; the band member most responsible for tracing their thematic direction into frightening scenarios where few others dared to tread.

It was Geezer who suggested Black Sabbath's name (based on an a 1963 Boris Karloff horror movie) and it was he, not Ozzy, who penned most of their lyrics, complementing Iommi's doomy, monolithic songs with his alternately cynical and hopeful musings about war, religion, the occult, and all things dark and dreary.

But Geezer was also a textbook, idealistic hippie, embracing the Summer of Love with the same passion he had previously embraced Aston Villa F.C., catholicism (shock!), and mysticism; seeking escape from the Black Country's industrial setting into fiction and fantasy through his love of reading.

A classic bipolar dreamer, he is both optimistic and fatalistic about all things (he also reveals a tendency for depression and insists music probably saved him from a tragic, premature demise), but it was precisely this dichotomy that fueled Sabbath's greatest music.

Indeed, Butler's explanations for his lyrics are a highlight of Into the Void, as are his sentimental recollections (more comical than Iommi's, more sober than Osbourne's) of Black Sabbath's rise through the 1970s and subsequent career ups-and-downs after Ozzy's departure.

By the book's second half, intriguing anecdotes dwindle and you'll probably know most of the stories, except for Geezer's perspective on Bill Ward's exile (sadly pragmatic and noncommittal), but the bassist's warm, sensitive nature prevails -- you can't help but like him.

Now we hope and wait for Ward to say his piece in an eventual autobiography, which would obviously provide fans with a complete set of memoirs from Black Sabbath's classic line-up -- fingers crossed!

Featured Records:

Black Sabbath: Master of Reality (1971)

Black Sabbath: Cross Purposes (1994)

Black Sabbath: Casino Boogie (Live at the Montreux Casino, August 31st, 1970 - FM Broadcast) (2023)

Buy from: Amazon

[rockingreads]

Ozzy Osbourne (w/ Chris Ayres): I Am Ozzy (2010)

Tony Iommi may be the most important figure in heavy metal history, as I pointed out last week, but by far the most famous, ubiquitous and notorious has to be his Black Sabbath bandmate and singer, Ozzy Osbourne.

Who else?

Almost universally loved -- even by those of us who are no longer sure we actually like him (it's complicated) -- Ozzy's standing as heavy metal's archetypal frontman was somewhat muddled after he achieved mainstream celebrity via MTV's The Osbournes.

Moreover, all of those wild antics that made him rock's ultimate madman and the 'Prince of Darkness' have been told so many times, through so many mediums (so many bats' heads!), that I didn't think there'd be anything left to learn from his 2010 autobiography, I Am Ozzy.

And I didn't, but there's obviously never been a more personal account of Osbourne's hard-knock childhood in Birmingham, his brief but formative "holiday" behind bars, and even the gruesome details of his job in a slaughterhouse.

And while Ozzy's recollections of Black Sabbath's career were bound to be less revealing than Iommi's, as the architect of the band's sound and vision, the singer's perspective is both essential and largely positive, since it was thankfully published during "peace time" in the Sabbath ranks.

Plus, most of the "war" talk is saved for Ozzy's solo career and the never-ending rivalry with his former group instigated by his ruthless wife and manager, Sharon, who, to be fair, almost paid with her life for years of devotion, when her husband tried to kill her in the midst of a substance-fueled blackout.

No wonder they ended up with a reality TV show!

All kidding aside, amid all the latter-day overexposure and unpopular business decisions that overshadowed music in recent years (Bill Ward's exile being top of the list), I Am Ozzy at the very least reminded me we need to appreciate Ozzy while we still have him.

Featured Records:

Black Sabbath: Vol. 4 (1972)

Ozzy Osbourne: No More Tears (1991)

Ozzy Osbourne: Diary of a Madman (1982)

Buy from: Amazon

[rockingreads]

Tony Iommi: Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath (2011)

He truly is THE Iron Man ... and don't you even start!

To all of us who, at some point (or all points) in our lives, have embraced heavy metal music, there's simply no one -- no bandmates, precursors, or followers -- more responsible for defining this most loved and hated of styles than Tony Iommi.

End of discussion, full stop!

Credit his iron will for overcoming the debilitating loss of two fingertips to churn out all of those eternal riffs (a traumatic experience described here like never before), for rejecting the fast-track to fame offered by Jethro Tull (which he joined and quit within a week), and for leading Ozzy, Geezer, and Bill on their shared musical mission.

It was Iommi who shouldered the bulk of Sabbath's songwriting load (with lyrics provided by Butler) until bad drugs and worse business decisions brought them to their knees; and it was he who kept the band and brand going, through thick, thin, and thinner, behind a succession of vocalists, great and small, until Black Sabbath was duly recognized as influential icons, well beyond just metal.

On Iron Man, Iommi frankly shares both the steely resolve that drove and helped him overcome these challenges AND the bone-headed mistakes that caused them in the first place -- as well as previously unknown, behind-the-scenes details of his endless jousting with Ozzy and Sharon for control of Black Sabbath's destiny and legacy.

Iron Man isn't the most riveting or titillating rock star autobiography you'll ever read -- not by a long shot -- but it's the ultimate insider's account of heavy metal's most seminal band (Mick Wall's Symptom of the Universe arguably being the ultimate outsider's take), no matter what anyone tells you.

Again, for those of us who worship at the altar of the mighty heavy metal riff, Tony Iommi is both lord and savior, amen.

Featured Records:

Black Sabbath: Paranoid (1970)

Black Sabbath (featuring Tony Iommi): Seventh Star (1986)

Black Sabbath: Forbidden (1995)

Buy from: Amazon

[rockingreads]

Richard Meltzer: A Whore Just Like the Rest: The Music Writings or Richard Meltzer (2000)

There are no such things as real "firsts" in the world, but Richard Meltzer was one of the first writers to approach rock 'n' roll from a critical, analytical, and philosophical perspective through his seminal 1970 book, The Aesthetics of Rock.

He went on to write for Rolling Stone, Creem, The Village Voice, and countless other publications as a member of America's first generation of rock critics, but Meltzer never gave up his cynical, provocative, sometimes even disdainful attitude towards his subjects.

Armed with a caustic, freewheeling style akin to Hunter S. Thompson's famous "gonzo" journalism, Meltzer became an inspiration to all fanatical music observers who transcend blind, sycophantic worship of their idols and demand answers -- or at the very least satisfaction in exchange for their devotion.

Along the way, Meltzer covered thousands of artists, with special interest in The Beatles, The Stooges, The Doors, The Grateful Dead, The Minutemen, Patti Smith, Jimi Hendrix, and Blue Öyster Cult, whose manager, Sandy Pearlman, was a lifelong friend and nemesis. (*)

A thick, dense, chaotic compendium, A Whore Just Like the Rest unearths hundreds of reviews, essays, interviews, profiles, and screeds, backed by Meltzer's recollections, explanations, and justifications for himself, so it's not for the faint of heart or those seeking a linear read.

And yes, he really does review Cactus' sophomore album, One Way ... Or Another (pictured here), although, in typical Meltzer fashion, this turns into a jab against Atlantic Records, which then promptly removed the writer from their promo mailing list.

So you wanna be a rock 'n' roll critic, eh?

Finally, I just love the title of this book because it affirms one of life's unfortunate truths: we all have a price, high or low, just or unjust, especially when we make our passion our profession, in which case we're forever forced to walk a fine line between honest opinion and ... 'bidness'!

As this collection illustrates, Meltzer pushed that line as aggressively as any writer (including the far more notorious Lester Bangs) and paid for it with his bank account, if not his integrity (for the most part), and that's why he's still hailed as a rock critic's rock critic.

* Meltzer and Pearlman co-authored several B.Ö.C. songs, of course.

Featured Records:

Blue Öyster Cult: On Your Feet or On Your Knees (1975)

Cactus: One Way … Or Another (1971)

The Mahavishnu Orchestra: The Inner Mounting Flame (1971)

Jimi Hendrix: The Cry of Love (1971)

Buy from: Amazon

[rockingreads]

Tony Visconti (w/ Richard Havers): The Autobiography: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy (A Nostalgic Journey Through the Golden Age of British Pop and Rock Music) (2007)

Most record producers and engineers belong behind the studio console, along with their boring stories about mixing levels and button-pushing, but Tony Visconti's exceptionally long and colorful list of superstar credits make him one of the exceptions.

As the title says, Visconti was born and raised in Brooklyn, where his love of music flourished and found its first outlet playing with small-time bands (Ricardo & The Latineers, The Crew-Cuts, etc.) and even releasing a single -- "Long Hair" as Tony and Siegrid with his first wife.

Along the way, Visconti began working for a publisher as staff engineer and met British producer Denny Cordell (The Move, Procol Harum, Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, etc.), who duly invited Visconti to work for him in London.

His first job entailed assisting on the first Tyrannosaurus Rex LP, and after producing (and playing bass for) David Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World, Visconti enjoyed a fruitful relationship with the renamed T.Rex and its leader Marc Bolan (Electric Warrior, The Slider, etc.), until the glam rock pixie scuttled his career prospects by 1974.

But one closed door opened another as Visconti reunited with the post-Ziggy Stardust Bowie for his massively influential Berlin Trilogy (alongside Brian Eno) and 1980's Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), but these were hardly the sum of his credits.

Because, over the course of the '70s and into the '80s, Visconti built one of rock's most enviable resumes, adding the likes of Badfinger, Osibisa, Sparks, The Moody Blues, The Boomtown Rats, Thin Lizzy, Morrissey, and many others to his bulging professional ledger.

Personally, I'm especially grateful for Visconti's work on behalf of Thin Lizzy, since their albums were decidedly lacking on the production front until the 'Brooklyn Boy' helmed 1977's Bad Reputation, '78's classic Live and Dangerous, and '79's Black Rose.

Visconti's workload lightened in the '90s, so he doesn't even try to disguise his gratitude when Bowie re-engaged him to co-produce Third Millennium LPs like Heathen, Reality, and, after these memoirs' publication date, '13's The Next Day and '16's swan song, Blackstar.

It goes without saying that an updated edition of Visconti's story covering David's final works would be welcomed with open arms, since there are obviously precious few living collaborators who shared so many creative experiences with rock's great chameleon.

And there is obviously only one producer who rode a white swan with Bolan, sold the world with Bowie, and worked with as many diverse and intriguing artists as did Tony Visconti.

Featured Records:

T.Rex: The Slider (1972)

David Bowie: Low (1977)

Thin Lizzy: Bad Reputation (1977)

Buy from: Amazon

[rockingreads]

Jerry Bloom: Black Knight: Ritchie Blackmore (2008)

Anyone who knows their hard rock history will tell you that guitar hero Ritchie Blackmore -- this book's titular 'Black Knight,' as leader of both Deep Purple and Rainbow -- has always ranked amongst the most puzzling and enigmatic rock stars.

So I think I speak for most fans when I say we hoped that his self-appointed biographer (unauthorized, of course), Jerry Bloom, might finally unlock and reveal some secrets of the 'Man in Black' not called Johnny Cash.

Well, don't get your hopes up ...

Because after a cursory investigation into Blackmore's closely-guarded childhood and family life, all Bloom can do is studiously chronicle Ritchie’s early career with instrumental group, The Outlaws, and session work for controversial producer Joe Meek, from whom he may have learned some of his eccentricities.

Then it’s headlong into Deep Purple and their remarkable transformation from symphonic psych also-rans to heavy metal architects (*) who contributed so much of the genre's core discography until their leader -- tired of the discord he had no small part in generating -- sought a fresh start with Rainbow.

That legendary outfit’s musically bi-polar run, from castle metal kings to AOR wannabes, is also meticulously unpacked by Bloom to show the darker side of Ritchie’s controlling personality, complete with endless pranks and mind games perpetrated on Ronnie James Dio and his singing successors.

And, after handing readers a front-row seat and buckets of popcorn for Deep Purple's uber-hyped 1980s reunion (doomed to be undermined, yet again, by Ritchie's ego-sparring with Ian Gillian), Bloom drags them into the head-scratching, neoclassical/medieval/folk rock of Blackmore's Night.

Mind you, for diehard fans like me, Bloom's extensive research and well-balanced opinions into every last inch of Blackmore's career (up to Black Knight's initial publication in 2008) is riveting stuff, but it still only begins to unravel the persistent mystery that is Ritchie Blackmore.

That being said, it will stand as a "definitive" biography until the 'Man in Black' himself decides to grace us with an autobiography (don't hold your breath!), and, to be honest, I'm not sure he won't pull our legs even then!

* One of the book's most illuminating elements was shedding uncommon insight into the corporate-like management structure that first financed and later crippled Purple’s career, as its musicians and their art were treated like goods and commodities to be endlessly spun off into ancillary "product lines" -- e.g. Rainbow, Whitesnake, and all those solo careers.

Featured Records:

Rainbow: Rising (1976)

Deep Purple: In Rock (1970)

Deep Purple: Perfect Strangers (1984)

Buy from: Amazon

[rockingreads]

Donald S. Passman: All You Need to Know About the Music Business (1991) x 2

Every music industry household has a copy ... and sometimes two if you, like me, happened to meet your significant other at a music industry job.

I'm not sure where and when my dear wife secured her copy of Donald S. Passman's All You Need to Know About the Music Business, but I purchased mine while I was earning my MBA in Entertainment Marketing at Columbia College Chicago.

Six months into my two-year degree, at the beginning of April, 1995, I began interning at the Chicago branch of Polygram Group Distribution (little did I know my future wife was doing the same in New York), which means I'm marking 30 years in the music biz circus.

Labels, distributors, publishers, and promoters; agents, attorneys, managers, and artists; royalties, contracts, advances, and recoupments; master recordings, merchandise, touring, and other revenue streams; marketing, sales, press, promotion, and A&R: all of these intricate and intertwined players and subjects are covered as clearly and succinctly as humanly possible.

Spoiler alert: it's truly an impossible task, but this primer will at least get you started.

I can't say I've consulted the book very often since those college days, but I've heard Passman has diligently updated it to keep up with the radical, never-ending changes me and my colleagues have had to contend with all these years.

It's no exaggeration to say that today's predominantly digital, TikTok- and A.I.-impacted music business has very little in common with the one I joined in the heyday of CDs and MTV, so that would make All You Need to Know one of the few constants over those three decades.

That and my marriage, thankfully, though not even that has been going quite as long (24 years and counting) as this essential reference book and its author, who was recently interviewed about the eleventh edition in The Hollywood Reporter.

p.s. -- You'll find surprisingly little information about Passman's actual experience as a music industry lawyer, but I once read that Chicago pomp rockers Styx were one of his many clients, so that's why I included them among this blog's featured records.

Featured Records:

Huey Lewis and The News: Sports (1983)

Billy Joel: Greatest Hits - Volume I & Volume II (1985)

Elton John: Madman Across the Water (1971)

Styx: Equinox (1975)

Buy from: Amazon

[rockingreads]

Clinton Walker: Highway to Hell: The Life and Times of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott (2007) *

Irene Thornton: Have a Drink On Me: The Inside Story of AC/DC's Troubled Frontman (2019)

I was all set to mark the 45th anniversary of Bon Scott's tragic passing this past February with Clinton Walker's comprehensive and quite unparalleled biography of the legendary AC/DC singer, but then I realized there was another important account I had to read ...

In many ways our memory of Bon is essentially a caricature, or at best an archetype, of perhaps the ultimate rock 'n' roll frontman we'll ever know: a raunchy, rebellious, irreverent, charismatic Australian beloved as both rock star and man of the people.

This, as much as the music he left behind, is why we love him.

But Walker's aptly named Highway to Hell adds flesh and bone to turn the myth back into a real man: full of spirit, nuance, and contradictions; a loyal friend who maintained a close relationship with his family, in spite of his lifelong gypsy wanderlust and his fair share of demons.

Based on dozens of interviews, Walker also catalogs Bon's many adventures and misadventures singing for other bands (The Valentines, Fraternity, etc.), before (if unfortunately not after) he joined AC/DC at the ripe age (for a rocker) of 27.

His was a "long way to the top," indeed.

But it’s naturally Walker’s thorough deep dive into Scott’s partnership with the Young clan, with whom he bashed out some of the greatest hard rock ever created, that AC/DC fans will undoubtedly look forward to, and they won't be disappointed.

If anything, they'll get more than they bargained for, since Walker also delves into the dark side of the dream; that place where joy and adulation meet mounting stress and sheer exhaustion, given the unimaginable recording and touring workload that came with AC/DC's success.

My impression is that Bon shared Angus and Malcolm's unfailing belief in the power of rock 'n' roll until the end, maybe to a fatal fault (he knew from hard-earned personal experience, he had no other alternative), and that the grueling lifestyle gradually undermined Scott's strong foundation and ultimately caught up with him -- plain and simple.

In sum: I long considered Walker's efforts, published in 2007, to be the final word on Bon Scott ... until I realized there was a more recent memoir -- the strangely named Have a Drink on Me -- written by Bon’s ex-wife, Irene Thornton!

Mind you, Bon and Irene were married and divorced before he even joined AC/DC (she accompanied him to London with doomed country rockers Fraternity), so her story centers on the couple's bittersweet existence in early '70s Adelaide.

But Bon and Irene remained friendly until the end of his life, and this slim but affectionate volume provides fond reminisces on their brief but passionate love affair, as well as welcome nuggets of his late '70s ride overseas with AC/DC.

Bottom line, Thornton's singular viewpoint is a perfect complement to Walker's essential biography (which, in fact, includes many interviews with Irene) and I'll wager that, together, they'll supply most everything you need to finally get to know the man behind the myth.

* The title has since been revised to 'Life and Death of ...'

Featured Records:

AC/DC: Highway to Hell (1979)

AC/DC: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap [Australian Pressing] (1976)

AC/DC: High Voltage [European Pressing] (1976)

Buy from: Amazon / Amazon

[rockingreads]

Michael Streissguth: Outlaw: Waylon, Willie, Kris, and the Renegades of Nashville (2013)

Their records may not sound all that rough or dangerous to heavy metal fans like me, accustomed to much scarier musical horrors, but Waylon, Willie, Kris, and other 'Nashville Renegades' sure freaked out the respectable, conservative country establishment of the 1970s.

Inspired by the late '60s counter-culture and discouraged with the increasingly safe and slick "countrypolitan" sound taking over Nashville, the 'Outlaws' fought back against Music City's incestuous song-publishing consortiums and restrictive studio and radio politics.

Specifically, they roughed up their songs with grittier sub-genres like bluegrass, honky tonk, folk rock, country and western, Americana, and even rockabilly, topped them with authority-challenging lyrics, and then they got scruffy: swapping polyester suits for denim, and literally letting their hair down.

The irony, of course, is that the Outlaws were simply asking the same question that has both plagued and energized country music since time immemorial and unto the present day: what actually qualifies as "real country" and why.

The answer is out there ...

Author Michael Streissguth takes a comprehensive look at the Outlaw movement, covering other contributors like Merle Haggard, David Allan Coe, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, Tompall Glaser, Kinky Friedman, Jessi Colter, Jerry Jeff Walker, Cowboy Jack Clement, and, last but not least, Johnny Cash.

In fact, I feel kind of bad for not including the 'Man in Black' among my featured records, since he did so much to draw public attention to real-live outlaws, via his culturally-defining live albums recorded at Folsom Prison and San Quentin.

But have no fear because Streissguth justly gives Cash a leading role in this entertaining glimpse into perhaps the only country music style that most non-country music fans usually care about, let alone buy a book to read about.

You may want to do just that.

Featured Records:

Various Artists: Wanted! The Outlaws (1976)

Willie Nelson: Shotgun Willie (1973)

Kris Kristofferson: The Silver Tongued Devil and I (1971)

Buy from: Amazon

[rockingreads]

Mickey Leigh (w/ Legs McNeil): I Slept with Joey Ramone: A Punk Rock Family Memoir (2010)

Dee Dee Ramone (w/ Veronica Kofman): Poison Heart: Surviving the Ramones (1998)

I'll never read Johnny (Reagan Youth) Ramone's memoirs and I already covered Marky's here on Rockin' Reads, so today I'll write a few words about Dee Dee's Poison Heart and the closest thing we're ever likely to see to a Joey autobiography: Mickey Leigh's I Slept with Joey Ramone.

As Joey's (born Jeffrey Hyman) little brother, Mickey was able to shed unprecedented light upon their joint upbringing in Queens, including the life-affecting physical and mental ailments (O.C.D., etc.) that shaped the future Ramones frontman.

An aspiring musician himself, Mickey was the Ramones' first roadie, then spent the ensuing decades living in and out of Joey's shadow, trying unsuccessfully to launch his own career, while enjoying a complicated but close and generally loving family relationship.

Mickey's need to intertwine his own story with Joey's (not that you can blame him) feels unwarranted or just plain uninteresting, at times, and the book could definitely have shed about 100 pages of mid-life family gossip, bickering, and Ramones drama.

But Mickey's earnest affection for his brother is rarely in doubt, and we'll surely never read a more intimate recounting of Joey's personal life and the painful final days that led up to his tragically early passing in 2001 at age 49.

(Also, let's not overlook the valuable contribution of co-author Legs McNeil -- himself a punk veteran and demi-legend, well beyond his essential punk rock oral history (with Gillian McCain), Please Kill Me.)

And then there's Dee Dee ...

If you had to choose just one of the four "bruddas" to epitomize the world-class dysfunction that afflicted the Ramones' career, it would have to be the notoriously self-destructive, simultaneously shrewd and innocent, just plain enigmatic Dee Dee.

1998's Poison Heart doesn't necessarily solve the man's mystery, but it lays bare Dee Dee's kamikaze approach to life in uncensored, no-holds-barred fashion, and kudos to co-author Veronica Kofman for effectively capturing his voice -- even the whining!

A true roller coaster ride, it follows the boy born Douglas Colvin from the post-war streets of Berlin to Forest Hills to Manhattan, where he shared illicit adventures and illicit substances with all the key punk rock players and extended figures in New York's bustling art scene.

As told in Dee Dee's totally tactless, devil-may-care style, all of the Ramones' dirty laundry is aired here (no friend, enemy, or bandmate is spared); some of it, like the sordid details of the Joey/Johnny rivalry, for the first time.

In the end, self-sabotage and drug-abuse may have been the greatest constants in Dee Dee's life, which sadly culminated in his not-at-all-surprising death from an overdose in 2002, barely one year after Joey left us.

Putting it simply: both Joey and Dee Dee were, in their own ways, a hot mess!

But, as these two books remind us, these two tortured but lovable characters wrote the bulk of the Ramones' incomparable punk rock canon, which, like its flawed creators, will henceforth overshadow all of their professional disappointments and personal tragedies.

"Hey! Ho! Let's go!"

Featured Records:

Ramones: End of the Century (1980)

Ramones: Subterranean Jungle (1983)

Ramones: Animal Boy (1986)

Buy from: Amazon / Amazon

[rockingreads]

Michael Walker: Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Legendary Neighborhood (2007)

Time to talk about another one of those special places and times in music history about which countless fans have uttered words along the lines of "I wish I could have been there": L.A.'s Laurel Canyon in the late '60s and early '70s.

In this absorbing book, journalist (and latter day Laurel Canyon resident) Michael Walker chronicled the origin, heyday, demise, and enduring fascination with the Hollywood Hills neighborhood that hosted maybe popular music's most idealistic and idyllic era -- certainly one of its most romanticized.

I say that because of course there was just as much petty jealousy and bitter rivalry behind Laurel Canyon's peace and love (maaaannn) facade, but lofty expectations and good intentions for changing the world definitely fueled many of the artists who tried to establish their own hippie nirvana among its steep hills and twisting roads.

Artists like The Byrds, The Mamas and the Papas, The Doors, The Flying Burrito Bros., The Turtles, the Eagles, Frank Zappa, Jackson Browne, Carole King, and the uncrowned queen of Laurel Canyon, Joni Mitchell.

Their efforts briefly created a fertile musical laboratory in those hills above L.A., and Walker does a fine job of addressing the social, political, and cultural forces (feminism, Vietnam, the Manson murders, etc.) that shaped their music and mood.

So even if you don't count yourself among those who pine to have experienced this particular slice of pop music Camelot (I don't, though I'd still want to visit Zappa's famous Log Cabin and maybe flirt with The GTO's), there's much to love about this book.

Featured Records:

Joni Mitchell: Ladies of the Canyon (1970)

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Déjà Vu (1970)

The Flying Burrito Bros.: Burrito Deluxe (1970)

The Mothers of Invention: Just Another Band from L.A. (1972)

The Turtles: "Happy Together" (1967)

Buy from: Amazon

[rockingreads]

Harald Oimoen & Brian Lew: Murder in the Front Row: Shots from the Bay Area Trash Metal Epicenter (2012)

Every diehard music lover has said "I wish I could have been there," referring to a place and time where/when our favorite bands emerged out of poorly documented and subsequently celebrated music "scenes."

In my case, the mid '80s rise of thrash in the San Francisco Bay Area has always been near the top of the list.

Of course, as someone who took part in another localized heavy metal "scene" (Brazil's late '80s equivalent), I know that reality rarely lives up to the romanticized memories that follow, but the yearning, like the music, never fades away.

That's why I went ga-ga for the stunning Murder in the Front Row, which showcases the heroic photographic efforts of Harald Oimoen and Brian Lew: two fans who took it upon themselves to document this thrash metal "epicenter" as it swirled all around them.

Their modest efforts wound up immortalizing some of the earliest performances and back-alley promo shots of future metal heroes such as Metallica, Exodus, Slayer, Testament (then known as Legacy), Megadeth, Death Angel, and even death metal pioneers Possessed.

Fellow mosh pit-dwellers like Exodus' Gary Holt, Testament's Alex Skolnick, Forbidden/Vio-Lence/Machine Head's Robb Flynn, and influential DJ/promoter/webzine editor Ron Quintana add their remembrances to tell the story through revealing essays.

And kudos to independent publisher Bazillion Points for assembling literally hundreds (400-plus!) of these precious images into a coffee table book that, like this extreme and revolutionary music, would have been every parent's worst nightmare.

After all, who among us DIDN'T listen to extreme and revolutionary sounds, at least in part, because we wanted to shock and piss off our parents?

Now I get to provoke similarly dramatic eye-rolls from my kids, as I rave about these hairy, sweaty maniacs pulling exaggerated stage poses and scowling comically in Oimoen and Lews' pictures, which really are the next best thing to having been there.

Featured Records:

Exodus: Bonded by Blood (1985)

Metallica: Whiplash EP (1983)

Slayer: Show No Mercy (1983)

Possessed: Seven Churches (1985)

Buy from: Bazillion Points