(Part 2) Best rock band biographies according to redditors
We found 70 Reddit comments discussing the best rock band biographies. We ranked the 41 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
This gives a whole new meaning to the old saying "when you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."
But seriously in the period after we created the bomb, but before we understood that setting one off anywhere had all kinds of negative effects, there were all kinds of proposals to use it that would now seem insane.
There is of course the infamous idea that we might nuke the moon:
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/28/u-s-had-plans-to-nuke-the-moon/
And then there was that time we considered using the H-Bomb to carve out a new harbor in Alaska:
http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/SEEJ/chariotseej.html
Which is only one of such bizarre suggestions that were considered in the 1950s. There was an entire opperation called Project: Plowshare to look for peaceful uses of atomic explosions.
There are some fascinating politics at the beginning of the Cold War surrounding atomic and nuclear weapons. Debates ranged between those who believed that these new weapons were fundamentally different from older weapons and should only be used in the worst circumstances and those (like Curtis LeMay) who thought that atom bombs were basically big conventional weapons and should be used as needed.
Ike's Bluff has a lot of details about the atomic politics of the early Cold War, even if it is a little too laudatory of Eisenhower for my taste:
http://www.amazon.com/Ikes-Bluff-President-Eisenhowers-Secret/dp/0316091049
Many of the Dylan bios delve into this period. None are definitive, and all have their fair share of faults; but if you're inclined, I'd say the best of the bunch are probably Howard Sounes' Down the Highway, Clinton Heylin's Behind the Shades, and Robert Shelton's No Direction Home. The Shelton book leans pretty heavy on the '60s, though; for later info, I'd stick with one of the other two.
If, however, you'd rather not go down that route, I will happily do what I can to summarize the relevant contents.
Here goes:
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The Dylans' marriage had been wobbly for a while, but it ran off the rails during the second leg of the RTR. Bob was having, as you might say, lots of strange affairs—one, for instance, with a woman he had invited into his entourage to teach him how to tightrope walk. This and God knows what else led to Bob & Sara having several public arguments during this time, which ultimately ended with her leaving the tour for good and him henceforth tearing into "Idiot Wind" like never before.
Back in California, the two had previously put plans in place to construct their fantasy home along the water, in Point Dume. They each spent a sizable chunk of '76 overseeing the construction of this mega-mansion, bickering about details and alterations along the way.
Sara later testified that the final straw in their relationship occurred in February '77, when she came down to breakfast one day to find Bob sitting at the table with their children, and a woman she'd never seen before named Malka. She claimed a dispute then ensued, in which Bob struck her in the face and told her to leave. (Bear in mind, the details of this have never been independently verified; this is just what Sara said at the time.) What we know for sure is that Sara moved out, hired the most famous divorce lawyer in the country—Marvin M. Mitchelson, the man who coined the term "palimony"—and filed for divorce at the beginning of March.
Upon receiving the news, Bob shacked up with Faridi McFree, who had been an "art therapist" and nanny of sorts for his kids. He and McFree subsequently sojourned for the summer to Dylan's farm in Minnesota, which is where he wrote most if not all of "Street-Legal." It was also here that Bob learned of the death of Elvis Presley, a development which affected him profoundly.
>McFree: "I was with him the night Presley died ... He really took it very bad. He didn't speak for a couple of days. He was really grieving."
>Dylan (to Robert Shelton): "I broke down [after Elvis died]. One of the very few times. I went over my whole life. I went over my whole childhood. I didn't talk to anyone for a week ... If it wasn't for Elvis and Hank Williams, I couldn't be doing what I do today."
The divorce proceedings got ugly and, by all accounts, super expensive—the settlement records are sealed, but Sara supposedly walked away with tens of millions (Sounes says $36 million), plus a share of royalties going forward. Bob got to keep the new house.
The custody fight got even uglier. Sara petitioned the court for permission to move with the children to Hawaii; Bob responded by asking to be granted sole custody. A protracted battle ensued, which Bob eventually lost. To ensure he ended up with at least partial custody (i.e., visitation rights), he dumped McFree, who by this time Sara actively despised and didn't want around the kids.
Throughout this period, Bob was working with Howard Alk assembling "Renaldo & Clara." Alk lived in a guesthouse on Dylan's estate; they worked during the days in an editing suite Bob had set up in his garage. You can imagine what this experience must have been like, considering how much of the footage they were combing through featured his now ex-wife.
Alk, it sadly must be said, was an incorrigible drug addict—he ended up committing suicide via heroin overdose in Dylan's Santa Monica studio in 1982—and it's been alleged that cocaine played a more than ample role throughout the editing process. The film, of course, both flopped and received scathing reviews, which one would imagine did wonders for neither Bob's psyche nor his pocketbook.
Which brings us to "World Tour '78," the impetus for which was purely economic. As Bob told the Los Angeles Times: "I had a couple of bad years. I put a lot of money into the movie, built a big house ... and it costs a lot to get divorced in California."
He signed with Jerry Weintraub, after going to see a Neil Diamond concert in Las Vegas and being impressed with the theatrics. Weintraub, who managed Diamond, is the person who put together Dylan's massive tour in '78, which ended up grossing over $20 million.
The tour began in Japan. There's a great story—it's in the Sounes book—that while he was in California preparing for rehearsals, Bob received a telegram from the Japanese promoters essentially stipulating which songs they expected him to perform. Since Bob wasn't then in a financial position to refuse such a request, he sent a guitar technician down to a bookstore to buy his first published collection of lyrics, "Writings and Drawings," so that he could reacquaint himself with his back catalogue.
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Anyway, that's most of it. Suffice it to say, I think losing your wife, your kids (at least in part), and a shitload of dough in short succession would probably stress just about anyone out. Plus, you know, the drugs and booze and all the other vices that a newly-single world-famous celebrity is wont to partake in....probably didn't do Dylan a lot of good in the long run. Although who am I to judge?
Hope that helps.
Morrissey's autobiography
This?
Not sure of the podcast but it sounds pretty close to this story - https://www.amazon.com/Exposed-Tragedy-Triumph-Mountain-Climbing/dp/1555664598
Terzaghi: Engineer as an Artist, a really nice book about the father of soil mechanics.
off the top of my head:
and most recently:
https://www.amazon.com/Sing-Backwards-Weep-Mark-Lanegan/dp/0306922800/ref=nodl_
I don't think any of them are satisfactory.
I Me Mine is the essential. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Me-Mine-Extended-George-Harrison/dp/1905662408/
Get the book of the doco https://www.amazon.co.uk/George-Harrison-Living-Material-World/dp/1419702203
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Otherwise, take a look at some of the reviews of the other biographies:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Here-Comes-Sun-Spiritual-Harrison/dp/0553817965/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/George-Harrison-Behind-Locked-Door/dp/1785582690/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/While-My-Guitar-Gently-Weeps/dp/1423406095
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Working-Class-Mystic-Spiritual-Biography/dp/0835609006
Something related to the area:
The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest
An example of what's in that book: Wake Robin (essay on Trilliums)
Buy this book: Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307275523/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_vpoOwbBJ2NJM5
Trust me on this.
This book will enlighten and entertain you on the subject.
Ex-Flyleaf singer Lacey Sturm has a book coming out in October called The Reason. http://www.amazon.com/Reason-The-Discovered-Worth-Living/dp/0801016738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394325544&sr=8-1&keywords=Lacey+Sturm
Like what? This book portrays him as being a fairly modest, graceful celebrity: http://www.amazon.com/Last-Train-Memphis-Elvis-Presley/dp/1439508623
Yeah, a made for t.v. Canadian movie made in 2001 does not warrant $30 for a book. It didn't even get syndicated in theaters. Just sayin'.
To put this into perspective, here is the book by Aron Ralston, the guy who was portrayed by James Franco in the Oscar-winning Danny Boyle film 127 Hours, and it's being sold for ... oh, weird: $8.99. http://www.amazon.com/127-Hours-Between-Rock-Place/dp/1451617704
This suggestion might be controversial but I always liked Fred Seaman's book about the last 2-3 years of Lennon's life even if the author turned into a sleezeball (IMO).
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Days-John-Lennon-Personal/dp/1559720840
Fred Seaman was one of John's personal assistants from 1978 thru his death in 1980 (he stayed on with Yoko for a year afterwards but was eventually fired). He had very close access to Lennon on a daily basis, saw private moments that the Lennon's would never have expected to be public and even traveled with John on vacations to Long Island and later Jamaica.
There is some fascinating stuff that really gets into Lennon's mind and thought process through much of those years, including how Lennon decided on a whim to take up sailing, had a rocky start, grew obsessive over learning it and how it became a huge transformative moment for him when he sailed solo to Jamaica. Little things like that were awesome to read.
There is also a lot of negativity included and this is where you start to question the narrator a bit. Not because its negative but because how anti-Yoko the book starts to get. He positions their relationship as one with little affection and John yearning for Yoko and Yoko turning her back on John. He also claims Yoko was on and off heroin for much of him time there. Before his sailing experience he positions John as bored, trapped by him fame in his house, short tempered, little involvement in Sean's life, spiteful and jealous about anything relating to Paul. His days at the Dakota mostly consisted of sitting around watching TV, jerking off and listening to music.
How much of this is true we don't know. But we do know that after John's death, Fred stole a bunch of personal letters, photos, recordings, etc from the Lennons and was preparing to write a book about them before he was caught. (There was eventually a book written by the person he was working to co-author the book with based on this person's recollections of the stolen items after they were returned). Since the book was written, Seaman's name has been rightfully been dragged through the mud and a lot of the book was discredited by the general public.
I tend to believe that 70% of the book is completely accurate, 30% is written with a huge bias against Yoko so events might have been truthful but it was presented in a skewed way. Either way, I think its worth a read.
The title, yes. This story about how the track was based on Thom's essay comes from a book about them (I'm pretty sure, read it a long time ago but I don't think I'd remember this story from anywhere else)
Just know that you are not alone for having visited a "psych ward." We all have times when we need help. And there will be times when we don't feel like what is happening is in our best interests but we have to work with it as best we can. JM Blaine is a writer who is a crisis worker and shares some pretty amazing stories and I just feel closer to people who have been through stuff when I read his books. Who or what groups can you find identity with and some solidarity? We all need friends.
The best advice I can offer is to try to communicate as calmly and in a goal oriented manner with your parents as you can seeing they are your legal guardians and are in charge of your health. Do everything you can to maintain a positive relationship with them while going through difficult times. You don't have to appease them but try not to blame them too much as it makes them your enemy when they're the main people who can potentially help take care of you.
Everything that happens on social media or through phone and text can seem poisonous. So try not to take it too seriously. People have to talk to each other in order to share information and we always feel criticized when we hear people talking about us, even when it's good. Criticism is an easy trigger for anger, so be cautious about taking things too personally. They have to communicate with each other and that's that. It is what it is.
Remember you can always call your therapist's office or an anonymous help line for advice. Whenever you get angry it helps to take walks to cool off. It's better to pause, stop, go to another room, get a glass of water, or for a walk than to say something that is negative. The anger management techniques like breathing slowly 10 times or just counting to 10 slowly (or 100 fast), etc., work if we understand why we are doing them.
Anything you can do that is a temporary, healthy distraction from the anger lets you cool off. Then you could for example, keep a journal to work through your feelings and thoughts.
Journaling is also a way to keep track of the most important things you are working on. There's Bullet Journal too which is a flexible system. It's a little expensive but after you get the system you can use any old notebook. There's a sub that does it too r/bujo. The creator Ryder Carroll came up with it to help him remember important things both with work and personal. It's an all in one organization system. You can use it as a calendar, a way to organize to-do lists and mood or positive habit trackers. I find journaling helps me calm my thoughts and stay on top of what I'm working on personally. Hope some of this helps.
Speaking of Paths :
The Strange Paths We All Follow (Chance Encounters Trilogy) (Volume 1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0692996761/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_5uYVAbMNGEKQ9
127 Hours : Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Aron Ralston
http://www.amazon.ca/127-Hours-Between-Rock-Place/dp/1451618506/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1319589103&sr=8-2