Where this book works well is when Wall uses his knowledge of the band, including his long friendship with Page to paint an interesting and accurate account of the band and their history. From an in-depth background on all 4 members, their childhood, family influences and early musical careers, the book moves onto the formation of Led Zeppelin and their early performances and recordings. My favorite parts of the book were the comprehensive accounts of the recording of each of the bands studio albums, with events captured in detail from key personel involved in the recording process. Not only was the time and location of the recording of each album covered, but Wall provides and insightful analysis of every Zeppelin song, which his research uncovered a treasure trove of information not covered in any of the other numerous Led Zeppelin memoirs that I have read.

Even though the full Led Zeppelin hasn’t toured in over 30 years, Led Zeppelin is still considered to be one of the greatest live bands in rock and roll history and When Giants Walked The Earth does an excellent job of documenting Led Zep in full flight as they toured all over the world. From their humble beginnings touring the halls of their motherland England to record selling tours of the United States (and the infamous debauchery that occurred) is covered in a comprehensive manner that perfectly treads the line between romanticizing and condemning the bands excesses on the road. The book does an excellent job in showing how each of the band members dealt with a seemingly endless life on the road and being away from their young families and provides insights into the unfortunate death of drummer, John Bonham.

Written in 2009, the book covers the band members through the years after the official break up of Led Zeppelin, including Robert Plant’s extraordinary reinvention with country/folk singer Alison Krauss and the multiple times Jimmy Page tried to get the remaining members back together for a reunion album and tours, which ultimately resulted in the 2007 reunion concert at the O2 arena to raise money for former music executive Ahmet Ertegün’s charity foundation. Like all facets in this book, this section goes into great depth in how this event came to pass and the strict rules that Robert Plant insisted on, including no long jams and Stairway to Heaven to be played mid-set and not as an encore, before agreeing to play.

The downside to this book is when Wall goes beyond the facts and 3rd hand accounts from those who with the band and instead tries to bring the reader “inside the mind” of the various band members by writing a small part of most chapters from a band members view point. He tries to describe how each person was feeling and why they chose a particular option which he can not possibly know. The use of these viewpoints has polarized opinion amongst those who have read this book, some people on Amazon.com love it while plenty of people find it to be grating. Thankfully these viewpoints rarely take up more space than a couple of pages a chapter and should not be seen as a big enough annoyance to not buy this book.

The other polarizing aspect of this book is the detailed account of The Occult and how it affected the band and imagery of the band, in particular guitarist Jimmy Page. While other Led Zeppelin memoirs have touched on this aspect, When Giants Walked The Earth dedicated almost 30 pages to the subject, going into almost overwhelming detail in the history of the occult, what parts may have influenced Page and how this imagery was used within the band.

These two aspects are only minor annoyances in what is otherwise the best researched and detailed Led Zeppelin biography on the market today. Unless Jimmy Page, Robert Plant or John Paul-Jones change their famous stance and decide to write their own rock music memoir, this book is the closest the music loving public is going to get to an inside account of the rise, fall and continued legacy of the world’s greatest ever rock band. When Giants Walked The Earth is a must read for any Zeppelin fan.

Buy When Giants Walked The Earth for the cheapest price from Amazon.com



Led Zeppelin When Giants Walked The Earth Biography Review is a post from: Rock Music Books

Purchase Bob Dylan’s rock music memoir Chronicles: Volume 1 from Amazon.com

Bob Dylan Reportedly Signs New 6 Book Deal is a post from: Rock Music Books

From the humblest of beginnings in post war London to one of the most famous guitarists in the world as a founding member of The Rolling Stones, Life is Keith Richards’s eagerly awaited memoir, covering his life from dirt poor blues lover to rock superstar, his complex relationship with Mick Jagger, his infamous drug busts and addictions, his many relationship but mostly importantly, his undying love of music of all styles and genres.

Keith Richards’s autobiography is unusual in the field of rock music books and memoirs in not only being a blunt assessment of his life and relationships, it is written in a stream of consciousness style in stark contrast to the standard rock music autobiography fare which is heavily edited and polished by ghost writers. Richards’s book appears to be transcribed directly from audiotape which gives it an endearing quality not usually found in this genre. The downside to this style is that it can be hard work to labor through, showing why memoirs are usually ghost written by professionals. In this instance I believe the stream of conscious style adds immensely to the book. It gives an accurate and fascinating insight into this guitar heroes mind and inner working and gives his life story a warmth and character often lacking in self authored memoirs.

Most impressive to me was Richards’s never ending love of music. From his humble beginnings in London forgoing food and heat to scrape together money to import blues recording from the United States, his passion for music has never dimmed even with the fame and the money. This rock music book gives a true appreciation of just how deep his musical tastes range and how he has been able to craft this love and knowledge of music with his own unique life experiences to co-write with Mick Jagger as the “glimmer twins” some of the most iconic rock music songs of the 20^th century. The book delves heavily into The Rolling Stones song writing and recording process and how even when fighting, Richards and Jagger have managed to combine to create some of the most iconic and powerful lyrics and guitar riffs in rock music history.

It wasn’t by accident that Keith Richards became one of the most acclaimed guitarists of all time. His dedication to the instrument, it nuisances and history allowed The Rolling Stones to create sounds that have defined multiple generations. By bringing 5-string open tuned guitar playing from blues obscurity to stadium rock arenas, Richards has crafted a sound that is uniquely his own with such famous riffs as Start Me Up, Satisfaction and Brown Sugar.

In his memoirs, Richards does not shy from the drug controversies that have been of such rabid interests to the media and fans during the course of his career. He covers the infamous Redlands drug bust of the 1960’s where he was sentenced to a year’s jail time (serving a day before being released on appeal), the media circus in the south of the USA in 1975 after being arrested and his famous trial for heroin trafficking in Canada from 1978. He recounts his drug taking history and his numerous attempts at quitting, not in a way that glorifies drug taking but as a simple recount of the major items that effected his career but also as a cautionary tale of the pitfalls of being a drug junkie and how it has not only cost him friends and family, but also his life.

Richards is remarkably complimentary of his band mates and goes to pains to highlight their musical talents, their contributions to The Rolling Stones and their strengths as people. Charlie Watts is given a continual glowing endorsement as the best jazz style drummer in the world and the crucial ingredient that allowed The Stones to jump from a mid level London blues band to one of the biggest acts on the planet. He levels praise on the guitar play abilities of both Brain Jones and Ronnie Wood while giving a detailed history of Brain Jones’s drugs spiral that led to his sacking from band shortly before his untimely death.

Richards spends significantly time talking about his complex relationship with Mick Jagger. From their friendship in the late 50’s spawned by their mutual love of blues music, he covers the highs and lows of their friendship through the fame and drugs. He is always complimentary of Jagger’s musical abilities, be it singing, song writing and show performance but is not afraid to list what he sees as Jagger’s failings as he tried to take the band in different musical directions, his ill fated solo career and Jagger trying to positioning himself as “Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones”.

As a man who has spent the last 50 years touring the world, Keith Richards’s memoir contains wild and amazing stories of his life on the road, from the tumultuous beginnings of the 1960’s when The Beatles and The Stones first captured the rapid attention of British teenage girls and the band was lucky to escape several theaters alive to his times living in France, USA, Sweden and Jamaica, to his extensive touring that has seen Richards play to hundreds of millions of people in every major country in the world.

A New York Times best seller even before its release, Keith Richards’s memoir Life is destined to become a classic in the rock music book genre and is a fascinating insight into one of the most complex and talented musician of the rock era. A must read for not only Rolling Stones fans, but fans of rock and roll or blues music.

Keith Richards Memoir Life – The Rock Music Books Review is a post from: Rock Music Books

This best-of list at Infobarrel is this years first best of for Rock Music Books, with no great surprises to find Keith Richard’s memoir Life taking top honors.

Read the full listing at The Best Rock Music Books of 2010

Best Rock Music Books 2010 Lists From The Internet is a post from: Rock Music Books

Number 1: Life by Keith Richards.

No surprises here, this memoir has drawn considerable interest since the project was announced over two years ago after Ronnie Wood’s successful autobiography. It’s pre-sales alone would have guaranteed that it was this months best selling music book and it is sure to become even more popular next month as it finds its way under many a Christmas tree. Described by David Fricke from Rolling Stone Magazine as “One of the greatest rock memoirs ever….The title of Richards’ book is a simple, accurate description on the contents: the 66-year-old guitarist’s highs, lows and death-defying excesses, from birth to now, vividly related in his natural pirate-hipster cadence and syntax” Life is a must have addition to your rock music memoir collection.

Purchase Life by Keith Richards from Amazon in Hardback and Kindle formats.

Number 2: Just Kids by Patti Smith

Considered by many to be the godmother of punk, Just Kids covers Smith’s early years in New York and her relationship to legendary photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe. Just released in paperback, Just Kids is an amazing look at the music industry in New York in the late 1960′s.

Just Kids is available in Hardcover, Paperback and Kindle formats

Number 3: Rick Springfield Late Late At Night

After selling more than 17 million albums and starring in daytime television hit, General Hospital, Rick Springfield shares his amazing life story in his candid memoir, Late Late at Night. In a career that has stretched across 4 decades, Rick covers in details the highs and lows that has seen him win millions of world wide fans and plummet into the depths of depression and suicide contemplation.

Late Late At Night is available now at Amazon.com in Hardback and Kindle formats.

View the complete listing of the top selling rock music books for November 2010 at Amazon.com

Best Selling Rock Music Books For November 2010 is a post from: Rock Music Books

Ozzy covers the full gambit of his life, from his childhood in industrial Birmingham, his troubles at school where he struggled with dyslexia and his first jobs working as an apprentice plumber, car factory horn-tuner (where he started sniffing from a vat of thinners everyday), a slaughterhouse and even a 6 week stink in jail for being Britain’s dumbest petty thief. With a bare sprinkling of singing talent, a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work, Ozzy was able to leave menial labor behind and pursue his dream of becoming the front man of one of the worlds biggest bands.

He chronicles the events that lead to him meeting future guitar virtuoso Tony Iommi and how they were tantalizingly close to breaking through until Tony lost the tips of the fingers of his guitar fretting hand in a sheet metal accident. With his big break now on hold, Ozzy documents struggling to find other musicians until Iommi made a miraculous recovery by attaching soft rubber extensions to his fingertips and re-learnt to play the guitar. Black Sabbath was born.

Venturing from obscurity to world wide sensations in record time, Black Sabbath took rock and roll to a dark place that few had ventured before. With all the fame, money and women that he could imagine, nothing was keeping Ozzy in check and the crazier he acted, the more the fans and the media ate it up. He covers in depth the Black Sabbath years, the craziness of touring and the famous bat incident. Ozzy has a rare talent of bringing terrific humor to his story telling, using self deprecation to highlight the crazy life and events that have shaped his life, especially during the Sabbath era.

Unlike in his recorded media interviews, Ozzy does cover the tumultuous relationship with his first wife before detailing his beliefs as to why Black Sabbath sacked him, although he makes it clear that he didn’t feel that he was as out of control as the band thought that he was. As has been the case throughout his career, a new door seemed to open after a setback and Ozzy became an even big force as a solo artist, teaming with the amazingly talented Randy Rhodes to produce some of the best heavy metal of the 1980′s.

The only person in the same ballpark as Ozzy in the craziness stakes is his second wife, Sharon. A significant part of the book is dedicated to their life together, from their initial meeting with her being the daughter of his then manager, to her taking over his management duties to eventually dating and marrying and the night he tried to kill her. She deserves to be both sainted and knighted for what she has had to endure but it has to be said, she knew what she was getting herself into. Having two volcano personalities in close proximity was always going to lead to disasters and that almost perfectly sums up their relationship.

Although Ozzy is responsible for the vast majority of the craziness that has effected his life, its hard not to feel sorry for him as he really does appear to have a sweet and innocent persona who doesn’t quite grasp actions to consequences. A classic example was him agreeing to be part of the MTV reality series, The Osbournes. He never grasped what having a team of cameramen in his house broadcasting to the world would mean but he does appreciate the beneficial impact that it has had on his career, bringing him a new legion of fans who have since discovered Black Sabbath and his early solo work like The Blizzard of Ozz through his hijinks in the show.

The best part of the book is the recounting of the amazing things that have happened to him throughout his life. Just about every page has a laugh out loud moment as Ozzy, generally either through his naivety or a drunk stupor manages to get himself into another awkward situation. How his body has survived the life he has subjected it to defies medical science and to have any of his faculties left at all is truly amazing. There is enough history detailing the formation and success of Black Sabbath, including the inspiration and methods behind their biggest hits, to satisfy the fans of Ozzy’s music, but the humor and surreal life story that is captured in I Am Ozzy extends beyond the fans of the heavy metal genre to make this a must read book for anyone interested in a light and humorous story which chronicles one of the most extraordinary and iconic figures of the last 40 years.

I Am Ozzy is available from $7.99 from Amazon.com in Hardback, Paperback and Kindle formats

I Am Ozzy The Ozzy Osbourne Autobiography Review is a post from: Rock Music Books

Slash (Real Name:Saul Hudson) defined rock music for an entire generation in the late 80′s and early 90′s. Not since the guitar gods of the 60′s and 70′s such as Page, Hendrix and Clapton had any man brought the art of guitar playing back to the masses. Slash helped to redefine hard rock, taking it from the edges to the mainstream and in the process setting the musical direction of one of the most iconic bands of all time, Guns N’ Roses.  Slash: It Seems Excessive But That Doesn’t Mean It Didn’t Happen, is one of the great rock music books that documents for the first time Slash’s entire story, including the rise and fall of Guns N’ Roses, his complex relationship with Axl Rose and his battles with alcohol, drugs and depression.

He is undoubtedly the preeminent guitarist of his generation, and for the first time this New York Times bestselling autobiography gives a candid look into this his extraordinary life, covering in brutal honesty his battles as he fought from the gutters to dizzying Rock and Roll heights before crashing to the depths through alcohol and drug addictions. Slash covers growing up in a poor neighborhood of Los Angeles and how through his single-minded dedication to playing guitar he become a household name through Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver and now a successful solo career.

Beginnings

Slash covers his childhood, growing up in a single parent household in one of the poorer section of Los Angeles. With little interest in school, it was a life that could have been ruined except that from a relative early age, Slash discovered the guitar. Almost immediately he showed the single mindedness that was to be both the blessing that allowed him to become the most celebrated guitarist of his generation and the curse that lead him in never ending spirals of drugs, alcohol and depression that he spent his entire adult life fighting. His love of music sustained him through the difficult teenage years and his determination to become a famous rock musician gave him the drive and focus to take knock back after knock back, enduring living in a self storage garage in west Los Angeles with no money and no prospects except practicing and refining his rare talent to eventually form the greatest rock and roll band of his era. Without becoming condescending, Slash gives a detailed portrayal of how it was not born talent that enabled him to become a guitar god, but his almost OCD desire to play, practice and refine his skils and his years of struggle in squalor conditions that shaped him into the guitarist that the world knows and loves.

Guns and Roses And His Relationship With Axl Rose

Slash gives the first detailed insider account of how Guns ‘N Roses met and formed from the remnants of LA Guns and Hollywood Roses. Of particular interest is of the first time Slash heard Axl Rose’s iconic voice, dubbed poorly on a cassette tape which he described as “and the singer was screaming in the background, but the screaming was in key.” After years of struggling for so many years, and knocking back opportunities in other 80’s era bands such as Poison due to them being too glam and not following the hard rock tendencies that Slash wanted in a band musically, it’s amazing just how meteoric the rise of Guns N’ Roses was once the key elements fell into place. From playing small venues in LA to becoming the biggest band in the world in less than 18 months, the book shows how Slash dealt (or more accurately didn’t deal well with) the sudden change of being a broke, nearly homeless guitar player to one of the most famous people on the planet, where money and fame could make any desire happen almost instantly.

Slash spends considerable time documenting his time on the road with Guns and Roses, who at the end of their Use Your Illusion tour held the record for the longest running concert series, though amazingly they didn’t make any money from the tour due to the excesses and party life style that Slash covers in detail. He also covers the song creation and recording process of many of Guns N’ Roses’ most famous songs, including the history behind the famous Sweet Child Of Mine introduction, his recording of the November Rain solos and videos, the history behind his relationship with the Gibson Les Paul guitar and his collaboration with Michael Jackson. The book covers the complex relationship and subsequent breakdown of the band with their lead singer Axl Rose, covering how he felt about him on both a personal and professional level.

Life Of Excess

They only thing more prodigious about Slash than his musical ability was his life of excess. In this book he is brutally honest about himself, his failings and his party life and the damage it caused to himself and his family. Hilarious stories of wild nights with his band and the likes of Motley Crue and Ozzie Osbourne are always tinged with sadness of partying going well beyond excess, with either alcohol or drug addictions constantly interfering with his life, which have lead to later day health problems that have required Slash to have had a pacemaker permanently inserted to keep him alive. The outrageous events that have happened in Slash’s life are reason alone to by this book and are an eyeopening insight into the world of a rock and band at the pinnacle of success.

Conclusion

Slash the Autobiography gives a true and honest account of the life of a truly special but flawed genius. Filled with humor and terrific stories from a 20+ year career, it is a wonderful read that shows the pitfalls of the rock and roll lifestyle without becoming preachy. Not only a must read for fans of Guns and Roses, this book is strong enough to stand as a telling documentary of a genius who has fought his demons and has lived to tell the tale.

Add Slash The Autobiography to your rock music book collection, available now from Amazon in Hardback, Paperback and Kindle formats.

Slash – The Official Autobiography is a post from: Rock Music Books