From Manchester To Düsseldorf: A Guide To Books On Musicians

Having read Antonia Monacelli's hub on books on musicians' biographies, I thought, how much I love to read about musicians, too! For example, ever since I read a book about the Beatles a few decades ago, I still enjoy to read yet another book on them, comfortably checking the facts I already know and hoping to add a few more. Many times a review of an album in a music magazine made me look for that album and give it a try. Talk about the author's gift!

Since the aforementioned hub deals mostly with classic rock, I decided to complement it with New Wave musicians, giving the term its broadest meaning, for at one time it applied to everything from punk rock to more experimental music. To put it exactly, everything from pure punk rock to post punk to synth pop to blue-eyed soul to The Police.

What original music would one expect from the country that gave us Kant, Goethe and Röntgen? The kind Kraftwerk created, without a doubt. New Wave is absolutely unthinkable without them, although they themselves are not considered New Wave, because they had been making electronic music in Düsseldorf since 1970. Depeche Mode, OMD, New Order, Ultravox, Gary Numan, Heaven 17, the entire genre of electro were directly influenced by Kraftwerk. Yet the peculiar thing about Kraftwerk is that for decades they maintained a complete secrecy about their personae. There is only a couple of books on them. So understandable was the excitement when Wolfgang Flür, a member of Kraftwerk in 1973-1987 announced his autobiography, I Was A Robot.

The book is an intimate and very well written account on Kraftwerk. Robots, sex, thespian encounters, cafes, discotheques, glamour and codeine dreams. True to the genetic sentimental nature of Germans, the storyteller is both partly nostalgic and partly very bitter when you read how Wolfgang Flür freed himself from Kraftwerk in order to retain his humanity!

The only shortcoming of the book is an almost complete neglect of how Kraftwerk composed and recorded their music. Some have complained, there is no word on what equipment the band used, which is an important nuance in the light of their groundbreaking technological music.

A great and easy read.

In the beginning was the word and the word was the Sex Pistols! Well at least, to me and many others. Before the Sex Pistols I listened to the so called classic rock (Chuck Berry, The Doors, Deep Purple); but one night I was listening to the radio and they were broadcasting a Sex Pistols concert. It was muddy, chaotic, fast and also strangely both humorous and evil! It changed my view of the world and music for ever.

Much had been written about the Sex Pistols; the best book in my estimation was by Fred and Judy Vermorel - 'The Inside Story' - no deep analysis, no guest introductions, just the truth! In 1994 Johnny Rotten, aka John Lydon, published finally his own account of his life with the Sex Pistols. It came out very funny, honest and insightful. The man still did not give a fuck about anyone! I also found very apt the inserted quotes of his fellow bandmembers and their infamous manager Malcolm McLaren. There were talks about making a movie out of it, but nothing came out. I love the book.

After all, punk was Johnny Rotten.

Were The Clash punk or not? This is the second most popular question after 'Who were more punk - Ramones or the Sex Pistols?' Depending on what punk is in your book, you can always come up with an answer.

The Clash disbanded miserably in 1985 and their lead singer Joe Strummer had a long road ahead of him to go to come to terms with his artistic self. But the end result, The Mescaleros, his Latin rockabilly band, never matched the might of the Clash. And in 2002 Strummer died.

The author Chris Salewicz fairly tells a story how John Mellor, born in Ankara, Turkey, became Woody to become later Joe Strummer. By the early 1976, Joe Strummer was in a colorless pub rock band that was going nowhere. An invitation to join a punk rock band changed everything. Although he was the leader of the most succesful punk group, he never was as foulmouthed as Johnny Rotten, and I felt there was always a certain reservation about how he contacted with the world. Why? You'll find out by reading the book.

If you're interested in a book about the Clash, the best one is 'Passion Is a Fashion: The Real Story of the Clash'. A great work.

It's amazing how brief Ian Curtis' life was - only 23 years, yet together with Joy Division he left a very unnerving and still inspiring music behind. Can horror be beautiful? Can coldness be warm? To answer one has to listen to Joy Division. Here's a biography of young man, born and raised in the industrial, working-class enviroment of Manchester without any hopes to break through.

A great job was done by the author, a lot of facts were gathered, despite the lack of collaboration with the surviving band members. The author, Mick Middles, offers a view different from Curtis' wife Deborah, whose book 'Touching From A Distance' was recently made into a film, 'Control'. The only shortcoming is that that grammar errors are quite noticable in the book.

Finally, the grumpiest man in rock'n'roll, Mark E. Smith wrote an autobiography. Will he say a kind word about anyone at last? His punk / post-punk band The Fall is acutely phenomenal by the sheer amount of music they released. In fact, Mark E. Smith is The Fall; with their 25 line-ups to date, he's the only survinig member.

After countless brilliant interviews and on-spot snippets of acerbic wit and anger, we finally get an autobiography of Mark E. Smith himself. Considering Smith's graphomaniac ability and his long-forgotten aspirations to be a writer, one would expect something stylish and literary, or maybe revolutionary. At least, I was inclined to believe so. Wrong. Instead, Smith simply rants about this and that, wisely led by the co-writer Austin Collings, whose job, I assume, was to keep everything in order. The cover picture of a drinking Smith doesn't help: was the book being narrated at some Manchester pub over a moutain of beers? Probably.

The book starts with settling account with a recently departed member of The Fall, Ben Pritchard, who had given a tell-all interview about Smith's attics. It's awfully lame for Smith to do so, but I see the point. In July 1977 Elvis Presley's bodyguards published an outrageous book exposing the King's behavioral atrocities. Presley was ill-mad at the publication but never had a chance to oppose it as he was announced dead a few weeks later. Luckily Mark E. Smith didn't die before completing the book.

Throughout the book, Smith constantly bemoans England of "these days" and gloriously paints Bo Didley's America and the old socialist Manchester of the 1970s, which is a striking dissonance with the attitude of Tony Wilson and the Factory Records crowd.

Another revolving theme in the book is his worker-like approach to making music. Yes, he demands, growls and knows better, for he's adamant to finish his work in time. No matter, what year it is, - 1985 or 1995, or 2005, - and who's with him, there is always an album with new music. No wonder, The Fall has 30 something albums released.

In the end, I found myself to prefer these short brisk outbursts of revelation that Mark E. Smith gave us throughout the years in interviews: they were different from each other, increasing contradiction and intrigue; once you put it out in form of a book, it is set and Mark is never set. On the other hand, 'Renegade' serves its purpose, allowing Mark E. Smith to narrate his own autobiography by himself. Everyone would find what they look for in this book and that truly makes up for the patchy, alcoholic style.

Finally there's a book about a man who stood behind the most influential music of the 80s. Bernard Sumner: first a guitarist of Joy Division, then the singer in New Order, a partner in Electronic and Bad Lieutenant, producer of Happy Mondays and Technotronic, vocal contributor for 808 State, The Chemical Brothers, Blank & Jones, and recently Hot Chip. Being very intravert a person, Sumner is likewise taciturn about himself.

The book tells the story of his birth mystery, his name changes (from Dicken to Albrecht to Sumner) and generally the biography of Joy Division and New Order. In a way the book is disappointing, for one could get more from Sumner's interviews about his music making than from this book. But what makes this book worth is inserted comments from the man himself about what is written (the author, David Nolan, gave the manuscript to Sumner to review it). I guess it's the closest Sumner would ever come about putting down his memoirs.

Blondie were one of the most accessible New Wave bands from New York. But it's revealing that it was Britan where Blondie became more popular, for America en masse was still very slow to accept the new sound. The book was written by Debbie Harry herself and publsihed way back in 1982. The title is slightly ironic taking in account that Blondie ceased as a group in that very year and emerged again only fifteen years later.

Probably the most popular New Wave band of all, The Police had many books written on them. After Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers had their autobiographies published, the only voice that was missing to complete the self-portrait of The Police was that of Sting's. Yet instead of his view on the fantastic career within The Police and afterwards, Sting wrote an account on his earlier years, before world fame. He examined how deeply he was motivated by the 60s music, how he got involved in various rock bands before The Police. That Sting would be a great writer surprised many.

Andy Taylor, the guitarist of Duran Duran in 1978-1985, their most productive period, tells the story of his life with the band (how it became a household name with the MTV generation), his following solo work, his participation in the project The Power Station and reunion with Duran Duran in 2001 that bitterly ended 5 years later.

Welcome to the world of hedonistic adventures, drugs, gay discos, vanity and fame. This is the first book by Marc Almond, a successful solo artist and the singer of the duo Soft Cell, whose hit 'Tainted Love' is an all time favorite on the 80s music radio. I applaude when musicians decide to write autobiographies without ghost writers, but in most cases their writing style is weak and betrays their struggle with composition. And Marc Almond here is not a great writer. But his first person account is nice, nevertheless. 

Since his autobiography this wanton modern Decadent wrote a few more books. One of them - 'In Search of the Pleasure Palace: Disreputable Travels' tells about the most fascinating places around the globe he visited in the early 2000s. It's an interesting account on club life in various countries, from Mexico to Russia.

Here comes another autobiography of a fellow New Wave soul boy. A man who worked in the coat-room at a night club. A man who became the leader of Culture Club. A man who became morbidly obsessed with hats. A man who recorded Hare Krsna. A man who DJ's in various parts of the globe. This man is Boy George.

Simon Reynolds was puzzled by why so little was written about the most fascinating time in modern music: 1978-1984. Unlike people who just scratch their heads and get another bottle of gin, he sat down to write a book on the very subject. The result is great. I won't mention the bands and musicians that were covered, for there are too many, but it did introduce some new names to me and awoke my interest in others.