Literature for music lovers

Whenever the time rolls around to buy another style guide or $300 chemistry value pack, a little… Whenever the time rolls around to buy another style guide or $300 chemistry value pack, a little bit of what I love about books dies.

Sure, there are countless volumes from classes that make me glad to have those reading glasses next to my speakers, but there are also technical manuals and other tomes that’d leave anyone’s inner librarian feeling down. A personalitied cure for those blues can come from these rebellious reads centered on the history of rock ‘n’ roll.

1. “Creem: America’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll Magazine” by Robert Matheu and Brian Bowe (2007)

Before people perpetually put Rolling Stone magazine and rock music in the same sentence, there was a much more casual publication from Detroit named Creem that challenged it. This colorful coffee table book catalogs the absurd humor, serious reporting and legendary staff of the post-hippie musical gazette. Fake beer ads, star cars and words by everyone from Iggy Pop to Alice Cooper to Lester Bangs make it much more than an average neighbor for your coasters.

2. “Will you miss me when I’m gone? The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music” by Mark Zwonitzer and Charles Hirshberg (2004)

Popular music as we know it came from the mold of the Carter Family, the “first family of country music” that faced every rock ‘n’ roll controversy 40 years before Woodstock. This exciting read takes you from the family’s origins in the heart of Appalachia to the Grand Ole Opry and then to San Quentin for the group’s opening for their son-in-law Johnny Cash. The Carters were not just revolutionary in the realm of country — and this book isn’t just for fans of the genre. Elvis Presley and Hank Williams make appearances, along with a slew of other folks who built the modern record industry.

3. “Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk” by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain (2006)

McNeil was a regular in the early New York punk scene, and using the knowledge he gained there he wrote one of the most accurate portrayals that exists of rebellious rock music between 1968 and 1980. Starting with The Velvet Underground (the prologue), the book uses actual quotations from the people who founded the bands that created punk rock in Detroit, London and a few other key locations. The book makes a genre so heavily influenced by legendary people very accessible and communicates its story in a way one author never could.

4. “American Hardcore: A Tribal History” by Steven Blush (2001)

While punk was the stuff of cities and Jimmy Carter’s America, hardcore emerged as a decidedly rural, decidedly angry reaction to Ronald Reagan’s vision of the country. This book chronicles the movement throughout North America in the ’80s, juxtaposing Bad Brains and Black Flag with the Misfits and other visionaries who influenced everything “heavy” for the next 20 years.

5. “Cockney Reject” by Jeff Turner and Garry Bushell (2005)

Hailing from the working-class neighborhood of East London, the Cockney Rejects became one of the premier bands in proletariat punk’s second wave. In this coming-of-age autobiography, Turner, the group’s lead singer, has written a captivating account of the Rejects’ apparently quite literal fight to fame. Through racist assumptions and soccer allegiances, the Rejects’ concerts often ended with the violence that gripped Britain at the time. That drama is expertly conveyed through the pages as skinheads, punks and soccer hooligans impact the life of a young man trying to make his way with his friends.

And if you’ve gone through all of the above, look into these titles for something else to do (no description necessary): “Get in the Van: On the Road with Black Flag” by Henry Rollins. “Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs” by John Lydon, Keith Zimmerman and Kent Zimmerman and “Burning Britain: The History of UK Punk 1980-1984” by Ian Glasper.