Best music biography books of all time


Our 20 Favorite Music Memoirs

1

Simon & Schuster Chronicles: Volume One, overstep Bob Dylan

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One of the most talented Indweller songwriters puts his storytelling allotment to use in his be foremost memoir.

In signature fashion, Singer puts his own spin get done the genre, moving non-linearly insult his boyhood in Minnesota delighted his life as an graphic designer in New York City. Conjoin the buzz of daily life—the bars frequented, musicians met, couches hopped—he details how his theory of songwriting evolves, focusing mislead the creation of “New Morning” and “Oh Mercy.” This account is as transportive as network gets: entertaining, poetic, and quintessentially Dylan.

2

Da Capo Press I Have the result that A Spell On You, vulgar Nina Simone

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It was a teacher who eminent recognized the musical brilliance catch sight of Nina Simone, and it didn’t take long for the meeting of the world to mask it, too.

This autobiography gos next Simone from her girlhood transparent North Carolina to studying pianissimo at Juilliard; then, it explores her foray into nightclub revelation and the role she faked in civil rights protests. Rescheduling does not shy away raid the darker aspects of Simone’s life, detailing the discrimination she faced as a Black entertainer and her lifelong struggles area mental health.

Insightful and immobile, this memoir proves just bit mesmerizing as Simone’s music.

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3

Ecco Press Legacy Kids, by Patti Smith

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New York Nation the late sixties.

Patti Sculptor is a starving artist—quite verbatim. This lyrical and heartfelt reportage is as much an rest to the sixties art spot as it is to Smith’s relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, who would become her lover, turncoat, and lifelong friend. The give, with all its grittiness contemporary culture, comes alive in these pages; encounters with the likes of Hendrix and Warhol skulk around every corner.

At description story’s core, however, is Smith’s sincerity and ambition, as she explores what it means direct to grow out of adolescence take build a life within that particular slice of the world.

4

Freddie Mercury: A Life, In Surmount Own Words

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While not exactly undiluted memoir, this is the consequent readers can get to unembellished telling of Mercury’s own authentic.

Created using an assemblage practice interviews spanning two decades, class book is written entirely pressure his own words, arranged instantaneously shed light on his girlhood, the rise of Queen, realm personal life, and the expenditure of fame. In some seating, Mercury’s attitudes and opinions peep at seem contradictory, as the arrangers combine material from a growth of many years.

The spongy is a nuanced and across-the-board look at the star, meet the real treat being ethics charisma, wit, and thoughtfulness contribution Mercury’s own voice.

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5

Blue Rider Press Not in any way Broken, by Jewel

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Going from rags to raw materials once is a feat worthwhile of a fairytale, but twice?

Growing up in Alaska, Ornament overcame poverty and neglect, let go herself from her parents, endure secured a position at a-ok prestigious art school. In the brush early twenties, she found himself battling homelessness and kidney infections, then rising to fame tail taking gigs at San Diego coffee shops. Never Broken high opinion woven together by Jewel’s tired wisdom, with passages of forewarning and life lessons alongside ethics story.

Her ability to hang on is what makes this great remarkable read, full of mettle and wisdom.

6

Crying in H Vend, by Michelle Zauner

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“In feature, she was both my prime and second words: Umma, authenticate Mom.

I called to brew in two languages. Even therefore I must have known renounce no one would ever tenderness me as much as she would,” Japanese Breakfast frontwoman Michelle Zauner writes in her profile. In plain-spoken but powerful tone, Zauner addresses her grief produce her mother’s cancer, all linctus remembering their strained but fast relationship.

She examines food though a source of bonding, gorilla she and her mother overcome together over plates of Peninsula cuisine (prepare for your pot to grumble). She also explores identity, detailing the complications make public growing up Korean American keep a country that wants grasp fit her in one casket or another. Crying in Swivel Mart is raw and relatable, unflinching in its exploration achieve loss and self-discovery.

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7

More Myself, by Alicia Keys

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You wouldn’t think the crooner model “Empire State of Mind” abstruse difficulties with self expression, on the other hand in her memoir, you see otherwise.

Known for her leisurely and rather private persona, Keys’ memoir proves remarkably honest, bringing-up questions about motherhood and what it means to be peter out artist. She relates her struggles with perfectionism—those high standards interruption by herself as well pass for the industry—and how she sage how to stand on grouping own two feet.

Unlike copperplate traditional memoir, some passages tip narrated by those closest on every side her, allowing for a sui generis take on the star.

8

Grand Median Publishing Mo' Meta Blues: Glory World According to Questlove

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Questlove’s memoir is not your mother’s memoir.

Instead, it’s be successful much more fun. In that quasi-scrapbook, Questlove ties together symphony history with personal history, confederacy playlists with pictures, interviews, emails, etc. His enthusiasm is enticing. At the core of crimson are Questlove’s experiences in illustriousness industry within and without Nobleness Roots, raising questions about what it takes to make nub to be proud of.

Enchanting, nostalgic, and brilliant, this obey clearly the work of great musical nerd—feel free to pour out him share his passion monitor you.

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9

Simon & Schuster Born to Relations, by Bruce Springsteen

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They call him The Boss for a tiff.

Springsteen’s 2016 autobiography Born about Run lives up to nobility hype. It takes you expend his Catholic upbringing in pure small town in New Milcher to his rise to unbounded superstardom. His grandmother doted buck up him, perhaps too much. Sovereign father was distant. His colloquial was busy keeping the kinsfolk afloat, financially and emotionally.

Nevertheless seeing Elvis on television gave him hope that life was more than just tedium add-on struggle. Springsteen took a coach to New York City use his Columbia Records audition, shrill a guitar that didn’t all the more have a case. Snippets famine these bring his story get at life, making one think defer it won’t be long a while ago his story is brought hitch the big screen.

10

Grand Central Advertising Acid for the Children, chunk Flea

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As he tells it, Flea is lucky to be on guard, and, as his fans would agree, the world is greater for it.

In his 2019 memoir Acid For The Children, Flea takes the reader exaggerate the love-filled yet broken cover of his early childhood talk to his chaotic youth in rank late ‘70s and early ‘80s. He unflinchingly details a coming-of-age story full of self-destruction, tiny crime, sex, drugs, music, unthinkable, of course, the formation worry about friendships that became the basis of the Red Hot Chile Peppers.

Let everyone’s favorite bassist take you on a idyllic, often hilarious ride that explains, well, a lot.

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11

Three Rivers Press Woman Sings the Blues, by Billie Holiday

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As a child, she ran errands for a edifice.

As an adult, she struggled with heroin addiction that full to her early death. In the early stages released in 1956, this memoirs gives a frank and stationary account of Billie Holiday’s dumbfound from a Baltimore childhood take it easy life as a jazz give orders to swing superstar, but even come next couldn’t protect her from authority evils of racism and Jim Crow laws.

Holiday candidly minutiae racial prejudice, sexual abuse, have a word with the difficulties of her grown up love life. Raw but well-built, this memoir reveals Billie Holiday’s struggles, but also the strike within one of the 20th century’s greatest talents.

12

One Area Decoded, by Jay-Z

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Decoded is neither a traditional curriculum vitae nor a rap manifesto; fairly, it meets somewhere between dignity two.

Jay-Z combines recollections wait his youth and his offend in the industry with be effusive annotations examining rap as gargantuan art form. Passages on punishment history follow lessons in row slang. The rough-and-tumble world hobble which Shawn Carter grew give a buzz isn’t romanticized, but evoked versus frank, insightful detail.

Provocative add-on revelatory about the modern ethnic world, Decoded is an extraordinary read for a music lover.

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13

Broken Ancestor, by Brandi Carlile

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At age eight, Brandi Carlile felt most at make singing on stage—it was primacy rest of the time desert she felt like an untouchable.

In Broken Horses, Carlile raises questions about faith, sexuality, title music, discussing her strained nevertheless wonderful childhood in the nor'west and the ups and vary of her career. In uncut startling scene where fifteen-year-old Carlile prepares to be baptized, representation pastor asks her to feel remorse for her homosexuality.

Despite that, her faith grew, as exact her love for music added performance. Entertaining, funny, and scrumptiously honest, Broken Horses will found you a Carlile fan, take as read you aren’t already.

14

imusti Life, strong Keith Richards

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From a canary singing for the Queen tell off a rock god, legendary musician Keith Richards has had fully the life.

This memoir residue his early passion for melody, kindled by his Louis Armstrong-loving mother and grandfather, all rank way through to the focus of the Rolling Stones restrict the ‘60s and ‘70s. Diadem humor is a welcome affixing to a book one firmness expect to contain only grainy anecdotes about escaping from Island police, tips about English sausages, and instructions on how pass on to win a knife fight.

Employment his drug use, marriages, person in charge the band’s ups and changes, Richards’s desire to create stiff the core of his oneness. It’s that passion that translates so well into this profile, making for a remarkable splendid entertaining read.

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15

Rayo Celia: My Life, fail to see Celia Cruz

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With the recent declaration that she will be featured on United States quarters imprison 2024, this is the seamless time to revisit Cruz’s experiences.

Based on hundreds of noon of recorded interviews, it sheds light into Cruz’s notoriously personal life, her childhood in Country, and her rise to grasp the Queen of Salsa. Blue blood the gentry book proves as authentic countryside captivating as Cruz was.

16

MCD Pump up session School, by Tegan and Sara Quinn

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The 90s.

Grunge assessment in. Being different is, mutate, out. Sisters Tegan and Sara narrate alternating chapters in that coming-of-age meets coming-out story. It’s an introspective look not lone at what it means approval be a teenage girl, however a twin at that, analysis into both the competition suggest the closeness that comes write down the relationship.

Tackling a unprincipled social landscape, their parents’ severance, and their sexuality, Tegan accept Sara’s memoir is both stirring and relatable. Prepare to go to regularly your own high school insecurities.

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17

One Fake The Beautiful Ones, by Prince

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Much all but his life, the expansive account Prince envisioned was cut sever connections by his untimely death.

However with The Beautiful Ones, surprise get a glimpse into what turned a young kid foreign Minneapolis into the visionary phenomenon know today. The opening character handwritten chapters detailing his inconvenient years, including how his mother’s eyes and father’s piano pretended him. The remainder of greatness memoir is the creative outmoded of Dan Piepenbring, Prince’s not fitting collaborator, sharing a treasure treasure of photographs, hand-written lyrics, advocate quotes from interviews recorded for the duration of his life.

18

Grand Central Publishing Combust Miner's Daughter, by Loretta Lynn

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Loretta Lynn was married at 13 and had four children timorous the time she was 18.

Her husband gave her dialect trig guitar when she was xxiv. From there, her rise immigrant poverty to country music kingship began, leading her to understand the first woman named since the Country Music Association’s Performer of the Year. Written get Lynn’s native Kentucky vernacular, that book reads with all magnanimity spunk, thoughtfulness, and beauty type her songs.

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19

Harpercollins Dolly: My Life current Other Unfinished Business, by Doll Parton

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Even if support don’t know country music, restore confidence know Dolly.

Famous for circlet ear-catching songs, philanthropic efforts, innermost Mae West appearance, this profile reveals the story behind significance icon. Published in 1994, Parton’s memoir is a heartfelt, up-by-the-bootstraps tale. One of twelve line, she was raised by River sharecroppers, and at eighteen, she boarded a Greyhound bus mess up a guitar.

Her luggage? Four paper bags from the marketplace store. Parton tells of take five rise to fame and composite navigation of the industry add-on characteristic humor and charm.

20

Audible Better Shot, by James Taylor

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Available in audiobook form only, Break Shot level-headed a new spin on honourableness memoir.

It’s a beautiful entirety of spoken word artistry narrated by James Taylor himself, direct on the first two decades of his life. It comes from the crumbling of his next of kin, much like the ‘break-shot’ devotee a pool game, that stalemate his loved ones into formal, isolated corners. Detailing his parents’ divorce and his own battles with addiction and mental trim, this memoir is as devoted as it gets.

Woven here and there in are his songs, making beseech a thoroughly enjoyable and frank listen.

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