10 Best Books and Podcasts About Music

1 Apr

By Charlie Gladstone

Books

1. Mick Houghton. Fried and Justified.

I absolutely loved this tale of passion, mayhem and ambition from one of the greatest PRs in British music history. It’s a beautifully written story of bands from Echo and The Bunnymen to Sonic Youth, The KLF and beyond.

2. Nick Kent. The Dark Stuff.

Kent was a legend, living the rock and roll lifestyle every bit as energetically as his heroes. Indeed, I think he might have invented the term ‘elegantly wasted’. This book is a classic from a man who very much helped drive the NME to success during its golden period.

3. Catch A Fire.

There are, apparently, 500 books about Bob Marley. I’ve been fascinated by Marley since I saw him perform at what turned out to be his final European show and have read a few of them. This is widely held to be one of the best there is and I loved it.

4. Just Kids.

You’ve probably read Patti Smith’s classic tale of New York life already, but if you haven’t, please, you really must. This is a beautiful story of love, music and poetry told by a true artist and bohemian.

5. Divided Soul.

This deeply authoritative and academic biography of Marvin Gaye tells the tale of a troubled genius. The author knew Gaye well and that’s what makes it such an unusual and beautiful book.

6. Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung.

This collection of writing by Lester Bangs is widely regarded as the best there has ever been. Bangs was a legend and his writing is as poetic and lyrical as the music he lived for.

Podcasts

7. Transmission. The Story of Joy Division and New Order.

This new podcast calls on all of the major players -both dead alive- in the story of two of the world’s most important bands. Maxine Peak narrates; her script is a little laboured but she does a fine job and the whole podcast is fantastic.

8. Stay Free. The Story of The Clash.

Narrated by Chuck D, this is the best music biography by way of a podcast that I have ever listened to. If you liked The Clash or Public Enemy, you’ll like this too.

9. Sodajerker on Songwriting.

I’ve been following this for years and it gets better and better. This is a series of interviews with a focus purely on songwriting and its cast of guests ranges from Paul McCartney to Billy Bragg to Ghostpoet and beyond. Truly, it’s brilliant.

10. Song Exploder.

Soon to be a Netflix series, this brilliant podcast invites an artist to discuss one song from their canon in detail. The editing is sharp so that we really only hear the voice of the artist, the episodes are short and many of the greats have taken part.

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