Two Brilliant Music Memoirs

Wednesday is books. Today it's Music Books!

I’ve read so many music biographies, memoirs and autobiographies. I used to call it an “occupational hazard” – I mean it was nearly a first love, I remember reading books about John Lennon and Mick Jagger and Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan when I was 12 and 13 years old. I was into all sorts of books by then – but once the music books hit they started to takeover.

All through high school I devoured Stephen King and other things. Comics and cartoons and very serious novels. Some of the classics. And a wide range of non-fiction.

At university, I designed my own reading list. So much poetry, the work of the Beats, 20th Century American Literature classics…only to find this was basically just any prescribed university (English Lit) list…

But in and around it, always, music books. Someone bought me a book about the Spice Girls for my 21st. A joke present. I read it. It almost became more interesting to read music books about acts I didn’t follow all too closely. So many Lou Reed books, and I’m not really ‘learning’ anything because I’m pretty sure I know it already. But a book by Don Felder about his time in the Eagles? Great book. I hate the Eagles, but you can’t not be aware of at least some of their legacy and their tremendous privilege. There’s the power dynamics in a group like that too – makes for interesting reading when you take the books from more than one side. In fact, the Eagles are a great band to read about – far prefer reading about them than listening to them. Have read a half-dozen books by various Eagles or about the band.

The memoirs continue to arrive. People you didn’t realise had a book in them do in fact have a book in them. Many times you wish they didn’t. Then there’s Tracey Thorn. By my count, she’s now four books into her side-gig. Writing suits her. She is brilliant at that as well.

I’m looking forward to reading John Illsley’s book about his time in Dire Straits. That’s the take I want to read. Someone that was there. For every album. But was not the principal creator.

I don’t really look forward to many music books these days. Jaded. Burnt out. Bored. Detached from it. No longer any sort of justifiable “occupational hazard”. It’s a range of things. But mostly it’s the repetition. The same set-up, the same style of ghost-writing, the same tropes. The enormous privilege is barely ever addressed or it’s decided that it’s earned and deserved – because they weren’t born wealthy.

But there are times when I’m reminded that there’s nothing better than a good memoir or bio – or autobiography – from someone that made their name in and with music. You curl up on the couch, you cue up the corresponding music, you are sent back to your record shelves, you are reminded why you cared. Or you are turned on to something new/you approach the music with fresh ears given the fresh insight.

All of this is by way of intro to talk about two fantastic reads – two books I’ve caught up with just recently that were released in the last couple of years…

In both cases, I am absolutely a fan of the music. I love the work – but reading these books reminded me in some sense of the brilliance of so much of the music. Without the musical career ever being the main focus of the writing. You read these sorts of stories to get the background, you crave a better, bigger understanding of the person and what went into making them, because that’s what went into making the work – and indeed making it work.

So I wanted to recommend to you Rickie Lee Jones’s book from last year and Tricky’s memoir from 2019.

Both are five-star books, and you can click those links to read my precis revises of each. Both are books I have been meaning to get to, both were mentioned to me by a few people – so if you’re reading this and you know you gave me a nudge then, thank you!

I can’t remember when I first heard Rickie Lee Jones – I imagine I was just ‘aware’ of several of her songs and probably most of her first album from radio play and certain movie soundtracks. But I fondly recall really connecting with her work in my second year of university. I met a friend – now one of my very best friends – who was playing a Rickie Lee tape. I recognised the voice instantly but not the music. That album (Traffic From Paradise) is one of my absolute favourites, and one of the lesser-known records in the scheme of Rickie Lee’s discography. But it contains several heartbreakers and can be listened to for the personnel involved – wizard guitarists Leo Kottke and David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) and master drummers Jim Keltner and Alex Acuna.

That set me off on a path. I collected up every album by Rickie Lee Jones.

Her book barely mentions her classic records, let alone some of the lesser-known ones. Her book is hardly even about her music career. It is about the steps in her life that took her there. It is about the trauma of being bullied, of losing family. It is about coping. There is heartbreak and stoicism. You turn the pages baffled as to how she made it through – let alone making it on the stage that she did.

And her voice. Her wonderful voice. It’s there on the page. On every page. So overtly her – so authentic.

Through the tantalising glimpses of her music – as I say this is by no means exhaustive on that front but a few key songs and moments are mentioned – I worked through a few favourites from the catalogue again. It’s all as glorious as I left it.

Around the same time in my life that I hooked into the music of RLJ I was discovering Tricky. I had absolutely heard Massive Attack, but had not made the connection. I think I bought Tricky’s incredible debut, Maxinquaye on the whim of reading a couple of rave reviews, on knowing and loving Portishead and “that sound” that was happening, and out of total curiosity. It was almost instantly life-changingly good!

Last week when I raved about Noelle McCarthy’s book I had stayed up late reading that in almost one sitting. As the pages carried me I was compelled to play some of the music from the era – and Tricky’s Maxinquaye was perfect. It was listening to it then and there in that context that finally made me connect with Tricky’s book.

I don’t listen to his music all that much these days but I carry so much of it in my head. Maxinquaye is a classic – mesmerising and wonderful. But as good as it is I truly believe that Pre-Millennium Tension is better. Abrasive, tough, uncompromising. It won’t be for everyone. Which is precisely why I love it so much. I cannot ever imagine anyone else making an album that sounds like it.

Tricky is still creating. Rickie Lee is still creating too – by the way. They are both worth following for their music. And yet they couldn’t be more different. In sound. In approach.

But again, Tricky’s book gives you more than just the music; gives you the background on how the music came to be as much as any of the story of the actual creation. A petty thief growing up on tough streets, he is quite lucky to be alive – several times over – as much as he is lucky to have achieved any sort of fame or celebrity. He has lived several lives and gone through devastating trauma. He is artistically uncompromising. And he has a level of detachment in the telling of his ‘celebrity stories’ that is refreshing.

Tricky realises the game is rigged. Realises it’s a game. Knows he’s been lucky. But knows he carries the scars from previous encounters, which doesn’t at all make him deserving of any luck or success but certainly offsets it.

These books gave me fresh perspective not only on the music but on the music memoir. There are loads of other great music books and I’m forever a sucker for them – I have a few more on my list to get to. But I’m inspired to chose wisely based on these books.

What music memoirs have you read lately? And any thoughts on either of these?

I know I should give you sampler playlists of Rickie Lee Jones and Tricky. But I can’t do that. There’s too much great material. And I truly think of both of them as albums-artists. So below I’m cherry-picking from their catalogues to give you a bunch of good material, album-by-album.

Rickie Lee Jones

Tricky