 | Across the Great Divide: The "Band" and America by Barney Hoskyns
Buy new: £10.49 / Used from: £8.94 A wonderful history of a wonderful band. Makes you want to hear the music.
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 | Hotel California: Singer-songwriters and Cocaine Cowboys in the L.A. Canyons 1967-1976 by Barney Hoskyns
Buy used from: £24.50 detailed overview of a fascinating chapter in Rock history. Hoskyns does it again!
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 | This Wheel's on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band by Levon Helm
Buy used from: £5.90 The inside story from Levon Helm. Told honestly with bags of humour. The tale of Rick Danko and the deer is particularly funny... Oooops!
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 | Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro by Michell Kort
Buy new: £6.02 / Used from: £5.99 The magical Nyro is revealed to us in Kort's masterful biography. Kort has also written superb liner notes on Judee Sill
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 | England's Dreaming by Jon Savage
Buy new: £8.44 / Used from: £4.99 Insightful and sometimes disturbing, but overall a brilliant exploration of the Punk era.
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 | The Illustrated Rock Almanac by Pearce Marchbank
Buy used from: £1.69 The first rock reference book I ever bought (aged 11), but I still look at it with pleasure. A few mistakes: Roger Waters is given 1947 as a birthdate! Still, it's a terrific 'Dip in' book.
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 | Mr Tambourine Man: The Story of the Byrds' Gene Clark by John Einerson
Buy new: £6.25 / Used from: £7.02 A sometimes upsetting, but always readable account of Clark, co-founder of the Byrds and a terrific talent.
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 | The "Byrds": Timeless Flight Revisited by Johnny Rogan
Buy used from: £42.99 A doorstop of a tome, but if you can hold it up it's worth your trouble! The bible on the Byrds.
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 | Mystery Train by Greil Marcus
Buy new: £4.45 / Used from: £4.45 You need patience for this, but Marcus is the truest rock scholar. His exploration of The Band is especially great.
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 | "Rolling Stone" Illustrated History of Rock & Roll: The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music by Anthony DeCurtis
Buy used from: £12.49 A gorgeous set of essays on the major movers in the history of rock.
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 | Music from "Big Pink" (33 1/3) by John Niven
Buy new: £3.80 / Used from: £3.61 A remarkable piece of work. real and imagined scenarios are blended to form a believable tale of 60s-70s creativity and excess. I keep re-reading this one.
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 | Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon (now retitled Moon The Life and Death of a Rock Legend) by Tony Fletcher
Buy new: £10.47 / Used from: £8.97 What a ride! Moonie might not have been the kindest man to his nearest/dearest, but as a musician there was no one like him. A frequently hilarious, but sometimes disturbing book. Gripping.
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 | The "Beatles": The Classic by Hunter Davies
Buy new: £6.48 / Used from: £5.42 Hunter Davies's biography was first published while the band were still together. Over the years it has expanded to cover the decades since. Still brilliant.
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 | Shout!: The True Story of the "Beatles" by Philip Norman
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £2.00 Another first-rate history of the Beatles. Also expanded through the years.
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 | Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes by Greil Marcus
Buy new: £2.85 / Used from: £1.99 The mystery is cracked open by the only writer who could possibly do it! This feels like opening the best birthday present you didn't know you wanted. Fascinating
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 | Buried Alive: Janis Joplin by Myra Friedman
Buy used from: £7.17 Other Janis biogs might have gone further in discussing her bisexuality and excesses, but Friedman actually got to know Janis and writes honestly about the real person behind Pearl
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 | Dancing with Demons: The Authorised Biography of Dusty Springfield by Penny Valentine
Buy used from: £6.50 The Diva unmasked? Well, it's a pretty good try! Dusty's mystery is preserved, but we now know more about what lay behind the make-up and that delicious voice.
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 | Dream a Little Dream of Me: The Life of 'Mama' Cass Elliot by Eddi Fiegel
Buy new: £12.53 / Used from: £2.80 Cass was an unsung heroine. This overdue but wonderful insight into Cass's life is first-rate.
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| Kathleen: Life of Kathleen Ferrier, 1912-53 by Maurice Leonard
Buy used from: £0.01 My vocal deity. The greatest soul voice ever. Klever Kaff!
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 | Morrissey and Marr: The Severed Alliance by Johnny Rogan
Buy new: £7.82 / Used from: £3.95 The best band of the 1980's boasted one of the finest songwriting partnerships ever. And what a story it makes...
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