 | Last Train to Memphis: Rise of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick
Buy new: £9.07 / Used from: £1.79 Where else do you start but with Elvis - this book tells you all you need to know about the rise of the King
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 | Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll: The Birth of Rock in the Wild Years Before Elvis by Nick Tosches
Buy new: £9.99 / Used from: £7.89 And who got there before Elvis? This brilliant book will tell you
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 | Unknown Legends of Rock and Roll by Richie Unterberger
Buy new: £10.86 / Used from: £2.17 Another list of gerat music that never got a chance - this time in the sixties
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 | Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix and Post-war Pop by Charles Shaar Murray
Buy new: £12.99 / Used from: £0.54 If you have ever wanted to write about rock music read this book - a masterclass in wondrful writing and thinking
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 | Our Music is Red - with Purple Flashes: The Story of the Creation by Sean Egan
Buy new: £12.74 / Used from: £6.99 Included this one as they are one of my favourite bands - shows what happens when bands don't succeed - the writing is slightly dull though
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 | The "Kinks" by Johnny Rogan
Buy used from: £12.95 Got this one in a charity shop - after the Creation you can see how a band becomes successful - well sort of successful
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 | Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina by David Hajdu
Buy used from: £2.63 And here is how someone gets really successful - wonderfully evocative of the start of a music scene
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 | Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil by Caetano Veloso
Buy new: £10.99 / Used from: £5.47 Meanwhile in Brazil, their version of Dylan was really attacking the system not just pretending to - rather hard going but well worth the effort
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 | The "Beatles": The Classic by Hunter Davies
Buy new: £10.85 / Used from: £7.86 I've got the first edition of this and reading it and knowing so much more than he did then is fascinating
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 | Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: 100 Years of the Disc Jockey by Frank Broughton
Buy new: £6.98 / Used from: £1.85 This one is for everyone who thinks that DJs started in the disco era - you'll never look at Jimmy Saville the same way again
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 | Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979 by Tim Lawrence
Buy new: £14.20 / Used from: £9.43 If you thought that disco was all about white flares and the Bee Gees think again - the ground rules for all later club experiences were set down in the disco era
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 | The Secret History of Disco: Turn The beat around by Peter Shapiro
Buy used from: £3.82 And this book continues the story - all we need now is one that links to the birth of house
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 | The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Moby - The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age by Mark Prendergast
Buy new: £18.49 / Used from: £39.99 While I don't really see the connections between a lot of these bands and their music this is a great read which reveals a lot about the start of electronic music
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 | Incredibly Strange Music: v.1: Vol 1 (Re/Search) by Vivian Vale
Buy used from: £11.33 I love this book - read it and rush out to the nearest charity shop and start looking for the unusual and uncommon
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 | Incredibly Strange Music: v.2: Vol 2 (Re/Search) by Vivian Vale
Buy used from: £11.01 For my money even better than the first one - the Jello Biafra interview is inspirational
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 | Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-listening, and Other Moodsong by Joseph Lanza
Buy new: £11.50 / Used from: £8.89 If you've ever wondered who bought all those easy listening, string drenched, super soft albums this book will give you the answers - a fasinating look at a neglected genre
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 | Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music by Irwin Chusid
Buy new: £10.99 / Used from: £6.80 Some of these people are so way out its difficult to listen to the music and some are just plain strange
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 | Vinyl Junkies: Adventures in Record Collecting by Brett Milano
Buy new: £6.64 / Used from: £6.38 If you thought you were alone out there, a lonely crate digger, pushed on by mental forces beyond your control then think again - there are others like you
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