When you make a purchase using links on our site, The Week may earn a commission. All reviews are written independently by our editorial team.
Peter Ames Carlin is the author of well-received biographies of Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. He turns his attention to music's subsequent generation with his new book, "The Name of This Band Is R.E.M."
'Mystery Train' by Greil Marcus (1975)
The urtext for thoughtful music writers. Marcus' linked essays on Elvis Presley, Sly Stone, the Band, and Randy Newman set their work so deeply in the American grain that it becomes impossible to listen to their music, or anyone's, without hearing echoes of our nation's grand and sometimes horrifying history. Buy it here.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
'Kill' Em and Leave' by James McBride (2016)
When the National Book Award-winning novelist and memoirist turned his attention to James Brown, he captured the artist's brilliance and flaws while revealing how the wormwood logic of institutionalized racism can reduce even the most successful Black artist to a criminal. Buy it here.
'Night Moves' by Jessica Hopper (2018)
Not strictly a music book, but Hopper, who is a great music writer, delivers a tender recounting of life as a newly fledged adult set loose in Chicago in the '00s. Through her eyes, we recall what it's like to be young, free, and in love with music. Buy it here.
'Love Me Do!' by Michael Braun (1964)
In 1963, a smart young journalist spent a few months traveling with the Beatles, observing them on the eve of global Beatlemania. For the last time in their lives, the about-to-be Fabs had everything to prove and nothing to hide, and Braun reveals them with acuity and breathtaking honesty. Buy it here.
'Beatlebone' by Kevin Barry (2015)
In 1967, John Lennon bought a small island off the coast of Ireland. He only visited it twice before moving to the U.S., and he never returned. Barry's gently hallucinatory novel imagines Lennon making a visit in 1978, hoping to cleanse his spirit and revive his muse. In the guise of fiction, the author uncovers his subject's internal currents, and how fantasy and reality can merge in unexpected ways. Buy it here.
'Ball Four' by Jim Bouton (1970)
This hilariously uncensored memoir by a fading athlete has next to nothing to do with music. But Bouton's struggle to survive in baseball while throwing the knuckleball — a pitch that becomes a metaphor for his individuality — triggered a controversy that roiled all of pro sports. Now that's rock 'n' roll. Buy it here.
This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here.
-
We Did OK, Kid: Anthony Hopkins’ candid memoir is a ‘page-turner’The Week Recommends The 87-year-old recounts his journey from ‘hopeless’ student to Oscar-winning actor
-
The Mushroom Tapes: a compelling deep dive into the trial that gripped AustraliaThe Week Recommends Acclaimed authors team up for a ‘sensitive and insightful’ examination of what led a seemingly ordinary woman to poison four people
-
Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks – a fascinating portrait of the great painterThe Week Recommends BBC2 documentary examines the rarely seen sketchbooks of the enigmatic artist
-
We Did OK, Kid: Anthony Hopkins’ candid memoir is a ‘page-turner’
The Week Recommends The 87-year-old recounts his journey from ‘hopeless’ student to Oscar-winning actor
-
The Mushroom Tapes: a compelling deep dive into the trial that gripped Australia
The Week Recommends Acclaimed authors team up for a ‘sensitive and insightful’ examination of what led a seemingly ordinary woman to poison four people
-
‘Chess’feature Imperial Theatre, New York City
-
‘Notes on Being a Man’ by Scott Galloway and ‘Bread of Angels: A Memoir’ by Patti Smithfeature A self-help guide for lonely young men and a new memoir from the godmother of punk
-
6 homes built in the 1700sFeature Featuring a restored Federal-style estate in Virginia and quaint farm in Connecticut
-
Film reviews: 'Wicked: For Good' and 'Rental Family'Feature Glinda the Good is forced to choose sides and an actor takes work filling holes in strangers' lives
-
Nick Clegg picks his favourite booksThe Week Recommends The former deputy prime minister shares works by J.M. Coetzee, Marcel Theroux and Conrad Russell
-
Park Avenue: New York family drama with a ‘staggeringly good’ castThe Week Recommends Fiona Shaw and Katherine Waterston have a ‘combative chemistry’ as a mother and daughter at a crossroads
