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Between our Gift Guide That Rocks, our Gift Guide For Classical Music Lovers and our Independent Music Store Guide, you’d think that LAist has already covered all there is to know for your Rock and Roll Christmas shopping. However, if you need some more rocking for your stocking, here are a few music books that came out this year that were enjoyed by LAist contributors.
Heath Biter
“The Clash” by The Clash
This tastefully compiled coffee table book tracks the remarkable career arc of “the only band that mattered” from their incendiary early gigs to their triumphant world-dominating headlining slots at the 1982 US Festival. Like most retellings of the Clash’s history, the post-Mick Jones days are almost entirely swept under the rug – the unfortunately named “Cut The Crap” relegated to just one page. With a bevy of previously unseen photos and memorabilia, every single, record, tour and setlist is exhaustively disseminated and colored for the first time with official quotes and anecdotes from the band itself.
Julie Wolfson
"He Is… I Say" by David Wild
In his LAist interview David Wild describes Neil Diamond's music. "Neil’s music is unabashedly from the heart, and brings you into an irony-free zone where macho men bare with great clothes express their deep feelings directly in words and music. Women in particular seem to respond to this sort of thing, but it apparently really helps if you have Neil’s hair."
LAist: LAist Interview: David Wild, Author of New Neil Diamond Book
Rock on with more picks after the jump!
“Reckless Road” by Marc Canter
When teenager and amateur photographer Marc Canter set out to document his best friend Saul Hudson's rise as a rock guitarist in 1982, he never imagined he was documenting the genesis of of the next great rock 'n' roll band. His friend became the legendary guitarist Slash, and Canter found himself witnessing the creation of Guns N' Roses front and center. The candid shots contained in Reckless Road, taken as the band toured in 1985-1987 and made the legendary album Appetite for Destruction, capture their raw, blood-sweat-and-tears performances as well as their intimate moments.
LAist: LAist Interview: Marc Canter, Author and Best Friend of Guns n' Roses
Bob Thompson
"Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, The Pioneers of Psychedelic Sound" by Paul Drummond and Julian Cope
Exhaustively researched book on Texas' psychedelic legends. There's everything you might expect to see about drugs, rednecks, madness and mind control but also a lot about the music, which raises this a couple notches above the usual lurid tell-all history.
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We ate at Canter's Deli last night. Marc Canter sells copies of his book "Reckless Road" there- so you can buy pick up soup or sweets and buy a present for Hanukkah! How's that for one stop shopping?!
its a few years old, but the best LA rock book has to be We've Got the Nuetron Bomb. If you have't read it and you like stuff like this check it out.