THE DIRT by Motley Crue. How does an oral history by a washed up and broken up mediocre cartoon metal band full of incoherent junkie jerks become one of the all time great memoirs of our time? Well, a good slab of credit must go to former NTY writer Neil Strauss for pulling the stories of debauchery and betrayal together from the boys in the band. But, with NYT best selling sales of 233,000 in hardcover and even more in paperback, a comeback tour, a potential big budget Hollywood adaptation, the real credit has to go to Vince Neil, Tommy Lee, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx for dropping their bravado and their defenses and holding nothing, and I mean nothing, back.
SCAR TISSUE by Anthony Kiedis. A number #1 New York Times best seller when it came out in 2004, the Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman’s memoir, actually stitched together by National Lampoon editor Larry Sloman, could have been as trite as much of the band’s tunes. Instead it is a very honest look at drug addiction and the perils of Hollywood… like the best of the Peppers’ songs.
I NEED MORE by Iggy Pop. For one thing, the best and most honest title not just for a rock memoir but any memoir. For another thing, the Andy Warhol intro to the influential James Osterberg 1980 autobio, which is part pics and part broadsides, says it all - "He is so good." Still touring, still playing at 63 years old, he still is.
CHRONICLES: VOL. 1 by Bob Dylan. He skips over most of the 1960s, but the Spokesman for that Generation doesn’t miss a beat in exploring his own story and America itself. No dirty laundry, but otherwise 2004’s “Chronicles," a finalist in that year’s National Book Critics Circle Awards, is the standard by which rock books become rock literature … and with hardcover sales of over 165,000, this New York Times best seller is supposedly the first in a trilogy. Thank you Mr. Zimmerman.
STP: A JOURNEY THROUGH AMERICA WITH THE ROLLING STONES by Robert Greenfield. Keith Richards’ memoir will certainly have a lot to say about the Rolling Stones' infamous 1972 tour of America and, for those who’ve seen it, Robert Frank's unreleased documentary “Cocksucker Blues” shows the drugs, deprativity and glitterati that surrounded the group. But for a piercing look inside the bubble world of a tour, nothing beats "STP" -- especially as it follows the Stones as they shift from revolutionaries to good corporate citizens on their own seemingly endless gravy train.
FAITHFULL by Marianne Faithfull. Unlike the banalities and obvious headline grabbing tidbits in Jerry Hall’s recent book, this 1995 bio, co-written with David Dalton, is much more than just the tale of a pretty girl who was Mick Jagger’s lady during the wild days of the 1960s – it’s a tale of addiction, “Broken English” and resurrection that has made the chanteuse a riveting and enduring original.
DIARY OF A ROCK'N'ROLL STAR by Ian Hunter. Back in 1974, long before anyone wanted to admit it, the Mott The Hoople singer pulled back the backstage curtain on the banal realities of rock stardom – the long hours, the endless travel, the crappy hotels and the desperation of a gang of young men far from home. As many a musician at the back of the bus will attest, like the witty Hunter on this 1972 tour of America, there are no illusions here.
CRAZY FROM THE HEAT by David Lee Roth. Few rockers can talk like the former and now current Van Halen frontman … in fact it is supposedly what got him kicked out of the band back in 1985 when they were at the top of their game. This 1998 memoir was compiled from a year’s worth of monologues and anecdotes from Diamond Dave. Love the man or hate him, this bestseller pops with an exuberance that could charm the side off the mountains he loves to climb.
ROTTEN: NO IRISH, NO BLACKS, NO DOGS by John Lydon. Nobody doubts that the often caustic Sex Pistols singer has something to say – he fearlessly took on decrepit 1970s England, dinosaur rock and, at the height of it, his own stardom. In this very pointed memoir form the early 1990s, Lydon AKA Johnny Rotten spares none including himself in telling an illuminating tale of working class life and the ambition to cut through the crap and the chatter … he does it, as only he could, so very well.
THE HEROIN DIARIES by Nikki Sixx. With hardcover sales of 91,000 alone, this year in the late 1980s life of the Motley Crue bassist obviously resonates. Maybe it’s because Sixx had a bevy of friends like Guns’n’Roses’ Slash join him in this 2007 memoir, which debuted at number seven on the NYT Non-Fiction list. Maybe, unlike bandmate Vince Neil’s recently released and sluggishly selling “Tattoos & Tequila: To Hell And Back With One Of Rock’s Most Notorious Frontmen,” it's because Sixx has something to say – about himself and the heyday of the Sunset Strip, dark underbelly and all. No wonder Sixx already has another tome, this time of his photographs, in the making.
Sex, Drugs and Rock’n’Roll … in today’s declining music biz, even that isn’t enough to sell records. But when it comes to books, well, burn the tires and light the fires because as publishers of Keith Richard’s upcoming “Life” memoir are betting, that is the fastest way to get hit the Top Ten. The thing is, as recent flaccid selling memoirs by the likes of Motley Crue’s Vince Neil and Megadeath’s Dave Mustaine reveal, quality rarely loses to quantity, even if it is in terms of groupies and blow. When it comes to rock memoirs not all are created equal … but when they’re good, and really bad, they can be great.
