Nonfiction

Music History on the Cheap

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James Wallace Harris

Staff Writer

James Wallace Harris is a retired computer guy. Jim dreamed of writing science fiction in his social security years, but discovered he loved writing essays more. Life is short and novels are long. He’s written over a thousand essays for his blog Auxiliary Memory. Jim wrote about science fiction for SF Signal before it folded, and now for Worlds Without End. BookRiot gives him the opportunity to write about all the other kinds of books he loves. Finally, he has all the time in the world to read and write, but he never forgets poor Henry Bemis. (Who also found time enough at last, until an evil Twilight Zone fate took it all away.) Twitter: @JimHarris28

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I’m completely mesmerized by Soundbreaking, an 8-part documentary currently running on PBS about the art of recording music. I hunger to know more. That made me take notice of the many Amazon’s Kindle books that are about music history in their November deals. Did Amazon anticipate the showing of the documentary? Maybe not, since Soundbreaking covers a much greater range of genres. Yet, for two or three dollars I can go deeper on a number of subjects Soundbreaking covered. It’s great fun to read about a famous band or musician while listening to their work on Spotify.

I also thought this is an interesting experiment. I gathered all the books on one subject from Amazon’s 65 pages of the monthly Kindle sales. It shows the kind of books you can snag on the cheap – at least for a short while. I’ve even bought some of these books in hardback. Makes me wonder about being more patient.

  • You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup by Peter Doggett
  • Jimi Hendrix: The True Story of Jimi Hendrix by Sharon Lawrence
  • Who I Am: A Memoir by Pete Townshend
  • Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll by Ann & Nancy Wilson
  • The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie and the 1970s by Peter Doggett
  • Dirty Blvd: The Life and Music of Lou Reed by Aidan Levy
  • Jerry on Jerry: The Unpublished Jerry Garcia Interviews by Dennis McNally
  • The Road to Woodstock by Michael Lang
  • My Cross to Bear by Gregg Allman
  • Robert Plant by Paul Rees
  • Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock by Sammy Hagar
  • My Appetite for Destruction: Sex, and Drugs, and Guns N’ Roses by Steven Adler and Lawrence J. Spagnola
  • Face the Music: A Life Exposed by Paul Stanley
  • Don’t Try This at Home: A Year in the Life of Dave Navarro by Dave Navarro
  • The Red Hot Chili Peppers by The Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • The Long Hard Road Out of Hell by Marilyn Manson
  • Hit Hard: A Story of Hitting Rock Bottom at the Top by Joey Kramer
  • This is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography and Life Through the Distorted Lens of Nikki Sixx by Nikki Sixx
  • Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memory by Dave Mustaine
  • Judy Garland on Judy Garland by Randy L. Schmidt
  • Anchored in Love by June Carter Cash
  • The Songs of Hollywood by Philip Furia and Laurie Patterson
  • The Strat in the Attic: Thrilling Stories of Guitar Archaeology by Deke Dickerson