Tales of Rock and Roll

I do enjoy a good music biography and have read a few. I have recently read two very different ones.

In The Court of King Crimson by Sid Smith is an exhaustive history of this influential prog rock band. It has been a lifetime project for guitarist Robert Fripp since the last 1960s with a rotating roster of great musicians passing through. The main part of the book covers it all in great depth. The band have never really conformed to current trends, but have been able to tour extensively around the world over the years. It also has descriptions of every studio album and accounts of their live gigs. I am still working through the latter.

The most recently lineup had three drummers and maintained their reputation for improvising. I really regret never seeing them live and I am not sure if they will tour again. Sid Smith is a music writer who has known Fripp for many years and written for the band's web site. I used to listen to his podcast where he played a lot of music I would not hear otherwise.

Dave Grohl has been in two of the biggest rock bands in the world as well as playing drums with lots of others. He wrote his book during COVID when he could not tour. He has lived a rock lifestyle since his teens and has managed to survive it better than some. He has lost a few friends along the way. The book does cover his childhood and early music experiences, but is not just a straight autobiography. It is a more a series of episodes of his life.

I have seen Foo Fighters live a few times and he is a great performer who does not hold back. We were due to see them at Wembley Stadium, but just before that he broke his leg falling off a stage. He did return to play the rest of that gig after a trip to hospital, but our gig was cancelled. That story is in this book. He does not hold back on writing about some of the stupid and crazy things he has done.

This is less dry than the King Crimson book (that I did enjoy) and a good read. Dave has tarnished his nice man image recently by admitting to an affair after the book came out. He obviously loves his family, but this is another sign of his imperfections. He does name drop a bit about friends like Paul McCartney and Lemmy, but he does not give the impression of seeking fame for its own sake. His passion is music.

I have a big stack of books to work through and will have something different next. I did read the latest Richard Osman murder mystery between these. The movie of Thursday Murder Club will be on Netflix soon, so it will be interesting to see how it adapts. On the music front they have a documentary about Devo that could be worth a look.

Rock on!