Rock & Roll Globe Presents The Rock Books of 2024

From Riot Grrrls to indigenous icons, this year brought an intriguing array of good reads

December 26, 2024December 26, 2024 Gillian G. Gaar 1 Comment 2 Tone Records, Bikini Kill, Books, CBGB, Huggy Bear, Jesse Ed Davis, Jim Gordon, Kathleen Hanna, Lisa Marie Presley, MC5, The Specials

Kathleen Hanna’s Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk (Image: Ecco)

The best way to experience rock music is by listening to it, of course.

And a good rock book, whether that’s a memoir, history or biography, can help fill in the backstory, reveal surprising information, or give you a new appreciation for a story you thought you knew inside out.

Here’s some of the rock books that caught my attention in 2024.

Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk by Kathleen Hanna (Ecco)

It began with a young girl belting out “Maybe” in a school production of Annie. From that moment on, Kathleen Hanna writes, “I wanted to feel the way I did on that stage again and again, forever and ever,” little suspecting where that desire would take her. Hanna, of course, went on to co-found riot grrrl band Bikini Kill, and her insightful memoir expertly captures the thrill of young musicians finding their own voice. But it’s also a story of survival: from an abusive childhood, from an unexpected onslaught of media attention, from being called a “sellout” for everything from being in a Sonic Youth video to being both a feminist and a stripper. It’s a riveting tale told with great compassion and wit.

Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story by Daniel Rachel (Akashic Books)

This is, hands down, the very best account of the 2 Tone label in existence. Daniel Rachel gets the story from the inside out, starting with 2 Tone founder Jerry Dammers, speaking with all the major players (and not overlooking the minor ones either), capturing all the excitement of this exhilarating era in British music. “I joined a band not to preach to the converted, but to start a long-overdue conversation,” the Selecter’s Pauline Black writes in the book’s intro. Too Much Too Young invites you to join in that conversation, too.

VIDEO: The Specials “Ghost Town”

MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band by Ben Edmonds, Brad Tolinski and Jaan Uhelszki (Hachette Books)

Former Creem editor Ben Edmonds spent over a decade researching his MC5 biography until his death in 2016. That might have been the end of his book as well, had fellow music journos Jaan Uhelszki and Brad Tolinski not waded into the breach, turning the hundreds of pages Edmonds had left behind (written in longhand), into a fully fleshed-out story. It’s a rollicking account of a band who never quite made it to the big leagues through a combination of bad timing and self-sabotage. The contradictory accounts are amusing to sort through; was it Jon Landau who got the band to eat yogurt and take up jogging or was it Danny Fields? This document of a bygone era is also the final word from many from that time who have since died.

Drums & Demons: The Tragic Journey of Jim Gordon by Joel Selvin (Diversion Books)

Jim Gordon drummed up a storm during his storied career. The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations,” Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High,” Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” Derek & the Dominos’ “Layla” and Joan Baez’s “Diamonds and Rust” are just a few of the classic records he played on that made him one of the most in-demand sessions musicians in the business. But he also carried a terrible secret, tortured by the schizophrenia that ultimately led to his murdering his mother (he died in prison in 2023 at age 77). Selvin presents a compelling account of this astonishing story, balancing the breadth of Gordon’s accomplishments against his horrifying slide into madness. The vivid descriptions of the music Gordon created, and the torment of the voices that bedeviled him, make this a book you can’t put down.

Backdated by Chris Charlesworth (Spenwood Books)

Charlesworth lived the life of a rock critic that seems unbelievable today. It was the 1970s, and magazines like British rock weekly Melody Maker had the kind of cash on hand to send a reporter like Charlesworth to live in New York or LA, paying his rent, living expenses and a salary on top of that. As MM was at the peak of its popularity (selling an impressive 200,000-plus copies a week), doors opened easily, and Charlesworth quickly found himself hanging out with the likes of The Who (his special favorites), Led Zeppelin, Bowie and Lennon, among dozens of others. He mingled with the next generation, too, turning down the chance to become Blondie’s manager. A dizzying account of life in rock’s fast lane.

From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough (Random House)

The despondent look on Presley’s face in the book’s cover photo speaks volumes, letting you know you’re in for a sad, sad story. Drawn from tape recordings Presley had made for a planned memoir, with additional commentary from her daughter Riley, this is the tale of a girl born to be America’s Princess, the only child of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, but whose life was anything but a fairytale. Devastated by her father’s death, and emotionally distant from her mother, Presley never found her place in the world. Her blunt honesty is startling, the raw nerves of her pain fully on display. A remarkable account of a life lived in that fish bowl we call “celebrity.”

Washita Love Child: The Rise of Indigenous Rock Star Jesse Ed Davis by Douglas K. Miller (Liveright Publishing)

This first-ever biography of the Kiowa-Comanche guitarist traces his journey from Oklahoma, as part of the same music scene where fellow Oklahoman Leon Russell started his career, to the bright lights of Los Angeles, where a career of ups and downs awaited him. There was a tenure with Taj Mahal; an appearance at George Harrison’s Concerts for Bangladesh; all the session work he could want and solo recordings as well. He caroused with John Lennon during the ex-Beatle’s “lost weekend,” drinking and drugging their way around LA, a foretaste of the drug issues that would eventually consume him. Miller relates the story with great sympathy, and writes in such detail about Davis’ music you’ll be heading to YouTube or Spotify for further exploration of his work.

This Ain’t No Disco: The Story of CBGB, by Roman Kozak (Trouser Press Books)

Marquee: the Story of the World’s Greatest Music Venue, by Robert Sellers and Nick Pendleton (Trouser Press Books)

Rock’s penchant for idolatry is such that even music venues are deemed worth of lionization. Though separated by the Atlantic Ocean, these clubs had one interesting thing in common; they were both originally meant to cater to a different genre of music than what they became the most famous for. In NYC club CBGB’s case, that was country; the second part of its full name, CBGB-OMFUG, stood for “Country, Bluegrass, Blues and Other Music for Uplifting Gourmandizers.” That quickly fell by the wayside once bands like Television started turning up. London’s Marquee was initially a jazz club, but, as R&B and blues began sneaking in, it wasn’t long before the club began showcasing rock, soon becoming the prime location for up-and-coming acts: the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Queen, U2, and Guns n’ Roses are among the hundreds that have graced its stage. This Ain’t No Disco has been out of print for decades, meaning you can now acquire this concise history lesson for a more reasonable price. Marquee co-author Pendleton is the son of the club’s owners, which greatly enhances this account.

Killed (Of Kids), edited by Ethan Swan (The Grass Is Green In the Fields For You/JABS)

UK riot grrrl act Huggy Bear spent much of the time together avoiding interviews with the mainstream press. So it’s a delight to be able to trawl through this oral history featuring contributions from all of the group’s members, along with reproductions of articles, reviews, handwritten lyrics, pages from fanzines and more, turning it into a glorious scrapbook. You can feel the excitement as they look back on a youth that was filled with the joy of absorbing music, wherever it could be found, everything from Heavenly, Afrika Bambaataa, and Mudhoney to Joy Division and Sly & the Family Stone. It provided the perfect reason to start a band, as the group’s Niki Elliott explains: “We just wanted to do our own thing in our own way, inspired by the bands that inspired us.” It’s an invigorating story of a band that came together because they loved making music, and quit when it wasn’t fun anymore (which is as it should be). A true labor of love from editor Swan, who tracked down the band members and got them to open up.