10 Best Books for Music Lovers and Songwriters
Music is about as universally beloved as any form of art or entertainment. People connect over their shared passions for certain artists and albums. Songs instantly trigger memories when they’re played like incantations of the past. We find ourselves falling in love with the lyrics, the melodies, the time they cause us to reminisce about, the emotion they make us feel, or the images they put in our heads. Like the light of the living and the dead stars, we can be serenaded by the stars of the present or resurrect the voices of the past with a touch of a button.
“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.” — Victor Hugo
Whether you’re a musician, a songwriter, or a music lover, we’ve curated a list of books that can help you write better songs, learn about your favorite artists, and celebrate your passion for sound.
Without further ado, check out the 10 best books for music lovers and songwriters!
10 Best Books for Music Lovers and Songwriters
10) Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life In Lyrics
Dolly Parton, forever known for her singing, entertaining, and vibrant personality, has also earned her claim as one of the greatest songwriters in history. Gain insights into what makes Dolly tick, how she’s penned thousands of songs and has managed to stay fresh and relevant, and how she managed to build her empire. This illustrated book even contains unpublished images from Dolly Parton’s business and personal archives.
Where to get this book for music lovers and songwriters: Songteller
9) The Beautiful Ones
The Beautiful Ones is part coming of age, part rockstar story, with never-before-seen photos, lyrics sheets, scrapbooks, and the memoir he started writing before his untimely death. Despite all of the work and legacy Prince left behind, we are still left wanting more — just as you’ll be after reading The Beautiful Ones.
Where to get this book for music lovers and songwriters: The Beautiful Ones
8) Clapton: The Autobiography
Eric Clapton, the only artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times, astonishes readers with direct experiences about each chapter of his career, including his solo success, his experiences with Cream and Derek & the Dominos, and how he handled the deaths of friends, family, and his son, who inspired “Tears in Heaven.”
Where to get this book for music lovers and songwriters: Clapton
7) Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye, a musical pioneer, and face of the Motown movement that forever changed music, lives on as a musical legend — a legacy even his tragic ending could not overshadow. Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye details the life experiences that shaped him into the artist that sang his way into our hearts and souls. If you are a fan of Motown, soul, and R&B music, you can count Divided Soul as a must-read.
Where to get this book for music lovers and songwriters: Divided Soul
6) Life
As the joke goes, we need to think about the kind of world we want to leave behind for Keith Richards. In spite of his hard-partying ways, Keith Richards, the rock n’ roll guitarist whom many of Captain Jack Sparrow’s mannerisms are based off of, has continued to create and live his life to the fullest. That’s why it’s only fitting scintillating autobiography is called Life — which also brings us to one of the great universal mysteries: How is Keith Richards still rocking and rolling after all of these years? Let yourself be amused, entertained, and surprised as Keith Richards takes us along for a ride full of riffs, rock, women, drugs, arrests, and his childhood in England all the way up to present day!
Where to get this book for music lovers and songwriters: Life
5) I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon
Warren Zevon, the man who inspired much of the details about Hank Moody in Californication, is a cult icon whose ex-wife worked to ensure his name would live on beyond his life on earth. I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead is an irreverent look at the equally irreverent musician, written as black comedy, depicting the rock and roll artist in a brutally honest yet admirable light.
Where to get this book for music lovers and songwriters: I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
4) Revolution In the Head
The Beatles have been examined and re-examined an infinite amount of times and ways; however, there was one thing that hadn’t been properly excavated: their songs. Revolution in The Head analyzes each and every Beatles track with an unbiased, unfiltered touch.
Where to get this book for music lovers and songwriters: Revolution In The Head
3) Scar Tissue
As lead singer and songwriter for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Anthony Kiedis has lived life on the razor's edge. Much has been written about him, but until now we've only had his songs as clues to his experience from the inside. In Scar Tissue, Kiedis proves himself to be as compelling a memoirist as he is a lyricist, giving us a searingly honest account of the life from which his music has evolved. Now, in Scar Tissue, Anthony Kiedis defies the rock star clichés. In his telling, we can see everything he has done has been part of a passionate journey. Kiedis is a man "in love with everything" - the darkness, the death, the disease. Even his descent into drug addiction was a part of that journey; another element that he has transformed into art. Scar Tissue is a fascinating account of a fast-lane life, addiction, and a moving story of eventual recovery and redemption.
Where to get this book for music lovers and songwriters: Scar Tissue
2) No One Here Gets Out Alive
Jim Morrison was the first rockstar poet. His vocal style and psychedelic lyrics set the 70s aflame and he was all but deified while he was still alive. But he was further elevated posthumously in this book in large part thanks to the inside information and behind-the-scenes perspective afforded to readers by the former Doors manager and close friend of Morrison, Danny Sugarman.
Where to get this book for music lovers and songwriters: No One Here Gets Out Alive
1) The Lyrics: 1961-2012
Bob Dylan’s lifetime body of work earned him the claim of being the first songwriter to win the Pulitzer Prize in Literature. Over his half a century long career as a singer-songwriter, he penned hits such as “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” “Like A Rolling Stone,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” and many other indelible hits. The Lyrics is a compilation of his life’s work, with dozens of songs spanning fifty years.
Where to get this book for music lovers and songwriters: The Lyrics: 1961-2012
