Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend by Tony Fletcher
I first read this book when I was fourteen-years-old, already a full-fledged Moonie addict. I can still remember dragging my mom out to the Barnes & Noble so I could buy it after reading some positive reviews on Amazon.com. Anyway, the first thing you need to know about this book is, it's a monster. And by that I mean it's really freaking long. Not War & Peace long, but it does go well over 500 pages. I think this took me a week and a half to read the first time, which is saying something because I'm sort of a speed reader.

The second thing you need to know is this: sometimes it's excruitiatingly dull and repetitive. The author thinks he's Freud or something, because he's constantly doing psychoanalysis on Keith as he's writing. And there are points where you feel like you've read something before. The author seems intent on capturing every single episode of Keith's life, no matter how similar it is to an earlier event. Did that sentence make sense? I'm just saying, sometimes it's enough to say "He would often go to pubs and cause a ruckus" and leave it at that, instead of detailing every single solitary event where Keith went to a pub and caused a ruckus.

All that aside, this is a decent book. You can tell the author really gave a crap about his subject, which is refreshing. I also appreciate that he didn't gloss over anything. I know that Keith was a man of many flaws, and I can handle reading about them even in this often-excrutiating detail. Plus, there are three separate sections of pictures, which alone almost justify the price. Everything you could possibly want to know about Keith (and some things that maybe you didn't want to know) could be found in this one volume.

Overall Grade: B+. I love Keith, but this book turns him into a tiring subject fast.

This review also appears on my Keith Moon fansite.

Syd Barrett: Crazy Diamond: The Dawn Of Pink Floyd by Mike Watkinson and Pete Anderson
I first read this book a little under a year ago, during a period of serious Syd infatuation. All of a sudden I wanted to know about the man who started Pink Floyd and then was ousted from the band. But since Syd was only really famous for a few years, and then spent the rest of his life doing boring things like gardening, I found I already knew 75% of the info within this book. Not, though, that this makes Crazy Diamond a worthless read.

With 175 pages of actual biography, this book flies by and tells you everything a person needs to know about Syd. You read about his childhood (which was painfully normal), how he got into playing music, and all the usual jazz you'd expect in a biography of a musician. Some surprises here and there, and if you're as attached to Syd as I am, you'll find tears in your eyes as you read about his mental breakdown.

My favorite part about this book was definitely the pictures. There's seriously the cutest picture of Syd as a baby (rockstars-as-kids pictures rank as one of my favorite things in the world) and other early pictures which alone almost justified the price of the book in my mind. All in all, a should-read for Syd and Pink Floyd fans alike.

Overall Grade: B. I deducted a grade, B+ to a B, almost purely because I hate the picture they used for the cover. Could they find a worse picture of Syd?.

One Train Later: A Memoir by Andy Summers
You know something? After reading this book, I decided that every rock star who's still alive and kicking should set aside a chunk of his/her time and write their autobiography. They owe it to us (read: me) and nobody can tell the funny stories about shit that goes on in the world of a rockstar like the rockstars themselves.

Okay, got that out of the way. I picked this book up from my local Barnes & Noble basically the week it came out in paperback. I finished in three days; it was seriously a page turner. It turns out, not only is Andy one of my favoritest guitar players on the planet, but he's also a hell of a writer. Engaging, funny...the usual stuff that keeps me reading. I learned an awful lot from reading this book, too. Like for instance, I had no idea that Andy had actually been the guitarist for The Animals for a short time in the '60s. Too cool.

Most people would probably read/buy this book just to find out the behind-the-scenes story of The Police. And honestly, that was my main reason for picking this up...at first. As it turns out, the first half of the book (pre-Police years) are actually just as, if not more, interesting as the years Andy spent as a member of The Police. I won't get into details; suffice to say, all the usual '60s rockstar stories would apply here as well.

The best part of this book is this: Andy doesn't paint himself as a saint. It was his fault his marriage fell apart with his second wife, and he takes full blame for it (sidenote: the two actually got remarried five years after divorcing, and have been married ever since. Interesting). And he admits that he was a crummy dad because of being so wrapped up in the music biz. It's always nice to see a person to take responsibility for the things they screwed up.

Finally, there are pictures sprinkled here and there throughout the book. Pictures are awesome, though I would have wanted more. And it'd be nice to see the pictures in their own little sections instead of interspersed with the text. But it's a minor complaint. I love this book. I've read it twice since that first time, and it only served to solidify my love of the man. Personally, I would recommend this to any fan of The Police, whether casual or diehard (like myself).

Overall Grade: A. Very well done, Andy!

Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga by Ian Christe
I was excited to read this book. I really, really was. Although Van Halen is one of my favorite bands in the universe, I know surprisingly little about each members' backstory and how the band came to be. So I figured this book would be as good a place as any to catch up on the group.

Well, I wasn't entirely wrong. I did learn some stuff from this book. For instance, did you know Alex and Eddie's mother was actually from Indonesia? I didn't. That's one thing I learned from reading this book...can't think of anything else. I thought my knowledge of the band was kind of limited, but as it turns out I could have just as easily written this book. Why? All the author really did was compile information from other well-known sources and turned it into a book. All the quotations were secondhand; nothing explosive or shocking was revealed. Half of the quotes in the book, I could remember exactly which magazine article I'd previously read it in. That's sort of pathetic.

Another issue with this book is the way the information is presented. Everybody Wants Some reads exactly like a really long Rolling Stone article, or a college term paper. Facts are just presented in this bland way with absolutely no build-up. Earth-shattering events in the VH universe are written about in the same tone as one would write a grocery list. I could almost see the author going down a checklist titled "Important Events In Van Halen History: BE SURE TO MENTION THEM!!!!". And that's all he did: he mentioned them. Examples of this include Eddie's marriage to Valerie Bertinelli (which was a big deal at the time and warranted more than a paragraph or two in this book) and DLR's departure from the band (which was a HUGE deal and should have been discussed in detail for at least a chapter). It was hard to feel engaged in what was being discussed in the book when the author himself seemed rather detached from his subjects.

Good things: for all its faults, this was a quick read. I was done in about two days. There's also a decent picture section from all 3 decades of Van Halen's existence. But regardless, not much could save this book from being a completely wasted opportunity.

Overall Grade: D+. I couldn't fail it completely, since I care very much for the subject and some of the pictures were pretty cool.