Back before VH-1’s groundbreaking Behind the Music series entered our pop-culture consciousness, we usually had to resort to a genre known for notoriously bad writing, sloppy research, and poorly veiled sycophantism to get a glimpse into the private lives of our favorite rock stars -- at home, on the road, and in the studio. Yes, we knew it would involve drugs and sex, but it was our need for details -- which drugs, with whom -- that created a demand, despite its literary failings, for the rock-n-roll biography.

That said, there are actually some good, well-written rock biographies out there. Which is good news, because at some point many of us cross over the line between appreciation and fanatic idolization, and suddenly an artist’s songs create a fascination for the artist’s lives that must be addressed. And so we run down to the nearest independent bookstore to find the best biography about our latest rock-n-roll hero(s). To save you some time, we’ve selected a few examples of the best rock biographies in recent years -- long live rock-n-roll!

Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina
by David Hajdu
This is a beautifully written account of how four young bohemians converged in Greenwich Village during the 1960s and more or less "invented" a sound (and style) that still, to this day, influences much of popular culture. Hajdu, whose biography of Billy Strayhorn, Lush Life, set new standards in popular music writing, tells how folk music became rock music through the intersection of four lives: Bob Dylan; his part-time lover Joan Baez; her sister Mimi, beautiful, haunted, a musician in her own right; and Mimi's husband, Richard Fariña, a novelist and songwriter who virtually invented the worldly-wise bohemian persona that Dylan co-opted. Using several hundred new interviews, Hadju effortlessly builds a dense narrative that captures the four musicians' rise from scruffy coffeehouse folksingers to pop stars -- a feat of storytelling that, somehow (after countless books on the subject) manages to present a fresh perspective on the 1960s.

This Must Be the Place
by David Bowman
This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, This Must Be the Place is just the excellent rock documentary cum cultural history of Talking Heads from beginning to eventual, inevitable break-up. That novelist/music journalist David Bowman penned this antic, deadpan, and witty look back at one of the more enduring bands (in terms of the songs they left behind) from the late 1970s to the 80s, is our -- the reader's/music lover's -- pure good luck. Arguably, no band in rock 'n' roll history was ever less mainstream yet so adept at producing FM hits and MTV eye-candy, and Bowman examines the band's collaborations with artists as diverse as Brian Eno, Robert Rauschenberg, and Robert Wilson, as well as the group's cultural borrowings from African pop, minimalism, and Tin Pan Alley. The latter -- the cultural atmosphere out of which Talking Heads coalesced -- is the real strength of This Must Be the Place, as it becomes increasingly apparent that individually David, Tina, Chris, and Jerry maybe aren't that interesting. Or maybe Bowman simply wanted to avoid the cliches of rock biographies distilled so brilliantly into its essence by VH-1? At the least, this will make you dig up your old Talking Heads albums for a trip down musical memory lane.

Read an excerpt!

Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley
by Peter Guralnick
The second part (the first part is Last Train to Memphis) of what will be the definitive biography on the king of rock-n-roll -- at least until he comes out of hiding and pens his own memoirs -- Guralnick has created the most well-researched and sanely-written account of this astoundingly complicated figure to date. Yes, Elvis was an utterly charismatic icon able to reach the musical hearts of millions of adoring fans, but not until Guralnick’s fantastic, highly readable two-volume work have we gotten a sense of how amazingly and compellingly weird the king was. A must-have about one of the most fascinating cultural icons of the 20th century.

Come As You Are
by Michael Azerrad
Written before Cobain’s death, this is a refreshingly raw and unsentimental history of the band Nirvana and its members. They are still arguably the most influential band of the 90s, and Azerrad energetically captures the excitement of the pre-commodified Seattle music scene to the almost religious arrival of Nirvana to crown it all. It also presents a very good picture of the workings of the music industry, and struggling garage bands might want to keep a copy handy in their beat-up touring van as a guide and inspiration to getting to the top of the charts. The latest edition is updated with a new final chapter written after Cobain's unfortunate, but very pop-star-like premature death. Photographs throughout.

Making Tracks
by Debbie Harry, Victor Bockris
A photo album as well as a biography, Harry and co-writer Bockris create an entertaining look back at a life, a band, and the times in which it all happened. Chris Stein’s photos wonderfully capture the New York rock scene and how interesting it all was. A fun book about a fun band, before it all fell apart. Also a nice companion to the above-reviewed Talking Heads bio, This Must Be the Place.

Some oldies but goodies:

	Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga by Stephen Davis
	Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley by Timothy White
	Buried Alive: The Biography of Janis Joplin by Myra Friedman
	Lennon : The Definitive Biography by Myra Friedman