The Top 30 Rock Books I Own: #6 Diary Of A Rock 'n' Roll Star

Title: Diary Of A Rock 'n' Roll Star
Author: Ian Hunter
Year Originally Published: 1974
Edition I Own: Independent Music Press, 1996

What They Say: 1) Q Magazine: "This is the greatest music book ever written." (No link, this is on the cover of my edition.) 2) The editors of The Rolling Stone Record Guide (the first red one): "This is stardom ... without champagne and first-class suites. Instead, you get bus rides, missed airplane connections, mangled sound systems and the real-life grief." (Not much for reviews online to excerpt that I could find and I made a decision to not use Amazon.com reviews for this list.)

Tuomala's Attempt At A Take: Bought this off of an Ebay seller in the UK back around 2002 or so. I'm not sure if it's ever been published in the USA. I remember thinking while reading it that Hunter's honest takes on being in a mid-level band in the music biz fit in quite well with his band's Everyman rock 'n' roll. And as I told a friend last month: With me, Mott the Hoople not only connects musically, I feel a personal connection as a fan also. Back when I had a real job in Corporate America, I had a backstabbing smug yuppie of a boss who took pride in being into "world beat." And same jerk would make fun of my sentimental faves Mott the Hoople. Me? All these years later I have a framed album cover of the Mott album in my living room and make it a point to deejay "Jerkin' Crocus" off of All The Young Dudes when appropriate. And I still don't care about music made by the outer tribes of Mogadishu!