Recommended Books

I Shot a Man in Reno: a History of Death by Murder, Suicide, Fire, Flood, Drugs, Disease, and General Misadventure, as Related in Popular Song

(2008) Graeme Thomson

In this slim volume, Graeme Thomson mines the fascinating relationship between death and popular music. Discounting the theory that death is simply too grim and depressing a subject for pop tunes (put forward by Mick Jagger, no less), Thomson shows that from Country and Western murder ballads to sixties dead teenagers to West Coast Gangsta Rap, death has always figured heavily into the musical lexicon, and in fact has informed some of the best popular music written over the last century. 

Killing Yourself to Live: an 85% True Story

(2005) Chuck Klosterman

In the midst of a messy breakup, SPIN columnist Chuck Klosterman set out on a road trip across the United States to document the sites where rock stars famously met their demise. Klosterman criss-crosses the country from the field in Iowa where Buddy Holly's plane crashed to the wreckage of the Station Nightclub in Rhode Island, scene of the deadly Great White fire that killed 100 rock fans. His travelogue is peppered with his signature hilarious and slightly neurotic observations, as well as considered his commentary on the popular music of the last several decades.

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