Books

Musicians with Literary Pretensions

Jon Davis | Monday 24 January, 2011 09:39

Bob Dylan is going back to the books after his critically acclaimed Chronicles: Volume One. I suppose that comes as no surprise given the title, but the legendary troubadour has signed a whopping six-book deal. But what’s seven books from the man who’s written fifty six albums.

This has got us at Snipe pondering which other musicians have swapped the guitar for the pen. Of course celebrity memoirs are ten a penny so to make things more interesting we’ve found a handful of musicians who’ve been a bit more ambitious and attempted the art of fiction.

Nick Cave
The Bad Seeds frontman is no stranger to the literary scene having written several novels and screenplays. His critically praised 2009 novel The Death of Bunny Munro tells story of a middle aged alcoholic traveling salesman and Cave even wrote a soundtrack for the Ebook.

Pete Wentz
Now if you don’t know who Pete Wentz is then shame on you. He’s the bassist from Fall Out Boy. Wentz’s 2005 The Boy with the Thorn in His Side is influenced by the nightmare he had as a young child and receives a 4.5 star rating from Amazon’s discerning reviewers.

Geri Halliwell
The UN ambassador and former Spice Girl is the author of a collection of children’s stories. The books follow the adventures of Ugenia Lavender but also included the character Princess Posh Vatoria. If any characters are based on real life people she’s certainly keeping it close to her chest.

Pete Townsend
The Who’s guitarist is a bit of literary dark horse. Townsend has written a string of novels, was an acquisitions editor for Faber and Faber, and even founded his own publishing company, Eel Pie Publishing.

Bruce Dickinson
In 1990 the Iron Maiden singer published The Adventures of Lord Iffy Boatrace, and even wrote a sequel due to high demand. The original tells the story of the orally decrepit aristocrat whose estate is in a severe state of dilapidation. To raise much-needed cash he arranges a “grouse shoot” where his old school friends are invited to shoot what he ensures are indestructible “grouse”. I think I might be missing something here, but it did receive a 5 star rating on amazon. Sorry Wentz.

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