October 12, 2004

Newly Released

eople in the rock music trade are not often accused of preoccupation with big thoughts, especially ones hefty enough to merit preservation between book covers. But last week, Bob Dylan released "Chonicles: Volume 1" to great attention and raised cigarette lighters from the critics. Does this mean the much-maligned genre of rock lit is finally finding its groove? That all depends on who is singing lead. Dispatches from three other rockers hit the shelves this month:

Scar Tissue
By Anthony Kiedis with Larry Sloman
465 pages. Hyperion, illustrated, $24.95.

DAY JOB Lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
MISSION STATEMENT "For 20 years now, I've been able to channel my love for music and writing, and tap into the universal slipstream of creativity and spirituality, while writing and performing our own unique sonic stew."
TRADEMARK The band members became known for wearing only a single tube sock when they performed.
OBLIGATORY REFERENCE TO SEXUAL PROWESS "Then I had to go do some errands, and I left my little sex kitten purring contentedly under the covers."
OBLIGATORY DRUG REFERENCE Anything that can be dispensed intravenously.
ROCK MOMENT Caught with another girl by a crazed girlfriend, he flees into a nearby building and begins throwing cookies at the jilted lover to keep her at bay.

Tommyland
By Tommy Lee with Anthony Bozza
269 pages. Atria, illustrated, $26.

DAY JOB Former Mötley Crüe drummer and former Pamela Anderson familiar.
MISSION STATEMENT "I have learned, I have loved, and after knocking my head against walls of all kinds — some of which I built myself — I've discovered who I am and what I want out of life."
TRADEMARK His video with Pamela Anderson, a Web classic. The tape, he writes, was stolen from his home, a loss magnified by the fact that "Pamela and I are very private people."
OBLIGATORY REFERENCE TO SEXUAL PROWESS Mr. Lee opens "Tommyland" by interviewing the body part he is most proud of.
OBLIGATORY DRUG REFERENCE See Trademark, and Obligatory Reference to Sexual Prowess.
ROCK MOMENT "She walks into the bedroom and has us tie her up by her feet, so she's hanging from the epicenter of the love sled."

Don't Try This at Home
A Year in the Life of Dave Navarro
By Dave Navarro and Neil Strauss (a former reporter and music critic for The New York Times)
253 pages. ReganBooks, illustrated, $29.95.

DAY JOB Guitarist and provocateur for hire. Ex-guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction.
MISSION STATEMENT "This is a story of hope, life and survival, a testament to the strength of the human spirit," according to the promotional materials.
TRADEMARK Everyone who enters his home must submit to time in a photo booth.
OBLIGATORY REFERENCE TO SEXUAL PROWESS "His companion at the time was Melissa, a petite brunette with a large wound on her back as a result of recent friction with the carpet on Dave's studio."
OBLIGATORY DRUG REFERENCE Polyaddicted. "Navarro took out his rig and started writing on the wall of the orgy room in blood."
ROCK MOMENT See Pages 1 through 253.