THE SNERD'S STOCKING Pt. 2: The 52 Best Music Books of 2013

Sorry, Nick Carter, your book was not included. Oh, and by the way, Horace Silver is NOT dead. And neither is Ricky Lawson. Jeez-Louise...

Tony Allen: An Autobiography of the Master Drummer of Afrobeat (Duke UP) by Tony Allen & Michael E. Veal

Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD (The Friday Project) by Martin Aston

Sparks-Tastic: Twenty-One Nights with Sparks in London (Rare Bird) by Tosh Berman

Birth School Metallica Death: The Biography, Volume 1 (Da Capo) by Paul Brannigan & Ian Winwood

Late Life in Jazz: The Life and Career of Rosemary Clooney (Oxford UP) by Ken Crossland & Malcolm MacFarlane

Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker (Harper) by Stanley Crouch

Barred for Life: How Black Flag's Iconic Logo Became Punk Rock's Secret Handshake (PM Press) by Stewart Dean Ebersole

More Important Than the Music: A History of Jazz Discography (Chicago UP) by Bruce

D. Epperson

No Beethoven: Autobiography & Chronicle of Weather Report (Fuzzy Music LLC) by Peter Erskine

ECM: A Cultural Archaeology (Prestel) by Okwui Enwezor & Markus Mueller

Eminent Hipsters (Viking Adult) by Donald Fagen

Willin': The Story of Little Feat (Da Capo) by Ben Fong-Torres

Salsa Crossings: Dancing Latinidad in Los Angeles (Duke UP) by Cindy Garcia

Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven (Knopf) by John Eliot Gardiner

Gathering of the Tribe: Music and Heavy Conscious Creation (Headpress) by Mark Goodall

Mingus Speaks (University of California Press) by John F. Goodman & Sy Johnson

Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion (Bloomsbury) by Robert Gordon

Miles Davis: The Collected Artwork (Insight Editions) by Scott Gutterman

Verve: The Sound of America (Thames & Hudson) by Richard Havers

I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp (Ecco) by Richard Hell

E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (Viking Adult) by Clinton Heylin

Johnny Cash: The Life (Little, Brown & Co.) by Robert Hilburn

Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division (It Books) by Peter Hook

Rocks Off: 50 Tracks That Tell the Story of the Rolling Stones (St. Martins Press) by Bill

Janovitz

Songs in the Key of Los Angeles (Angel City Press) by Josh Kun

The Book of Levon: The Trials and Triumphs of Levon Helm (Bolt Books) by Jamie  Malanowski

Beatbox: A Drum Machine Obsession (GetOnDown) by Joe Mansfield

Beatles vs. Stones (Simon & Schuster) by John McMillian

Detroit Rock City: The Uncensored History of Rock 'n' Roll in America's Loudest City (Da Capo) by Steve Miller

Crossroads: How the Blues Shaped Rock 'n' Roll (and Rock Saved the Blues) (Northeastern) by Jon Mitward

Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation (Duke UP) by David Novak

Experiencing Nirvana: Grunge In Europe, 1989 (Bazillion Points) by Bruce Pavitt

Dreadnaught: King of Afropunk (Rare Bird) by D.H. Peligro

Being Here: Conversations on Creating Music (Radio.org) by Radhika Philip

Benjamin Britten: A Life For Music (Henry Holt) by Neil Powell

Writing the Record: The Village Voice and the Birth of Rock Criticism (University of Massachusetts Press) by Devon Powers

The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop (University of California Press) by Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr.

The Baroness: The Search for Nica, the Rebellious Rothschild (Knopf) by Hanna Rothschild

Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith (Bloomsbury) by William Todd Schultz

Brian Eno: Visual Music (Chronicle) by Christopher Scoates

Nilsson: The Life of A Singer-Songwriter (Oxford UP) by Alyn Shipton

The Leonard Bernstein Letters (Yale UP) ed. by Nigel Simeone

Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop (Faber & Faber) by Bob Stanley

Outlaw: Waylon, Willie, Kris and the Renegades of Nashville (It/HarperCollins) by Michael Streissguth

Rivington Was Ours: Lady Gaga, the Lower East Side, and the Prime of Our Lives (It Books) by Brendan Jay Sullivan

Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington (Gotham Books) by Terry Teachout

Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove (Grand Central) by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Soul Train: The Music, Dance, and Style of a Generation (Harper Design) by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon (Atria Books) by Touré

Text and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: The Beats and Rock Culture (Bloomsbury) by Simon Warner

Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal (It Books) by Jon Weiderhorn & Katherine Truman

Yes Is The Answer: (And Other Prog-Rock Tales) (Rare Bird), ed. by Marc Weingarten & Tyson Cornell