Classic Rock Stories: The Stories Behind the Greatest Songs of All Time

The secret elements that spurred musicians to write songs like "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Dust in the Wind" are often, somewhat surprisingly, less than enigmatic. While writing "Sweet Emotion," Aerosmith bad boys Steven Tyler and Tom Hamilton "got into a big fight" over how to end it; Bob Dylan wrote a 20-page story that he then turned into "Like a Rolling Stone"; George Harrison wrote "Here Comes the Sun" while walking around Eric Clapton's garden on a bright day. These tidbits are among the hundreds of anecdotes told by famous musicians--Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, and Grace Slick among them--about their hit songs and compiled in Classic Rock Stories. If you can hum the song, you can likely find its story in this book, which is quite broad in scope. Editor Tim Morse fails to date the artists' comments, so it's occasionally difficult to put the tales in context, but fans of classic rock music should still find this an entertaining read. --Jordana Moskowitz