Honest John

After John Densmore's 'Riders On The Storm', here's another essential rock book I should have read already and have only just got round to... and another honest John.

In 'Anger is An Energy' John Lydon certainly talks a good book. 'A paradiddle is what a drummer practises,' he explains. 'Every drummer I know, they're always in a corner going, 'Paradiddle, paradiddle, paradiddle', tapping their knees. 'As on so much else, he's right, of course. 

But he is particularly interesting when he gets to Ginger Baker (who, along with Tony Williams, played on Public Image Ltd's album 'Album').

'Look at what that fella did with drumming!' says Lydon. 'That's from the bombed-out part of London, that one, right? And in the 70s he's off to Africa to live with Fela Kuti before anybody even knew what that place was offering! He was straight into it...'

So right. Long before the discovery of so-called world music, Mr Baker had been there, done it and come back inspired.