WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
Compelling complexities and contradictions of Bruce Springsteen
ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends a book with some revelatory insights into the work of the rock legend
Bruce Springsteen
[Craig O'Neil/Creative Commons] 
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
Bruce Springsteen: Like a Killer in the Sun (Selected Lyrics, 1972-2017)
by Leonardo Colombati
(Backbeat Books, £26)
WEIGHING in at a mighty 600 pages this is an unorthodox biography of Bruce Springsteen, related through song lyrics, critical commentaries, timelines, catalogues and lists.
The underpinning scholarship is impressive, as is Leonardo Colombati’s knack for linking events to developments in musical storytelling, and considerable credit for the book’s lively and accessible style should go to its translator Francesca Bolza.
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