Books for Christmas: music - Telegraph An absorbing and well-rounded biography of the downbeat Canadian troubadour. Sylvie Simmons draws on years of interviews and archival material to narrate Cohen's fascinating life, from his roots in Montreal's Jewish community to his development as a poet, novelist, and (not until his thirties) musician. His intellectual and religious influences are explored alongside some memorable anecdotes, often involving the many women in his life - including the family's maid, whom the teenage Leonard hypnotised and instructed to undress, and the muses behind the songs Suzanne and So Long, Marianne. E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band by Clinton Heylin, Constable, £20 As Bruce Springsteen sips eggnog in the White House this yuletide, his fans will be eagerly waiting to unwrap not one but two books about their beloved Boss come Christmas Day. Bruce by Peter Ames Carlin is a readable, expansive portrait of the New Jersey rocker that delves into his family background and personal life more than previous biographies, while E Street Shuffle is all about the music - songs, recordings and live performances - from the sweet spot of Springsteen's career, 1972-84. The acclaimed "Dylanologist" Clinton Heylin consults band members and digs around in studio logs and bootlegs in this impressive feat of rock scholarship. How Music Works by David Byrne, Canongate, £20 Unique among a deluge of music biographies and autobiographies coming out this Christmas, this wildly ambitious book breaks the mould. David Byrne (former frontman of arty New Yorkers Talking Heads) ranges from Pythagoras to the MP3 to explain how music is shaped by every aspect of its context, including performance space, technology and business structure. Not a book for the casual listener, perhaps, but it's full of interesting ideas and might be a hit with that difficult-to-buy-for cousin with the strange glasses. Trampled Under Foot: The Power and Excess of Led Zeppelin by Barney Hoskyns, Faber, £20 Based on hundreds of interviews with the band and their battle-hardened inner circle, this "oral biography" offers a unique insight into this most mythologised and Promethean of heavy rock bands. However, far from exploding the myths, the eyewitness accounts of life on the road by managers, roadies and groupies only serve to enshrine the Zep even more securely in the pantheon of hell-raising greats. A memo to the band's entourage in 1977 instructed "Do not make any kind of eye contact with John Bonham. This is for your own safety. Untouchable: The Strange Life & Tragic Death of Michael Jackson by Randall Sullivan, Atlantic, £25 When Michael Jackson offered his family members $250,000 each to appear at his 30th anniversary concert in 2001, three of them refused, demanding $750,000 each and ransacking his Neverland ranch while the terrified Michael hid with his children behind a secret door. Focusing on the last four years of his life and working backwards, the former Rolling Stone reporter Randall Sullivan explains how "the most talented, richest and most famous pop star on the planet" ended up wandering the globe, "untouchable" to many, estranged from his family and crippled by debt. At nearly 800 pages, this brilliant and sad chronicle of the King of Pop's life and afterlife will surely lay claim to the title of "definitive" biography for some time.