Paul Trynka

{{short description|British rock journalist and author}}

{{EngvarB|date=May 2018}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}

Paul Trynka is a British rock journalist and author. He was the editor of the music magazine Mojo{{cite news|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/david-bowie-profile-1.2492276|title=David Bowie: Profile|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=11 January 2016|accessdate=11 January 2016}} from 1999 to 2003, and has also worked as editorial director of Q and editor of International Musician.{{cite web|url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Writer/paul-trynka|title=Paul Trynka|publisher=Rock's Backpages|accessdate=12 May 2018}} In 2004, he edited publisher Dorling Kindersley's compilation of the Mojo Special Limited Edition issues on the Beatles. He has also written for The Independent{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/author/paul-trynka |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/author/paul-trynka |archive-date=25 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Paul Trynka|publisher=independent.co.uk|accessdate=12 May 2018}} and Classic Rock magazine,{{cite web|url=https://www.loudersound.com/author/paul-trynka|title=Articles by Paul Trynka|publisher=loudersound.com|accessdate=12 May 2018}} and contributed articles on music, fashion, design or travel for The Guardian, Elle and Blueprint, among other publications. Before turning to journalism, he worked as a professional musician with the band Nyam Nyam, recording albums for the Beggars Banquet and Factory Benelux record labels.

Books

Trynka has written or co-written the books Electric Guitar (1993), Portrait of the Blues (1996) and Denim (2001). In 2005, Trynka published Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed, a biography of Iggy Pop. A review in The Guardian describes the book as "piecing together the chaotic life story of this often unhinged performer in thorough and scrupulously non-judgmental detail".{{cite news |last=Sinclair |first=David |title=Lust for life: Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed |work=The Guardian |publisher=5 March 2017 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/mar/24/biography.iggypop |accessdate=13 March 2018}} In 2011, he published Starman: David Bowie, a biography of English musician David Bowie.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/02/david-bowie-profile-blackstar-album-release-8-january|title=David Bowie: Back in the spotlight, still refusing to play along|last=Harrison|first=Andrew|date=2 January 2016|work=The Guardian|accessdate=11 January 2016}} Writing in The New York Times, Dwight Garner described it as "a better-than-average rock biography, but just barely".{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/22/books/david-bowie-starman-by-paul-trynka-review.html|title=David Bowie, the Cool Chameleon From Mars|last=Dwight Garner (critic)|author-link=Dwight Garner (critic)|date=July 21, 2011|work=The New York Times|accessdate=12 March 2018}}

Trynka wrote Sympathy for the Devil: The Birth of the Rolling Stones and the Death of Brian Jones, a 2014 biography of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/arts/brian-jones-the-making-of-the-rolling-stones-a-biography.html?_r=0|title=Ignobly Fading Away From the Rolling Stones|last=Larry Rohter|author-link=Larry Rohter|date=16 November 2014|work=The New York Times|accessdate=11 January 2016}} The book was published in the United States as Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones. In his review for The New York Times, Larry Rohter said the book "challenges the standard version of events" by recognising Jones' importance on a par with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and added: "Though Mr. Trynka sometimes overstates Jones’s long-term cultural impact, his is revisionist history of the best kind – scrupulously researched and cogently argued – and should be unfailingly interesting to any Stones fan."

References

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