Thursday, October 28, 2010

Whadda ya wanna know?

Been readin some rockstar autobiographies lately. Bill Bruford's recent AUTOBIOGRAPHY (reviewed previously here, see "Still alive and ... well....") is well worth the $$$, showing what seems 2 B YEARS of Deep Thot B4 he ever started writing, + mayB a few 2 many Deep & earnest conversations w/ Robert Fripp about the Meaning Of Music & its connection 2 the Meaning Of Life. The book reveals a lot about the drummer, it's pretty funny in places, U'll learn a lot about the bands he's been in, & my only real complaint was that it was 2 short....
The 2 books up 4 review 2day R an Ntirely diffrent can of worms. Both Keith Emerson's PICTURES OF AN EXHIBITIONIST (2004) & especially Rick Wakeman's GRUMPY OLD ROCK STAR (2008) R much less earnest & thotful than Bruford's book, even tho Emerson's book attempts 2 fairly seriously cover his Xperiences in The Nice & ELP.
From his Bginnings in Gary Farr & the T-Bones, thru his star yrs w/ The Nice & ELP, thru soundtrack work & hand surgery & a painful return 2 live performing, PICTURES covers a lotta ground, but not necessarily in much depth. U'll probly learn a lot about The Nice (Emerson didn't like Andrew Loog Oldham's muddy unfinished production job on "America"), & remain confused about a lotta ELP's history.
Emerson doesn't always Xplain which ELP songs he contributed firey Moog & keyboard work 2 (1 long section Dscribes work on 1 track on ELP's 1st album, which I assume from the description is "Lucky Man," but Emerson never sez so, & there's no index). He sometimes gets the names of his own compositions wrong ("Abaddon's Bolero"), & ELP's 3-yr layoff isn't really Xplained in NE depth -- that's just the way things worked out. U'll also learn summa the inspiration Bhind E's Piano Concerto -- a fire that Dstroyed his country house. U'll also learn what a handful Greg Lake can B 2 work w/....
U'll also learn what it was like 2 B a superstar rock musician touring the UK, America & Europe at the Nd of the '60s & thru the '70s, drinking a lot, blowing lotsa $$$, indulging every whim, & making sure 2 mention how many women he bagged along the way. (No wonder E's wife finally divorced him -- he never sez specifically why, but by the Nd of the book U'll know why....)
Now, I don't Xpect NE deep inner thots 2 B revealed by a writer if he's not really the type -- & I wouldn't Xpect it from Greg Lake's autobio either! Tho an Xtrovert on-stage, E admits in the book that the only thing that finally got him talking 2 people was his use of cocaine in the mid-'70s. If U're a big ELP fan, E's reminiscences may work fine 4 U -- there IS a lotta good stuff here, especially the recording Dtails & E's run-ins w/ summa the composers whose work he "borrowed" (Bernstein, Copland, Ginastera). But overall I thot it was kinda thin, & as usual I wanted 2 know more. & I wish some1 had proofread the book 4 him....
Speaking of thin.... Reading Rick Wakeman's GRUMPY OLD ROCK STAR is Xactly like having Rick pull up a chair in yr living room & telling U the funniest, wildest stories from his career. Even tho some of them Rn't funny at all. Like Rick having 2 heart attacks at age 23, then taking another 15 yrs 2 stop drinking & smoking 2 Xcess -- after he was given 6 mo's 2 live & Dcided 2 quit cold-turkey so he could B around 4 the imminent birth of his newest son.
This is absolutely not a career retrospective. There R some funny stories here, tho: Like Rick's adventures performing KING ARTHUR & THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE and JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH live (ARTHUR on ice, JOURNEY w/ giant inflatable dinosaurs), or the time Rick threw artist Salvador Dali offstage when Rick & The Strawbs were playing at a circus....
This stuff is absolutely not introspective -- Byond saying he Njoyed "every minute" of live performances, Rick has very little 2 say about NE of the music, Xcept 4 how much he disliked Yes's TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS & the direction Yes was headed at that time.
This book is strictly 4 laffs. It's short. Kick back w/ a beer or 12 (as Rick woulda done 1nce -- or many times) & U can read it in an hr. There's at least 1 sequel, FURTHER ADVENTURES OF A GRUMPY OLD ROCK STAR.
I'm still waiting 4 Bob Fripp's autobio. He's 64, the time is right, & I KNOW he's got the diary notes 4 it....

1 comment:

Perplexio said...

Speaking of drummer bios, I was thumbing through Danny Seraphine's (ex-Chicago) Memoirs at Borders the other day. I've got to pick that up sometime. He mentions that he was friends with Tony Spilotro. There's a scene in Casino where a couple of guys are taken into a cornfield and have the living sh*t beat out of them by Joe Pesci. One of those guys was based on Tony Spilotro. Seraphine mentioned how he asked Spilotro to get one of his buddies a job as a dealer at a certain Vegas casino despite Peter Cetera warning him, "Be careful of the favors you ask because he'll want something in return..." And sure enough, Spilotro asked Seraphine to convince Chicago to perform at a political rally for a Nevada gubenatorial candidate that the mob was trying to get elected. Pretty interesting stuff! If you're interested the title is Street Player: My Chicago Story.