Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards (Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)Al Kooper has been rightly called the "Forrest Gump" of rock and roll. Throughout the 60's and 70's he seemed to turn up as a producer or band member with the right group of musicians until he either checked out of a band (the first electric Bob Dylan tour in 1965) or was thrown out (Blood, Sweat and Tears). Over the course of 40 years he's amassed an amazing amount of experiences that he's collected in Backstage Passes and Back Stabbing Bastards. This is the third edition of his music biography first published in 1979, then updated in the mid-90's, and now reissued covering 1998 to the present. "BP&BB" reads very much like a long-form interview you'd see in Rolling Stone (when it was good) or MOJO (always good). While he's never quite gone beyond cult figure status on his own, behind the scenes he's worked with some legends, most notably Bob Dylan and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Dylan pops up at various times throughout the book and Al's stories about him are alternately revealing but mostly hilarious. It was Dylan who gave Kooper his "calling card" to rock stardom when he overruled producer Tom Wilson and turned up the organist on "Like a Rolling Stone". The organist was Kooper, who'd BS'd his way onto the session and only jumped on the organ (an instrument he couldn't turn on let alone play) when Mike Bloomfield showed up and shattered Kooper's guitar hero dreams just by tuning up. That session would be both a blessing and a curse for Kooper, who got a ton of session work from producers looking for "that Dylan sound" but left Al wanting something more substantive musically. Enter Dylan, who dragged him onstage at the legendary Newport Folk Festival when he went electric. Al sets the record straight on that show and has a much different version of the event than the history books because he was RIGHT THERE. He was also "right there" when Bob went to Nashville to record "Blonde on Blonde". Al's relationship with Dylan has certainly evolved over the years and from his stories you get the impression that Bob's been doing everything he can to run away from his legacy instead of embracing it.

From there, he joined the Blues Project until they imploded. Organized and performed at Monterey Pop, then formed Blood Sweat and Tears until he was ousted by their drummer following their debut album. That might be the end of the story right? Wrong! Taking the phrase "if you can't beat `em, join `em" to heart, he became a staff producer at CBS Records under "Captain Clive" Davis. His first project would be the legendary "Super Session" album with Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills. Kooper's work with "Bloomers' is a case of missed opportunities, when things were good with him they were very good. They would produce 3 albums together but Mike could be exasperating to deal with. He only appeared on ½ of "SS" and "The Live Adventures", leaving suddenly midway through both due to chronic insomnia and/or a heroin addiction that eventually took his life.

After leaving CBS, he relocated to Atlanta with the idea of forming his own record label (ala` Phil Walden at Capricorn Records). While scouting local talent he spotted a guitar army from Jacksonville and "Sounds of the South's" first artist was Lynyrd Skynyrd. LS seem to have a love/hate relationship with Kooper. While grateful for producing their first 3 albums (as well as hits like "Free Bird", "Gimme 3 Steps" and "Sweet Home Alabama") his production methods seemed to soften the powerhouse sound they had live. It's no wonder he was immortalized as "Mr. Yankee Slicker" in the song "Workin' for MCA".

The one story I wished he'd expanded on was playing with Jimi Hendrix on "Electric Ladyland". They'd met at Monterey Pop and Al received one of Jimi's Strats as a thank-you for his work. That guitar would prove to be more trouble than it was worth later on.

The last 10 years have been something of a rough road for Al. He became an associate professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, became a grandfather, and endured a long recovery from a debilitating eye disorder. But he's still out playing live (with his academic colleagues no less!) and his dry wit is still there, can't wait for volume 4!

Highly recommended!

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°A rock 'n roll classic, back in print, updated and revised.°¶One of the funniest rock memoirs ever, Al Kooper's legendary °Backstage Passes° is available again! Al's quirkly life, from would'be teenage rocker, to crashing Bob Dylan's recording session and playing the organ on °Highway 61°, to forming Blood, Sweat, and Tears and masterminding the Super Sessions, it's all here...plus, in this updated version, Al rides with us all the way back to the end of the 20th century. There has never been a more wickedly humorous and honest book by a man who has made such rock history.

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The Daily Adventures of Mixerman (Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)Anybody who has ever spent time in a recording studio should read this. And those that haven't spent time in a recording studio should read it just to get a taste of what they DON'T miss.

As a musician and engineer/producer, some of the accounts in the book had me ROFL while other stories just ring VERY true.

And behind all the sarcasm and outrageousness of the (true) tale of a band without any clue and little proficency but too much time and (loaned) money on their hands, there actually is much to be learned about record-making and producing.

Highly remommended!

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Mixerman is a recording engineer working with a famous producer on the debut album of an unknown band with a giant recording budget. Mixerman is supposed to be writing about recording techniques, but somehow, through that prism, he has hit upon a gripping story. Like all great narratives, Mixerman's diary has many anti-heroes for whom we, the readers, can have nothing but contempt. The band consists of the four most dislikable human beings you can imagine. The singer is vain and pretentious. The guitarist is a serious depressive. The drummer is as "dumb as cotton," and the bassist is merely mean and petty, making him the only one that Mixerman can stand. All four of them hate each other's guts, and they haven't even been on tour yet. Mixerman takes you through the recording process of a bidding war band in over their heads with a famous record producer (also in over his head). Many find Mixerman's diary entries side-splittingly funny. Some find them maddening. And a select few feel they are the most despicable accountings of record-making ever documented.

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Bronx to Broadway: A Life in Show Business (Applause Books) Review

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(More customer reviews)I count it as one of my great priviledges to know Hal and Dorothy Thau and call them my friends.As an Aspen, CO resident and life long John Denver fan, Hal and Dorothy have brought joy to my life.His book is inspiring and genuine and tells the all American rags to riches story.I would recommend this to everyone.Hal was JD's personal manager for more then 35 years.There is something to be said for his character in that alone, especially in the "what have you done for me lately" Hollywood etc. scene.Hal is the real deal and so is his book.My best to you my friend.

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As a boy growing up in the East Bronx, Harold Thau dreamed the American Dream. In Bronx to Broadway, he pays homage to that experience which carried him from a sea of tenements to the exciting Great White Way and a successful career as a theatre producer. Rich in colorful inside stories of show business personalities, Harold Thau provides a portrait of the entertainment industry seldom evoked and largely unseen, told with insight, humor, and a sense of humanity about the business of show business.

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A Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father (Applause Books) Review

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(More customer reviews)Director Billy Wilder once said in his inimitable style of his favorite actor, "Lemmon, I would describe him as a ham, a fine ham, and with ham you have to trim a little fat." That may be quite true, but it was indeed grade-A ham whether he was hiking his skirt in "Some Like It Hot" or destroying a greenhouse in a drunken rage in "Days of Wine and Roses" or twirling his moustache in "The Great Race" or looking desperately for his son in "Missing" or begging to make another sale in "Glengarry Glen Ross". He was sometimes excessive with his nervous mannerisms but genuinely likeable, even in rare villainous roles, and always masterful. His son, former actor Chris Lemmon, has written a loving though rather melancholy tribute to his late father that appears consistent with the everyman persona the elder Lemmon most often portrayed onscreen. Not close to the embittered tell-alls from the children of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, this memoir reminds me more of Sean Ferrer's similarly glowing tribute to his mother, Audrey Hepburn.

As a child of divorce, the author chronicles his experiences of shuttling between households, but he admits leading a privileged existence with amicable parents who moved on quickly with their lives (his mother married Cliff Robertson for a short time, his father married actress Felicia Farr). Lemmon's time with his father was limited but precious, and rather than a standard chronological order, he organizes his memories thematically into distinct sections in the book - the annual fishing trips to Alaska, the numerous accidents in which his father basically destroyed his collection of classic cars, and most amusingly, the father-son golf games, in particular, the annual Pebble Beach Pro-Am Tournament in which the elder Lemmon was desperate to make the cut to the next round. What the author also talks about are the times when an absentee father presented challenges for his own journey toward an independent identity. After all, he followed in his father's footsteps and became an actor but met only limited success.

Chris Lemmon's accounts are not completely rose-colored as he is honest about the remote relationship he has had with his stepmother, a situation that has not changed since his father's death in 2001. There are also hints of tension and misunderstandings between father and son, but the younger Lemmon remains mainly close-lipped about them. While I applaud him for not besmirching his father's legacy unnecessarily, I think he could have probed a little further into the career obsession that marked Jack Lemmon as one of the most acclaimed and awarded actors of his generation. While the breadth of his roles is still startling to comprehend, it is clear it was done with some expense to his family. The author seems quite understanding in hindsight, but I imagine there must have been some impact to his psyche. Regardless, the author knows how well loved his father is and most poignantly, how much of a good father he wanted to be. What comes across clearly is the true bond that occurred between them through their mutual love of music and golf. This is not the most insightful celebrity biography I have read, but it is certainly one of the most sincere.

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Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder, A Personal Biography (Applause Books) Review

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(More customer reviews)There is no one wilder in Hollywood than Billy - Billy Wilder, that is.  And the new bio of him, "Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder: A Personal Biography," is as close to the "perfect" non-critical, fun history of a man and his movies. Written by Charlotte Chandler (whose previous works include "I, Fellini" and "Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends"), the tome is based on interviews she conducted with Wilder and his friends over a period of years. The result is a wonderful kaleidoscope of movies, politicians, actors, geniuses and louses. From Sigmund Freud to Louis B. Mayer, from Richard Strauss to Joan Fontaine, from Prince Yussupov to Walter Matthau --- Wilder knew them all. He is the man who put Marilyn Monroe over a subway grate, Jack Lemmon in a dress and Gloria Swanson in the most famous close-up of them all. The great beacon shining through the entire book is, of course, the wit and humor of the man.  Wilder is certainly one of the great comic directors of all time, and his legacy is astounding. By structuring the book around the subject's work in a strictly chronological manner, Chandler creates a picture of Wilder that is at once true and wildly engrossing. The early stories about journalism in pre-war Berlin are as fascinating as the later tales of success in glittering Hollywood. That the last 20 years of his life, arguably the most creative time in an artist's life, were spent without a single film project is the underlying tragedy of this book, and Chandler doesn't exactly dwell on it, but the painful reality is certainly there. We like to think of him as this way: Billy Wilder, Somebody's Perfect. (Submitted by staff member Stephen J. Finn)

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Omnibus Press Presents The Story of Afi (Omnibus Press Presents) (Omnibus Press Presents) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book was written and published WITHOUT the consent of the band.I am a fan of AFI and out of respect for them, I would never purchase this book; I urge all AFI fans as well as anyone interested in purchasing this book to do the same.

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A Fire Inside may have released their first chart-topping major label album "Sing the Sorrow" in 2003, but the Bay Area band's fire began its slow burn over a decade ago. Years of near constant touring have garnered the band a reputation for passionately powerful live shows, and through pure word of mouth they have built an intensely devoted worldwide fan base.
Lead singer Davey Havok, guitarist Jade Puget, drummer Adam Carson, and bass player Hunter have crafted a sound so distinctive it defies punk/goth/hardcore labels thrown its way. To further keep us guessing, AFI's music is continually evolving, surprising even its most loyal followers.
Here is the full story behind AFI's hard-won success from humble high school beginnings to unimagined heights six albums later as the fire burns brighter than ever. Over 60 black-and-white and color photos included.

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Zubin Mehta: The Score Of My Life (Amadeus) Review

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(More customer reviews)It seems to me that this book is primarily about name-dropping. Who Zubin knows, conducted, when, where, etc. It IS pretty up-to-date having been copywrited in 2008, and there are occasional very personal insights, but not nearly enough. For a more personal look at the man and his entire life up through 1976, I would highly recommend the autobiography "Zubin Mehta" by Martin Bookspan and Ross Yockey. It contains many quotes by Zubin as well as some by his current wife. That said, I'm sure if you are a Zubin fan, you will enjoy this one also - and it does contain the answers to several questions not addressed in the first book.

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Zubin Mehta has created a body of work with the world's greatest orchestras, including the Vienna, Berlin, Los Angeles, and New York Philharmonics. Zubin Mehta: The Score of My Life is a frank and direct account of Mehta's entire musical life. From his childhood days in Bombay to his journey to Vienna to study music at the age of 18, on through his entire professional career, he shares with us an insider's view.

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