Paul's bookshelf: read
Loved this book. The 1976 movie is one of my favorites, and have seen it many times, yet this is first time I have read the book. William Goldman is such an entertaining writer. I love his work for a number of reasons:
- One - Goldm...
Excellent account of the little-known, fascinating, and highly likable Eddie Chapman...a British criminal who became a World War II hero in both the United Kingdom and Germany...working as a skillful double-agent. Chapman is a such an i...
I liked Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" very much, yet I can't say I understood it all. The highly unusual narrative structure was hard to follow at times. This is not your typical beginning, middle, end story. "Heart of Darkness"...
Though slow, and perhaps a little confusing at times...I enjoyed Ian Fleming's "Goldfinger" novel much more than the 1964 popular film of the same name. Unlike the Bond films, Ian Fleming's James Bond is no superhero. Instead, Fleming ...
Despite relatively good prose, I could not make heads nor tails of Jennifer Egan's confluence of characters and charts and time. In theory, I admire her use of a radically alternative structure in order to tell (what I think is) a story...
Though neither as engaging nor as riveting as "Killing Lincoln," Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard's "Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot" is still a very good study of the various historical steps that lead to the horrific 1963 assassina...
An exceptionally good James Bond novel...the sixth from Ian Fleming. I found "Doctor No" much more satisfying than Fleming's previous book..."From Russia With Love." As much as I missed the ease and fast-pace of Fleming's first three B...
It's rare that I read a book more than once. Its even rarer that I re-read, in its entirety, a 750-plus page book that I only finished just 14 months prior. Yet that’s how good Patrick McGilligan’s exhaustive, intelligent, and insanely...
Ian Fleming's fifth book in his James Bond series was a difficult read for me...and I can't say I enjoyed it very much. For "From Russia With Love"...Fleming choose to experiment a little with the format he first established in 1953 wit...
My least favorite Ian Fleming James Bond book so far (of the four I've read). Despite the fun return of Felix Leiter (now a detective with the Pinkterton Agency), the camradarie he shares with 007, not much happens in "Diamonds Are Fore...
One hell of a book, that's for sure. Gillian Flynn's 2012/2013 best seller is a hit for a reason...it's clever, fun, and very well-written. PLus, the central story in "Gone Girl" is a real page-turner. At first, I wasn't convinced...y...
Engaging black comedy thriller from Thomas Perry that starts out very strong, yet slows down to an uncomfortable pace...eventually getting lost in its own attempted complexities...leaving one dissatisfied in the end. Perry had written s...
Excellent piece of historical fiction...part doomed romance, part political thriller, and part well-rounded character study. Ronan Bennet's writing is clear, concise, poetic and above all else...truthful. Despite his odd manner of carv...
Excellent third book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. It's a shame that the Bond producers choose to ignore the book's story when it came time to make the 1979 film version; they only kept the title, and the name of the book's main v...
Well-written love story (of sorts) set in Italy and Switzerland during World War I. As much as I appreciated and respected Hemingway's poetic take on love and war, I can't say I liked the book too much...especially considering where it ...
Very enjoyable 2nd book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. As much as I liked the novel, I was dismayed by the racist overtones prevalent throughout the entire story. Perhaps at the time of publication (1955), Ian Fleming's approach t...
The book that started it all, introducing to the world British secret service agent 007, James Bond. Been wanting to read this ever since I was a little boy, and am so very glad I got around to it, Author Ian Fleming's prose an style o...
How hard is it to write a solid, well-researched, carefully edited book on Led Zeppelin? Apparently its very hard...as I've yet to find one single book that truly honors how great a band Led Zeppelin was, and still is. LZ 75 by Stephen...
F. Scott Fitzgerald was a fine writer for sure. His prose read like exquisite paintings..rich in language, character and color. However, "Tender Is The Night" has all feel of style over substance...and upon said style, I often could no...
Outstanding, semi-authorized tell-all about of one the greatest American artists...Bruce Springsteen. Peter Ames Carlin takes the reader on an incredibly detailed tour of Springsteen's life from 1949 to 2012...covering all of Springstee...
Excellent work of true-to-life fiction by first-time novelist Bud Schulberg. Schulberg knew his stuff, having grown up in Hollywood, with his father running Paramount Pictures, and having worked for the likes of David O. Selznick, Louis...
Engaging chronicle of the Rolling Stones' music from 1963 to 1976, yet Steve Appleford's book appears to have been limited to a truncated format determined by the publisher. How else to explain that despite the fact that "The Rolling St...
Been wanting to read this for years, so I am glad I had the opportunity to do it...on my Kindle no less! My view of the book perhaps tainted by my first exposure to the story via the 1974 Jack Clayton/Francis Ford Coppola film adaptatio...
Very enjoyable memoir by one of the most underrated singer/songwriter/guitarist in rock n' roll history: Dave Davies of The Kinks. At times fun, at times sad, Davies speaks from the heart, is by no means guarded in any way as he confess...
It was a huge thrill to FINALLY read Mario Puzo's classic 1969 novel THE GODFATHER. Now, granted, my point of view is 100% skewed by the fact that THE GODFATHER is one of my favorite films ever...and I've seen the film many many times. ...
What a great read. For someone like me, who loves to read books about music...and engage myself in countless stories about decisions and events that have occurred behind the music...this book is just perfect. First published in 2007, Clapton: The Autobiography is a fantastic tome written by the great singer, songwriter and guitarist Eric Clapton. For those who don't know, Clapton is the Forrest Gump of rock and roll...having had experiences with some of the greatest artists in music history...The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Muddy Waters, The Band, Aretha Franklin, Phil Collins, The Allman Brothers Band, Tina Turner, Roger Waters, Jeff Beck, Sheryl Crow and many many more. Not to mention the fact that Eric Clapton is a great artist and legend himself...what with his incredible work with The Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and The Dominos...as well as his prolific solo career. If that were not enough...Clapton is also one of the greatest guitarist who's ever lived...
Born out of wedlock nearly 66 years ago as a result of a brief affair between 15-year old British girl named Patricia Clapton, and a married Canadian airman named Edward Fryer...Eric Clapton has had a fantastic and troubled life, which he does a fantastic job of chronicling in his book. Less enigmatic than my other favorite autobiography...Bob Dylan Chronicles, Clapton is very forthcoming about...of all things...his humanity. In addition to the many great things he's achieved in his lifetime...Eric Clapton has also been a thief, a severe heroin addict, an adulterer, a fool, a passive aggressive bastard, a lazy bum, and a massive alcoholic.
Several of his issues stem from the trauma of having never known his father, and being rejected by his mother at an early age. Clapton was raised by his maternal grandmother Rose, and her 2nd husband Jack Clapp. Clapton's last name derives from Rose's first husband, Reginald Cecil Clapton...who died 13 years before Eric Clapton was born. Meanwhile, Clapton's birth mother Patricia went on to marry and have more children...happily leaving young Eric with her mother and step-father to look after. As a child, Clapton found out that his estranged older sister was actually his mother. He once asked her innocently if he could call her "mummy" now. She rejected this outright, and politely told him that its best to leave things as they are...with Rose and Jack as his mummy and daddy. Needless to say, this confusion caused a tear in young Eric Clapton's psyche...leaving him emotionally stunted for years...and tainted his view of women for most of his life.
Speaking of women, Clapton is very candid and forthright about his wildly dysfunctional relationship with his first wife, Patti Boyd. Boyd was the wife of his best friend, George Harrison...yet that didn't stop Eric Clapton from falling in madly in love with her. Despite his pleading, Boyd refused to leave her husband. The majority of the 1970 classic album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is about Clapton's obsessive love for Boyd. It took a couple of years, yet Clapton eventually got what he wanted. Of course, once Boyd gave in and became Clapton's woman...he took her for granted, and made her life miserable. As much as he enjoyed his time with Boyd, he could only stand to be with her for so long before he would get restless, and want to go out on the road. On tour, Clapton cheated on Boyd every chance he got. At times, she would leave him, and he would beg her to come back. Then, he would cheat on her once again. His marriage to Patti Boyd in 1979 was only just another selfish attempt to win her back. Boyd desperately wanted children, yet was having trouble conceiving. Yet when Clapton impregnated an Italian model he had an affair with, that was the last straw for Boyd. Of course, once Boyd left him for good...he missed her terribly, and desperately wanted her to come back...
Not helping matters was his substance abuse problems. Heroin was first on the lineup, along with every other drug. Once he kicked that, he went on to be a severe alcoholic. His judgment soon became impaired, and he had several problems over the years involving bad health, bad gigs, crashed cars, and more...The worst example of this was during a bad spell he was having with Patti Boyd. A mysterious woman cold-called him at home, claiming to know all about his problems. In order to win Boyd back, she suggested he dabble in the occult, and outlined steps he needed to take...including bathing in certain leaves, and writing his and Boyd's name in a burning cross. Clapton followed these instructions to the letter, and then later agreed to meeting the mysterious woman in New York. Once in New York, this odd-looking, plump woman then told Clapton that in order to complete the spell...he had to sleep with a virgin. When he told her that it might be difficult to find a virgin in New York, the mystery woman told Clapton to sleep with her...as she was a virgin. Believe it or not, Clapton actually bought it, and slept with the questionable woman. It was a decision he would live to regret...for too many reasons.
Fortunately, Clapton's troubled personal life was mixed with an incredible music career. Music has always served as a great healing tool for Clapton's woes. He loved people like Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Guy...and was also greatly influenced by the old blues masters...Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, and Little Walter. Clapton's intense love of the blues was the reason why he left The Yardbirds in 1965, as they were veering too far from his blues roots. Though he continued his love of blues with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers...he soon became restless and bored. Eventually he was asked to join a band that drummer Ginger Baker was forming. At Clapton's insistence, Jack Bruce was brought on bass...and the legendary Cream was born.
In theory, I was disappointed that Eric Clapton devotes only about 14 pages to his Cream years...never going into too much detail about his 2 years with the groundbreaking trio. That said, he discusses the fun times of the early days, and the challenges he had to face. Being the long guitarist in a three-piece band was not easy for him...and so much of the sound derived from his playing alone. He loved to play with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, yet their fighting go to him...and he soon grown tired of the huge Cream machine he was forced to participate in...endless touring and recording, with few breaks. As the band and shows became bigger, the volume of the concerts got louder and louder. Worse, he felt that that Cream's music became stagnant...and had limited room to grow. For all of these reasons (among others). the band decided to fold...playing their last concert in November of 1968.
Eric Clapton's next two bands were both successful, and disastrous. Blind Faith was an excellent band that Clapton didn't really want to be in. He just wanted to casually work with singer/guitarist/keyboardist Steve Winwood...see where it went. Instead, he was thrust in the middle of another big Supergroup machine...releasing a big record in 1969, and playing huge venues across the U.S. Clapton wasn't into it...and was happy to leave that behind. After touring as a sideman to Delaney and Bonnie, Eric Clapton formed his last ever group...the great Derek and The Dominos in 1970. They put out a classic album (Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs), and toured around the U.S., yet drugs killed the band...contributing to lots of tension and infighting among its members. From there on in...Eric Clapton has happily remained a solo artist.
Fortunately, Clapton has had an illustrious solo career...with very successful albums like 1974's 461 Ocean Boulevard, 1977's Slowhand and 1989's Journeyman. The world tours would take its toll on him, and he would always yearn to be back home in England...at his beloved Hurtwood mansion...relaxing, hunting game...and fishing. Hurtwood plays a crucial role in Clapton's life...and he discusses his home at length. Yet as much as touring wears him out, Clapton gets restless after a while...and hungers for it. He later would announce that this or that tour would be his last...then later he'd hit the road once again. Clapton has kept this habit up ever since...thank goodness.
The book also goes into detail about the biggest loss of Eric Clapton's life...the death of his four-year old son, Conor. The poor little boy was playing hide and seek with a nanny, and ran straight out an open window...and dropped 49 floors into an adjacent building. Clapton struggled to recover from the loss...yet was able to do so without the aid of controlled substances. You see not long before...he had made the most important change in his life...he had become sober, permanently.
Clapton's sobriety is the most important thing in his life...and he values it over music and even his family. The reason is simple...if he does not place his sobriety as the number one priority in his life...Clapton feels he will let alcohol consume him once again. It HAS to be number one. His dedication to sobriety lead to the opening of his Crossroads alcoholic treatment center in the 1990's...located on the island of Antigua. He also hosts an annual Crossroads music festival to benefit the center. This new sober Eric Clapton clashed with the wishes and wants of his longtime manager, Roger Forrester...leaving Clapton to end their successful long partnership for good. They've never spoken since, yet for Clapton...it's small potatoes compared to his dedicated sobriety.
The book ends as it began...with family. Unlike Eric Clapton's dysfunctional family life as a young boy, he now has achieved the life he always wanted. He ended up in a healthy relationship with a wife that he loves...a former Emporio Armani store employee from Ohio named Melia. Melia bore him three beautiful young daughters...Julie, Ella and Sophie. He also now has a good relationship with an older daughter named Ruth, who was conceived out of wedlock in the 80's...during his affair with a Caribbean recording studio manager named Yvonne Kelly.
I simply loved Clapton: The Autobiography. It may not have included everything that I wanted to read about (i.e. more Cream stories, etc...), yet it still managed to fully engage my interest with what it DID include. I was impressed with Eric Clapton's honesty about his many weaknesses...vanity, passive aggressive behavior, booze, women, drugs, etc. His prose flowed comfortably, and effortlessly...giving the feel of spending quality time with a close friend. For a short while, Eric Clapton (and his long and colorful life)...was my friend, and inspired me to reexamine his long, prolific music career...and also go out of my way to go see him perform just the other week in San Diego. THAT's what a great book does. It changes you...and makes you think, as well as take action. Clapton: The Autobiography does all that, and more. I miss my friend Eric Clapton, yet hope to see him again one day...in another book, or another concert...I'll take both, thank you very much...
________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
L.A. BIZARRO
A week or two ago I finished a fun book my brother and sister-in-law gave me called L.A. BIZARRO: The All-New Insider's Guide to the Obscure, the Absurd and the Perverse in Los Angeles. The title is not misleading. In over 300 pages, writers Anthony Lovett and Matt Maranian give you a humorous look at a number of oddities that exist in L.A.'s underground, overground, regular ground, and everything in between...
The book is divided into provocative chapters titles like "Enjoy Life, Eat Out More Often," "Pressing The Flesh" and "Afterlife, Then What?"...taking you through...say...off-the-wall restaurants you may or may not have heard about...that which they either love, or despise. They rave about the restaurant and cafe at Ikea, for example, wax poetic about downtown L.A.'s Clinton Cafeteria, and absolutely despise the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant chain at Universal City Walk. In chapter 2, entitled "Dipsomania," the authors list some of L.A. seediest, scariest and coolest dive bars...including The Canby in Reseda...a lovely dump of a place my band in played a few years ago...The "Pressing The Flesh" chapter includes soft core B-movie legend Russ Meyer's house, an S and M bondage facility called Lady Hillary's Dominion, as well as a trip to a foot massage parlor called Reseda Foot Relaxology...
The Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan California libraries are explored in full detail (down to the gift shops) in the fifth chapter, called "Kulture Schlock." Also in the chapter is a look at the late Famous Monsters founder Forrest Ackerman's old mansion...which housed the largest collection of horror and science fiction memorabilia in the world. We also get to learn all about the world's largest painting...which is located at L.A's famed Forrest Lawn cemetery. The chapter labeled "Afterlife, Then What? features several places where famous people died, a billboard that displays an account of all the deaths that year from people who smoked, the truth behind the legend of "Dead Man's Curve," a pet cemetery for the elite, as well as the charming museum near my home called Psychiatry: An Industry of Death.
In a chapter entitled "Go Away", the authors give us a tour of L.A.'s secret nude beaches, take us on a helicopter tour of the city, tell us about a museum which fiercely disputes Darwin's evolution theory called the Museum of Creation and Earth History, and gives us tips on how to obtain illegal drugs in Tijuana pharmacies. Also of note, is a huge store in Littlerock called Charlie Brown Farms that sells hamburgers, barbecue sandwiches, salads, smoothies and pie shakes....PLUS...human skull replicas, life-sized canons, life-sized animals and life-sized Betty Boop figures, Nazi medals and paraphernalia, dolls of all kinds, lots of lots of marbles, 1000 different kinds of candy, plus a variety of Christmas items sold year around. Take THAT Wal Mart!
The book ends on a sad note, discussing all of the great oddities and tourist traps and cool L.A. landmarks that have been closed for one reason or another...such as the Sambo's restaurant chain, the legendary Trader Vic's, Law Dogs...a place that sold hot dogs AND gave legal advice, the Ambassador Hotel and Coconut Grove, the Brown Derby on Wilshire Boulevard, The California Alligator Farm, a restaurant called Alan Hale's Lobster Barrel...owned, operated, and hosted by the guy who played "The Skipper" on TV's Gilligan's Island...as well as a poorly managed and highly dangerous Orange County animal park called Lion Country Safari.
L.A. BIZARRO is a truly strange mixture of the mainstream, and the disgusting. Authors Anthony Lovett and Matt Maranian are clearly not shy telling it like it is...warts and all, when it comes to the bizarre and the truly disturbing. Their prose is written with great humor...using the same slap-dang punch of a stand-up comedienne...part social commentary, part making fun of this or that person, or that place. Some of their writing was funny, yet they occasionally go too far. In particular, I felt left out much of the time when Lovett and Maranian would consistently use obscure references in their humor of people and things I had no clue about.
For example, on page 20 in a discussion of a restaurant in Granada Hills called Casa di Pizza...they write: "it just didn't seem as magical as we remembered it. Then again, when one is talking about a Technicolor memory fueled by powerful chemicals, reality is going to be a disappointment. That's the first thing they teach you in the Owsley Academy for Boys." Huh? The WHAT academy? I don't get it. Yet having just looked it up right now on the internet...I see that the authors were referring to Owsley Stanley, who according to Wikepedia: "is a former underground LSD cook, the first to produce large quantities of pure LSD." Great. Raise your hand if you happened to know that one. Is it wrong that I miss references to world-renown LSD cooks? Shame on me! Damn my lackluster education! Unfortunately, Lovett and Maranian litter the book with tons of ridiculous references like that...all in the name of good humor. Yet they fail to understand that the humor is lost completely if no one knows what the bloody hell you are talking about.
Despite my frustration with some of the writing, I did get a big kick out of L.A. BIZARRO. The book gave me an inside look at some places I'd perhaps like to visit some day (i.e. L.A. Conservancy Broadway Theatre District Tour)...and others that I would not go near with a 50 foot pole (i.e. Pink Cheeks anal bleaching center). L.A. BIZARRO gives you an education into a world that you are most unlikely to forget...featuring the good, the bad, and the heinously ugly. It's not an easy read at times, yet if you can get through it all...you'll learn a thing or two.
_______________________________________________________________
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Ginger Baker: Hellraiser: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Drummer
Finished reading over the weekend an interesting Ginger Baker autobiography entitled Ginger Baker: Hellraiser: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Drummer(written with his daughter, Ginette "Nettie" Baker). Ginger Baker, for those of you who don't know, is one of the greatest drummers of all time...performing groundbreaking work with legendary bands like The Graham Bond Organization, Cream, and Blind Faith. I've been a big fan of Ginger Baker's for years. One of the greatest thrills of my life was going to see him in concert (with Cream bassist Jack Bruce) when I was 21 in New York.
I've always found Ginger Baker a fascinating and unusual drummer. His playing style is loose, unpredictable, and quite unorthodox. As a rock and roll drummer, Baker never pushed the power of the 2 and 4 into a backbeat. Instead, he would swing...like the jazz drummer he was at heart, and also pound the tom toms and double bass drums like an African tribesman. Even the way he held the drumsticks, and swung his right arm over the snare drum was strange. It's fun to play the drums like Ginger Baker...though I need to be in a certain frame of mind to do it, as its so very...odd, distinctive, and quite awesome in its own way...
Ginger Baker is good at so many things...playing polo, taking care of horses, building things with his hands, automotive work, songwriting, and of course drums...yet sadly, writing is not exactly one of them. His prose is sometimes hard to decipher...and poorly organized. Anecdotes are thrown together all at once...to the point where it ceases to make sense. In one page, he accidentally kills a man...then in the next paragraph, his polo improves. I don't know about you, yet running over a man with your Range Rover in Africa is kind of a big deal...not to be glossed over. Yet Baker's shoves things like that aside...and spends more time discussing his money, affairs, drug use, horses and polo games in graphic detail...
Peter Edward Baker was born on August 19 1939. Nicknamed "Ginger" due to his reddish-brown hair...Baker grew up poor, and fatherless...after his dad was killed in World War II when he was 4 years old. His first love was bicycling...and worked hard to compete in races and the like. Yet jazz took hold of him at an early age...and soon he found himself drumming on tables and chairs. On a whim, his friends encouraged Baker to jump on the drums at a party...and he surprised himself that he could actually play. A fussy student, Baker excelled in art...eventually getting himself a job at a design office. Yet when music gigs started to pay off, he left his job behind in order to hit the road playing jazz with combo after another...
Ginger Baker was/still is a massive drug addict...and has been since he was a young man. It started when he was a boy with cigarettes. That was the first addiction. When Baker began playing music, he was introduced to marijuana. Back in those days, few people knew about the dangers of drugs...so it was just too easy for Baker to move on from marijuana to smack (heroin), cocaine, and anything else available. Much of the book discussed his struggles with addiction...staying clean for a period, then relapsing back again. Drugs became an important part of his existence...as a user, and also...as a dealer. It's a miracle he's still alive, considering how many drugs he used over the years...His record is scarred with one, small drug bust in the 70's...which has haunted him with immigration issues to this very day...
Baker was never a rock and roller, per say...he just sort of fell into it. After years of playing jazz, he started playing blues with Alexis Corner in London (where he topped the bill and backed up a small support act featuring Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones)...which lead to the formation of the Graham Bond Organization. It was here where he first played with his arch nemesis...bassist Jack Bruce. Yet as Bond got deeper and deeper into drugs, Ginger Baker decided to leave the band to form his own new band. Having met and played with guitarist Eric Clapton during his Graham Bond Organization days, he asked Clapton to join his band. Clapton suggested they get Jack Bruce on bass, and Baker reluctantly agreed.
From their earliest singles in 1966, to their final album in 1969...Cream were one of the greatest bands to have emerged from the 1960's. They were the ultimate power trio, with three musicians who were not just good...but masters of their craft. Their output was pretty incredible...with songs like "I'm So Glad", "I Feel Free", "Sunshine of Your Love", "White Room". "Badge" and my personal favorite..."Toad", as it features a fantastic Ginger Baker drum solo. Unfortunately, Baker devotes only a scant 25 pages of his 291 page book to his original Cream years...going into very little detail about what went on. Much of it is sour grapes. Though Baker mentions how great it was to be in the band in the beginning, he laments the fact that he was never given enough credit for his contributions to the songs. This chief villain in all things songwriting, and live performance (according to Baker) is his arch nemesis Jack Bruce.
Baker presents Bruce as a selfish, irrational man...who was prone to fits of extreme anger if he didn't get his way. Ever since their days together in the Graham Bond Organization, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce clashed. Baker always felt that Jack Bruce only thought of him as just the drummer...the least important member of the band. Worse, Baker blames Jack Bruce directly for the breakup of Cream in 1968, as well as the second dismantling of the band after their 2005 reunion in London and New York. His chief complaint? At some point, Jack Bruce would insist upon turning his bass amp up way too loud...which would result in Eric Clapton turning his guitar amp up..and everything then became so loud that Baker couldn't hear himself play...and his ears would hurt. Cream ended (per Baker) when he and his good friend Eric Clapton decided amongst themselves that the volume and conflict with Jack Bruce just got to be way too much...so they decided to end the band. Ginger Baker hated their famous 1968 farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
A mere 9 pages is devoted to his next supergroup...Blind Faith, a fantastic quartet featuring Steve Winwood on keyboards and vocals, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, and Rick Grech on bass guitar. Their landmark 1969 album was immensely popular, and they played huge concerts at London's Hyde Park, and massive North American venues like Madison Square Garden. The Garden gig ended in a huge riot...started by none other than Ginger Baker. Apparently, when he saw a fan being roughly manhandled off stage, Baker got up from his drums and assaulted a police officer. Baker reveals next to nothing about the band...yet goes into depth about the drugs he was using at the time.
The rest of the book shifts focus to discuss Ginger Baker's personal life and passions. After Blind Faith, Baker played with a number of groups...and still played gigs and did tours over the next 30 years, yet nothing with the magnitude and weight of Cream or Blind Faith...yet his prime focus was in other ventures. Through friends like musician Fela Kuti, he became smitten with Nigeria...eventually opening up an ill-fated recording studio down there, and living there full time. When that fell apart, he focused on being a farmer, and raising horses. Polo became his new passion...and he pursued it vigorously all over the world. Back in England, he consorted with notorious British gangster (and actor!) John Bindon...and ran afoul of the police and the tax bureau.
In the 80's he fled to Italy where he lived for 6 years in a house rent free in exchange for refurbishing it. He worked the land and the house...and also became a volunteer fireman. When his luck ran out there, he moved to California to break into showbiz as an actor (!!). He got fed up after one small role, and choose to go back to music. For a number of years, he played with a variety of bands...and lived on his ranch with his horses...and played lots of polo. He tried for years to start his own polo club...yet it was always fall apart for some reason or another. When California started to look bad (polo wise), Baker and his wife moved to Colorado.
After a number of years in Colorado, Baker began fed up with American immigration...who hassled him every single time he returned to the U.S. from abroad. So, he packed up everything and moved to KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Yet he was disgusted by apartheid, and the corrupt government...though the polo was quite good. To get away from that, he settled in Tulbagh, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa...where he remains today with his horses and his polo.
Last but not least...Baker's book is littered with stories about the women in his life. An important woman to Baker's story (aside from his Mum) was his long-suffering wife Liz...who bore him three children...Nettie, Leda and Koffi. He seems to have been closest to his oldest child...Nettie, who was later became his closest companion when it came down to all things horses. Though his youngest, Koffi...was the one who continued his father's craft on the drums. They would often perform together. However, this was not the most sound family...as Baker cheated on his wife Liz hundreds of times...maybe thousands...with any and every woman he would encounter. In his book, Baker goes into great detail about his many affairs...I now know more about Ginger Baker's sex life than I ever wanted to know. Eventually, Liz had enough of her cheating husband...so he moved on to marry his second wife, Sarah, in the early 80's. Eventually, Sarah wised up...and left him for another man. Next came Karen in 1990...who loved to spend his money, stole a few things from him...and was gravely indifferent to his well-being when he became seriously ill. After his third divorce, Baker ended up with an African woman named Kudzi, whom he might still be with to this day...
If anything, Ginger Baker: Hellraiser: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Drummer taught me that Ginger Baker is quite the confusing character. He loves his cars, yet has crashed or destroyed all of them in one way or another. He struggles with money, yet resists or rebels against many commercial ventures that could make him money (including Cream reunions). He has a severe dislike of Bruce Springsteen...for reasons I still don't quite understand. He loved sitting next to Naomi Campbell, yet hated attending the 1993 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony because he had to sit for hours listening to "idiots like Jim Morrison's band pick up their awards."
Ginger Baker is a wild, defiant eccentric force of nature...With that in mind, I feel grateful that his daughter and the folks at John Blake Publishing were able to even GET a book out of him. Due to the haphazard writing style, I struggled through it as much as I enjoyed it. Even if it wasn't that great of a book...I still appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the genius drummer who influenced a thousand other percussionists...including myself. Regardless of what you may think of him as a husband, father, drug addict, polo player, actor, drug dealer, studio owner,fireman, sculptor and writer...there's no argument about his musical ability. That boy can play...
____________________________________________
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Just finished reading Brendan Mullen 2005 book Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction. The book is an expansion on a great set of interviews he compiled together for a 2003 piece that ran in SPIN magazine. Mullen is not so much the author of the piece, but serves as its director...taking various quotes and organizing them together into sections covering a specific topic...such as an album, a tour, a time period, a person, etc...What's great about the book is that all of the stories come directly from the original source...with no middle man nor woman to reinterpret anything, or make comment upon. You get to read direct quotes from all four original band members of Jane's Addiction, plus everyone involved in and around their lives...including family members, agents, managers, producers, fellow musicians., club owners, girlfriends, wives, and other associates of the band. It's a brutal, honest tale...filled with various peaks and valleys. What I got from the book was a deeper understanding what made Jane's Addiction tick..and how incredibly fragile that was. It also made me better understand why they imploded after only five years of existence, and three albums. Similar to The Beatles, the question is not so much why they broke up...yet more so how was it that they managed to stay together?
Born out of the aftermath of the 80's L.A. punk rock and heavy metal scene, as well as British new wave...the members of Jane's Addiction seem to come together as a matter of destiny. It was a woman by the name of Carla Bozulich who in 1985 introduced a rebellious, drug addicted L.A. bassist named Eric Avery to the drugged out and sexually sinister New York-born singer, songwriter Perry Farrell. Before Avery and Farrell even met, they already had someone in common...an Ivy League-educated woman who suffered from severe drug addiction...her name was Jane Bainter. Avery lived in a house with her in Westwood, and later on Farrell shared a house with her near Hollywood. When Farrell and Avery came together to form a band...they thought of their old friend Jane...and to her horror...named their band Jane's Addiction. They also immortalized her real-life plight in the classic Jane's Addiction song "Jane Says." After struggling with a drug-impaired guitarist and drummer, Eric Avery's sister Rebecca suggested her boyfriend...Stephen Perkins, to come out and play drums. Rebecca Avery met Stephen Perkins through her first boyfriend...a talented, drug-addicted guitarist named Dave Navarro. Not long after Perkins joined Jane's Addiction, he suggested having his good pal Navarro join them as well...and history was made. It was a strange match...two artsy, British new wave, L.A. punk-influenced guys (Farrell and Avery) mixed with two hard rock/heavy metal-influenced guys (Perkins and Navarro)...but it worked, it really worked.
The early Jane's Addiction shows were held in the punk, DIY (do-it-yourself) manner of renting out empty spaces and staging their own shows. Some of these shows were financed by a prostitute named Bianca...whom Eric Avery was having a horrid affair with. A major player through the early days, and through the length of Jane's Addiction's initial lifespan was Perry Farrell's girlfriend, stylist, artistic partner, and all-around muse...Casey Niccoli. Songs were written quickly, and it didn't take long before they developed a strong following...resulting in a fierce, record label bidding war in 1987. The winner was Warner Bros. records, yet before jumping into a big record with a major label, the band first decided to first put out a live record (called Jane's Addiction) on a small independent label called Triple X. The following year (1988) saw the release of their incredible studio debut...Nothing's Shocking. This was followed two years later by their 1990 masterpiece Ritual De Lo Habitual. The world tour that followed took them to even greater heights, and bigger audiences...headlining big venues like the Universal Amphitheater in L.A, and Madison Square Garden in NY, and starting up and headlining the very first Lollapalooza tour in 1991. Yet before the tour even started...the band was over.
From the get-go, Jane's Addiction was a band riddled with problems. Problem # 1 - Drugs, lots and lots of drugs. Drummer Stephen Perkins was clean...never dabbling in anything beyond pot, yet Eric Avery, Dave Navarro and Perry Farrell were all addicts. Avery was a heroin junkie that went clean during the band's later years...making him a bit of an outcast. Farrell was able to dabble with all sorts of drugs, yet still be able to function for the most part. He never let the drugs get the better of him. This was not the case of Dave Navarro...who was the worst drug offender of all...struggling with severe substance abuse from the mid-80's up through 2002. Due to drugs, Navarro got into a fistfight with Farrel at the first Lollapalooza concert. Problem # 2 - bad management. It's not easy to manage one junkie, let alone three...and sadly Jane's Addiction burned through a number of managers in five years time as a result. I guess that goes back to Problem # 1. Then there was the Problem # 3, the cold war between Perry Farrell and Eric Avery...one that still exists to this very day. The Jane's Addiction founding members have been at odds from the very beginning. Avery made a drunken pass at Casey Niccoli early on, confessing his love for her...and Farrell never forgave him. Worse, Farrell is a freak megalomaniac...whose controlling, domineering ways clashed with Avery's rebellious nature. Perry Farrell's "my way or the highway" approach broke up the band on a few occasions...especially when it came down to money. Farrell's insistence on dominating the publishing royalties put in a rift in the band that they never recovered from...especially Avery. Sadly, by the time the band officially broke up, it actually made sense.
Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction goes beyond the initial lifespan of Jane's Addiction and discusses post-Jane's projects like Avery and Navarro's 1994 Deconstruction album, and Farrell and Perkins 90's band, Porno For Pyros. If the drugs in Jane's Addiction was horrible, the situation with Porno For Pyros was actually worse. Once again, with a smile on his face, drummer Stephen Perkins found himself playing in a band of heroin and crack addicts. Worst offender was Porno For Pyros bassist Martyn Le Noble...who'd go on binges and disappear for weeks at a time...even attempting suicide out of drug-fueled embarrassment.
Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction also covers the various Jane's Addiction reunions over the years...from the dangerous and disastrous 1997 Relapse tour, with Flea replacing Eric Avery on bass (after Avery refused to join the tour, infuriating Perry Farrell), to the 2001-2002 shows with Martyn Le Noble on bass (who was unceremoniously fired by Perry Farrell), and the 2003 shows with Chris Chaney on bass. The 2003 Jane's Addiction record Strays is also discussed...how it was recorded independently, how Farrell fired Martyn Le Noble, and erased all of his bass tracks from the record....and how legendary Alice Cooper, Kiss, and Pink Floyd producer Bob Ezrin set out to make a great, classic rock and roll record...yet not necessarily a great Jane's Addiction record.
It's interesting to note that the book ends with the group broken up once again at the end of 2003...all moving on to other projects. Yet the story is far from over...Since it's 2005 publication, a new chapter of Jane's Addiction began with the full reunion of the band in 2008, this time with Eric Avery...a grand 2009 tour, and once again falling apart in 2010. Former Guns N' Roses/Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagen joined the band for a few months, then left. Now, Jane's Addiction have two shows coming up in Aspen, CO at the end of this month...are supposedly working on a new album...I have no idea who's playing bass with them these days...yet it sure ain't Eric Avery.
Needless to say, I got a kick out reading Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction. The book does a good job presenting a three-dimensional portrait of a great band. I got a really good sense of who the band was...and what their personalities are really like...for better or worse. The only one you perhaps don't hear enough about is Stephen Perkins...as his life was not as colorful and controversial as his fellow band mates. I would have liked to have known how he dealt with working so close with junkies all those years....and how was it that he himself was able to resist getting into the hard drugs his peers used so heavily? Also missing from the book, a detailed discussion of the music...the great songs of Jane's Addiction. Songs are mentioned, sure...yet not enough is spoken about the content of the music...and the making of the great albums. I would loved to have heard more about how certain songs came together...how they were developed, etc. That said, I appreciated the fact that Brendan Mullen took the time to put the book together...and tell the story of one of my favorite bands. It's quite a story indeed...and I am very curious what's going to happen next...
_______________________________
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Last night I finished reading Philip Norman's exhaustive well-researched 817 page 2008 biography of John Lennon called, appropriately enough...John Lennon: The Life. This is the second John Lennon book I've read in a month's time. The previous book, Geoffrey Giuliano's scandalous Lennon In America provided a sensationalist view of Lennon's years in the United States during the 1970's. Philip Norman's book, on the other hand, provides a more conservative...and perhaps more legitimate perspective covering John Lennon's entire life...from his birth in 1940, until his untimely death in 1980.
The life of John Lennon is indeed a complicated one, and certainly a challenge to any would-be biographer. Philip Norman's approach is simple, and straight forward...though I did find myself frustrated at times by his verbiage...and use of run-on sentences. I can't say I loved the writing, per se...and the book was no page-turner (which I am ashamed to admit, the Geoffrey Giuliano was)...yet you can't deny Philip Norman's intelligence, extensive research, and access to key players throughout John Lennon's life. Unlike Giuliano, I always felt that Philip Norman knew what he was talking about.
From what I have gathered from John Lennon: The Life, Lennon could best be described as a raw, impulsive personality...the result of a variety of factors stemming from his fractured childhood in Liverpool, England. His father, Alf, was a jovial, charming man...yet far from a stable one. His choices too often lead him away from his family...and into all sorts of trouble. Lennon's mother, Julia Stanley, rebelled against her strict upbringing...marrying Alf practically out of spite. She was a beautiful, free-spirit, who adored and nurtured her son. Yet Julia also was unstable...living a care-free existence that horrified her conservative Stanley family. According to the book, not long after Julia and Alf's marriage fell apart (and Alf disappeared from his life) young John Lennon was taken away from his mother at the insistence of his Aunt Mimi...who yearned to give the child a stable home environment away from the sinful life of Julia. Despite good intentions, life under Aunt Mimi's rule had its benefits and deficits. Mimi provided love and support, yet she was also cold...and perhaps insensitive. Mimi's husband, George, provided much of the friendly love and affection that the young Lennon needed in his life...Yet his heart always belonged to his beloved mother, Julia. He loved, desired, and resented his mother all at once. When Julia was killed by a car when John Lennon was 17, it left him broken...in a state of shock and emptiness that he perhaps never really recovered from...
By the time John Lennon became a young rock and roller, inviting Paul McCartney to join his band in 1957...he was full of anger and rebellion...coupled with incredible raw talent. John Lennon: The Life does an incredible job chronicling Lennon's formative years as an art student, and musician...navigating through his tenuous relationships with friends and lovers alike...each tinged with various forms of love, jealousy and violence.
The Beatles years are covered in great detail. In a sense, once the Beatles story begins...the book ceases to be a John Lennon biography, as the focus goes strictly to the magnificent rise and rise of the Fab Four. I suppose it would difficult to tell a complete John Lennon story without also including a complete Beatles story inside of it...yet I could not help but notice how much I missed the intimacy of the book's earlier chapters...where I really felt I knew the young John Lennon. Beatle John was observed more at a distance...or at least it felt that way. I never really thought the book got to the heart of what John Lennon was experiencing during the height of Beatle fame. At one point while reading the Beatle chapters, I had to remind myself that I was even reading a Lennon biography at all...As a Beatles fan, though...I enjoyed reading about the various goings on during the height of Beatlemania...some facts I knew, others I did not.
The arrival and presence of Yoko Ono in John Lennon's life is treated with the utmost respect by the author. Though, he is also not shy in presenting aspects of Ono's life that she would probably prefer to remain private...such as her over-reliance on tarot cards and numerology...as well as a heroin problem that continued to plague her during the later years with Lennon. That said, Philip Norman takes great pains to point out that Yoko Ono was a successful artist in her own right prior to meeting her famous Beatle husband. Although he was already married to the kind, and deferential Cynthia Lennon at the time of their first meeting in 1966...Ono was exactly what Lennon had been searching for...a strong, domineering woman like his Aunt Mimi, as well as a motherly, nurturing artistic force like his beloved mother Julia. John Lennon's attachment to Yoko Ono was an absolute...an inevitable one at that. Of course, in typical Lennon fashion...such an absolute would throw his life as Beatle John into complete turmoil...
Philip Norman does well with the post-Beatle years...up to a point. From 1970 through 1975, we learn much about John Lennon the outspoken advocate, and his immense struggle with the FBI and U.S. immigration efforts to have him removed from the United States due to his political views, and a flimsy drug conviction from 1968. The author touches briefly on Lennon's solo music made during these years, as well as the infamous "Lost Weekend" from 1973-1974. Not as much detail is poured into this period as much as the Beatle years, yet there's still plenty things of interest...such as Lennon's experience in Primal Scream therapy, his acclimation to New York City, and his wavering from belligerent drunken player in L.A., to sober task master producer in New York. Unfortunately, post 1975, up to and including 1980...Philip Norman goes from insider to outsider.
Less than 100 pages is devoted to John Lennon's final years...the years in which he retired from music, traveled, and took time away from the world to raise his son and be with his family in private. From what is included, it's quite good. We get a small sample of Lennon's househusband years...taking Sean for walks in the park, teaching him how to swim at a YWCA, travelling to Japan on numerous occasions to be with Yoko's family. We learn of John Lennon's love of the sea, and of his learning how to captain a schooner during a rocky trip to Bermuda during the summer of 1980. The Bermuda trip was the catalyst for his reemergence into the public eye...culminating in the release of his final album...Double Fantasy, a record he made with Yoko Ono. The book mentions the big plans Lennon had for 1981...including a return visit to his beloved England, as well as his first ever world tour. Yet it would not to be. On December 8, 1980...John Lennon met the same fate that also strangely befell Yoko Ono's great grandfather...assassinated by a crazed fan...a tragic end to an incredible life.
Of interesting note throughout the book are John Lennon's relationships...with his Aunt Mimi, with his wives Cynthia and Yoko, with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, with Beatles manager Brian Epstein, with his sons Julian and Sean, with close confidantes like Pete Shotton, and Stuart Sutcliffe during his youth...and folks like Harry Nilson during his adult years. Lennon had love for them all, yet his propensity for conflict, and anger and violence would sometime manifest itself into insensitivity, and out right cruelty...He would hurt the people who loved him, as if he could not help himself.
As mentioned earlier...the book portrays John Lennon as raw and impulsive...not so much a leader, but a man who was a keen observer and confessional reporter...highly influenced by whatever, or whomever interested him at the time Like many great artists...he was highly sexual, and prone to a certain degree of selfishness. John Lennon did whatever he wanted to do, and said whatever he wanted to say...regardless of the consequences. This was his strength, as well as his weakness. The book does well in its portrait of John Lennon the man, the vulnerable human being...with his own set of virtues and vices.
John Lennon: The Life is quite a book indeed. Though not as all-encompassing as it could be, Philip Norman's book is still an incredible piece of work. I enjoyed getting to know John Lennon...as much as anyone can know anyone else by reading a book about their life. John Lennon was a genius, a brilliant, complicated man...who brought so much joy into so many people's lives...including my own. I applaud books like John Lennon: The Life for chronicling and celebrating Lennon's too-short existence. Though the book never truly touches on the greatness of John Lennon's music...and his immense skill as a singer and songwriter...it does provide an excellent glimpse into his life...doing its best to solve the mystery about who John Lennon really was. Philip Norman may not have succeeded, yet his work in John Lennon: The Life is possibly as close as you'll ever get...
_________________________
Just finished Steve Martin's 2007 autobiography BORN STANDING UP...and I
loved it. In fact I loved the book so much, that I didn't want it to
end. In a way, it was a perfect book for me...small (at only 204
pages), simple, straight-forward, fun, intriguing...and never boring.
It was hard for me to put the book down...I felt as if I had just spent
time with an old friend...someone I had not seen nor thought about for
years...someone I used to love.
When I was a child growing up in the 1970's...Steve Martin was one of my heroes. I knew about him from NBC's Saturday Night Live...and his 1978 hit "King Tut." I'd listen to his records at my friend Raphael Shargel's house. I'd watch his television specials. I would marvel at his off-the-wall...completely out-of-the-box style of comedy. I recognized at a young age that Steve Martin's style of comedy was for me...especially when he began making movies.
Steve Martin's first film...1979's THE JERK, is still one of my favorite movies ever...I dragged my mother to see it on a double-bill with THE BLUES BROTHERS when I was 11 or 12 years old. I used to watch THE JERK over and over again on cable TV. I remember catching 1982's DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID in a hotel hospitality room with my mother. It was through cable television that I was able to watch some of my other favorite Steve Martin movies THE MAN WITH THE TWO BRAINS (1983), and THE LONELY GUY (1984). After ALL OF ME (1984)...Steve Martin began to slip away from crazy, off-the-wall comedy....to more commercial, conventional comedy (i.e. 1987's ROXANNE, 1992's HOUSESITTER, etc...)...as well as drama.
Over time, my interest in Steve Martin waned...As he stepped further and further away from the kind of off-kilter comedy he helped pioneer...I felt I didn't know him anymore. Dramatic actor? Respected author and playwright? This was not the Steve Martin I loved as a child...not by a long shot. In fact, I have come to loathe his work in recent films like the revived PINK PANTHER series and CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN...not to mention his role as the kind architect romancing Meryl Streep in 2009's IT'S COMPLICATED. How did a guy who epitomized the great comedy counterculture explosion of the 1970's become so mainstream, and normal?
With this in mind, it was an odd thing for me to even pick up a copy of BORN STANDING UP. I think I saw it in a bookstore once, and found myself curious about it...particularly the thought of revisiting his long dormant stand-up comedy career. On a whim, I picked up at Amazon.com...and hoped for the best.
Written about someone he "used to know"...Steve Martin discusses his entire life in BORN STANDING UP with great humility. You learn that his success was by no means "overnight"...and in fact, took him about 15 years of hard work and trial and error. By the time he time he was headlining giant sports arenas in 1978, Martin was a seasoned pro...with an act he had honed and cultivated for many years on stage and on television...
Steve Martin was born in Texas in 1945, yet spent the majority of his youth in Southern California. His father was not the most loving man...who tried his hand in showbiz, gave it up...and instead worked in real estate. His mother was sweet, yet was too often subservient to his father's wishes and demands. Family dinners were cold and quiet growing up...His father exhibited a resentment and hostility towards Martin...never approving of anything he did...even after he was rich, famous, and successful. Feeling little to no connection with either of his parents, nor his older sister...Steve Martin felt compelled to seek out a life for himself elsewhere....
As a little boy, he got a job for himself passing out guidebooks at the newly opened Disneyland in 1955...soon he parlayed that into a job working in the magic shop at the park. Magic was a big draw for young Steve Martin...and through magic, Martin learned how to perform in front of others...demonstrating tricks to customers at the store...Taking a liking to performing...he eventually got a job as part of running entertainment show at Knotts Berry Farm amusement park. There, Martin worked hard in skits with other performers...as well on his own act...while at the same time attending college, where he studied philosophy. After school, an ex-girlfriend hooked him up with a job working as writer on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on television...Martin wrote jokes and skits, and even appeared on camera every now and then. Eventually, Steve Martin realized he loved performing more then he loved being a television writer...so he set off into the wild blue yonder of stand-up comedy.
Martin's journey as a stand-up comedienne is an interesting one. Through his comforting prose, Steve Martin takes you through his life as a struggling performer...going from place to place, town to town...hoping his material is right, and that the audience is receptive to it. Even when he scored early 70's appearances on television (including many performances on The Tonight Show)...even when he became a high profile opening act for Anne Margaret in one of the big rooms in Las Vegas...Steve Martin still had years to go before he actually "made it" in showbiz. He didn't become a headline act until he just decided to be one...and start from scratch again in the small rooms.
When Steve Martin finally made it big....around 1976, 77...It all came as a surprise to him. With all of his television appearances, records, and outrageous shows..his audience kept growing and growing beyond his expectations. Martin's comedy tours were like rock and roll tours...large venues, lots of money, etc...The only thing missing was fun, and perhaps companionship. Martin tells of his loneliness on the road...the isolation, and loss of privacy, and the difficulty in maintaining a fresh comedy act in front of 18,000 people. By 1981, at age the age of 36...Steve Martin had had enough. He walked off stage and never ever returned...Instead, he found pleasure making movies...where he can reach a wide audience without having to travel from venue to venue in order to do so. Writing BORN STANDING UP was the first time in over 20 years that even thought about his days as a stand-up comic...
Behind the guise of the "Wild and Crazy Guy"...Martin makes it clear that he always had other interests besides comedy....particularly fine art and literature. He also gives you an inside look at his personal life growing up...going through one girlfriend after another. Relationships come and go...yet Martin never seems to get too attached to anyone.
Steve Martin is a great storyteller. I loved hearing his stories about the people he had met along his journey...such as famous screenwriter (and Hollywood Blacklist survivor) Dalton Trumbo, Carl Reiner, Glenn Frey, Linda Ronstadt, and Elvis Presley...who told Steve Martin "Son, you have an ob-leek sense of humor." I loved hearing his tales of Tonight Show politics...and how he won over, lost, then won over Johnny Carson again. I loved reading about where his jokes came from...and how they were developed. I loved so much about this book...and found myself looking forward to reading each and every chapter...as it expertly and sensitively chronicles each step in Steve Martin's development as a comedienne, and as a human being....
BORN STANDING UP wonderfully reminds you where Steve Martin came from...and all of the joy he continues to bring to people. Even though I may not fully relate to who he is now, I now have a new-found respect for Steve Martin...and his art. Who knew?
____________________________________________
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction
Just finished reading Brendan Mullen 2005 book Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction. The book is an expansion on a great set of interviews he compiled together for a 2003 piece that ran in SPIN magazine. Mullen is not so much the author of the piece, but serves as its director...taking various quotes and organizing them together into sections covering a specific topic...such as an album, a tour, a time period, a person, etc...What's great about the book is that all of the stories come directly from the original source...with no middle man nor woman to reinterpret anything, or make comment upon. You get to read direct quotes from all four original band members of Jane's Addiction, plus everyone involved in and around their lives...including family members, agents, managers, producers, fellow musicians., club owners, girlfriends, wives, and other associates of the band. It's a brutal, honest tale...filled with various peaks and valleys. What I got from the book was a deeper understanding what made Jane's Addiction tick..and how incredibly fragile that was. It also made me better understand why they imploded after only five years of existence, and three albums. Similar to The Beatles, the question is not so much why they broke up...yet more so how was it that they managed to stay together?
Born out of the aftermath of the 80's L.A. punk rock and heavy metal scene, as well as British new wave...the members of Jane's Addiction seem to come together as a matter of destiny. It was a woman by the name of Carla Bozulich who in 1985 introduced a rebellious, drug addicted L.A. bassist named Eric Avery to the drugged out and sexually sinister New York-born singer, songwriter Perry Farrell. Before Avery and Farrell even met, they already had someone in common...an Ivy League-educated woman who suffered from severe drug addiction...her name was Jane Bainter. Avery lived in a house with her in Westwood, and later on Farrell shared a house with her near Hollywood. When Farrell and Avery came together to form a band...they thought of their old friend Jane...and to her horror...named their band Jane's Addiction. They also immortalized her real-life plight in the classic Jane's Addiction song "Jane Says." After struggling with a drug-impaired guitarist and drummer, Eric Avery's sister Rebecca suggested her boyfriend...Stephen Perkins, to come out and play drums. Rebecca Avery met Stephen Perkins through her first boyfriend...a talented, drug-addicted guitarist named Dave Navarro. Not long after Perkins joined Jane's Addiction, he suggested having his good pal Navarro join them as well...and history was made. It was a strange match...two artsy, British new wave, L.A. punk-influenced guys (Farrell and Avery) mixed with two hard rock/heavy metal-influenced guys (Perkins and Navarro)...but it worked, it really worked.
The early Jane's Addiction shows were held in the punk, DIY (do-it-yourself) manner of renting out empty spaces and staging their own shows. Some of these shows were financed by a prostitute named Bianca...whom Eric Avery was having a horrid affair with. A major player through the early days, and through the length of Jane's Addiction's initial lifespan was Perry Farrell's girlfriend, stylist, artistic partner, and all-around muse...Casey Niccoli. Songs were written quickly, and it didn't take long before they developed a strong following...resulting in a fierce, record label bidding war in 1987. The winner was Warner Bros. records, yet before jumping into a big record with a major label, the band first decided to first put out a live record (called Jane's Addiction) on a small independent label called Triple X. The following year (1988) saw the release of their incredible studio debut...Nothing's Shocking. This was followed two years later by their 1990 masterpiece Ritual De Lo Habitual. The world tour that followed took them to even greater heights, and bigger audiences...headlining big venues like the Universal Amphitheater in L.A, and Madison Square Garden in NY, and starting up and headlining the very first Lollapalooza tour in 1991. Yet before the tour even started...the band was over.
From the get-go, Jane's Addiction was a band riddled with problems. Problem # 1 - Drugs, lots and lots of drugs. Drummer Stephen Perkins was clean...never dabbling in anything beyond pot, yet Eric Avery, Dave Navarro and Perry Farrell were all addicts. Avery was a heroin junkie that went clean during the band's later years...making him a bit of an outcast. Farrell was able to dabble with all sorts of drugs, yet still be able to function for the most part. He never let the drugs get the better of him. This was not the case of Dave Navarro...who was the worst drug offender of all...struggling with severe substance abuse from the mid-80's up through 2002. Due to drugs, Navarro got into a fistfight with Farrel at the first Lollapalooza concert. Problem # 2 - bad management. It's not easy to manage one junkie, let alone three...and sadly Jane's Addiction burned through a number of managers in five years time as a result. I guess that goes back to Problem # 1. Then there was the Problem # 3, the cold war between Perry Farrell and Eric Avery...one that still exists to this very day. The Jane's Addiction founding members have been at odds from the very beginning. Avery made a drunken pass at Casey Niccoli early on, confessing his love for her...and Farrell never forgave him. Worse, Farrell is a freak megalomaniac...whose controlling, domineering ways clashed with Avery's rebellious nature. Perry Farrell's "my way or the highway" approach broke up the band on a few occasions...especially when it came down to money. Farrell's insistence on dominating the publishing royalties put in a rift in the band that they never recovered from...especially Avery. Sadly, by the time the band officially broke up, it actually made sense.
Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction goes beyond the initial lifespan of Jane's Addiction and discusses post-Jane's projects like Avery and Navarro's 1994 Deconstruction album, and Farrell and Perkins 90's band, Porno For Pyros. If the drugs in Jane's Addiction was horrible, the situation with Porno For Pyros was actually worse. Once again, with a smile on his face, drummer Stephen Perkins found himself playing in a band of heroin and crack addicts. Worst offender was Porno For Pyros bassist Martyn Le Noble...who'd go on binges and disappear for weeks at a time...even attempting suicide out of drug-fueled embarrassment.
Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction also covers the various Jane's Addiction reunions over the years...from the dangerous and disastrous 1997 Relapse tour, with Flea replacing Eric Avery on bass (after Avery refused to join the tour, infuriating Perry Farrell), to the 2001-2002 shows with Martyn Le Noble on bass (who was unceremoniously fired by Perry Farrell), and the 2003 shows with Chris Chaney on bass. The 2003 Jane's Addiction record Strays is also discussed...how it was recorded independently, how Farrell fired Martyn Le Noble, and erased all of his bass tracks from the record....and how legendary Alice Cooper, Kiss, and Pink Floyd producer Bob Ezrin set out to make a great, classic rock and roll record...yet not necessarily a great Jane's Addiction record.
It's interesting to note that the book ends with the group broken up once again at the end of 2003...all moving on to other projects. Yet the story is far from over...Since it's 2005 publication, a new chapter of Jane's Addiction began with the full reunion of the band in 2008, this time with Eric Avery...a grand 2009 tour, and once again falling apart in 2010. Former Guns N' Roses/Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagen joined the band for a few months, then left. Now, Jane's Addiction have two shows coming up in Aspen, CO at the end of this month...are supposedly working on a new album...I have no idea who's playing bass with them these days...yet it sure ain't Eric Avery.
Needless to say, I got a kick out reading Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction. The book does a good job presenting a three-dimensional portrait of a great band. I got a really good sense of who the band was...and what their personalities are really like...for better or worse. The only one you perhaps don't hear enough about is Stephen Perkins...as his life was not as colorful and controversial as his fellow band mates. I would have liked to have known how he dealt with working so close with junkies all those years....and how was it that he himself was able to resist getting into the hard drugs his peers used so heavily? Also missing from the book, a detailed discussion of the music...the great songs of Jane's Addiction. Songs are mentioned, sure...yet not enough is spoken about the content of the music...and the making of the great albums. I would loved to have heard more about how certain songs came together...how they were developed, etc. That said, I appreciated the fact that Brendan Mullen took the time to put the book together...and tell the story of one of my favorite bands. It's quite a story indeed...and I am very curious what's going to happen next...
_______________________________
Thursday, November 18, 2010
JOHN LENNON: THE LIFE
Last night I finished reading Philip Norman's exhaustive well-researched 817 page 2008 biography of John Lennon called, appropriately enough...John Lennon: The Life. This is the second John Lennon book I've read in a month's time. The previous book, Geoffrey Giuliano's scandalous Lennon In America provided a sensationalist view of Lennon's years in the United States during the 1970's. Philip Norman's book, on the other hand, provides a more conservative...and perhaps more legitimate perspective covering John Lennon's entire life...from his birth in 1940, until his untimely death in 1980.
The life of John Lennon is indeed a complicated one, and certainly a challenge to any would-be biographer. Philip Norman's approach is simple, and straight forward...though I did find myself frustrated at times by his verbiage...and use of run-on sentences. I can't say I loved the writing, per se...and the book was no page-turner (which I am ashamed to admit, the Geoffrey Giuliano was)...yet you can't deny Philip Norman's intelligence, extensive research, and access to key players throughout John Lennon's life. Unlike Giuliano, I always felt that Philip Norman knew what he was talking about.
From what I have gathered from John Lennon: The Life, Lennon could best be described as a raw, impulsive personality...the result of a variety of factors stemming from his fractured childhood in Liverpool, England. His father, Alf, was a jovial, charming man...yet far from a stable one. His choices too often lead him away from his family...and into all sorts of trouble. Lennon's mother, Julia Stanley, rebelled against her strict upbringing...marrying Alf practically out of spite. She was a beautiful, free-spirit, who adored and nurtured her son. Yet Julia also was unstable...living a care-free existence that horrified her conservative Stanley family. According to the book, not long after Julia and Alf's marriage fell apart (and Alf disappeared from his life) young John Lennon was taken away from his mother at the insistence of his Aunt Mimi...who yearned to give the child a stable home environment away from the sinful life of Julia. Despite good intentions, life under Aunt Mimi's rule had its benefits and deficits. Mimi provided love and support, yet she was also cold...and perhaps insensitive. Mimi's husband, George, provided much of the friendly love and affection that the young Lennon needed in his life...Yet his heart always belonged to his beloved mother, Julia. He loved, desired, and resented his mother all at once. When Julia was killed by a car when John Lennon was 17, it left him broken...in a state of shock and emptiness that he perhaps never really recovered from...
By the time John Lennon became a young rock and roller, inviting Paul McCartney to join his band in 1957...he was full of anger and rebellion...coupled with incredible raw talent. John Lennon: The Life does an incredible job chronicling Lennon's formative years as an art student, and musician...navigating through his tenuous relationships with friends and lovers alike...each tinged with various forms of love, jealousy and violence.
The Beatles years are covered in great detail. In a sense, once the Beatles story begins...the book ceases to be a John Lennon biography, as the focus goes strictly to the magnificent rise and rise of the Fab Four. I suppose it would difficult to tell a complete John Lennon story without also including a complete Beatles story inside of it...yet I could not help but notice how much I missed the intimacy of the book's earlier chapters...where I really felt I knew the young John Lennon. Beatle John was observed more at a distance...or at least it felt that way. I never really thought the book got to the heart of what John Lennon was experiencing during the height of Beatle fame. At one point while reading the Beatle chapters, I had to remind myself that I was even reading a Lennon biography at all...As a Beatles fan, though...I enjoyed reading about the various goings on during the height of Beatlemania...some facts I knew, others I did not.
The arrival and presence of Yoko Ono in John Lennon's life is treated with the utmost respect by the author. Though, he is also not shy in presenting aspects of Ono's life that she would probably prefer to remain private...such as her over-reliance on tarot cards and numerology...as well as a heroin problem that continued to plague her during the later years with Lennon. That said, Philip Norman takes great pains to point out that Yoko Ono was a successful artist in her own right prior to meeting her famous Beatle husband. Although he was already married to the kind, and deferential Cynthia Lennon at the time of their first meeting in 1966...Ono was exactly what Lennon had been searching for...a strong, domineering woman like his Aunt Mimi, as well as a motherly, nurturing artistic force like his beloved mother Julia. John Lennon's attachment to Yoko Ono was an absolute...an inevitable one at that. Of course, in typical Lennon fashion...such an absolute would throw his life as Beatle John into complete turmoil...
Philip Norman does well with the post-Beatle years...up to a point. From 1970 through 1975, we learn much about John Lennon the outspoken advocate, and his immense struggle with the FBI and U.S. immigration efforts to have him removed from the United States due to his political views, and a flimsy drug conviction from 1968. The author touches briefly on Lennon's solo music made during these years, as well as the infamous "Lost Weekend" from 1973-1974. Not as much detail is poured into this period as much as the Beatle years, yet there's still plenty things of interest...such as Lennon's experience in Primal Scream therapy, his acclimation to New York City, and his wavering from belligerent drunken player in L.A., to sober task master producer in New York. Unfortunately, post 1975, up to and including 1980...Philip Norman goes from insider to outsider.
Less than 100 pages is devoted to John Lennon's final years...the years in which he retired from music, traveled, and took time away from the world to raise his son and be with his family in private. From what is included, it's quite good. We get a small sample of Lennon's househusband years...taking Sean for walks in the park, teaching him how to swim at a YWCA, travelling to Japan on numerous occasions to be with Yoko's family. We learn of John Lennon's love of the sea, and of his learning how to captain a schooner during a rocky trip to Bermuda during the summer of 1980. The Bermuda trip was the catalyst for his reemergence into the public eye...culminating in the release of his final album...Double Fantasy, a record he made with Yoko Ono. The book mentions the big plans Lennon had for 1981...including a return visit to his beloved England, as well as his first ever world tour. Yet it would not to be. On December 8, 1980...John Lennon met the same fate that also strangely befell Yoko Ono's great grandfather...assassinated by a crazed fan...a tragic end to an incredible life.
Of interesting note throughout the book are John Lennon's relationships...with his Aunt Mimi, with his wives Cynthia and Yoko, with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, with Beatles manager Brian Epstein, with his sons Julian and Sean, with close confidantes like Pete Shotton, and Stuart Sutcliffe during his youth...and folks like Harry Nilson during his adult years. Lennon had love for them all, yet his propensity for conflict, and anger and violence would sometime manifest itself into insensitivity, and out right cruelty...He would hurt the people who loved him, as if he could not help himself.
As mentioned earlier...the book portrays John Lennon as raw and impulsive...not so much a leader, but a man who was a keen observer and confessional reporter...highly influenced by whatever, or whomever interested him at the time Like many great artists...he was highly sexual, and prone to a certain degree of selfishness. John Lennon did whatever he wanted to do, and said whatever he wanted to say...regardless of the consequences. This was his strength, as well as his weakness. The book does well in its portrait of John Lennon the man, the vulnerable human being...with his own set of virtues and vices.
John Lennon: The Life is quite a book indeed. Though not as all-encompassing as it could be, Philip Norman's book is still an incredible piece of work. I enjoyed getting to know John Lennon...as much as anyone can know anyone else by reading a book about their life. John Lennon was a genius, a brilliant, complicated man...who brought so much joy into so many people's lives...including my own. I applaud books like John Lennon: The Life for chronicling and celebrating Lennon's too-short existence. Though the book never truly touches on the greatness of John Lennon's music...and his immense skill as a singer and songwriter...it does provide an excellent glimpse into his life...doing its best to solve the mystery about who John Lennon really was. Philip Norman may not have succeeded, yet his work in John Lennon: The Life is possibly as close as you'll ever get...
_________________________
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
BORN STANDING UP
When I was a child growing up in the 1970's...Steve Martin was one of my heroes. I knew about him from NBC's Saturday Night Live...and his 1978 hit "King Tut." I'd listen to his records at my friend Raphael Shargel's house. I'd watch his television specials. I would marvel at his off-the-wall...completely out-of-the-box style of comedy. I recognized at a young age that Steve Martin's style of comedy was for me...especially when he began making movies.
Steve Martin's first film...1979's THE JERK, is still one of my favorite movies ever...I dragged my mother to see it on a double-bill with THE BLUES BROTHERS when I was 11 or 12 years old. I used to watch THE JERK over and over again on cable TV. I remember catching 1982's DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID in a hotel hospitality room with my mother. It was through cable television that I was able to watch some of my other favorite Steve Martin movies THE MAN WITH THE TWO BRAINS (1983), and THE LONELY GUY (1984). After ALL OF ME (1984)...Steve Martin began to slip away from crazy, off-the-wall comedy....to more commercial, conventional comedy (i.e. 1987's ROXANNE, 1992's HOUSESITTER, etc...)...as well as drama.
Over time, my interest in Steve Martin waned...As he stepped further and further away from the kind of off-kilter comedy he helped pioneer...I felt I didn't know him anymore. Dramatic actor? Respected author and playwright? This was not the Steve Martin I loved as a child...not by a long shot. In fact, I have come to loathe his work in recent films like the revived PINK PANTHER series and CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN...not to mention his role as the kind architect romancing Meryl Streep in 2009's IT'S COMPLICATED. How did a guy who epitomized the great comedy counterculture explosion of the 1970's become so mainstream, and normal?
With this in mind, it was an odd thing for me to even pick up a copy of BORN STANDING UP. I think I saw it in a bookstore once, and found myself curious about it...particularly the thought of revisiting his long dormant stand-up comedy career. On a whim, I picked up at Amazon.com...and hoped for the best.
Written about someone he "used to know"...Steve Martin discusses his entire life in BORN STANDING UP with great humility. You learn that his success was by no means "overnight"...and in fact, took him about 15 years of hard work and trial and error. By the time he time he was headlining giant sports arenas in 1978, Martin was a seasoned pro...with an act he had honed and cultivated for many years on stage and on television...
Steve Martin was born in Texas in 1945, yet spent the majority of his youth in Southern California. His father was not the most loving man...who tried his hand in showbiz, gave it up...and instead worked in real estate. His mother was sweet, yet was too often subservient to his father's wishes and demands. Family dinners were cold and quiet growing up...His father exhibited a resentment and hostility towards Martin...never approving of anything he did...even after he was rich, famous, and successful. Feeling little to no connection with either of his parents, nor his older sister...Steve Martin felt compelled to seek out a life for himself elsewhere....
As a little boy, he got a job for himself passing out guidebooks at the newly opened Disneyland in 1955...soon he parlayed that into a job working in the magic shop at the park. Magic was a big draw for young Steve Martin...and through magic, Martin learned how to perform in front of others...demonstrating tricks to customers at the store...Taking a liking to performing...he eventually got a job as part of running entertainment show at Knotts Berry Farm amusement park. There, Martin worked hard in skits with other performers...as well on his own act...while at the same time attending college, where he studied philosophy. After school, an ex-girlfriend hooked him up with a job working as writer on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on television...Martin wrote jokes and skits, and even appeared on camera every now and then. Eventually, Steve Martin realized he loved performing more then he loved being a television writer...so he set off into the wild blue yonder of stand-up comedy.
Martin's journey as a stand-up comedienne is an interesting one. Through his comforting prose, Steve Martin takes you through his life as a struggling performer...going from place to place, town to town...hoping his material is right, and that the audience is receptive to it. Even when he scored early 70's appearances on television (including many performances on The Tonight Show)...even when he became a high profile opening act for Anne Margaret in one of the big rooms in Las Vegas...Steve Martin still had years to go before he actually "made it" in showbiz. He didn't become a headline act until he just decided to be one...and start from scratch again in the small rooms.
When Steve Martin finally made it big....around 1976, 77...It all came as a surprise to him. With all of his television appearances, records, and outrageous shows..his audience kept growing and growing beyond his expectations. Martin's comedy tours were like rock and roll tours...large venues, lots of money, etc...The only thing missing was fun, and perhaps companionship. Martin tells of his loneliness on the road...the isolation, and loss of privacy, and the difficulty in maintaining a fresh comedy act in front of 18,000 people. By 1981, at age the age of 36...Steve Martin had had enough. He walked off stage and never ever returned...Instead, he found pleasure making movies...where he can reach a wide audience without having to travel from venue to venue in order to do so. Writing BORN STANDING UP was the first time in over 20 years that even thought about his days as a stand-up comic...
Behind the guise of the "Wild and Crazy Guy"...Martin makes it clear that he always had other interests besides comedy....particularly fine art and literature. He also gives you an inside look at his personal life growing up...going through one girlfriend after another. Relationships come and go...yet Martin never seems to get too attached to anyone.
Steve Martin is a great storyteller. I loved hearing his stories about the people he had met along his journey...such as famous screenwriter (and Hollywood Blacklist survivor) Dalton Trumbo, Carl Reiner, Glenn Frey, Linda Ronstadt, and Elvis Presley...who told Steve Martin "Son, you have an ob-leek sense of humor." I loved hearing his tales of Tonight Show politics...and how he won over, lost, then won over Johnny Carson again. I loved reading about where his jokes came from...and how they were developed. I loved so much about this book...and found myself looking forward to reading each and every chapter...as it expertly and sensitively chronicles each step in Steve Martin's development as a comedienne, and as a human being....
BORN STANDING UP wonderfully reminds you where Steve Martin came from...and all of the joy he continues to bring to people. Even though I may not fully relate to who he is now, I now have a new-found respect for Steve Martin...and his art. Who knew?
No comments:
Post a Comment