PREAMBLE.
Well... Here we go...
The first of many or the first of a few... Who knows... Who even cares that much... Or to use the common parlance of the times in which we live... Who gives a shit ?
Apart from me that is...
Let me be perfectly honest and upfront to start with... This is in no way intended to be a 'best of' list. These three titles are, IN MY OPINION and only IN MY OPINION, my favourites among the many hundreds of musical autobiographies that I've managed to pick up over the years.
There will be hundreds, thousands even, maybe even millions of people who would disagree with my choices but that is of no matter whatsoever...
Give me your alternatives if you care enough about the subject matter, and if I've read it then I'll be happy to discuss the why's and wherefore's.
Face it...
The subjects are music and lyrics and the written word... and I assume since you're reading this preamble that the subject matter interests you in some way.
After over thirty years in the music industry myself, and writing my own autobiog on and off,
If, after it's finished, there is one person on this planet who feels about mine the way I feel about the following three titles, then I think I might have done it right.
These are my benchmarks...
These are MY favourites...
They are all books about a musician's life, the industry, the times, the whole damn thing, and each is as entertaining as the others and all three for the same or differing reasons.
CHRONICLES VOLUME ONE.
I'm going to start with probably the most well known... It's title is Chronicles Volume One and it was written by Bob Dylan.
Now the one thing you can say about the character known as
http://www.bobdylan.com/ is that he can write a bit.
Songs, sleeve notes, the odd article or two... The man can write... Ok, the spelling and sentence structure have left a little to be desired over the years, but then Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs have written acknowledged classics and nobody criticises their work so we'll have no truck with any hypocrisy over that aspect, thank you.
What Dylan has done in Chronicles is to use his considerable depth of songwriting ability to write a book in exactly the same style as some of his more less specific songs.
(Think Chimes Of Freedom crossed with Subterranean Homesick Blues with a huge dollop of
Tangled Up In Blue stuck on top of that, and just to round it off, a pinch of 115th Dream for good measure) and what he has done so well is to distil the sound that we already know into words about how and why and what was happening, and even more importantly... Who was happening ?
Dylan's past has been chronicled (yes, that is the right word, it's not a pun) so much over the years that in all honesty I don't think anybody was expecting a book that tells us so much and at the same time so little, but that is part of the charm of the book that works its way into your psyche with a disjointed series of recollections from the man's own point of view.
With this book he has gone back to something he went to classes in the 1970's to learn...
To step out of time.
The fact that he manages it and does it so well might infuriate those who want to read a chronological life story, but this is not that, this is a joke played on the reader or even the publisher... for this is a non chronicle.
Chronicle. (1). A detailed historical account of events arranged chronologically without analysis or interpretation. (2). A narrative. (3). To record (events) in or as if in a chronicle.
Well those are the dictionary definitions, so did Bob write a chronicle... Errr... Not really, no.
A series of interlocking reminisces that range throughout time ? Yes, most definitely, but a chronicle ? No.
But none of that matters, what does matter are the scenes he invokes from his memories... Meeting John Hammond who signed him to C.B.S... The Newport Festival scenes when he 'plugged in...' His early life in New York City with his girlfriend Suze Rotolo and with musicians like Dave Van Ronk, Fred Neil and others is invoked with such passion that the reader knows that this was an important part of the evolution of an artist who would probably not have done things any differently even if he could, and yet throughout that whole era before his first album came out, was little more than a pauper scrounging what he could through others that he met upon his travels... But he wasn't the only one.
All those famous and not so famous names in the same place and at the same time...
They were all in the same situation. Do the gig and hope you get paid for it...
There are some things in this life that never change and unfortunately the life of a struggling musician is one of them.
This is a book that captures the spirit of those times and later times with the same wit, the same passion, the same commitment to his muse that his best songs have always had, and his writing is crammed with so many memorable images that it's like you are there with him every step of the way.
It's a feeling, an intangible thing that emanates from all the writing, musing and reminiscing within the book...
And, dare I say it... ?
A love of doing what he did and still does knowing that there was no other course for him to take...
Dylan once referred in an interview to the fact that he was not a 'Protest Singer' but a 'Song and Dance Man'. He might have hit his nail right on the head when he laughingly said that, but who was listening ?
Not very many, that's for sure although the word 'troubador' is probably more correct if applied with a sense of hindsight... It's what he's always been.
His roadmap for the future had one signpost on it...
Music.
That's it. No possibilities of doctor, lawyer, cowboy or indian chief...
Just music... The love of which is so clearly contained within the pages of this book.
When asked about religion Dylan once famously observed that he believed 'In the songs...'
I know exactly what he means by that, and that belief in the music and the songs has carried his muse into some strange places over the years, but if his belief in the music is what sustains him, then who are we to disparage or discourage it ?
This is an absolutely marvellous read.
Forget about learning the ultimate truth from the original wizard of spin, It's not there...
This is a man speaking... a musician... Nothing more and nothing less.
No cultural icon... No prophet trying to save the world... none of those absurd titles that he has been forced to endure over the years... Just a singer-songwriter trying to make a living through doing what he loves.
All the rest is just floss and other people's interpretations, most of whom were not there when events occured anyway.
These are the chronicles of a real musician and as such, for those who care about this stuff, and there are a few of us out there... It is invaluable.
If volumes two and three are even half as good as volume one then in my humble opinion he will have written something else that will be ranked up there with the best of his work so far.
Does he tell us anything in it that the anoraks wish to know ?
Does he fuck !
He never has and I don't believe he ever will, point of fact I don't think he has ever even acknowledged that aspect of his life which has caused him so many problems over the years.
He has always said it was ridiculous and treated those who would propogate it with as much disdain as circumstances will allow.
With hindsight, who would argue that he wasn't right ?
Not me, I'm with him all the way...
A wonderful book.
BACKSTAGE PASSES AND BACKSTABBING BASTARDS.
Now why this, I hear you all asking ?
Because the man has something to say about the industry that he has served magnificently for over forty years.
Because it is done with a flair for the right turn of phrase for the right incident, because it is thoroughly interesting and because
http://www.alkooper.com/ is one of those unsung musical heroes that do so much but receive so little credit within the music industry, and because Al Kooper has been responsible for one hell of a lot of things that people tend to forget... Most of them good.
Ok, he pretty much single handedly invented the 'mindlessly stultifying fretwank jam' albums of the late sixties and early seventies, but listen to them again...
Listen to them now and you realise that it's not all that bad.
Sections of Supersession and The Live Adventures of... are as good as anybody was bringing out anywhere at that moment in time, and certainly more succinct than some albums released by some famous names of the era.
His work with Dylan has been well 'chronicled', not least by Kooper himself, but his work with The Rolling Stones has almost been forgotten (Let It Bleed) and also his work with Jimi Hendrix (Electric Ladyland) but why should this be ?
Both albums are rightfully regarded as classics of their particular genres, and if that were the sum of it then surely that would be enough, but it isn't... There's more... Lots more... And what this book does so well is to place a musician of Al Kooper's calibre into a series of musical adventures and disasters that would make a great film if people could only believe any of it.
Trouble is... We have the documentary proof that these events did occur... And Alan Peter Kooper was central to the complete plot.
When the book was originally published as Backstage Passes it ended in the seventies.
Now it runs through to the late nineties and Al is still making the same mistakes he did at sixteen...
He still trusts people...
Mug !
But the book is written in such a way that you understand why he made the choices he did...
He never had any options other than to go with the flow, and that is what he's done over the years from day one.
No mug he...
From the late fifties up to date, all the man ever wanted to do was to be a musician and to play music, but the problem with that scenario is that you do tend to give others the benefit of the doubt and trust them...
God knows how many musicians have fallen into the trap of trusting managers, record companies, agents, promoters and all the rest, but Al managed to do it with a little more wit and flair than most.
When he gets fucked over then it is generally the big one, but to his credit the things that kept him sane were his faith in music and a wit that starts with a self deprecating amusement at his own failings and ends in absolutely vicious sarcasm directed at somebody who has (probably) just ripped him off... And this guy's story starts as a teen idol and proceeds to go downhill from there until all that's left is...
First and foremost, a musician.
So from The Royal Teens through The Blues Project and electric Bob Dylan, The Monterey Pop Festival, Blood Sweat and Tears, The Supersessions, working with Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones, managing and producing Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Tubes and the solo years as super sessionman number one, the man has been there, bought the t-shirt and now he's written the book, and what a fine book it is too.
It should be required reading for any young aspiring teenager who wants to follow his dream and make a career as a musician. It won't be of course, because teenagers who do that sort of thing always know best...
But they could avoid an awful lot of stress and disappointment if they did.
It's all here... The dishonesty of the Music Industry could have been it's subtitle.
I spent over thirty years working within it and I can testify to some of the problems that Al comes up against and I've never been a major player... But some of them happened to me too, so I do know how accurate his descriptions of music industry chicanery are...
Very.
But throughout the book, regardless of the chaos erupting all around him he still keeps alive that one thing that sustains him... Good music is all around you whether you are playing it or whether you are discovering it for the first time... It's out there... All you have to do is harness it and go with it.
I saw Al Kooper once and once only live on stage. He came over for the C.C.S. gigs at the Royal Albert Hall in the early seventies. Before the gig Alexis Korner came on stage and gave a little introduction... 'Ladies and gentlemen, when we were getting ready to do these gigs I received a telephone call from America... The voice at the other end wished us luck and then said that C.C.S. was everything that Blood, Sweat and Tears should have been... Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Al Kooper...'
He came on to tumultuous applause from those who were aware of who he was in a suit and top hat made from the Stars and Stripes, photos of which can be seen on his album 'Easy Does It' and proceeded to play a long soulful blues on the guitar... He finished that, and after the applause had died down sat at the piano and proceeded to play his second number which was a dead ringer for 'If Dogs Run Free' from the Dylan album 'New Morning' except that he never sang...
and he was superb.
Two numbers and I'll remember them for ever...
Read the book and you'll remember that too.
Here's to you Al... and thanks for all the music.
Over the years his dress sense got slightly better, or worse depending on your point of view, even if his judgement didn't.
But then, had it done so it wouldn't be such an entertaining read and whatever else it might be... it is most definitely the most entertaining book about the workings of a musician within the industry that I have ever read.
Since writing this blog Al Kooper has just been awarded the 'Les Paul' award and it will be presented in October 2007... It makes a change for a major music award to go to somebody who might actually deserve it... 'Brit Awards' please take note...and the book is being reprinted for 2008.
DRUMMING AT THE EDGE OF MAGIC.Now... How many of you out there are thinking that ok, the guy's a Deadhead... There's bound to be a Grateful Dead book in there somewhere ? Well... Yes and no to that one. The book is written by http://www.mickeyhart.net/ one of The Grateful Dead's two drummers, and Jay Stevens but it is in no way a Grateful Dead book. The fact that Mickey drums with the group is totally incidental to this book. Intrigued ? Ok, I'll try and explain. Now I started off in the music biz as a drum roadie which gives me a little insight into where this book is coming from, but I emphasise... only a little. This book paints on a much larger canvas. Apart from telling incidentally the story of his youth into Air Force Bands and then into The Grateful Dead, it is nothing less than a quest to find the spirit of his chosen instrument. Hmmmnnn... A bit pretentious maybe ? No chance. The book details the feelings that go through the young man's head while he is playing... There is so much more to the drums than just banging away in time, and Mickey brings it all out. The feeling of time within his pulse rate while he is playing... The reaction of his body to some of the sounds that emanate from different drums... The spirituality of the drum in other cultures...
It's all here. It is also one of the most uplifting reads that any musician has ever written bar none. I'm not going to talk a lot about his adventures with The Dead. Suffice it to say, he was invited to play with them by drummer Bill Kreutzmann, made a few albums with them, left the band when his father embezzeled their money, rejoined for one gig at their 'retirement' gigs in the mid seventies, and when they returned to the fray with Blues for Allah he was back and he's been there ever since. All this history is woven into the text while the quest continues... The recording of some of their classics from the sixties... the trip to the pyramids to play one of the true 'power' stages of the world... The success of the band in the eighties when quite literally they became the biggest and most profitable band on the planet without even releasing an album... His realisation that by studying the masters of Indian drumming he could directly influence the time changes within the songs played by his own band, His brand of manic energy which once saw him floor a mugger after running a couple of blocks in New York, and his interest in the more shamanic possibilities of drumming... The trance state that the Deadheads get into when they dance... True... I've done it personally and on more than one occasion so I know it works... and how that translates into the trance state by cultures who have not yet let MacDonalds into their lives. It sounds hard but this book is so easy to read. It seems to have a child for a protagonist who, against all advice, keeps going after 'louder' and 'more rhythm' and yet you are seeing all this through the eyes of a master percussionist who cannot believe the ability he has to transcend time with rhythm until he realises that it is the drum that transcends it all. The rhythm of the spheres or the rhythm of the waves or the rhythm of the earth... All are represented and written about with a need for more knowledge...and since that book had not been written yet, why not do it yourself ? Different timelines and different cultures... Hart makes sense of them all within the great scheme of things and writes with so much love and care for his subject matter that it is difficult to believe he's not a professor but a drummer in a rock band. The book also has one of the most powerful endings I've ever read in an autobiography...Oh, don't worry... It's all good, but the description of the children at the end of the book with the drum that they have just made from scratch is among the most uplifting passages of descriptive writing in a book from a musician... It is superb. So good that if you have a heart then you find yourself choking back the tears. This is a spiritual book, a religious book although not necessarily about religion but it all ties in... It's all there. I've never read a book like it before and probably won't again, but the intensity of the man's vision comes through again and again. This is an absolutely wonderful read.
POSTSCRIPT.
Obviously the fact that all the books are written by practising musicians mean they have at least one thing in common, but apart from that, they can all stand up on their own and they don't need any help from me but if one person who hasn't read any of them buys a copy after reading this and enjoys it then my enthusiasm for all is justified...
Of course you might disagree... Fine... No problem... That's your perogative.
But if you disagree then you must have reasons... and you must have read the three I recommend...
I'm up for a discussion but only if you've read them.
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