Book Review - Tony Iommi - Iron Man

I have been meaning to post a review of Tony Iommi's autobiography Iron Man for a while now. I read it in November, right after Ace Frehley's book, which I did review. But the Iommi book got away from me.

Many people beat me to it, including my friend and co-worker Justin Norton, who reviewed the book for the Invisible Oranges website.

I also made the mistake of actually reading Justin's review, which sealed the deal that I would never write my own, because I agreed with 95 percent of his review and mine would be a copy.

So I asked Justin if I could just re-post his (lazy, I know), so I am doing so. But first let me say that I enjoyed the book and learned an awful lot about Iommi. The story about how he crafted the prosthetic fingertips after his factory injury is fascinating. In fact the detail in which he describes what he has to do to this day to keep his fingers in shape for playing is really amazing.

Overall the book is entertaining but a little dry. The stories of how they used to haze Bill Ward are pretty awesome. The Born Again era is well-documented, but the reunion with Dio is almost an afterthought despite the great success of those last few years.

Anyway, if you dig Sabbath, get the book. Oh and be ready to want to break out your old Sabbath LPs and really dig into them. I was inspired to do so and now feel that Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is my favorite Ozzy-era album by far.

Here is Justin's review, also posted at Invisible Oranges. Go there to read the comments - they are interesting.

Oh, and Thanks Justin for letting me steal your work.

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Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell With Black Sabbath By Tony Iommi (with T.J. Lammers)

“My role was to come up with the music, with the riffs,” Tony Iommi writes early on in his memoir Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven And Hell With Black Sabbath. “That probably stopped the others from writing music. If I didn’t come up with anything, we wouldn’t do anything.” Iommi says it in such a deadpan voice that you’d think he was talking about a day in a Birmingham plant rather than creating a genre of music that’s been around for nearly a half-century.

Considering how circumspect and low-key Iommi has been despite his achievements, it’s not a surprise that writing the building blocks of heavy metal seems like another day at work. Iron Man, co-written with T.J. Lammers, does a good job of telling Iommi’s story from Birmingham troublemaker and novice gangbanger to rock legend. Iommi’s bandmate Ozzy Osbourne has long been over-covered in print and on television; in the past two years there’s been an Ozzy autobiography, a book of humorous medical advice and a documentary helmed by his son, Jack. During Ozzy’s peak popularity in the early ’00s there were enough books on the Osbournes to fill a small shelf. Part of this is unsurprising; Ozzy’s antics and his public persona beg for stories and tabloid coverage. Meanwhile Iommi – the man who created the musical universe that propelled Ozzy to stardom – spoke through music. Who needs words when you wrote the riff for “Paranoid”?

Nonetheless, there’s been an unrelenting curiosity about Iommi’s past because time has proven him to be the cornerstone of metal. While Ozzy courts television cameras, Iommi hides behind sunglasses and often painfully generic interviews. Iron Man does a good job of answering questions. Iommi takes us back to his earliest years, when he played with also-rans like The Rockin’ Chevrolets and famously crafted part of a finger after an accident to continue playing guitar, all the way to recent passing of Ronnie James Dio.

Iommi found his muse with Sabbath; he quickly took to the road, and never stopped. The tour stories are hilarious and often horrifying; how Ozzy showed up for an early tour with just one shirt and a pair of jeans; how Iommi and one-time manager Patrick Meehan thought a wasted groupie was dead and considered throwing her off a balcony before she woke up, and how drummer Bill Ward was nearly killed when he was set on fire as a joke.

There are a number of interesting detours, including Iommi’s revelation that he experimented with astral projection but today can’t “leave his body”. Along the way there are worldwide travels; countless lines of cocaine – they really were snowblind – and musical partnerships with unlikely collaborators like Body Count’s Ernie C. Iron Man offers insights into many relationships, including Iommi’s close friendship with Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. Iommi’s relationship with Lita Ford gets a bit of a brush off; perhaps he views it as insignificant in retrospect.

There are no huge revelations or exposés in Iron Man, and that’s what makes it a strong record of Iommi’s life. Despite fame, riches and influence, Iommi never views himself as more than a talented and determined English guy who wanted to make music. Iron Man is a story about the power of creativity paired with drive and, ultimately, about a life well-lived.

By Justin M. Norton

PS - Justin turned me on to the band Ghost and I will be reviewing their tremendous new album soon. And no, I won't be reading Justin's first!!!!

Book Review - Ace Frehley No Regrets

I ripped through Ace Frehley’s book No Regrets in about three days. I am a life-long KISS fan and thought I had read it all, but let me tell you – I learned more about Ace and KISS than I had in years. The book fills in all sorts of holes in KISStory and gives the first really comprehensive picture of the man behind the Spaceman persona.

Usually I want to skip over the ‘childhood’ portion of biographies but Ace’s is really interesting and goes a long way to explain his laid back live-and-let-live demeanor. His entry into music is really interesting too, with some great, great stories, like how he used to sneak backstage at concerts and one time got dragged onstage to set up Mitch Mitchell’s drums at a Hendrix concert!

I was pleasantly surprised that Ace didn’t spend a lot of time on stories that have been told a thousand times by Gene and Paul, such as the fact that the band set up hollow speaker cabinets in their first club gigs to make the backline look bigger. He wisely skipped all of that and instead told new stories – plenty of stuff I had never heard before. I feel like Ace could fill a whole book with stories about drunken escapades and escapes from near death, and… oh wait that is exactly what he does here!

Ace does not shy away from being a life-long addict and how it impaired his decisions and his career. He is brutally frank about how during the recording of the Destroyer album he switched from being mainly a drinker to doing lots of cocaine. This begins a vicious decades-long struggle with dependency (Ace has been clean for five years), and many crazy stories.

He is very understanding as to why Paul and Gene didn’t want to work with him after a certain point (neither are drinkers or drug-users). And despite the No Regrets title of his book, Ace does express some regrets that he could have handled certain situations with more poise in his drugging days. He also credits Paul and Gene for being understanding about his desire to leave the band, and says they both made earnest pleas for him to stay in, which I don’t know I had heard Ace admit in the past.

Despite the fact that the media portrayed the book as slinging loads of dirt at Gene Simmons, it’s pretty tame in that department. Ace does say that Gene is a sex addict, and that he never really understood music (was more focused on business, marketing etc etc) but he has way more good things to say about Gene overall. Not a bad word in the book about Paul Stanley either. And while he says Peter Criss was his best friend in the band (because he partied too) Ace concedes that Peter became an unpredictable and unpleasant person towards the end of his (Peter’s) stint with the band – yes, due to drug and alcohol use.

Ace’s description of what it’s like to be an addict is very intense. He basically says when he first did coke, it was incredible but then he was always seeking that same first high, which was unobtainable because his body had developed a tolerance. He also said that alcohol as a depressant and cocaine as a stimulant was the perfect cocktail mix for partying for days on end. But then you’d get too strung out and have to take sleeping pills to rest. Then you wake up hung over and start taking prescription medication for that. Pretty soon you become a walking pharmacy and your only concern is where you are going to get your drugs in the next town because you can’t bring enough with you. He makes it sound like a real hassle and a nightmare, and it is. Keith Richards told similar tales in his book of trying to think steps ahead to get his fix in the next town.

Aside from the rise of KISS from a no-name bar act to the biggest band in the world in just two years, Ace provides a great in-depth look at the making of his solo album in 1978 and how he came into his own as a singer and songwriter. He has kind words for manager Bill Aucion and band ‘coach’ Sean Delaney, who helped with a lot of the early stage look and even coordinated the band’s stage moves. Lots of credit given to those two for the band’s success.

Ace concedes that once he left KISS his career and life went south due to the drugs but he does touch on his solo career and the recording of the albums he put out post-KISS. He does not provide as much insight into what happened on the KISS reunion tours – maybe those memories are too fresh. But the story ends on a high note, with Ace celebrating five years of sobriety and the release of his recent solo album, Anomaly. I pulled Anomaly off the shelf after I finished the book and still really enjoy it. Sure there is some crap on it but there are many gems. Sounds like classic Ace and that’s a good place to be.

Ace seems happy and healthy. That’s the impression I got from the book at least. He is at a place where he can look back and marvel on his accomplishments and share a laugh or two with the world about the crazy road he has taken. If you dig KISS, get the book.

Book Review - Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

Long-time readers know that despite this being basically a music blog, I will occasionally delve into technology stuff. And recently, I plowed through the Walter Isaacson Steve Jobs book and wanted to post something.

The list of markets Jobs revolutionized or invented is mind boggling: personal computing, desktop publishing (with Adobe), computers with a graphical interface (not having to type commands into the computer to make things happen), saving the music industry from Napster-like piracy with iTunes, the animated films industry (through Pixar – that part of the story is one of the most interesting), the mobile phone industry, retailing (Apple Stores), the app store for phones and tablets, and tablet computing with the iPad.

It might sound like I am an Apple ‘fan-boy’ as they are called, to agree with this list, but read the book. It’s all true. He either took an existing seed of an idea and made it work (graphical user interface, tablet computing), or outright invented it (iTunes).

Also true is that Steve Jobs was a major prick. This guy either thought you were a genius or you were shit. He led through fear and intimidation and pushed people beyond what is reasonable. Now, in many cases this method led to engineers and designers coming up with things that had previously been thought impossible. But still, not fun. He would also do things like send food back in restaurants after one bite, claiming it was inedible. And he pretty much totally neglected his family and kids. That kind of bullshit.

So while I very much admire the man, his perseverance and his genius, I don’t strive to be at all like him after reading the book. However, I do appreciate his take no prisoners attitude and the questioning of the status quo and responding to a ‘no’ with a ‘why not?’ And his willingness to fail. Nothing good happens without taking chances and failing. Most people and companies for that matter play it safe, and that is no way to change the world. Dream big and make it happen. Why not?

While Jobs died at the too-young age of 56, he lived a few lifetimes. The book presents Jobs’ life chronologically, with quotes from all the major players from the different phases of his life. Some of the most fascinating are from Bill Gates, who actually worked together with Jobs in the 80s to primarily design software for the first Macs. Later when Gates got into the operating system business, that is when their famous rivalry was born. But it seems like near the end, they had a grudging respect for each other. 

The book is well-written and well-organized and is a pretty quick read for 500+ pages. The writer doesn’t sugar coat anything and you get a pretty good sense for what kind of guy Jobs was. Overall, it’s fascinating. I am not even presenting the tip of the tip of the iceberg. To relate something to my blog here, the section where Jobs convinced the big music companies to allow the use of their artists on iTunes is unreal. I don’t think anyone else but Jobs could have pulled it off. Read the book for that section alone… 

And for the record, I typed this on an iMac, while listening to iTunes and syncing my iPod and being interrupted by calls to my iPhone. When this is posted, I’ll read it on my new iPad. Basically, I am a long-time Mac user.

In fact, after Jobs died, I pulled my Macintosh 512k from 1986 out of storage and guess what – it fired right up (see photo at left). That is highly cool. RIP Steve and thanks.

Book Review: Sammy Hagar - Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock

I mowed through Sammy Hagar Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock in two days. It was pretty riveting. Sammy co-wrote it with Joel Selvin from the SF Chronicle, which probably means Sammy dictated it to Joel and Joel banged it into shape.

But however they did it, the book is very conversational and is a great read. Sammy is indeed a funny guy and I was laughing before I even turned to the second page.

Hagar's family history is pretty interesting. I usually want to skip over the childhood years in music bios, but this was a good one. Sammy had a pretty tough childhood yet he presents it with a refreshing objectivity and it shows how his strong work ethic and easygoing nature were formed.

Also, he grew up in a very rural area (Fontana, California), and he paints a vibrant picture of what life was like back in the 50s as kid.

His teenage years were spent in the 60s, and he got the rock and roll bug in time to attend the Monterey Pop Festival and take all sorts of the usual chemicals of the time. The cool thing is, after a close call with the law, he decided to clean it up and really focus on his dream of making it as a rock and roller.

In fact Hagar reminds me of Tom Petty (from Running Down A Dream) and Don Felder (from Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles), who both were so driven to succeed that they left wreckage in their wake - wives, bandmates etc.

Hagar marries young and his wife sticks with him through the poverty and selfishness of living on nothing to chase a dream that few ever achieve, all the way through the payoff before and during the Van Hagar years, where Sammy is gone so much his kids never see him. And of course he ultimately dumps her for a newer model. There is more to the story than this (the wife train wrecked a bit), but it's a common theme and was the only bummer in Sammy's  story.

Otherwise, you'd be hard pressed to find a more easy-going, motivated, smart guy in rock and roll. Most know of Hagar's Cabo Wabo venue and tequila franchise, but he was starting businesses all the way back in the late 70s. Some tanked and others did OK, but he diversified and invested wisely. Very few rockers grasp that concept without the nudge of the accountant!

Of course the big dirt in the book is all about Van Halen. If you believe Sammy's story, he was the great motivator behind getting the songs written and recorded on the numerous Van Hagar albums. The Van Halen brothers were disorganized and dysfunctional - basically rich rock stars who never grew up and always had some screws loose. The magic was prevalent from the start of their collaboration, but the seeds of the breakup were already sown as well, namely in the form of the Van Halen brothers' alcoholism.

Talk about head trippers - mostly Eddie, but Alex was a major enabler. I mean, I already knew Eddie has zero respect for his fans and is generally a clueless genius with no manners - that was clear from his Guitar Player interviews in the 80s. But Hagar really tears the cover off of it and it's pretty astounding. Did nothing to change my opinion of Eddie Van Halen as a human being, which was already pretty low.

I knew very little about Alex Van Halen, though. According to the book, he was a major alcoholic (possibly cleaned up at this point but hard to tell) and very co-dependent with Eddie. Not as off the rails as Eddie but didn't do anything to help him put the brakes on either.

And David Lee Roth? Wow, what a weird dude. Another deluded head tripper but I guess we knew that already. The stories of the Sam and Dave tour, and the Van Hagar reunion are worth the price of the book alone.

Hagar also talks about his breakthrough with Montrose, the arc of his solo career and his recent new band, Chickenfoot. The book inspired me to listen to that CD again and it's a good band. Great chemistry. I reviewed that CD here in 2009.

Overall, the book paints a solid picture of Hagar - an amazingly successful, talented, driven, slightly ego-centric rock and roller and business man. Despite some of the lifestyle and personal choices I wouldn't have done myself, I came away with a lot of respect for the man. And overall, the book is a fun, easy read.

Book Review - Paul McCartney A Life - By Peter Ames Carlin

I got the book Paul McCartney – A Life, by Peter Ames Carlin for Christmas and just finished it last night. It’s a comprehensive book that looks at McCartney’s entire life and career up to present day. Carlin interviewed scores of people – old bandmates, employees, friends etc. The only people not interviewed are members of McCartney’s family, or any of the former Beatles/their families. Maybe he tried and they said no.

But what he got let him put together what reads like a facts-based account of McCartney’s career. He looks at all the angles – was McCartney an obsessed workaholic who disregarded the input of all but his closest collaborators (Lennon and Linda McCartney)? Or was he an insecure worry-wart, eager to ‘set the record straight’ by rewriting history of his contributions to The Beatles and the songs credited to “Lennon/McCartney?” Or was he a savant following his muse to greater and greater heights (but in the shadow of Lennon), anyone with an opinion be damned?

The cool thing about Carlin’s book is that unlike most writers, he does not take sides. This is not a “Paul is an insecure dick” book, nor is it a glowing re-writing of history putting forth that Paul for the most part drove The Beatles and Lennon was along for the ride. Most books take one of those two angles. Rather, Carlin lays out the facts and lets the reader decide.

Where did I land? Well, I have always seen McCartney as unnecessarily insecure. There is no reason why he needs to trumpet what he did in The Beatles. His vast catalog of amazing songs speaks for itself. Latter 70s Wings material and a few glowing spots in his solo career back up the notion that he is a master of the melody, an amazing songwriter who didn’t need anyone else to help him.

Of course he was rudderless in the early 70s. Unlike Lennon and especially Harrison, McCartney didn’t have a backlog of songs to draw from. Also he was the odd man out, shut out creatively and business-wise by his three best friends who at the moment despised him. It’s amazing the dude landed on his feet at all.

The book portrays Linda McCartney as the savior who helped him get on his feet when he was down and out. Carlin again reports the facts, that Linda was not a good musician (by her own account even), but that her presence in McCartney’s creative life helped drive him to the great success of Wings and his other endeavors. The fact that she could be a bit overbearing was offset by the fact that anyone not overbearing was pretty much ignored by McCartney!

Having read way too much about the Beatles already, I knew a lot of the subject matter. But there was a lot that was new to me as well. For example, the turmoil of the songwriting sessions for the Anthology series, where the three surviving Beatles were all concerned they would not be fairly represented in the mix of the new song Free As A Bird. And how they had a three hour ‘airing out’ session in Harrison’s back yard and seemed to come back happier and got back to work.

I appreciated the themes that Carlin kept coming back to, that 1) events in Paul’s childhood affected how he behaved through the rest of his life, and 2) because he was mega-successful from a very early age, McCartney has a very distorted sense of how things are supposed to be, and this frequently clouds his judgement across the board.

Another recurring theme in the book is all of the ‘what if’s’ and close calls regarding Beatle reunions. I didn’t know that Lennon and McCartney hung out several times in the 70s and even jammed in a studio one time, with McCartney on drums. I found the bootleg of that session and it’s interesting to say the least but not very magical. They are all pretty wasted and it’s during Lennon’s “Lost Weekend.” But damn, it's interesting!

There were even a few times in the 70s when three of the four Beatles played together and just for purely logistical reasons the fourth wasn’t there (not because he wasn’t invited or because there was bad blood). The recounting of these events in the book makes me believe that the Beatles absolutely would have reunited at some point if Lennon had not been killed in 1980, if even for a one-off.

Anyway, for the most part McCartney comes across as a positive if slightly bemused artist (in the purest sense of the word) who struggles with various insecurities and the inability to identify a really good idea from a really bad idea.

It’s a fascinating read and even if you think you know all there is to know about the Beatles or McCartney I promise you will learn something from this book. And Carlin does it in 340 pages, which is a feat in and of itself. There is a LOT to cover in those pages and he does a great job not glossing over anything but not hammering the reader to death with details. And to back up his facts, there is a much appreciated appendix that outlines where he got all of his quotes and info. Very nice.

Book Review - Off The Rails - By Rudy Sarzo

This week I finished Rudy Sarzo's book, Off The Rails. Put together by the heavy metal bassman himself while on the road, Sarzo says he wrote the book to answer a question he is asked daily, which is "What was Randy Rhoads like?" (Rhoads was Ozzy’s Osbourne’s songwriting partner and guitar player on his first two solo albums, and was killed in a plane crash in 1982, immediately granting him ‘dead legend’ status)

What emerges from page one is that Sarzo is not your archetypal partying stereotype 80s metalhead. He is thoughtful and observant and he even has a pretty deep seated belief in God, which is kind of a shocker given that he started his career with Ozzy and currently plays with Dio!

Actually, Sarzo met Rhoads in the original version of Quiet Riot, which made the rounds of LA clubs in the late 70s in search of a record deal that never came. The Quiet Riot that found success in the 80s (with Sarzo but not with Rhoads, who had already passed away) was re-formed by singer Kevin DuBrow, with Rhoads' approval on resurrecting the name.

But when Rhoads got the gig with Ozzy post Quiet Riot, he suggested Sarzo and the rest is history. Rhoads' first (and only) two albums with Ozzy had already been written and recorded when Sarzo joined, although Sarzo is pictured on the Diary of A Madman sleeve.

Anyway, the book goes into the year and half Sarzo toured with Ozzy and Rhoads and of course covers the tragic airplane accident that took Rhoads' life in March 1982.

Walking away from the book, I had two primary impressions. First, Ozzy was a train wreck from day one, and Sharon Osbourne was a manipulative nightmare from day two. Although she treated Sarzo and the band very well at the time.

But Ozzy was a raving alcoholic during this period. This was the era where he bit the head off the dove in the record company offices, bit the head off the bat onstage, and peed on the Alamo in Texas. From a couple of (rare) lucid conversations with Ozzy recounted by Sarzo, Ozzy was basically a very sad guy. He felt like part of the machine and was pretty much a lost soul. Once Rhoads died, he got much worse.

My second impression was that Rhoads was a very dedicated guitarist who was as into classical guitar as much as hard rock. Instead if getting wasted on tour, he would pop open the Yellow Pages and find a classical guitar teacher so he could take a quick lesson to keep growing in his skills. He was generous with his time with fans who would ask him how to play certain solos, and seemed very gracious and cool.

Rhoads had in fact already told Ozzy that after one more album and tour he was going to move on, to take further classical instruction.

Sarzo kept an extensive journal, which helped him write the book. That is great, because he pulls out a lot of detail. Remember, this all happened before 80s metal was around. For example, he talks about meeting Def Leppard on the band's first American tour (small clubs, no hit records yet).

But Sarzo also falls into the "school of using your journal as a reference" by listing tour dates a bit too frequently. "On March 12 we played at the Fruit Bowl in Somewhere, followed by two shows at the 1,200 capacity Turd Center in Anytown." And on and on. It's interesting at first but I found myself skipping those paragraphs as the book went on.

The primary thing Off The Rails accomplished for me was that it made me want to check out Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of A Madman again. Sadly, the recently re-released CDs of those albums are bastardizations. Sharon erased the original bass and drum parts and replaced them with rerecorded bass and drums from Ozzy's band at the time of the re-releases.

This was due to some kind of legal haggling with original bass player Bob Daisley and drummer Lee Kerslake. I think that is pathetic (see "Sharon was a manipulative nightmare from day two" above). To do that to these classic albums is unforgivable and I will never buy them. Luckily I have the vinyl.

But I digress. Sarzo did a great job laying out a detailed picture of who Randy Rhoads was. Prior to reading the book, I didn't really care. But now I see that his death was the tragic loss of a stellar musician at the front end of a life long devoted career that could have given us all much greatness.

Book Review: Contents Under Pressure

Anyone who follows this blog knows I am a lifelong Rush fan. Besides jamming with the guys at a soundcheck or something, one of my band fantasies would be sitting down with Rush and asking them what they thought of each of their numerous albums, from 1974 to date.

I heard that before one of the more recent tours, Geddy and Alex got together and listened to every one of their albums chronologically, trying to figure out what songs they could pull from the vault. I would have paid a LOT to have been a fly on the wall for those meetings.

But the book Contents Under Pressure: 30 Years of Rush at Home and Away, which came out right before the 30th Anniversary Tour, is as close as I’ll get. It’s an authorized book about Rush’s albums and tours, loaded with quotes from all the Rush guys, telling stories about what was going on during the making of every album over the course of the band’s first 30 years.

You get these nuggets (and much more):

--Neil Peart is not a fan of any of the band’s albums until Moving Pictures. I was pretty surprised at that, since many fans consider that early period the best of the band’s whole career. But in terms of his lyric writing, the bombast of the music, and the quality of the recordings, he says please, let’s skip all of that and just start the band’s career with Moving Pictures. Alex Lifeson, however, thinks that those old albums stand up much better than he thought they would, and he really enjoyed revisiting Hemispheres and even Caress of Steel and Fly By Night.

--Lifeson is not a big fan of the keyboard heavy albums Signals and Grace Under Pressure, and feels that there was a much better balance on Power Windows and Hold Your Fire. After those four albums, even Geddy Lee got sick of the keyboards in Rush and tried to wean them away more and more every album after that. They talk in detail about how hard it was to bring those overdub-heavy albums into a live setting. This includes their first foray into triggering samples of keyboards, vocals, guitars and effects that play along with the band, and how unreliable the technology was back then. And yeah, let's be clear - they don't play to a click or pre-recorded track a la Won't Get Fooled Again. Rather, they trigger finite snips of sound using foot pedals or drum triggers. Maybe it will play for a couple of bars, or maybe through a whole chorus. That requires a lot of onstage dancing and focus, and is why they don't visit Power Windows or Hold Your Fire that much in the live set these days.

--Some albums have been very, very hard to record, due to tight timelines, band disunity, uncertainty about producers, etc. Hemispheres, Grace Under Pressure and Counterparts were the three that were really hard to make. For Hemispheres, they wrote the album without checking how the keys of the songs were for Geddy, and when he went to sing them, they were all too high. That album was a nightmare for him to sing. The easy albums to record were Moving Pictures, Test for Echo and even though it’s not included in the book, from other interviews we know that Snakes and Arrows was a joy for them to make.

--None of the band really like Presto all that much. They think Roll the Bones has better songs but isn’t produced very well (I’d agree with that one).

--The band carves up their recorded history like this: The first few albums were all about becoming ripping musicians – hence the crazy prog-rock structure of their songs and epic album-side long mini operas. Come Moving Pictures through the 90s, it was more about songwriting and arranging. Hence the keyboards, catchy choruses etc. Now it’s about combining all of those elements, while getting back to their power trio roots.

Anyway, this is the tip of the iceberg. If you dig Rush, you’ll love this book.

Happy Birthday Johnny Cash - and Book Review

Today would have been Johnny Cash’s 76th birthday had he not passed away in September 2003. I just finished his autobiography, called Cash: The Autobiography, and it's pretty good.

The book is organized mostly chronologically and in short chapters, so it's easy to read on the fly. Not being a giant fan of country music, I found myself glossing over the parts that talked in detail about certain tours or musicians he played with.

But the rest was pretty fascinating. The account of his childhood in the cotton fields is a piece of American history. He writes about it so vividly, I felt transported back into time into the deep South where the struggles of the farmers were real and raw.

If you have seen the movie Walk The Line, you are familiar with Cash's relationship with June Carter and also his long history of substance abuse. Cash goes into detail about the latter in the book and certainly struggled to get straight for most of his life. There are some wild stories in these pages!

Cash is also a religious man, something weaved throughout the book, from his love of old gospel music to his daily affirmations and love of religious history and interpretation.

Sadly, since the book came out in 1997, it ends before his 90s comeback is in full swing. Funnily enough, that is the Johnny Cash I came to know and appreciate. The old guy doing "Deliah's Gone," "Hurt" and "The Man Comes Around."

This is his work with Rick Rubin and some of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers and I have all five of the CDs he did on Rubin's American Recordings label. While I wouldn't say they rock, they are fantastic. I can't think of anyone else who, in their late 60s and early 70s, had such a prolific run of great music at the end of their career.

Anyway, the book is good. Much like with Miles Davis' biography, I didn't need to love the man's music to appreciate his story. And now I have a whole career's worth of music to go back through and discover.

Here are two facets of that career for us to dig on his 76nd birthday: The video for his version of Trent Reznor's "Hurt," which I defy anyone to watch all the way through and not tear up at least a little, and a video from Cash's middle years.

Hurt


San Quentin

Book Review – Traveling Music by Neil Peart

When presented with a week and a half off from family responsibilities and with no other plans in the hopper, Neil Peart decides to take a road trip – by car this time – and packs up a slew of CDs he plans on spinning while on the road.

At some point in this journey, the forever journaling drummer and traveler decides he could probably squeeze a book out of the trip, mainly documenting his travels and reflecting on the music he cranks along the way.
In this way, we get to be passengers as Neil drives from his Los Angeles home to southwest Texas and back, the end goal being a visit to Big Bend National Park, where he had quickly passed through some years earlier on motorcycle and always wanted to return.

We hear Neil reflect on his love of everything from Sinatra to Madonna. We hear about his appreciation of Coldplay, Jeff Buckley, Porcupine Tree, Dido and Radiohead. And 98 degrees. Yes you read that right. We also hear about his disdain for Rolling Stone magazine.

And as side stories, we hear how he became friends with Matt Scannell of Vertical Horizon, who was trying to appease his record company by writing a follow up to Everything You Want, and how Neil helped him try and figure out if ought to do that or just follow his heart.

Alternating with chapters about his journey and all of these reflections, Neil writes about his childhood and his early love of the drums, moving into how he tried to make it in music in London, moved back to Canada disgruntled, and then hooked up with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson to begin his career in Rush. We get insight into why he is so guarded with his private life, and we hear nuggets such as, if he could wipe all of his work with Rush off the face of the earth pre-1980 (Permanent Waves), he would.

For any Rush fan, just these parts of the book are worth the read. It’s basically an autobiography of his years in Rush.

For an intensely private person, Neil slowly is peeling back the layers of his story in his books.

This book is a great continuation from Ghost Story: Travels on the Healing Road, which chronicled his healing after losing his wife and daughter. I reviewed that book here.

Now we see a re-married and happy Neil reflecting back on his formative years, as he also carves out a new journey. There is another book, called Roadshow, that Neil put out after this one. It’s on my reading list!

Book Review - Ronnie

On the heels of the Clapton autobiography, I dove right in to “Ronnie,” by Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. What a contrast.

Where Clapton had a fairly negative childhood experience that led him to have relationship and addiction issues throughout his life, Wood had a really positive, nurturing childhood that led to him having addiction issues his whole life.

And whereas I felt like Clapton got smarter over the course of his life (even though he remained stupid - or at least, addicted - for a really, really long time), Wood made the same damn mistakes again and again – mostly financial. I mean, the guy gets so overstretched financially that he has to ask the Stones for advances of millions of dollars before tours, just to get out of debt.

Self-admittedly, he just can’t say no. So when someone comes to him with a harebrained investment idea – hey, run your own spa, it’ll only cost you 30 million dollars – he takes the bait again and again. It’s actually very frustrating to see him mess up over and over. He’s like the multi-millionaire version of the guy who goes out on the crabbing boat for months, makes tons of money, comes home, spends all of it quickly, and has to go back out again to make more.

The best part of the book for me, actually, is the part before he joins the Stones. His formative years are really entertaining, and you get a good sense for his virtuosity as a musician. The guy really can play anything, given the right amount of time. He has a great attitude as well. Very happy go lucky and generous, (whereas Clapton was always kind of a dick). His stories about how he got started in the early 60s, all the bands he played with, and his time with Rod Stewart and The Faces, are good segments.

Also in contrast to Clapton, I don’t get the sense that he has completely kicked the junk. As with every other rocker in the 70s, there are loads of stories of excess and drugs. Once he joins the Stones, it goes off the charts. He was even a freebase addict for five years in the 80s, but he never says why or how he kicked it. The number of dangerous scumbag drug dealers and enablers that were around his family and especially his kids is pretty shocking and pathetic.

Anyone who follows the Stones knows that the recent Bigger Bang tour was his first tour sober. Meaning, the first time the guy, who is now 60, ever played onstage without a buzz. Mick and Keith actually toyed with not bringing Wood on the tour, he was so bad off - so, he cleaned up. It is amazing that he pulled it off for such a long tour without full relapse, but you also get the impression that he still parties. After reading the Clapton book, I am not sure how well that bodes for his future sobriety.

The other great part about the book is how in depth he goes into his artwork. People may not know this, but Wood has always been a fantastic artist. Given financial discipline, he could make a living off of just his drawings and paintings. His work is excellent – some samples here. He talks about how he got started, and how he sketches his band mates in rehearsal and uses art to fill the plentiful down time on the road.

I’d recommend this book to any Stones fan, as it’s a pretty insightful look into how the band operates – Wood says they travel on tour in a “golden prison” where every luxury is provided, but they don’t have the freedom to actually get out and be in the real world. It’s busses, planes, five star hotel rooms, studios, concerts and repeat – for more than a year at a time. Would drive any lesser man nuts, but obviously they have the passion and with every tour, move into new territory as the world’s biggest and oldest touring band.

And even though he’s still the “new guy,” having just joined the Stones in 1975, I’d say it would be pretty tough to justify a version of the Stones without him. This book gives great insight into the man and his life and times.

Book Review - Clapton

Santa was very good to me this year, spoiling me with CDs, DVDs and books I am too lazy to go out and get myself.

One of the books I got was Eric Clapton’s autobiography, Clapton, which I plowed through in just a few days. It’s organized well and moves at a good clip.

I really wanted to read this book despite the fact that I am still an emerging fan of Clapton. I have always been a fan of his when he sits in with other people or does one off jams. For example, his work on Roger Waters’ The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, or his blazing rendition of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” from the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary concert.

But I find his solo work spotty and totally overrated for the most part. My faves are things like the RUSH soundtrack, 24 Nights and the album he did with B.B. King, Riding With The King. I find most of his 70s and 80s work pretty forgettable.

The book helped me appreciate his work much more, however, because I got the impression that Clapton would agree with me about the spotty nature of his career! I mean, I always knew he had addiction issues – heroin in the 70s and booze later on. But I had no clue the guy was a full blown raging, pathetic alcoholic for more than 20 years. Even when he was riding high in the 80s, with all those bogus (but successful) albums with Phil Collins producing, he was growing worse and worse in his addictions.

The first thing my friend Al and I agreed on about Clapton’s book was what a total pile this guy was. He stole his friends’ women, totally corrupted a minor who eventually overdosed, fired his bandmates and managers left and right, and had zero loyalty, breaking up every successful group he ever played in. Of course, when you spend most of your childhood raised by your grandparents, who tell you your mother is your sister when it’s really your mother, you’re bound to have issues.

The book is a fascinating and sobering (no pun intended) look at addiction. For example, at one point Clapton has a bottle of booze and a shotgun and is going to kill himself because he has hit bottom. But he doesn’t do it because he thinks, “If I am dead, I won’t be able to drink anymore.” Wow. That is serious addiction. I can’t even fathom that level of addiction and it made me reel out a mile more rope with which to cut Clapton some slack.

But somewhere in the late 80s, when he finally kicks his addictions and his unhealthy relationship patterns, he turns into a pretty good guy. And miraculously, he stays clean (and has been for more than 20 years), even when his son dies tragically by falling out a 40 story window in downtown New York.

Now, Clapton helps people beat addiction through his Crossroads facility in Antigua, is a caring father and husband and by all accounts has his shit fully together and is the happiest he’s ever been in his life. Not the ending I would have predicted.

The books reminds the reader that life is a journey and it’s never over. Yeah, you may be an addict – and a total prick to boot – but you can always change. You can always turn it around and there is always hope. And now, I want to go and re-visit all of the albums I looked over, now that I feel that I know the man a bit better.

Book Review - Neil Peart Ghost Rider

I recently finished Neil Peart’s Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road. This book was basically a road journal of Neil’s year and a half of ‘mobile mourning’ for the double loss of his child and spouse in the mid- 90s.

Long story short, Neil suffered the unfathomable loss of his daughter to a car accident, and then his wife to cancer (he called it a broken heart due to the death of the daughter - makes sense) within a year of each other.

Unreal. I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose your whole family one after the other like that.

And Neil couldn’t imagine it either. The book chronicles the darkness that surrounded him after these events and how he for some reason kept persevering day by day with the vague notion that ‘something would come up.’

He decided to hop on his motorcycle and just head out. He wound up putting 55,000 miles on his BMW R1100GS bike over 14 months, driving from Ontario to Alaska, then south through the West Coast and Rockies down to Mexico. In a second journey he headed east to the coast of Canada and south into New England.

The book chronicles the heartache and soul searching he went through on these travels – the ups and downs. Mostly downs, but as time passed on, more ups. It’s incredible that Neil, a very private person by all accounts (including his own) would give us a glimpse into his pain and healing.

But he also writes elegantly about all the places he visits and drives through. See, Neil doesn’t like to take the highways everyone else takes. He travels on forest roads and gravel trails. The more desolate and unpopulated the better. He also has little tolerance for most people, especially tourists, and his commentary on American RV captains is funny but also sadly accurate.

Sometime the writing gets a bit tedious, as he uses letters he has written to friends to illustrate points or to further the story. This gets old in spots only because some of the letters repeat things he’s already said. He also gets a bit over-descriptive in spots.

But generally, I felt like I got to know Neil at bit better, which is cool because I have always respected and been intrigued by him. I mean, the dude is one mean mo-fo drummer and not a bad lyricist either.

He has other books out that I will read eventually but I think this one was the heavy, insightful one. The story has a happy ending and of course we know that since these journeys, he’s back with Rush and has three albums and three tours under his belt. But it’s interesting to read about the time when drumming, Rush and pretty much everything else took a back seat to a journey of healing, all well chronicled in this book.

Book Review: Bob Dylan - The Essential Interviews

I have been making my way through Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews and I have to recommend it as a crucial piece of reading for anyone interested in the written word and the history of modern music.

Adjectives that come to mind when reading this guys' interviews include: Insightful. Modest. Brilliant. Genius Wordsmith. But also removed and disconnected at times.

The interviews span from his very first in the early 60s, when he was really creating his image, all the way to the present, where he's in the middle of a resurgent body of work.

For a guy who has the reputation of being a guarded recluse, he provides frequent glimpses into what makes him tick and to why he did certain things in his life. He is consistent over the years in not calling his career a "career." Rather, he says it's a path he chose - to be a songwriter, when it was not fashionable to be one. To interpret his words, it sounds like he got super successful early on and then just sort of kept going.

He's frank about the times where he lost focus, including the seven year stretch in the early 90s where he didn't write any new songs. I love his comment that "The world doesn't need any more songs."

Dylan says in a few interviews how he can't do certain songs anymore because he can't get into the headspace necessary from when they were written. But then he'll take other old songs and change lines, melodies, structure, feel and just re-invent them onstage. He never listens back to his records because he feels like they are just snapshots of the songs at that time. A song is never static. It is always up for reinterpretation on every level, and that includes changing it so that is not recognizable to the recorded version.

Also fascinating is his observation that he never was any good at recording in the studio until recently and most of his 60s and 70s albums were put together quickly so he could get the 'song sketches' down and get on the road. Funny to hear him talk about songs like "Idiot Wind," "Isis" and "Hurricane" as 'sketches.'

But he also acknowledges the brilliance in some of his songs, saying that when he looks back on some of them he has no idea where they came from and is often a bit blown away. You get the sense that he is really a conduit, tapping into something that normal people can't access.

All the hackneyed stereotypes about Dylan come through in these interviews, too. He's aloof, answers questions with questions, is often evasive, etc.

But I also got the sense that the guy is sort of a nomad. A wanderer, observer and storyteller who has an immense gift. I get the sense that Dylan is really from another era. Like 100 years ago or more.

It's also fascinating to read interviews that span a 45 year period. You get a feel for his evolution as an artist and human being, just by looking at what interests him over the years and his take on our life and times.

Having said this, I am still acquiring a 'taste' for Dylan. I still often prefer other people's covers of his music over the originals. But I also smack myself in the face every time I hear a new (to me) Dylan album because if I could write just ONE song as potent and brilliant as this guy, I could stop trying.

I once got an inspirational email that said "write for the garbage can." Meaning, you need to get through all of your bad writing to finally break through and write something good. So just get started and get all of the garbage out of the way so you can crack through to the good stuff.

I feel like Dylan never wrote for the garbage can, or if he did, he did it in the womb.