Product Description
This is a Signed - Limited Edition book which comes with a 45 minute CD of Steve McQueen reviewing his scripts for the movie Tom Horn. This book covers Steve McQueen's final 3 1/2 years up to and including his untimely death from Cancer. Includes around 400 Color and Black & White Photos taken by Barbara McQueen.
Customer Reviews:
A Must for McQueen Fans.......2007-03-10
Wow, the photographs are beautiful and highly personal. It's like seeing a private photo album from this marriage. Plus the text is informative and revealing. I'm so glad this part of Steve's life is now so well documented.
It goes perfectly on my coffee table.
The Real Steve McQueen.......2007-03-10
Intimate, touching, insightful, sometimes hilarious passages into the life of The King of Cool, Steve McQueen. We live in such a visual, media oriented world that we tend to get preconceived notions of who movie stars are, based on what we see. The world saw Steve McQueen as the ultimate man- handsome, macho, cool, someone they could spend their hard-earned bucks on back in the day and get their money's worth at the theater. Barbara McQueen, his widow, saw the real Steve McQueen. She got to know Steve, the family man; Steve, the man who loved the great outdoors and his morning constitutional; Steve, the great mashed potato guru, airplane and motorcycle enthusiast. "The Last Mile" shows how little we all knew of his kindness and philanthropy; how little we knew of his yearning for happiness and how he ultimately found it. The photos in this book will enchant you, leave you wanting more. One of my favorites is one where Barbara embraces Steve from behind. That photo alone is worth the book to me. Beautiful model, handsome superstar, real people worn out from what life has dealt them. You can see it in their faces. It makes me sigh everytime I see it because there's not one person I know who hasn't been to that point and had nothing left but an embrace. You will love this book and you will want more. I guarantee you.
Steve McQueen: The Last Mile.......2007-03-10
This book takes you into the very intimate and private world of Steve McQueen between 1977 and 1980.
Consisting of approximately 150 color photos (most of which were taken by his wife Barbara McQueen) and accompanied by Barbara's recollections of their time together.
Unlike some other photobooks where you sense you are watching the star pose, this book shows you the absolutely unguarded and relaxed side of the man as he goes about his daily life, talking to friends, tinkering on his bikes, dozing in an armchair or washing down the pavement outside his airplane hanger.
These are the sort of photos you would usually never see of a movie star - Steve in the morning before he has showered, looking drowsily over a hot mug of coffee, househunting in Montana with Barbara, or lying asleep on the living room floor with his pet dog lying on top of him.
You really feel like you have stepped into Steve and Barbara's house, it is that personal.
The text accompaniment is also very entertaining and educational as Barbara shares her memories of how Steve wooed her, the initial problems he had to overcome in winning her parents approval of the relationship, his personal lessons to her on how to dismantle and rebuild a motorcycle (sadly unsuccessful) or a gun (successful), how he came to propose, and many other intimate and fun moments. Overall it takes you through their entire relationship and serves as something of an autobiography in itself.
All these photos are beautifully presented in a high gloss large coffee table book format.
Released with the first limited edition run of the book is a 45 minute audio CD of Steve verbally working through the script of the film "Tom Horn". It is fascinating to hear him talk about his vision of the film, rework the script and plan his character. You get a real sense of the epic film he wanted Tom Horn to be (but was denied due to the studio slashing the budget), and you realise just how insightful he was with film and acting. The amount of thought he puts into his role should forever dispel the notion that he just played himself on film.
Steve McQueen - The Last Mile is a very special book and no fans collection will be complete without it.
Fantastic!.......2007-03-10
A fantastic book on the last years of legend Steve McQueen! Great job by Barbara McQueen and Marshall Terrill! Touching moments! Great photos!
BITCH"EN.......2007-03-08
Just recieved "the Last Mile" in the mail. The photos and text are outstanding !! The book could have been twice as big. Great job Barbara and Marshall!!
Book Description
“Mine is a personal story of an unexpected and terribly inconvenient Christian conversion, told by a very unlikely convert.”
–Sara Miles
Raised as an atheist, Sara Miles lived an enthusiastically secular life as a restaurant cook and a writer. Then early one winter morning, for no earthly reason, she wandered into a church. “I was certainly not interested in becoming a Christian,” she writes, “or, as I thought of it rather less politely, a religious nut.” But she ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine, and found herself radically transformed.
The mysterious sacrament of communion has sustained Miles ever since, in a faith she’d scorned, in work she’d never imagined. In this astonishing story, she tells how the seeds of her conversion were sown, and what her life has been like since she took that bread.
A lesbian left-wing journalist who covered revolutions around the world, Miles was not the woman her friends expected to see suddenly praising Jesus. She was certainly not the kind of person the government had in mind to run a “faith-based charity.” Religion for her was not about angels or good behavior or piety; it was about real hunger, real food, and real bodies. Before long, she turned the bread she ate at communion into tons of groceries, piled on the church’s altar to be given away. The first food pantry she established provided hundreds of poor, elderly, sick, deranged, and marginalized people with lifesaving food and a sense of belonging. Within a few years, the loaves had multiplied, and she and the people she served had started nearly a dozen more pantries.
Take This Bread is rich with real-life Dickensian characters–church ladies, child abusers, millionaires, schizophrenics, bishops, and thieves–all blown into Miles’s life by the relentless force of her newfound calling. She recounts stories about trudging through the rain in housing projects, wiping the runny nose of a psychotic man, storing a battered woman’s .375 Magnum in a cookie tin. She writes about the economy of hunger and the ugly politics of food; the meaning of prayer and the physicality of faith. Here, in this achingly beautiful, passionate book, is the living communion of Christ.
“
The most amazing book.” – Anne Lamott
Customer Reviews:
Anne Lamott loves this book.......2007-10-03
Time magazine asked various writers to reveal their guilty summer reading pleasures. Anne Lamott wrote: The third summer book I've already read is Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion by Sara Miles, a memoir that blew me away although I am a nice Protestant girl not normally drawn to book-length writing on the Eucharist. I am going to foist this on every single hard-core left-wing religious nut I know. And make no mistake: there are many of us.
Shocking. . .and that's a good thing.......2007-10-02
You know, there are those books you read and quickly forget. There are those books that give you an interesting thought or two. And then there are books that get under your skin and completely and forever change the way you look at things. This is one of the third kind. This book is powerful, it is overwhelming. You can not read this book and approach the Lord's Supper the same way again. You can not read this book and think of Christianity the same way. This book will change you.
It might also bother you, especially if you are an evangelical. Sara is raw. She's rough. She uses language and lives a lifestyle that would make many Christians furrow their brow. She throws out statements like this: "You know," Swami Jeff told me once, "God couldn't care less about the church. We don't understand the Eucharist, or that bread and wine live within us, so we ritualize the things that hold the mystery. We focus on the container and formalize the mystery. But you can't do that." Which is, of course, so wrong in so many ways. God does care about the Church. The Church is God at work in the world. The book of Ephesians rightly teaches that the greatest metaphor for Christ and the Church is a husband and wife (and the metaphor goes the other way, as well). And there are many other things about this book that are so bothersome. And offensive.
And yet, her voice is necessary, because she get so much right. She understands the radical, accepting love of Jesus Christ for this world. She gets that love for Jesus demands a love for all his children. She gets that serving Christ is more important than showing up to church and looking pretty. "Doing the Gospel rather than just quoting it was the best way I could find out what God was up to." She gets that feeding the poor is one of the essentials of following Christ. And she gets the fact that Christ is for the poor, the outcast, the marginalized, the hungry. She understands that the Kingdom of God is right here, right now, right under our noses, if we would only open our eyes to see it. She hammers home the idea that community is core to Christianity - but not the community we choose; it's the community God calls to us, and calls us to. She gets the Modern Church. "My suspicion was that committees in churches served the same purpose as committees in other institutions: They were holding tanks for people who professed interest in an issue but didn't always want to act." And, I've got to tell you, the story of her conversion, of how she walked into church, received Communion, and was overcome by God, is breathtakingly powerful. I wish all could read her story.
In the end, a lot of Christians will be scandalized by much of who she is and what she says There are certainly parts that make me uncomfortable. And yet there is so much to learn here, so much the Church needs to wrestle with, to understand, to hear - it ought to shock Christians right out of their complacency, into a place where they take Jesus' mandate seriously.
A Conversion to Action.......2007-09-24
Sara Miles shares her story pre-conversion, which is exciting but not necessarily a tragedy. The conversion moment is better described as a process.
Miles tells of her life before converting to Christianity. Raised in an atheist home, she finds little to no sympathy for religious causes. She hints that this is, at least for her mother, a rebellion against her own religious upbringing. There is not much of an overtone that her household was an "active atheist" home...that is, one that taught her to go out of her way to disprove God, join the fight against public faith, and sign petitions against the pledge. She tells more of an upbringing of avoidance....that religion was best ignored.
This is followed by two chapters of her job life, first as a cook in New York City and then as a reporter in Nicaragua around the time of the cartels. She describes the people she meets and the sights and sounds of her experiences in the kitchen and in war, and in both instances very careful to describe the food: how it is prepared, how it is served, how it tastes. She's obviously building to something as she learns cooking shortcuts from her restaurant co-worker and the meals she ate alongside revolutionaries and murderers in Central America. In both cases, it is food prepared generously, earnestly, and with feeling, and shared with much the same intentions. She is always in mixed company, and she wants to emphasize that point as well.
Next begins her life in San Francisco. Everything else serves as background for what she is about to do in this place. If her chief memories up to this point center around food, then it makes sense that her conversion happens because of food as well. For reasons unclear to her, she wanders into a liberal creative Episcopalian Church and receives communion, and there is something about that moment for her that makes sense. It is in the offering, the chewing, the drinking, that the act of receiving Jesus becomes real to her. It takes place in this way, rather than in an evangelist sharing a tract or by someone accosting her with their most carefully crafted arguments. She is welcomed and she is offered bread, and that is when she begins wondering how to follow Jesus.
What she comes up with is forever tied to that first experience. As Sara becomes more involved with her church, she seeks to share this experience with others, and finds that the best way to do that is to organize a food pantry. Usually, when we think of food pantries, we may picture a closet or a section of the church basement set aside with rows of canned goods. When St. Gregory offers their pantry, they set the food--which includes fresh produce--right around the communion table in the sanctuary. The theology of communion is always front and center for Miles and for what she wants to organize. She finds no other way to properly offer food to others than to state it's because Jesus offered it first.
This project is undertaken not without some setbacks and roadblocks. Sara notes the mixed crowd that shows up: the homeless, the addicts, the schemers...she has plenty of stories to tell about them all. More than one person expresses thankfulness; even eventually volunteers to help. But for every one of these, there is the man who tries to take advantage of a timid girl's hospitality, there is a rude Russian with a sense of entitlement, there is the uneasy feeling that Miles gets at points when she delivers food to shut-ins. She sugarcoats none of it; she doesn't romanticize the people she helps or lament when they don't immediately change upon entering the doors of the church.
Perhaps Miles' most biting critique is reserved for the Church itself. One may actually be surprised that, while more conservative churches are mentioned from time to time, she's hardest on the liberals. She openly wonders about the dissonance between their wanting to welcome all people and then her need to fight to offer the pantry a second day. She frequently compares the uniquely creative and vibrant liturgy she experiences at St. Gregory's with the dry traditionalism at a denominational leaders' retreat ("If these are the people who want to hear about experimental liturgy, what are the conservatives like?"). She critiques "limosine liberal" activism-at-a-distance, and at almost every turn it's the white educated middle-class who bear the brunt of what she says.
Miles' story and advocacy comes in the form of experiencing Jesus in sharing bread and then turning right around and experiencing it with others. In many churches, we point to Jesus' preferred crowd of prostitutes and tax collectors, but Miles' story is one of witness to what this actually looks like in a particular place, and the underlying question always concerns why more churches aren't doing the same thing. One of her strongest themes to this effect is how simple it really is to feed others, and how needlessly complicated the church makes it either out of its own institutionalism or avoidance. This is as challenging a book as it is encouraging.
Take this bread: A radical conversion.......2007-09-20
I loved this book, i could not put it down. Sarah had such a way of presenting her life and her love of Jesus who she met through the communion in the eating of bread. As a woman priest i appreciated the role food played in the development of her ministry and those people she encountered in the process of feeding people.
I was interested in how she changed the shape and look of her church in the simple act of feeding the poor. While the Church she belonged to was well known for its development of liturgy, with her conversion she was able to put an action to her faith that helped the Church add another component of being relevant in its community to Christians but more importantly to those on the edge of society.
Rev Wendy Scott
St Peters Parish
Pahiatua
New Zealand
Communion is for Everyone.......2007-09-13
Sara Miles tells an inspiring story of how she found her connection to Christ and his Church. A friend said "I read it in about two days. Awesome awesome. ... " Saying that "... congregations that will live on the edge [like Sara's] are tapping into their energies and become alive and energized that way..." After you read it, seeing what one person can do, you will also be inspired.
Book Description
One year after her astonishing victory at the Badwater Ultramarathon, Pam Reed again made distance running history when she braved the hottest weather in years135 degreesto successfully defend her title. How does this 100-pound mother and stepmother of five muster the endurance and courage for the 28-hour climb from the hottest desert floor on Earth to the shadow of the continental United States tallest point? In The Extra Mile, we watch this ultramarathon champion seek balance in her life as a wife, mother, athlete, and entrepreneur. With astonishing candor Reed tells of her 15-year battle with anorexia. And she helps us understand her passion for ultrarunningto discover how far the human body can be pushed. The success of Dean Karnazess book, Ultramarathon Man, and Reeds TV appearances have demonstrated the publics fascination with this growing sport. Reeds book will be an inspiration to women everywhere.
Customer Reviews:
ok.......2007-05-16
I'll start by saying I enjoyed Dean Karnazes' book immensely. It was self-serving (very), but a quick read and everyone I lent it to really enjoyed it.
I was looking for something similar here, but didn't find it. Maybe that was partly my fault for having such expeectations. However, the book is just not terribly interesting. Maybe the novelty of reading about this wore off after Dean's book, but this book was basically about a fairly banal person (no offense, I'm banal, too) who happens to run long distances.
This book was VERY introspective. She really delves into her thoughts. Partly that was appreciated, but partly it was simply too much and I was not incredibly interested in the minutiae. Pam goes into detail about her anorexia and how her family gets ignored with her races and training.
The book was worth reading (it was a library borrow), but nothing truly fabulous. Certainly I didn't feel as compelled as I did after Dean's book to get my shoes on and put some miles down. After Dean's book, I thought "wow, ultrarunning is actually pretty cool and sounds like it could be fun in a sick way". I never, ever had that impression after reading this book. The way the running was described was more of a grind.
Honest Account.......2007-05-15
I really enjoyed reading this book, as it is an extremely honest account of her life as she sees it. Both good and bad. I didnt expect to read about her marriage for example, but found that her points of view were very interesting and it possible to get a better and more complete understanding of the person. She is not just someone who can run really far...
Its an easy read and eventhough I do not share a lot of her points of view, the book is very hard to put down and it is fascinating to attempt to understand what drives her extreme performance.
Great story, interesting writing style.......2007-04-18
I am enjoying reading this book because it's easy to read and the subject matter keeps my interest. Pam Reed has led a very interesting life, and her story is real. It's not just fluff and "oh my goodness, training has been really hard, but I am winning major competitions now," etc...Instead, she is honest, real and shocking sometimes. My only issue with this book is how it's written. You can really tell Pam is not a writer. The thing that gets me is that there are actually grammatical errors throughout the book, and Pam uses words like "like" and "sort of", "kind of", "really, really", etc....lots of terms that sound like she's just rambling on to you about things over the phone. That sort of bothered me but some might actually like that style.
Suprisingly Average.......2007-04-10
After Dean Karnazes' self-promoting book which made me nauseous, I was really looking forward to Pam Reed's take on ultra-running. The elements on running were excellent, and inspiring. The parts about growing-up, anorexia, her failed marriage, etc. were not. This book should have edited the personal stuff, and focused more on the running. Not only was there too much about anorexia, I had this feeling that she has not truly conquered this problem. She also sounded very defensive in spots. Would have really benefited from a professional editor, but I do like the fact a book like this was published.
Thanks Pam .......2007-03-18
To be honest the title really turned me off. She clearly doesn't have a self-esteem problem. Even after reading this book I still feel this way. But give her credit. She's honest about it and tells why she feels this way. I think she would have sold a lot more books with a different title, but that's just my opinion.
A review for a book like this is in some ways hard to write. You're supposed to be somewhat analytical when instead you feel emotional. I'm sad to be done reading this book. Over the few months I felt like I've gotten to know this person and now that's its over, I bummed.
A comparison between this book and one by Dean Karnazes is interesting. Both authors are really great at what they do and both are extremely tough. But Pam has warts and frailties and she struggles with stupid ( human ) things. In that way I can much more readily identify with her much more than Dean.
Book Description
For more than forty years Miles Davis has been in the front rank of American music. Universally acclaimed as a musical genius, Miles is one of the most important and influential musicians in the world. The subject of several biographies, now Miles speaks out himself about his extraordinary life.
Miles: The Autobiography, like Miles himself, holds nothing back. For the first time Miles talks about his five-year silence. He speaks frankly and openly about his drug problem and how he overcame it. He condemns the racism he has encountered in the music business and in American society generally. And he discusses the women in his life. But above all, Miles talks about music and musicians, including the legends he has played with over the years: Bird, Dizzy, Monk, Trane, Mingus, and many others.
The man who has given us some of the most exciting music of the past few decades has now given us a compelling and fascinating autobiography, featuring a concise discography and thirty-two pages of photographs.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing reading.......2007-07-30
Written with much candor and some bitterness, this book gives incredible insight into one of the greatest musical minds of modern jazz, but also gives valuable perspective on the lives and music of other giants, such as Parker, Gillespie, Coltrane, etc., with amusing anecdotes about older players - Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington, etc.
Naturally, one might argue that there is a certain amount of pose in Miles- using of fowl language; see for example Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs) generated on this site (this is pasted from amazon, but I omitted letters in order not to offend the amazon policies...):
# modal thing, hip s--t, s--t off nobody, stupid bu----it, great trumpet player, bad m---------ker, working band, silly s--t, real hip, shooting heroin #
See how much music is there?
But, seriously, this sort of attitude goes with his lifestyle - he even mocks himself for being too much fashion conscious...
The problem is that the book is not edited well enough
< not only that certain tales are retold too many times (or in bad prose), the cuss words are boring because they are unimaginative. Add "he played his a.. off" and you covered nearly everything Miles said about some players who are very important not only for the history of jazz, but also for Miles- personal history.
Still, fascinating book, very useful for understanding significant aspects of American culture
(f. i. I get how he didn-t like Satchmo-s, Dizzy-s or Bird-s goofy monkying around and grinning, but I don-t for the life of me understand how can he put Prince and other figures of modern or contemporary popular music on the same level as Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and other giants of jazz he discusses).
Well, the controversial aspects never hurt a book...
Not a perfect piece of work (therefore only 4 stars), but compelling and therefore obligatory reading for all jazz fans.
This book is amazing.......2007-03-27
I use the present tense when I describe this book as a classic, because I could read this multiple times and never get bored, while gaining large amounts of knowledge. This book is brilliant because it is honest. It is a first hand account of his life that really cannot be explained by anyone else but himself, Miles Davis. Miles starts from his earliest memories all the way to the end in this book without holding anything back. He does not limit his speech to selective words that would hinder the actual situation. He tells everything truthfully with no fluff. This is definitely one of the most treasured jazz read in the history of literature. If you are a serious musician or an active listener of this music, I highly suggest you read it. Besides learning everything from Miles perspective and how his life was, you will also gain knowledge on the music himself and how the other players of his time were like. Buy this now, you will not regret!
My brother loved it........2007-03-14
I got this for my brother for Christmas and he really liked it.
gritty, raw inside look at the soul of a rare artist.. .......2007-02-27
Miles in his words, with all the raw emotion, anger, bitterness, of a man who changed the course of jazz at least 3 times in his life..this is one of my favorite bio's of all-time because I never felt pandered to or appeased..this is the way Miles viewed his life and art and if you don't like it, tough...but if you want to try to understand the grist of an artist's soul this is a book you do not want to miss.
A lot of motherfuckers.......2007-02-24
Miles tells it like it is in this book . You can tell its his voice and not his co-writer as he descibes in detail all of the people in his life, good and bad. The heroin addiction and the trumpet playing. The naems of the men around him present you with a history of jazz players that are iconic today. good book.
Book Description
Here is quite simply one of the most original books about a jazz musician ever published--a biography-cum-discography that focuses in turn on fourteen major albums recorded by Miles Davis, using them as a jumping off point for an illuminating discussion of the turbulent life and work of the "Evil Genius of Jazz." Richard Cook, a veteran writer respected throughout the jazz world, looks at such landmark recordings as Birth of the Cool, Miles Ahead, Kind of Blue, The Complete Live at The Plugged Nickel, In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, and Live at Montreux. Each of these recordings is considered in detail, illuminating their contribution to Davis's development as instrumentalist, group leader, and composer. But Cook goes well beyond these fourteen albums, evaluating all the trumpeter's recordings (official and bootleg), and relating them to events in Miles's life as well as to wider currents in contemporary music. Cook helps us disentangle Miles the legendary figure from the music itself, to re-hear and reconsider this marvelous body of work ranging over four exhilarating decades. The author also highlights the indispensable contributions of sidemen such as John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, John Scofield, and many others, as well as calling for a reassessment of the importance of such "satellite" figures as Gil Evans, Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams and Chick Corea in the development of Miles's music. A comprehensive and rigorous guide to the music and life of Miles Davis, It's About That Time is a stunning book that burns away the fog of myth that surrounds its complex and contrary subject.
Customer Reviews:
Miles & Miles.......2007-06-01
The author discusses the career of Miles by focusing on his huge legacy of recordings. The more traditional jazz of Miles was basically between 1945 and 1966. There are 65 record entries in that time frame. The total includes major label as well as bootlegs. From 1967 thru 1991, the year of his death, there are 66 more albums. Miles made his mark in the jazz world with his early playing with Charlie Parker, his Birth Of The Cool Album,Sonny Rollins, and then his band that included Coltrane,Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. Later on he had sidemen such as Wynton Kelly, Hank Mobley, Sonny Stitt,Bill Evans,Jimmy Cobb and Cannonball Adderly. Of course his collaborations with Gil Evans were significant. Next was what I would call the transitional group comprised of George Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Personally, I lost interest in Miles Davis as he moved more and more into the rock area and seemed to be in search of a new musical identity. So, this book fills in that time period fairly well. I was amazed that so many of the later recordings basically consisted of engineering edits. A worthwhile, if somewhat tedious read. By the way, the author deserves some kind of a medal for listening to all the albums. Particularly, most of the later ones.
Enjoyable and generally well-informed. Maybe a little peccable........2007-05-15
I'm having fun reading this book. It's a pleasure to dwell on lots of my favorite Miles records in the company of a highly knowledgeable fan. Cook knows well lots that I don't, and he has interesting opinions on everything. Not that I always agree: He damns "Moon Dreams" with faint praise -- I've always felt it's one of the two strongest tunes from "Birth of the Cool," and he gives even shorter shrift to the ominous "Deception," which in my mind is the other one. Of course, sometimes I pound the table in agreement, as when he calls "Billy Boy" "an irritating distraction" (for all its acknowledged groove) on the "Milestones" record. That is of course what's fun about these kinds of books (or conversations). It's like comparing sports teams: everybody (i.e., nobody) wins the argument.
There are some less satisfying aspects to the book, such as when he neglects to include the French horn section in his listing of the instrumentation on "Sketches of Spain," surely one of the more important aspects of the sound of that record. Or when he puts the bridge in "Miles" (or "Milestones") as A Aeolean, when I've always heard it as A Dorian (the way the rhythm section treats it: scale on the 2nd degree of G Maj rather than on the 6th degree of C Maj). Maybe I'm being picky...or wrong. And maybe it makes a big difference in the feel of the song.
There's also a peculiar almostness to Cook's language, that recalls to me Mark Twain's statement that "The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." Once again, it's all a matter of opinion and connotation, of course.
Then, sometimes his word choice is thought-provoking: he more than once refers to Miles's sometime ballad approach as "preening." Not sure I agree, but I'm not sure I don't. It certainly asks me to relisten, carefully. Thanks for that.
All in all, an enjoyable trip through Miles's discography with a knowledgeable if not entirely impeccable guide.
Who is this for?.......2007-04-28
OK, the scholarship is impeccable, but who is this for? If you don't know the music, the descriptions of the bands and the albums don't do much for you. On the other hand, if you're such a Miles fan that you have all this stuff, why do you need Richard Cook telling you what you're hearing? You've probably read the liner notes to the CD's or boxes, and it doesn't seem to me that there is much that he adds. This seems to be mostly an expansion on Cook's writing on Miles's music in the Penguin Guide, and if you want to know his opinion as to which CD's to buy, I'd take a look at that instead. As good as this is, I'm not sure why you'd buy it.
one of the best miles davis books available.......2007-03-01
There are many books written about Miles Davis. Several of them are excellent (Ian Carr's, the auto-biography, etc). This book by Richard Cook ranks with the best.
This book's focus is the music. Although Cook uses some definitive Davis recordings as a device to divide chapters and time periods in his career, the author does not limit his analysis strictly to those recordings. The end of each chapter includes several other recordings from the period, including some European imports and common bootlegs.
As co-author of the Penguin Jazz Guide and his own encyclopedia of jazz, Richard Cook knows his jazz, his recordings, and his Miles Davis. His analysis is interesting and enlightening.
I highly recommend this book.
p.s. Don't miss the excellent professional reviews listed above.
Book Description
Here is a unique collection of fifty years of essays by William F. Buckley, Jr. chosen to form an unconventioanl career as the consevative writer par excellence.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting Read on a Conservative Icon.......2007-04-25
Miles Gone By is an account of the life of William Buckley, whom many see as a conservative icon. Buckley shares many facets of his interesting life, particularly the following:
1. Early childhood and close-knit family (I believe he was one of 10 children).
2. Memories of his father and mother both of who he loved dearly.
3. His years at Yale University and how the liberal bias drove him to write his book "God and Man at Yale".
4. Memories of the 1950 class at Yale.
5. His deep sea expedition to see the wreck of the Titanic.
6. His sailing and skiing trips with various celebrities.
7. Starting the National Review.
8. Relationships with 10 special people of various backgrounds and poltical persuasions (David Niven, Ronald Reagan, Henry Kissinger, Clare Boothe Luce, Tom Wolfe, Vladimir Horowitz, Roger Moore, Alistair Cooke, Princess Grace, and John Kenneth Galbraith). I particularly enjoyed this section.
The areas mentioned above are just a few mentioned. While Buckley undeniably comes from a rather refined background, his writing style is not arrogant. Indeed, he often thanks his Creator for the life he has lived and gives credit to other people when due.
Read and enjoy the book and learn more about one of our country's great conservative icons. Recommended.
Interesting and Unique. Provides a large step to understanding the puzzle of this author.......2006-12-31
"Miles Gone By" seems to be a near complete biography and one that allows the reader to see how the puzzle fits together. It would be easy to overlook the uniqueness of this life by labeling the author as mostly reflecting a political point of view. He has shown in many of his other books his diversity of interests and his ability to inform his readers about activities and the events taking place in the world at the same time. I remember in his book "Racing Through Paradise how much I learned about sailing and how interesting it was to consider his political points of view presented as a part of each days activities. Miles Gone By seems to show the many sides and interests of his life as pieces of puzzle that reveal more of who he really is. The story is not in his point of view but is more so in whom he really is.
A favorite chapter (2) was "God and Man at Yale" which was about his first book. I like to underline in red what stands out as I read and this chapter is mostly "red" in my book. In 1950 it was controversial to defend individualism, religion and capitalism. His education seemed to be, somewhat like his early life, one full of advantage and opportunity. Considering that it was even more of a surprise when he questioned the very mission of the institution he had been privileged to attend. He replied to his critics saying "a very recent graduate is not only supremely qualified, but uniquely qualified, to write about the ideological impact of an education he has experienced."
Later in the book he says that as a senior citizen his faith has never left him. Through out his life we find in this biography that he has held tight to his religious convictions. Considering the years his life has spanned in the political arena this willingness to proclaim his own faith is made even clearer in this book.
Both Buckley and Nixon have written about world leaders in a way that really adds to ones understanding of events. In many of Nixon's books those insights, even though insightful, seemed stand-alone. In this book many of the chapters deal with relationships but instead of standing alone as a subject for consideration they validate the unique impact that Buckley has had thorough out his life. This book will show you a very very interesting man.
Hear this book!.......2006-06-26
The best way to read this book is to hear it, to get the audio CD. I am not in tune with Mr. Buckley's political and religious views, but am in admiration of his love of the written and spoken word and of debate. His reading of the text is a treat, and I take inspiration from his breadth of interests and friendships with those whose views he does not agree.
Fear not the eschaton; Miles Gone By.......2006-04-17
"Herein lies an anachronism in the vast expanse of eternity." was to be carved into the headstone of Lord Peter Wimsey, a character written by Dorothy L. Sayers, however it is a fitting commentary to Buckley's collected personal essays. Buckley writes best when he writes personally, and his collection of pieces chosen here will stand the test of time more elegantly than columns with titles that read, "Robert S. McNamara, Crime Syndicate Head."(Although come to think of it, perhaps history has leant that some heft. However, most people alive don't know who the Whiz Kid was, and so much of what Buckley wrote of is meaningless to four generations, now. It is hard for many people to understand that most people under the age of forty in this country have very little memory of Ronald Reagan.) And yet, when we come to the personal, there is a voice for manners, for elegance in language, pride in scholarly pursuit and sportsmanship, that cries out like a voice in the wilderness. His writing on these subjects that touch his heart is timeless. I expect he has often repeated those words of Whittaker Chambers on Weariness, because they haunt him, when reflected upon, they resonate more deeply with me at forty than they did at seventeen when I first read them. His son Christopher once said his father was a Catholic with a Protestant work ethic, and I found the passage about the Sea Cloud, the very begininng when he almost misses his plane because of his demanding schedule, and his wife shows him a bit of temper for always having to be on Overdrive, very humorous. (Patricia Taylor Buckley's unwritten book is the one I'd really like to read.) Buckley has sucked the marrow out of the bones of life, and he has had interesting friends and experiences to share. Breaking into a gymnasium with Ronald Reagan, stealing his own boat with a hacksaw from the boatyard, standing on his head on the South Pole, Atlas-Shrugged-style. "The greatest sin passion can committ is to be joyless." is another quote by Sayers, and Buckley has lived with a joyful passion, and a twinkle in his eye that sparkles in these pages. How many of us will look back and wish we'd sailed the Atlantic, skied Alta, finished that novel, and been a polemical influence that toppled the Berlin Wall? At the end of an exhaustive interview for the magazine [...] decades ago in the time of radicals, when the interviewer asked him a complicated question about the doom and gloom of American society and how could Buckley cling to his optomistic conservative ideals when the disestablishmentarianists were threatening the country he answered it was easy because, "I know my Redeemer liveth." You have to love it, just love the thought of Hugh Hefner's reaction, and that Hef printed it. This book will flaunt eschatology; it is the redeemer of Buckley's literary collections. I am pleased he had the courage to compile and publish these very personal writings, they are his best work.
Now What?.......2005-12-27
"Miles Gone By" contains a meaningful collection of essays, which to me, demonstrates 80 years unselfish attention to others. I've followed Mr. Buckley and his ideas for years, (decades) thoroughly enjoying his suggestions and wake-up calls for sanity. Yes, I see him as the guy who rides shotgun for the rest of us, as half asleep in our stagecoach, we Rumble Left and Right through Indian Territory on our way to Progress. Here, I believe is the epitome of his ethics: "Wake up! An ethical man would be ethical even when no one was looking." I thank him for that; after all, he has been a big player in the Great Work of the Maker.
For me, Miles Gone By, and especially the epilogue, reveals an unusual, but faint and unexpected thread of grieving stitched through the collection. Almost a mourning that life's journey went too quickly. As if to whisper: "Now what? Is this all there is? Was my Life real? Where did my old possessions go? Where are the souls of my dead friends? Sorry I stepped on a few toes but I was doing my damnedest to show people how to contribute to the promise of Life!"
I perceive two lovely facets of his persona in this book. One is the right hand going like blazes playing bwv988; the second is his left hand, steadily setting the pace for the right hand as it expresses Holy élan.
The cover portrait is haunting. It speaks miles about a joyful, triumphal life; whilst perhaps biting his bottom lip in memory of sailing very close to the wind at times, and...wondering whether the journey thus far, has made any difference at all? Now, if I were to meet Mr. Buckley face to face, I would quote a passage from Donald Shimoda's Handbook : "Here, (William Frank,) is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't." Full stop.
So, good sailing and fair weather to you in whatever you're supposed to do next. Cheers!
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Seventy Miles From A Lemon (American Autobiography)
Emma Yates
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Book Description
Dark Magus is a warts-and-all look at the real Miles Davis. As told by his son, this book strips away the public perception of Davis and gets down to the realities of his personality, his relationships, and his many quirks. Dark Magus details this enigmatic superstar's Jekyll and Hyde behavior: his swings between sobriety and prodigious drug use; his tender family moments and his destructive selfishness; his search for marital stability and his obsession with young women; his exalted musical talent and his ever-present personal demons. The author also delves into Davis' relationships with artists such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane, as well as his role as a mentor to young musicians, his obsession with sports, the ups and downs of his career, and the family's turmoil over his final will. "This book is a brilliant and engaging revelation of Miles' character through the recollections of his oldest son. It's a book about a legendary musician who was one of my closest friends, and a book that's second to none." - Clark Terry
Customer Reviews:
Non-exsistant writing style .......2007-05-10
When I bought this book I was excited, cause I felt that the son that lived and worked among the man that is Miles Dewey Davis, could and would provide a great,colorful, sometimes wonderful, sometimes tragic insight into him. This son, who is a psychotherapist, had NO deep insight inside Miles. He was a very un-poetic author. Painful even. Typos are peppered throughout the whole book. Phrases, and stories are repeated, with no elaboration. This was a hard read, so hard that I stopped at page 126, and I cant seem to pick the book up again.The book is only 168 pages too. I can't believe i'm going to say this: it's a bore!! BORING. And because there is no elaboration on the stories he tells that he experienced with Miles, you never walk away with any surprises. Uh, is this Miles Davis's life we are talking here? No. It's the story of a son with a very limited writing ability.
I collect books written about Miles Davis, and I'd have to say that THIS book is the worst!!!!!
Like Miles, Gregory is not the least bit averse to tooting his own horn.......2007-01-12
After reading Miles' autobiography written with Quincy Troupe, I thought this book would offer some more insight into MILES' life. Unfortunately, after a scant 100 pages of Miles biography (all of which was covered in better detail in the Troupe book), Gregory takes the next 60 odd pages to whine about being cut out of the will and explain his personal struggle with not getting any of Miles' money.
Whining about the will wouldn't even take the full 60 pages if Gregory wasn't constantly repeating himself. Its as if he expects that anyone reading any portion of the book didn't read the rest of it. "I was my dads nurse and bodygaurd," is mentioned at least once every two or three pages. Yeah, we get it... now maybe you could boast about someone else... maybe MILES DAVIS?!?
For someone who is as educated as Gregory repeatedly claims to be, you would think he'd see how retarded he looks whining about how hurt he is not to have daddy's money and then turning around to call the members of the family who did get the money materialistic.
Then again, I consider myself educated and I wasn't smart enough to stop reading this drivel... I kept thinking there would be some tiny morsel of information about Miles that I didn't know hidden in there. There isn't, so don't waste your time reading this.
....and this guy has a degree............2006-12-29
GEEZ, the book is writ' like a 12 year old kid, yet this man claims to have a big degree--whats more is he adds NOTHING of substance to the stories we may have read in Miles' autobio., or other works...just a bunch of regurgitation of stories already in print--and boring too--nothing to capture your attention too long, and trust me, I've read all I can find on Miles....
His own writing has a "Jekyl and Hyde" of its own in that one minute he hails his dad and the next he nails him....so, perhaps this schizophrenic energy has rubbed off, who knows...
all I know is I am GLAD that I got it used....
another thing is the annoying fact that he skips around like a kid on a jump rope--one minute your lost in the haze of the 70's, the next your sitting in Birdland waiting for Miles to play alongside Bird....
the only thing I liked this book for is the few rare photos in color that it has....
finally, when it comes to Miles, I am not hard to please--JUST GIMME MILES! but here, its hard to believe it was writ' by his OWN SON--and I think this is the reason I am so taken aback by the lack of inspiration or content....
maybe Squeaky can do a better job heh?
falls apart quickly.......2006-12-04
The first few chapters of "Dark Magus" deliver on the book's promise: it's chocked full of interesting insights into Mile Davis' family in St. Louis, his first wife, and the years up to his move to New York/Julliard.
Sadly, after this great beginning, "Dark Magus" quickly disintegrates in both content and writing style. While the beginning progressed chronologically and was written with an appealing insider's language and perspective, the last two thirds of the book are mainly disorganized ramblings without any new insight into Miles the father, the man, or the music.
I've read all of the main biographies about Miles: Ian Carr, Jack Chambers, George Cole, Brian Morton, Philip Freeman, Ashley Kahn, and of course Miles himself with Quincey Troupe have given us well-organized information and insight into one of jazz's most influential and profound artists. Gregory Davis' additions to this body of work are footnotes at best.
This book promises to provide an insider's view of Miles and his "evil/beautiful" sides. As far as his "evil" side is concerned, Miles paints a much worse picture of himself in his autobiography than Gregory does in "Dark Magus". Gregory was left out of Miles will... he appears to have beeen a devoted assistant to his father and a great guy, but he repeats the facts and his frustrations with his family over Mile's estate several times throughout the book. If you've read Mile's autobiography or many of the other bios listed above, you know Miles used drugs througout his life (after kicking heroin at an early age),was despicable in the mid to late 70s, partially cleaned up in the 80s, but was never an angel. Gregory adds no new facts to this "side" of Miles.
As far as Miles' beauty (which is why he achieved so much), Gregory frequently gives us little new insight into the positive side of his father, aside from a touching story of Miles running half naked carrying Gregory to the local hospital on a bitter winter night to save him from choking to death. Gregory's references to Miles music are tainted by chronological and factual inaccuracies. He lived with Miles and Fran in NYC, but the most we learn about this period is that when Miles was around, he expected the family to maintain some of the "traditional" manners Miles' father had insisted upon... we get no great new insight into Miles. Likewise for any time that Gregory spent with Miles in the 70s or 80s.
While I appreciate that Gregory pursued an advanced degree in psychology, "made it on his own", and shares his father's love of expressing himself through music, I'm afraid his book doesn't live up to its promises.
Pot holders required.......2006-11-28
Miles Davis was more than just a great jazz trumpeter. He was a man who lived his life at full speed, often with reckless abandon that could lead to powerful improvisations but could just as easily lead to painful family and love relationships. This book takes a new look at Miles, from a son's perspective. Love, hate, jealousy- the story is so lurid you'll need pot-holders to handle the material. A fun read.
Amazon.com
If you think John Lennon was the smart, arty Beatle while Paul was an empty head twittering prettily, this book will hip you to the facts. While John sat in the suburbs getting stoned to numb the pain of his imminent divorce, bachelor Paul was feeding his head by immersion in the London avant-garde. He pioneered the Beatles' experimental stuff, though his witty song-by-song account proves that it really was a 50-50 partnership--and some of the best innovations, like the snarling 1964 feedback intro to "I Feel Fine," happened by pure accident. Paul's insight into John's genius, which sprang from howling paranoia and a stark childhood, is still deeper than his insight into himself, but the book's true glory is its inside info on all those songs--the six tunes about John's marriage on A Hard Day's Night; Paul's heist of the "I Saw Her Standing There" bass line from Chuck Berry's "I'm Talking About You" (found on Berry's The Chess Box); the true meanings of "Norwegian Wood" (pine paneling, which the song's narrator burns to avenge the girl's refusal to have sex with him), "Got to Get You into My Life" ("you" is marijuana), and "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" ("life goes on" in Yoruba). This book is even better than A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song and Revolution in the Head. Here is the last word on the Beatles, inevitably slanted toward McCartney but generally more convincing than Lennon's own recollections. --Tim Appelo
Book Description
During the past year Paul McCartney has been in the public's eye more than at any time since the peak of Beatlemania over thirty years ago. His fans have been treated to the best-selling Flaming Pie and Standing Stone albums, a full hour of Paul on "Oprah," and this thoughtful and comprehensive biography that brings us closer to the man than ever before. Based on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews over a period of five years, and with complete access to Paul's own archives, Barry Miles has succeeded in letting Paul tell the story of his life as a Beatle in his own words. It includes Paul's recollection of the genesis of every song that he wrote with John Lennon and the fascinating details about their remarkable collaboration.
Customer Reviews:
I enjoyed about half of it.......2007-09-06
I honestly enjoyed perhaps a good half of this book. The first few chapters, and the later sections on Paul's life in the Asher household, the making of the albums, and his romance with Linda, are quite good and fast-paced. However, there are also numerous long boring stretches, particularly most of the "Avant-Garde London" chapter. Mr. Miles isn't a professional writer or journalist, and it shows. He's a longtime close personal friend of Paul's, and it just comes across like he's way too close to be objective and analytical about his subject. He even writes himself in as a character on a fairly regular basis (esp. in "Avant-Garde London"), which ordinarily would be a hint the writer is way too close to the subject and story and a more neutral third party should be found. And at least half of the book seems to consist of huge block quotes from Paul (sometimes others), making it hard sometimes to tell when one quote ends and another begins, or when we've shifted back to the voice of the narrator. A good biographer is supposed to analyse and synthesise the information, challenge it when need be, and rewrite it in his or her own words, not merely present information.
Apart from a number of typos and grammatical errors, there are a lot of factual errors too. Errors include attributing certain songs to the wrong albums, crediting them to the wrong vocalist, and leaving off songs entirely (e.g., George's two songs on YS are never even mentioned and we're told there were "only two new songs" on the album, instead of actually four). And when it comes time to discussing the individual songs, Paul can't stop intruding into songs which have long been established as having been written entirely or primarily by John to claim that he helped to write the song too, or that his minimal contribution was the most important contribution, taking credit for innovations and songs that rightly belong to John. So many times it seems like his underlying message is "Everything John did, I did better." And Mr. Miles never challenges any of this historical revisionism.
The constant trashing on John, my own favorite Beatle, was really over the top, mean, and uncalled for. This constant unprofessional mean-spirited savaging of him doesn't square well with the frequent quotes from Paul about how they were very close friends and he loved John dearly! You don't need to put others down to build your subject up. And events that might cast aspersions on Mr. Miles's portrayal of Paul as an absolute prince are often left out. I almost wish the book had been written by Paul (as it is, at least half of it seems to be in his words), since he comes across as rather candid, honest, and open, like acknowledging that he could be very bossy, overbearing, controlling, and selfish in the studio, even when it really rankled his bandmates.
Paul does seem like a really nice guy, and he was originally my favorite Beatle, but in this book he just comes across as childish, petty, insecure, and even a liar. That might not have been Mr. Miles's intention, but given his refusal to challenge anything Paul says, no matter that it's contradicted by every other source out there, it sure ends up that way. It's a shame, really, since in another biographer's hands this could have been a much better book, letting people know that Paul is a lot deeper, more interesting, and multi-faceted than his image would seem to suggest.
Riveting, I Love It.......2007-04-19
I probably can't improve on Amazon's editorial review on the first page of this site, because it says it all,but I will try anyway. This is the most revealing book I've ever read about any aspect of the Beatles, probably because it is told in Paul's own words, in that honest, matter of fact way that all four of them always had. And that's one of the reasons we love em. It really is more of an autobiography. There are three outstanding things about Many Years from Now. One is Paul's recollections about almost every Lennon McCartney song; who wrote what,and each writer's contribution. He even remembers where he was when he wrote each song,and he remembers smells and other people in the room,or what was happening in his life at the time. Very vivid memories. It's incredibly exciting to have this written down in a book that you can refer to any time. Also,his recollections match John's for every song except just two, In My Life and And I Love Her. That's amazing considering John did his song by song thing back in 1980, and Paul deliberately didn't look at it just to see if their memories matched, and they do. Speaking of John, the second wonderful thing about this book, is the facinating, personal info. that Paul brings to light about his best friend and song writing partner. It's obvious that Paul's feelings for John are deep and complicated and tied up with very strong emotion. He goes into a lot of detail about this. I don't understand some reviewers' remarks that Paul is somehow petty because he claims to have written the music to In My Life. Why is this so difficult to believe? Are some people so enamored by John Lennon that they can't imagine that he might have made a mistake? And why do they seem to think that Paul is the one who's lying here? Paul's been saying that he wrote the melody since John's 1980 interview came out. Why would he keep saying it if he didn't feel it was the truth? All through the 70's John was given to mood swings about Paul. Sometimes he loved him and sometimes he said the most outragiously rude things about him. Also, not for anything but how many acid trips did John take in the 60's? Not to mention his heroin use. Can't be so good for the memory. They are actually believing every word that this man says instead of someone who took only a few acid trips and never used heroin. John's feelings often changed with the wind. How could people have missed that? Anyway the third lovely thing about this book is Paul's candidness about everything. For instance, he talks about how he once became sexually aroused at the sight of his mother in her underwear. One reviewer was discusted by this but wait a minute. How many guys would ever admit something like that? Anyone who's read the Kinsey Report about human sexuality will know that there is nothing abnormal about this. But no one would ever admit it. To say the least there was certainly an oedipal thing on Paul's part,concerning his mom. This book is filled with no holds barred,honest stuff like this, and I found it refreshing. No one can ever again, say that Paul holds anything back. He also speaks very candidly about his drug use,revealing a few startling surprises. There is a section about the recording of each album which was wonderful. He talks about his early relationship with Linda,which I enjoyed. What I didn't like is that he dismisses two very important ladies, Dot Rhone and Jane Asher. I guess he has his reasons but I would have liked to see his candidness about these two for a change. I think it is because he didn't want to trespass on their privacy and also, Linda was pretty jealous especially about Jane. This book covers only his youth and the Beatle years, so Wings fans won't find anything here. He also tells the facinating story about his near nervous breakdown after the Beatles break up. The first time I read this book was when it first came out and I was really bowled over by it. At the time I didn't know much about McCartney. What an eye opener. I read it the second time just recently, and I had the same reaction. So I bought it. I will read it again because I love it and want it in my collection. If you only read one McCartney book it should be this one, but there are others that I recommend if you are so inclined: Paul McCartney the Definitive Biography by Chris Salwicz is very good. And of course the Anthology book, and Hunter Davies' authorised biography. Also Ray Coleman's Paul McCartney Yesterday and Today about Paul's music, mainly Yesterday. Even McCartney, the new one by Chris Sandford is not bad, but it is the weakest of the ones mentioned here.But this book, Many Years From Now is the BEST McCartney book, bar none. It is essential reading for not only Paul fans, but Beatle scholars as well. Even casual fans will enjoy it.
The best book I've read about the Beatles.......2007-04-16
I really like this book. Especially the parts about the songwriting. Being a musician and songwriter myself, I've always have been interested in who wrote what within the team of Lennon/McCartney. For two guys to have agreed to put their names on whatever the other one wrote is a testimant to how they felt about each other's abilities. Of course, setting the record straight kind of dispells the original perception of the Beatles. During their time together, the Beatles made it look so easy and were so coy about it all. Years later, going into detail and saying who did what is informative and interesting but it does open up the possibility that someone is going to be critical about it. Especially, since the person doing it is Paul and his partner, the great John Lennon, is long dead. However, anyone who can give their partner full wrting credit for songs of the calibre of "Hard Day's Night", "Help", "I'm a Loser" or "Nowhere Man" just might be a fairminded person. Beatle records still sound great today-even cutting edge- and that's why the world is still interested in the Beatles. The kind of explosive creativity that was the Beatles invites investigation and I'm glad to be able to get Paul's take on things.
Paul's case for his legacy.......2007-04-12
Paul is one of the most famous musicians of the 20th century, and everyone knows that he was critical to the Beatles' success. Nevertheless, he is obsessed with his historical legacy, and this book -- the closest thing to a biography of Sir Paul -- seems to exist for the sole purpose of "setting the record straight."
Toward this end, Paul goes through a large fraction of the Beatles song catalog, assigning percentages to his contribution vs. John Lennon's. Paul's recollections of each song are interesting (he says he was a near-equal contributor to Norwegian Wood!), but I think he should have left off the percentages. How to you measure a contribution to a song? Sometimes one line or chord change is what turns it from ordinary to extraordinary.
The book also includes a long section on Paul's arty life in swinging London, apparently because Paul feels that John Lennon has unfairly gotten tagged as the "avant garde Beatle" because of his activities with Yoko, when really it was Paul that was doing the art scene while John was dropping acid in the suburbs. What Paul doesn't understand is that John's reputation for experimentation comes from his songs, like "I am the Walrus" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" (which wasn't just about the tape loops) and from his solo Plastic Ono Band album. Not from the strange films and albums he made with Yoko.
Another thing I didn't like about the book is that it is separated into text by Miles interspersed with quotes from Paul, yet much of the information in the text could only have come from Paul. It's as if Paul wanted to get these statements in, but wasn't comfortable saying them in his own voice. For example, the text speaks of John's frustration at the end that he wasn't getting "equal time" on the Beatles albums, and quotes him as saying that he wanted a rule that he is allows to put four songs on an album, whatever happens. Then we read: "It was for this type of move, a cunning attempt to bypass the Beatles democracy, that the others, much as they loved him, regarded him as a 'manoeuvering swine.'" This does not sound like an objective narration, and it does harm to Miles' reputation as a writer.
I enjoyed the book overall -- it's full of information I haven't seen elsewhere -- but it makes you want to sit down with Sir Paul and say "hey .. everyone knows you're amazing and that the Beatles could not have succeeded without you -- now get over it! You're hurting your reputation more than helping it."
Very Engaging.......2007-04-11
Very thoughtful and detailed book. Tells a story that everyone has heard before (the beatles recording process and fame)---but sheds a new light on the more human side of all the Beatles--of course espically Paul. Lots of touching moments between John and Paul and their uncanny ability to create music together. A very rewarding read.
Customer Reviews:
Bartlett creates masterful images in woodblock and etching.......2004-09-22
Charles Bartlett, "A printmaker in Paradise" is a must have for any serious scholar or collector in Japanese printmaking. Bartlett was a fantastic artist, that has only been discovered by the educated collectors of fine japanese printmaking. His works often reflect his views on his travels to Holland, India, Japan, Hawaii and other locations in southeast asia. This book is a great resource for his woodblock prints, etchings, and paintings. Bartlett is a true inspiration to Western artists inspired by the woodblock printmaking tradition.
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