as i mentioned in my last post, this is the point of time in the year when i tend to hibernate in the redeyegin mancave and get into some books. so i am going to give a quick summary of a few i have finished since then, and then i hope to move back to my more traditional new music release reviews. i have a few on the shelf for you.

so here are four for your consideration, in the order i read them:

‘george harrison – the reluctant beatle’, philip norman

this is a new biography of george, released late last year, and it is the first one i have read of him. this is the author’s fourth book on the group, having already written an accounting of the group as a whole (‘shout’), and a biography of lennon and mccartney. i found it to be fair and informative, showing george’s strengths and weaknesses (a common theme you will find in all of these books). it also spends a decent amount of time focusing on george being the outsider in the creative structure of the beatle’s songwriting process (obviously dominated by lennon and mccartney), and how it was eventually one of the pivotal issues that led to the group’s demise.

and it gives a strong background on his life after the beatles, a span much longer and fulfilling for him than the time he spent in that band. of all of the members of that group, george’s first solo album - ‘all things must pass’ – was the most commercially successful and has withstood the test of time the best, in my opinion. you will also learn about his spiritualism and his charitable work, most notably the ‘concert for bangladesh’ and all the money it raised for the humanitarian crisis of the time.

it does not pull any punches on his personal life, specifically with his various wives. if you are familiar with the history of his marriage to patty boyd, and the entanglement that ensued with his best friend eric clapton (‘layla’ was partially based on the affair), then you will find the details here interesting.

all in all i learned a lot about the most misunderstood beatle, and have a greater appreciation for the man and his music.

‘scattershot’ – bernie taupin

of all these selections here, i think i can safely say i enjoyed this one the most. i think most people who might be reading this know of bernie, but if you do not, he is the less famous of the songwriting duo that wrote some of the more memorable songs of the seventies and eighties – elton john being the other half.

he is less famous for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that elton was an international superstar and sang and performed all the songs. bernie wrote all the lyrics and was usually in the studio when they recorded, and often travelled with the band on tour, but he was not out in the spotlight. the other main reason was that he was a fairly private person and did not seek that spotlight. that is why his autobiography was highly anticipated and does not disappoint.

you learn about his hardscrabble upbringing, how he met elton, and how they quickly bonded and toiled in the songwriting stables of london in the early sixties for years, until they finally hit it big with ‘your song’. you learn of their skyrocketing success of the seventies and all the excesses that were typical of rock bands at that time, and how their friendship was part of what kept it all together.

as with the harrison book, you also get a glimpse of his post elton life, be it the horse rancher, starting his own band and touring the states, and his success as a sculpture artist.

he is quite honest about his failings, but i get the impression of a person who tried to make the world a better place, and certainly a life well lived.

‘all the leaves are brown – how the mamas and the papas came together and fell apart’ – scott shea

the title pretty much tells it all, as this is a book about one of the more iconic groups of the late sixties and early seventies. how they all came from completely different backgrounds and somehow found their way into the musical vanguard of that turbulent era.

like most musical groups who eventually hit it big, theirs is a story of barely surviving for years until they caught on nationally with the huge hit – ‘california dreaming’. it is also a story about how greed and excesses can quickly consume whatever talent they did have. one day they are living out of their cars in los angeles, and in less than a year they are raking in tons of money and hobnobbing with the beatles and stones on their tour of england, and basically entering the upper atmosphere of rock cognoscenti.

and then the infighting over money, the drugs, and the affairs started quickly tearing the group apart. at least part of why it fell apart so quickly was that none of the members had much of a moral compass, some less than others. cass elliot, denny doherty, and john and michelle phillips all obviously had musical talent and drive. but none of them were able to stay sober enough to keep the fire going for very long. they really only put out a few albums, none as good as the first. when they started running out of money, a half hearted reunion was tried, but all of them eventually went their separate ways, with only marginal success (michelle actually became an actress and had a very good run with that the rest of her life – she is the only surviving member).

there is some great musical history here, which i always love to consume, especially the background of the famous monterey pop festival, of which john phillips was one of the main organizers and promoters.

but i looked forward to finishing it, as it became more and more depressing as it went on. i will say that the accounting in here of john phillips’ life (and that is the main focus – he was the leader of the group) is not pretty. he was a despicable human being, and it is well documented here. cass elliot to me comes off the best, and she was probably the most talented.

so this might not be the one i recommend, but maybe you love that group and want to learn more about them.

‘the magic years – scenes from a rock and roll life’ – jonathan taplin

this is an interesting biography of a man who seemed to be in the right place at the right time for most of his life. from his middle class upbringing in shaker heights, ohio to his days in east coast boarding schools and then princeton. there he would eventually become associated with bob dylan and al grossman as bob was about to embark on his transformative rock tour after the newport folk festival . he would help manage that, where he got introduced to robbie robertson. from there he went on to eventually manage the band and their tours for years. he would meet janis and jimi at the monterey pop festival, and basically be just about everywhere in the seventies, including being an integral part of the production of the band’s ‘last waltz’ concert and eventual film. there he met martin scorsese, which was a gateway for him into the movie producing field, and he toiled in that space moderately successfully for quite some time. it goes on and on. it moves quickly and was highly entertaining, especially early on. a child of the sixties, he is still infused with the culture it inspired, but i felt that he started to weave in his social commentaries more and more as the book wore on. as his life moved away from the music industry and more into high finance in his later years, the political commentary wore me down a bit. but it is his book and life, and i can roll with that. as with bernie taupin’s book, this was obviously a life well lived. oh the stories he can tell.

hat tip to my friend roger on this last book.

bonus:

while writing my rough drafts for this post, i took some time to take in the recent documentary on willie nelson. i found to be very well done and i learned a lot about the man. he is a national treasure.