Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

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spzretent
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Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by spzretent »

I never want to be "that guy" that wears an old t shirt of a band to their gig.
BUT, when reading books on musicians I always tend to play the music of the artist I am reading a book on.
Recently it was Julian Cope while reading Head On/Reposessed. All sorts of JC/Teardrops was played.
Now I am reading Shakey. Neil Young's biography. Tonights The Nights is on. This is gonna be a long one. 700+ pages.
Zuma next?
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pale blue eyes
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by pale blue eyes »

Shakey is a great read. a bit long in the tooth at the start but once it starts rolling it's impossible to put down.

i would also recommend Life the Keith Richards story, the best rock memoirs i have ever read and possible one of the funniest books as well.

hey i wore my classic MC5 shirt to the recent Spiritualized show and got tons of comments and one guy that wanted a picture of it.


people should read more.


me.
warmgun.
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by warmgun. »

I went through the same thing recently when reading Waging Heavy Peace.

I was on a big After The Goldrush and Rust Never Sleeps kick, but also threw on some Buffalo Springfield, CSNY, his first album, Everybody Knows... Harvest, On The Beach, Tonight's The Night, and Silver and Gold.... I even put on my copy of Greendale once during the two weeks it took me to read the book - needless to say, I don't think I made it very far through that one.

Personally, I think it provides a nice soundtrack and I've done the same with other bios/autobiographies - Dylan, Wilson, Wareham, Richards to name a few recent ones.

Waging Heavy Peace was an interesting read - very rambling and all over the map, but very enjoyable for it... A bit heavy on his Pono and Lincvolt projects, but you have to appreciate his passion and for staying relevant. Hell, he even makes toy trains sound cool!
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by shalloboi »

i love 'shakey.' i've never read a 700 page book that fast. i think it may've taken me a month or so. unlike most rock biographies it's actually a nice piece of writing. usually your desire to know more about the artist is what pushes you through some really heavy-handed crap, but in 'shakey' the writing could push you along on its own.

my favourite part was definitely the section that covers his work in the 80s.
spzretent
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by spzretent »

I'm about halfway through Shakey. It is a great read. Very thorough. What I find interesting are the characters Neil surrounded himself with. Elliot Roberts, Jack Nitzsche, David Briggs. Yesterday I found a copy of Reactor and put it on. Much better than I remember. Then I played Life . Which I maintain is way better than ever getting credit for.
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moop
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by moop »

I was thinking about picking up one of the books on neil young. Is 'Shakey' the best then? better than 'waging heavy peace'??
warmgun.
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by warmgun. »

I've read both, but it's been ages since I read Shakey...

Waging Heavy Peace is pure, unfiltered Neil Young, so you can expect a lot of rambling, personal passages and recollections, whereas Shakey is written by someone else and is a little more formulaic chronological, as I recall. Although I believe it had Young's blessing and touched on some very personal subject matter.

Both are compelling reads in my opinion and you won't go wrong with either. Waging Heavy Peace might be a little more digestible as it's not quite as long as Shakey.

There's also a book written by his Dad called Neil and Me, which is supposed to be quite interesting as well.

Happy reading!
moop
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by moop »

thanks! not sure which i'll choose since they both sound good.
i just read the chapter of 'our band could be your life' on dinosaur jr, so am in the mood to check out other musical biographies. weirdly, after reading that i found out there's a whole book about them that was just announced. guess i'll have to check that out too. also on my list is the 13th floor elevators book 'eye mind'.
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S H A K E Y

Post by BzaInSpace »

Not read 'Waging Heavy Peace' yet (the subtitle puts me off... 'A Hippie Dream', eh? NY's fucking punk rock!!) but despite being written by NY himself it'll need to be spectacular to beat his own authorized (then unauthorized at the 11th hour!) biography.

Quite simply, 'Shakey' is not only one of the best, if not THE best music/bio book I've ever read, it also remains one of my favourite ever books per se.

It's beautiful, epic, inspiring, exciting and full of humour, bleakness and NY raging in his own weird way against, well, everything. It was written over a long time - 15 years? Pure labour of love, but hilariously, McDonough is not afraid to criticise Neil either.
spzretent wrote:I'm about halfway through Shakey. It is a great read. Very thorough. What I find interesting are the characters Neil surrounded himself with. Elliot Roberts, Jack Nitzsche, David Briggs...
Exactly this. These guys don't speak to people outwith NY's 'Circle of Trust' very often and it's credit to McDonough that he spent so long with them they opened up in the end. The many legendary tales about Briggs and the truly beautiful and inspirational part where he discussed his production/recording secret - there are so many wonderful anecdotes and tales in the book. The stories about the Time Fades Away and Tonight's The Night tours... the 'Eat A Peach - Neil' episode... the real story behind Trans... how coke and shit (Manson?) fucked up the whole idyllic Laurel Canyon thing, laying waste to Crosby and Stills (the latter comes of really badly here) - hell, even later masterpieces like Mirrorball and Sleeps With Angels get fair credit here too.

At the centre of it all remains NY, inscrutable, cryptic, ultra-determined and deadpan. Shots of wild humour. His actual words appear in italics but presumably due to the last minute 'differences' there should have been much more of the interviewed material. McDonoughs frustration is palpable near the end - and who can blame him having committed a huge chunk of his life towards the book? - but he still accepts it's just Neil Young being... Neil.

When I first read this, what, a decade ago now (!) it inspired me to check out lots of NY I wasn't familiar with and most certainly made me revisit the records I knew. I imagine this will be a fairly common situation with readers...

Lastly, one Noel Gallagher is quoted on the back of my copy saying it "changed his life, man" for anyone whose bothered... :wink:
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moop
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by moop »

well that makes the decision easy. cheers Noel!
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by BzaInSpace »

"No problem our kid"
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by redcloud »

moop wrote: also on my list is the 13th floor elevators book 'eye mind'.
I have yet to read "Shakey" but, for what it's worth, "Eye Mind" is my favorite music bio that I have ever read. It is an absolute treat and a real labor of love by Mr. Drummond.
spzretent
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by spzretent »

I am really enjoying Shakey. Its daunting at nearly 800 pages. But the subject certainly deserves it. I just finished the Tonight's The Night tour chapter. It really is a no holds barred, no bullshit look at that whole scene thus far. I'm pretty sure that isn't going to change.
My soundtrack for this excersize has been a healthy dose of Neil and now Crazy Horse. It just fits so to answer my own question when starting this thread. Yes. I am that guy.
I have read Keith Richards- Life. I knew a lot of that stuff being a massive Stones fan but that was really fast reading.
I would also chime in and say Dean Wareham's Black Postcards is excellent.
You want to read an insane book? STP or Stones Touring Party from the 1972 US tour by Robert Greenfield.
http://www.amazon.com/S-t-p-Journey-Thr ... greenfield
Pre Hammer Of The Gods stuff.
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pale blue eyes
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by pale blue eyes »

redcloud wrote:
moop wrote: also on my list is the 13th floor elevators book 'eye mind'.
I have yet to read "Shakey" but, for what it's worth, "Eye Mind" is my favorite music bio that I have ever read. It is an absolute treat and a real labor of love by Mr. Drummond.

yep i second this, for any fan this is an absolute most read.
moop
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by moop »

great! seems a lot of my current 'to read' list is from board recommendations. I've got the first jesse stone book on the go, then mount analogue, the hoffman book, eye mind and shakey. good times :)
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Re: Dont want to be "that guy" or do I?

Post by pale blue eyes »

for any old delta blues fans out there i highly recommend I'd Rather Be the Devil by Stephen Calt. Skip is hands down one of my all time favorite musicians and to finally have an in depth look into his life and death was a much welcomed read. i would also highly recommend the following reads:

My Magpie Eyes are Hungry for the Prize The Creation Records Story by David Cavanaugh. it's jam packed with interviews, research, sweet tidbits of studio gossip. a must read if you are a Creation Records fan or even a fan of "indie" english music of the last 40 years.. Also i believe that Alan McGees new biography is soon to be released.

Sweet Soul Music by Peter Guralnick. Probably one of the greatest researches of Soul/Blues in America. i would also highly recommend Feel Like Going Home as well. again if you are into blues/soul/gospel these both will be worth finding.
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