Can You Have a Personal Connection With Someone You've Never Met?

Media is a funny thing (and by media, I mean print, television, radio, music, movies, etc). It allows us, especially in 2016, to have instant access and communication with people all over the world at the press of a button (or a finger on a touchscreen, as is more common these days). Ironically, along with this increased closeness with strangers around the world comes an increasing sense of isolation amongst those we're closest to in our real lives. However, that overarching theme is not the point of this post and is best left for a different discussion. Where I'm going with this is the strange and true way in which media, regardless of which kind, can allow us to feel a deep and personal connection with people we have never met and who, in most cases, never will meet.

Speaking from personal experience, this is most clearly felt when it comes to my favorite music and musicians. Whether it's stuff from before my time in the 1960s and 1970s or what I grew up listening to in the 1980s, 90s, and beyond, I've definitely felt an almost personal connection with many of the creators of this music. Obviously the majority of this is through their music and the continual enjoyment I derive from it, but much of it also comes through the various media in which I've been able to learn about them. In my younger days, it was through newspaper and magazine interviews, videos, and the radio. In recent years, it's been even easier to have access to those we're fans of through the internet and social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Today's technology allows for an instant channel of communication from fans to celebrities, and in many cases back in the opposite direction (of which I've been fortunate to be a part of numerous times). While this has the potential to get ugly since fan hate can now be spewed without thought of consequence at the swipe of a finger, and though the anonymity of the internet has resulted in many ugly episodes, the majority of the time this method of rapid interaction has allowed fans an actual concrete feeling of connection to those they admire.

All of this leads me (finally) to discussing this strange phenomenon, or in the words of the recently departed David Bowie, "strange fascination," with having a connection beyond that of being just a fan, and whether or not it results in anything worthwhile. Personally, while I am a huge sports fan, I don't cheer for or pay attention to athletes unless they play for one of my beloved Boston teams; I suspect this is typical of most sports fans. However, when it comes to music, which is the biggest passion in my life after my family, it's a different story. Let me get it out of the way now that I don't blindly hero worship anyone and I realize that everyone, whether famous or not, is human and as such nowhere near perfect. Regardless of your station in life, we all have our faults and problems. I also wholeheartedly subscribe to the bromide that you should never meet your heroes (although I've been lucky in that the few times I have actually met some of mine, they turned out to be genuinely nice people). When I speak of a "connection," I mean that there's something there beyond simply being a fan, although what exactly this something is can be quite difficult to articulate. For me, the musicians who fall into this category would be the ones I have the highest degree of fandom for such as the Beatles, Blur, the Who, the Kinks, and several more which I won't mention for fear of this list getting too long. Through everything I've absorbed and studied about them, it almost feels as I though I know them, not in a literal sense but certainly in terms of what I know about them. Obviously, I'm not so delusional that I feel as though I truly do know them, but it definitely feels as though I have a fair understanding of what they're all about. This sense of connection can get scary, though, when people end up convincing themselves they're actually friends with those they admire, often having tragic consequences (see the murders of Selena and John Lennon, or Charles Manson's murder spree as but three examples). Even when it doesn't lead to such tragic endgames, many stalkers are born from thinking they are friends with their favorites, exacerbated these days with social media's instant access (I'm reminded in particular of the unhinged fangirls Blur guitarist Graham Coxon seems to unfortunately attract through no fault of his own).

When I stop to think about it from my own perspective, I probably know more about Paul McCartney or Damon Albarn or Pete Townshend or Ray Davies than I do some of my oldest and closest friends, simply by virtue of the fact that nearly every thought and detail of their lives has been made public for the entirety of their adult lives. While us "normal" people (are any of us truly normal?) can still keep things private such that only those closest to us know them, famous figures have every bit of their past and present combed over and written about, so it's inevitable we'd know more about people we've never met than people we see on a regular basis. In many ways, this feeling of connection has helped me (and others, I'm sure) in tough times...knowing that someone else, no matter how remote they are, has gone through something similar and seeing how they channeled that into their work (which, in most cases in my life, is music) can be a great source of comfort and strength to draw upon. While I certainly rely first and foremost on family and friends for the support I need, the extra bit that can come from someone you feel connected to from afar can make all the difference. Additionally, there are some of these people whose deaths have affected me almost as much as though they were someone I knew and was close to personally (most notably, John Lennon, George Harrison, and most recently David Bowie). I mourn them not because they were beloved friends, but because I know so much about their lives and their music has deeply touched mine...a feeling shared by their countless fans around the world as well.

I think I'm going to stop here because I'm finding it increasingly difficult to articulate exactly what I mean in a way that I feel makes it crystal clear, and I know from personal experience that there's nothing worse than having someone beat you over the head with something they've written as they start to go around in circles because they just can't find the right words to fully convey their idea. For those of you who do understand what I'm trying to say, what do you think? Is it possible to have a connection with someone you've never met, regardless on what level? To what extent? And if so, who is it for you and how has it affected you, either positively or negatively?

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BOOK REVIEW: Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd

Similar to all-encompassing chronicle books on the Kinks (All Day and All of the Night, which I've reviewed previously) and Beatles (The Complete Beatles Chronicle 1962-1970, a book which I've owned for years and intend to review in the future), author Glenn Povey has spent years researching and writing a comprehensive day-by-day diary of Pink Floyd's career. Spanning the births of the band members through the band's official 1965 founding all the way up to 2006 (when it was published), Echoes documents every concert, recording session, single and album release, television, radio, and promotional appearance made by the band over their long and successful career.

The book is laid out in similar fashion to the aforementioned Kinks and Beatles books, moving chronologically forward year by year with entries for each appearance by date. Split into distinct eras of Pink Floyd's career, the beginning of each chapter consists of long and detailed write-ups describing the band's activities during that time period, accompanied by numerous photographs or the band and various bits of memorabilia. Following the chapter introductions, the entries themselves contain as much information as Povey was able to uncover in his research, and the amount that is included is rather impressive. Beyond set lists for the concerts, rehearsal times, track lists, and broadcast dates for the TV and radio appearances are included, as well as track and session notes for Pink Floyd's recording sessions. These entries include, when applicable, contemporary reviews from prominent newspapers/magazines/periodicals of the times, shedding an interesting light on how Floyd's music, both on record and in concert, was initially perceived. It can make for some fascinating reading, especially when reviews back then contrast so sharply with retrospective analysis (in particular, I'm recalling the scathing 1975 review for the Wish You Were Here album which was included in the book, especially when it's compared to modern views of the record). Also, it's interesting to see that certain obscure songs were actually played onstage, including some you'd never even consider, such as "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" at the tail end of 1970! The book does a good job showing just how relentlessly punishing and grueling Pink Floyd's concert itinerary was up until the end of 1973, as well as how little they actually toured from 1974 onward. The book's timeline ends with the final ever Pink Floyd concert, their 2005 reunion for Live 8, and the death of founding member Syd Barrett in 2006. Short diaries of the solo careers of all five Pink Floyd members follow, and the book concludes with a comprehensive discography.

There's not too much more that can be said about a book like Echoes...these type of day-by-day chronicle books can either be done extremely well or they can come off as shoddy, poorly researched jobs. Echoes continues in the tradition of the Kinks and Beatles books mentioned earlier as one of the very best. The amount of research the author put into the book is staggering, especially considering what he was able to dig up for the band's early years when they had a loosely held together, constantly rotating membership and changed their name as frequently as their socks, playing various small student gatherings and underground gigs before solidifying into Pink Floyd in 1965. Echoes is readable from front to back, but it's also quite useful as a reference book; just pick a years or event of interest, flip to that section, and the information is right there at your fingertips. Echoes is a valuable and informative tome that is essential for any Pink Floyd fan, especially its value as a comprehensive reference for collectors of the band's live and promotional work. A few minor typos aside, this book is as good a day-by-day chronicle of Pink Floyd's history as there ever will be and is worthy of being on any Pink Floyd fan's bookshelf.

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Star Wars

I'd been kicking around the idea for this post for a while, but the recent release of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens back in December gave me the necessary kick in the arse to sit down and write it now. You see, I've been a huge Star Wars fan for my entire life, or at least as much of my life as I can remember, which goes back to about the age of three. While I'm not one of those fans who dresses in costume, learns to speak the alien languages from the films, or tries to use the Force to move objects around, I have seen the movies an obscene number of times and known way more about the minutiae of the Star Wars universe than I probably need to. It's not the only science fiction franchise I'm a big fan of...I also love Star Trek, for instance, but for different reasons. While Star Trek appeals more to me because of the deeper themes, more complex storylines, and it being a more realistic vision as to what the future may hold, Star Wars is just rollicking good fun. Creator George Lucas has stated numerous times that he was inspired by the Flash Gordon serials he loved to watch a a kid, and the label of swashbuckling space opera that has been levied on Star Wars seems more than appropriate to me.

In discussing my love of Star Wars, let me point out that I was born at the beginning of 1980, so even though I was too young to see the original trilogy in the movie theaters, my parents did and I grew up never knowing a world in which they didn't exist. I was three years old in 1983 when Episode VI: Return of the Jedi was released and I had (and still have) a lot of memorabilia from that era. I used to have several of the action figures and playsets, including the Ewok village, but all I can find now in my garage and my parents' basement are a few scattered figures (the Rancor keeper, General Madine, an AT-ST walker) and two books: one a full color picture book of the movie and the other a pop-up book with highlights from the movie's story. My love for all things Star Wars really blossomed in the late 1980s when I saved up enough of my money from Christmas and birthday gifts in order to buy the original trilogy on VHS...in fact, it was a boxed set of all three movies, plus a fourth tape about the behind-the-scenes making of the films called From Star Wars to Jedi. I've still got the tapes somewhere, but from that moment I probably watched the films every few months and learned all I could about the characters, alien races, planets, and backstory of the Star Wars universe. This was aided greatly by some books my mum bought me in the early 1990s: three of them were on the making of the films and included a wealth of information, concept art, and special effects secrets, while the fourth was a Star Wars encyclopedia. I was able to come full circle when the original trilogy was re-released in movie theatres in 1997 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the the first of the series to be released, Episode IV: A New Hope. While it was a thrill to see all three on the big screen and with surround sound, it was quite jarring to see how George Lucas had modified the films I had memorized by heart over my entire life up that point. While some of the additions weren't too bad (for example, adding more X-Wings in the background during the assault on the Death Star), others were unnecessary (changing the band and music in Jabba's palace), clunky (re-inserting the deleted scene in A New Hope where Han Solo now talks to a CGI Jabba the Hutt, a scene that is actually beneficial in explaining why Jabba is after Han, but which suffers from primitive CGI), to the downright stupid (having Greedo shoot first). I vowed there and then that I would never watch the modified versions of the films again, although this became increasingly difficult to do as Lucas made sure only the special editions were available to buy on DVD and digital download going forward.

You can imagine my excitement and surprise when I started college and heard that Lucas was going to make Episodes I-III! New Star Wars movies...what more could I ask for? Ever since I was a kid and had read that George had originally planned nine movies in the series, I'd always hoped that someday he'd make them. The excitement in the build-up to the release of Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999 was unbelievable, and not just personally but for all Star Wars fans. However, my initial reaction after I saw the film three times in the theatres was that it was just okay. I enjoyed it because if was Star Wars, because it set up the beginning of the story that would lead up to A New Hope, and because there were some fantastic characters and actors in it (Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn, Ewan McGregor's superb portrayal of young Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ian MacDiarmid as the younger Darth Sidious/Senator Palpatine, Darth Maul, Christopher Lee as Count Dooku in Episodes II and III). However, there was also some terrible acting, most notably Natalie Portman (Padme Amidala), Jake Lloyd (young Anakin Skywalker in Episode I) and Hayden Christensen (teenage/adult Anakin in Episodes II and III). Portman and Christensen are usually decent actors who nonetheless delivered wooden, stilted performances in these films. Granted, the dialogue George Lucas wrote (one of his self-admitted weaknesses) didn't help, but still, good actors should be able to overcome. Even Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu, while passable, was hampered by the dialogue that left his character a bit less than what he should have been.  Episode II: Attack of the Clones was a bit better than Episode I although some of the romantic dialogue between Portman and Christensen was unbelievably bad. Again, though, I enjoyed it because it was Star Wars, but for me the only one of the three prequels that approached the brilliance of the original trilogy was Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It had action and adventure, emotional pull (Obi-Wan expressing his anger, disgust, and heartbreak at Anakin's ultimate fate at the conclusion of their epic battle is a favorite scene), some very efective editing (the cuts back and forth between Luke and Leia's birth and Anakin's transformation into Vader), and the climactic moment we'd all waited for when Anakin took his first breath as Darth Vader. In fact, I rank Episode III in my top three films in the series. If I rank the films in order of favorite to least favorite, it looks like this:

1. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
2. Episode IV: A New Hope
3. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
4. Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
5. Episode VII: The Force Awakens
6. Episode II: Attack of the Clones
7. Episode I: The Phantom Menace

That being said, I continue to enjoy all of the films and have come to appreciate them more with the passage of time, especially the prequels. (I even don't hate Jar-Jar Binks as much as I used to, even though I could still do with MUCH less of him in Episode I). I also need to mention that Ewan McGregor's portrayal of the younger Obi-Wan Kenobi was tremendous throughout all three prequels and he is firmly cemented as one of the great characters and performances across the entire series. Even the way he appropriated Alex Guinness' mannerisms and accent from Episodes IV-VI in order to make him wholly believable as the younger version was masterful (not to mention he's long been a favorite actor of mine). The original trilogy will always hold the most special place in my heart as those were the original three movies that hooked me and everyone else, and as you can see above they make up three of my top four films in the series. Even though I ranked the new film fifth, I thoroughly enjoyed it and think it is a worthy and perfect continuation of the series, capturing the spirit of fun, adventure, and humor that was at its most effective in the original trilogy and which was slightly lacking in the prequels. (I'm deliberately shying away from saying anything more about the new film in case any of you reading this still haven't see it yet!). Seeing so many of the old characters in the film and falling in love with the new ones was really cool and struck the right balance between nostalgia and something new that was needed to appease the older fans while bringing in the new ones.

What's been the best thing for me lately about Star Wars, besides it giving me an excuse to relive my childhood (some would say I still haven't outgrown it) and revel in my geekiness for all things Star Wars-related, has been getting my kids into it. In particular, my second oldest daughter and my son sat and watched all six films in order with me in the weeks leading up to the premiere of the new one. My son has been into Star Wars the past couple of years in terms of toys and costumes (he's been an X-Wing pilot the last two Halloweens), but it's turned into a full-blown obsession akin to how I was at his age. He dressed in his X-Wing pilot costume and my daughter dressed as Princess Leia (complete with the hairstyle, courtesy of my talented wife!) when we went to see The Force Awakens. Although I don't think their goosebumps matched the nostalgic rush of mine when the opening fanfare and story crawl first hit the screen, they were definitely on the edge of their seats with excitement as much as I was.

Getting back to my son, he has loads of Star Wars action figures, Legos, cars, etc, and now that he has learned to read he is devouring every book about the films and the Star Wars universe that he can get his hands on. He is even blowing me away with his knowledge of the different creatures, planets, vehicles, characters, etc. He knows which movie certain events happened in and at the age of six and a half, as well as how and why they connect with the other films. Another thing that has struck me is that since he has grown up in a world where the six films have existed, some of his favorite characters and moments actually come from the prequels. Yes, he loves Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, Yoda, and Darth Vader, but he also routinely lists Mace Windu, Anakin, General Greivous, Qui-Gon, Darth Maul, and Count Dooku as some of his favorites. His willing acceptance and enjoyment of the prequels for what they are allowed me to watch them with a less cynical eye and realize that while they are for the most part definitely weaker than the original trilogy, they also suffered from the unrealistic weight of expectations leading up to their release (especially Episode I, which had sixteen years of anticipation and a huge amount of hype leading up to its release that it could never meet or exceed) and they have been overly vilified by fans and critics alike.  Sure, they're weren't as good as the originals, but they certainly weren't as bad as the conventional wisdom makes them out to be, either. That's my opinion, at least.

With all of this being said, my kids and I are now eagerly counting down to the release of Episodes VIII and IX. While I consider myself fortunate that I've been able to see all of the films on the big screen, I'm also glad that my kids will get a chance to experience the excitement and anticipation of each new film in a new trilogy. Additionally, their experience of seeing the six films in order from I-VI as opposed to how I and others of my generation experienced them (IV-VI, and then I-III) is different enough that I'm glad it gives them their own unique way to experience the wonder and fun of the Star Wars saga. In the end, sharing in all of this fun and sense of wonder in the realms of imagination with my kids is the best part about the entire experience for me.

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How To Speak Like Yoda

In fortuitous timing as I'm currently working on a full length post about Star Wars, I saw this infographic from Grammarly about how to Yodify your language and I got a real kick out of it. As a huge Star Wars fan, I've memorized so many of Yoda's quotes and have been goofing around with my kids and speaking in his voice and style. Who knew there was actual structure to how he speaks?

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BOOK REVIEW: This Bird Has Flown: The Enduring Beauty of Rubber Soul, Fifty Years On

The 2010s are a remarkable decade as every year seems to be a 50th anniversary for something or other that happened in that most epochal of decades (at least in terms of music and cultural change), the 1960s. Since 1965 is often considered the year that pop music truly transitioned to "rock," it only makes sense that there would be a book dedicated to the groundbreaking album released by the biggest band of them all at the tail end of that year. In this new book (with a rather unwieldy title), author John Kruth aims to delve into the Beatles' first masterpiece in terms of both songwriting and production, placing it in the context of its time as well as detailing the aftereffects of its impact to the present day.

***special thanks to Wes at Backbeat Books for sending a copy of the book to review!***

Upon starting the book and noticing that it was two hundred pages, I was a bit skeptical as to how the author was going to fill it all up talking about a single album and its two associated non-album singles ("Day Tripper" and "We Can Work it Out") that clock in at less than an hour total. The first couple of chapters were of a personal nature, with the author describing his childhood and how he got into the Beatles, as well as what was happening in the 1960s around him. However, it didn't really make a lot of sense as he was describing 1960s America which was across the pond from London where the Beatles were living and working. This US/UK dichotomy ended up being one of the most confusing and frustrating things about the book...the author used both the original UK Parlophone edition of the Beatles albums (which is how the band always intended them) as well as the bastardized Capitol US versions interchangeably. For seasoned Beatles fans such as myself it was an annoyance, but I could see how a more casual fan would be thrown off by this.

In fact, this is but one of the many small annoyances I had with this book that made it a frustrating and unsatisfying read overall. The author's writing style was not to my particular liking, coming off a bit too youthful and somewhat clunky. There were some typos and grammatical errors throughout the book, although I'll chalk those up to editors rather than the author himself.  The general layout of the book after the personal introduction consisted of a couple of chapters setting up the recording and release of Rubber Soul, followed by chapters dedicated to each song. It got a bit confusing, however, in that the author included the songs from the American version of the album (arguably the only time a Capitol-altered version of a Beatles album didn't ruin it, and according to many fans, actually improved it) as well as the British version. This means that many songs from the UK Help! album are discussed, which in my opinion doesn't really make sense since those songs were written and recorded six or more months before Rubber Soul (with the exception of "Wait," written and initially recorded during the Help! sessions but not finished or released until Rubber Soul). The end of each chapter then includes a short section called "Rubber Covers" detailing notable cover versions of the particular song discussed. Most chapters include some basic session info for each song as well as the inspiration behind each song, although there was nothing new for obsessive Beatles fans and much of the source material and quoted passages were instantly recognizable as being from various books or the Anthology. There were also a lot of factual inaccuracies throughout, although how many were due to the author's ignorance as opposed to his clunky writing style I can't say. One glaring instance is where he mentions how very shortly after John met Yoko in late 1966, they recorded the infamous Two Virgins album and became a couple, leading to John abandoning his wife Cynthia and son Julian, which actually didn't happen until almost two years later. Now, it's very possible that the author is well aware of this (and he should be...it's incredibly well documented) but the way the passage is written makes it seem as though it happened mere weeks after their initial meeting. There are many sections of the book like this which became increasingly frustrating to read. Whether they were because of Kruth's lack of knowledge or his confusing writing style, either reason is unacceptable and, in my opinion, should've been corrected at the editing stage.

I had more problems with this book that I'd like to bring up, too. First, the background chapters on the 1960s and Beatles influences ended up feeling more like a general history of the decade (and of Bob Dylan in particular). While I get what the author was trying to do here and readily acknowledge the huge influence Dylan had on the Beatles (and John in particular), it began to distract from the point of the book and dragged on far too long. Second, the "Rubber Covers" sections didn't really add anything interesting to the chapters and in many cases became very repetitive as the same tribute albums and/or artists were mentioned over and over. Third, there seemed to be more of a focus on 1964 and 1966 in many of the chapters than on 1965, the year in which Rubber Soul was actually conceived and created. While I can at least see that the trends and experiences of 1964 factored into the creation of the album, 1966 and beyond had nothing to do with it. While the Beatles certainly built off of the achievement of Rubber Soul as they went into 1966 and beyond, the book didn't really need to expound as much on what they did after as it did, at least in my opinion. Finally, Kruth clearly has a lot of admiration for John Lennon, which shone through loud and clear, but while he also credited Paul McCartney for his talents, there were a lot of subtle and snide swipes at McCartney's personality, shortcomings, and his solo career. It got tiresome reading the same tired tripes about how John was the better of the two (as I've said repeatedly, they were BOTH essential) and really, in a book about an album smack dab in the middle of the Beatles' career, why is Paul's solo career being repeatedly brought up and picked at?

While a scholarly, thoroughly detailed look at Rubber Soul and its place in both the 1960s and 20th century history would be a welcome addition to the Beatles literature, This Bird is Flown isn't that book. To me, it felt exactly like I thought it would when I first started reading it: a short book about a single album that was padded with a lot of blandly-written extraneous material in order to justify its length as a book rather than a pamphlet. I will come right out and flatly say that I didn't enjoy this book and I didn't learn a single new thing from it. Perhaps being as fanatical and knowledgeable about the Beatles and their music as I am is the reason I feel this way, and I'll concede that this point may very well color my opinion. But unless one is a very casual or ignorant (in the literal, not pejorative sense of the word) Beatles fan, this book is far from essential.

MY RATING: 5/10

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BOOK REVIEW: The Who: 50 Years of My Generation

Released almost simultaneously alongside the official Who 50th anniversary book which I reviewed last month, veteran rock music writer Mat Snow brings us another book celebrating fifty years of one of the world's greatest rock groups. As you can see from my review, I was quite disappointed with the official book and so was interested in seeing whether or not an unauthorized overview of the Who's entire career would fare any better. I'm familiar with Snow's work over the years, including his book set on the Beatles' solo careers which I reviewed a couple of years ago. That set was fun if not lightweight and riddled with errors, so I was slightly wary when diving into his new Who book. While it's not perfect and suffers from many of the same maladies that his solo Beatles book did, I am will say upfront that it's much more enjoyable than the official book.

***special thanks to Steve at Race Point Publishing for sending a copy of the book to review!***

When I first heard that book was titled 50 Years of My Generation, I initially thought it was going to be a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Who's debut album, also called My Generation and released fifty years ago in December 1965. Moving past the somewhat confusing title and realizing that it's actually a book celebrating the band's entire career, it's laid out in much the same way as the official book: chronologically beginning with the band members' births at the tail end of WWII in London and their youth spent during the post-war austerity years of the 1950s before rock and roll arrived in 1956 and changed everything. From here, the book travels the well-known path of previous Who books, following their career as a struggling covers band before Keith Moon replaced their original drummer in early 1964 and Pete Townshend took creative control over the band's music and message. Snow navigates their career through the heady days of the 1960s, the Who's ascension to legendary status in the 1970s, their limp to the finish line in the early 1980s in the wake of Moon's 1978 death, and the endless run of reunion tours that continues to the present.

Along the way, the chapters include a linear narrative of their career through each era, accompanied by photos of the band, concert tickets, programs, and other related images. While there were several images that were new to me, most have been seen many times over the years although they were reproduced in excellent quality. What was jarring about the entire experience, however, was that many paragraphs and photographs that would have fit better in the previous chapters were inserted out of sequence. As one example, in the middle of the chapter about the recording of Tommy in 1969 there would be a paragraph and accompanying photograph about something that happened in 1968 that was unrelated and should have been in the previous chapter. There were also several typos: many were just honest editing mistakes such as missing letters or slight misspellings, while others were flat out errors (such as discussing the recording of John's bass solo in "My Generation" but calling the song "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere"). A few of the photographs are miscaptioned as well, most egregiously a shot of Pete onstage in 1980 labelled as being from 1990 (the vast difference in the amount of hair on his head should have tipped the editors off!). These mistakes are minor, but there are enough of them scattered throughout the book that they add up after a while.

Overall, though, this book is enjoyable. I certainly had more fun reading it than I did the official history, although I do want to emphasize that 50 Years of My Generation is still not perfect. In addition to the shortcomings mentioned above, the book generally doesn't contain any new revelations or information that would necessarily appeal to any hardcore fan who is deeply knowledgeable about the band. It really is just an broad overview of the band's entire career, not particularly in depth although far more enjoyable to read than the official book.  Much of this is down to Snow's writing style which, while a bit simplistic and clumsy in its construction, definitely conveys the excitement and enthusiasm of a real Who fan as opposed to the more cut-and-paste feel of Ben Marshall's prose in the official book. One thing I certainly noticed was his disdain for the short period of time after Keith died when Kenney Jones was their new drummer. While anyone who knows me knows that I am outright dismissive of any of the post-Moon work the band has done and that I can't stand the music they made with Kenney Jones (apart from one or two songs), Snow came off quite harsh in both his narrative and photo captions. While I certainly agree with his sentiments, I also don't place all of the blame for the downward spiral in the Who's quality once Keith died at Kenney's feet...they were a spent force and Pete saved his best songs for his solo albums. Fairly or not, Kenney became the scapegoat and while I didn't mind Snow's tone, I can see how some fans who like the music from that era of the band's history might take umbrage with the author.

In closing, while this isn't a perfect book, I definitely rank it higher than the official one; some of this is down to the tone and content, and some is because of how truly and utterly disappointing the official book was. While that book had a cleaner, more mature look and feel to it, 50 Years of My Generation is bold, colorful, splashy, and loud...all adjectives that can be used to describe the Who themselves and which convey the excitement and fun of their music and career. If you need to choose between one of the new career retrospective books released for their 50th anniversary, I would recommend this over the official as it's far less frustrating and a lot more fun.

MY RATING:7.5/10

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BOOK REVIEW: You Had to Be There! The Rolling Stones Live 1962-69

The Rolling Stones are one of the longest-lived rock bands in history, having remained active for over fifty years and counting. In that time, they've played countless concerts all over the world, yet for most fans, their greatest work was during the 1960s. Starting off as a blues and R&B cover band in the clubs and coffee houses of London, the Stones played a grueling and punishing schedule of concerts to minuscule crowds in their early years, building up their following and becoming second only to the Beatles in the 1960s hierarchy of great bands. In You Had to Be There! The Rolling Stones Live 1962-69, author Richard Houghton offers a trip back to those heady years by telling the story of the Stones' 1960s concerts in the words of the fortunate fans who were there to witness them firsthand. 

***special thanks to the author for sending me a copy of the book to review!***

Soliciting memories from fans who were at any of the Stones' concerts in the 1960s, Houghton and his contributors tell the story of a ragtag group of five obsessive blues and R&B fans who started the decade playing dingy basement clubs to handfuls of teenagers and ended the decade as the second biggest rock band in the world. When I first heard of this book, I assumed it would be similar to another very good, if not flawed, book I've read and reviewed on the Beatles' UK tours. That book was enjoyable but suffered from being quite repetitive and devoid of charm after a while. However, as this Stones book got closer to being released, I began to think it might be quite different. This was most noticeable to me when my mum sent me a story from my parents' local newspaper in Massachusetts where Houghton was soliciting submissions from fans who had attended the Stones concert there in 1965. When I finally got my hands on the book and saw how the author had put the book together, I was delighted but still slightly hesitant. For each of the shows between 1962 and 1969, the story of the concerts was told entirely in the words of the fans who were there. What made me wary was the fear that the book would get repetitive the way the Beatles book did (that book became a real slog once I was halfway through it).

I'm happy to say that this wasn't the case at all with You Had to Be There...each entry is interesting and engaging and there are many reasons for this. When multiple people shared their memories about the same show, it was fascinating to see how similar or different their perceptions and experiences were. Reading about how the various concertgoers managed to get their tickets, got to the shows, met the Stones, and got home was a wonderful look back to a more innocent time when rock music and the concert business were both young and everyone was flying by the seat of their pants as the world changed around them at a rapid pace. Security was minimal, amplification was inadequate, prices were low by today's standards, and the bands were much more accessible. It was also amazing to read firsthand how quickly and profoundly it all changed...fans who attended a Stones show in 1964 mentioned how when they saw them just a year or two later the experience was different and in many cases, not as enjoyable. By the time the band got to the end of the decade, their tours were huge events and the small club and theater crowds they'd played to in earlier years gave way to faceless seas of humanity in arenas and stadiums. The innocence and simplicity of the earlier 1960s was now marred by restless crowds, police violence, drugs, groupies, cynicism, and money while the band became aloof and untouchable heroes to the masses. These are not new revelations, but somehow hearing it from the perspective of all of those were were there makes it more vivid and sharpens its impact.

Adding to the charm of the book are the many photos accompanying the entries of the contributors, with most pictures being representative of how they and the fashions looked back then. There is also a large section in the middle with fan photos of various concerts and meetings with members of the Stones throughout the 1960s. It's quite something to read about someone in their 60s or 70s looking back on something that happened to them when they were a teenager, especially when they mention how much they've seen the world around them change in the years since. Even better are the instances when fans mention that they went to the concert with their boyfriend or girlfriend who they then married and are still married to. It's really touching to read about couples who went together as teens and are still together fifty years later...some of these entries even have photos of the couples now and then, which is heartwarming and adds a more human touch to their story. Overall, You Had to Be There is a real time capsule that takes the reader back in time to those heady days and tracks the rapid pace of the decades evolution through the eyes of the everyday people who experienced their little bit of rock history. If I have any complaint, it's only that I would have liked to have seen more contributions from fans who attended shows on the 1969 American tour, including Altamont, as the book ends with the Stones' show at Hyde Park in July 1969. Thinking about it, though, I can understand why the author may have stopped here as Hyde Park was the first show the band played in the immediate aftermath of Brian Jones' death and in way, it was the full-stop end of their 1960s incarnation. However, the 1969 tour was their first that was an actual event and the Altamont show is widely seen as what killed the 1960s dream, so those could have been a nice way to bookend the decade for the Rolling Stones. Still, this is a small quibble of mine and as I said, the more I think about it the more I understand why Houghton ended the book at Hyde Park...it was the end of an era and the first chapter in the Stones' career. 

In closing, while not offering any new revelations in terms of the inner workings of the Stones or their music, this is still definitely a book that any fan of the band would enjoy. Even those who are more a fan of the 1960s and its music in general and perhaps not dedicated Stones fans would have a good time taking a trip back to those years and reading about the experiences from the lucky fans who were there to live through it firsthand.

MY RATING: 9/10

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Another Year Remembering John Lennon

This is how I like to think of John...smiling, happy, and a bit cheeky

Every year when this day pops up, I get a little bit sad. Today is, of course, the day in 1980 when John Lennon was needlessly, shockingly, and cruelly taken from us for reasons we still cannot comprehend other than the fact that it somehow made sense in the mind of a madman. I've written about how John's death (as well as George's, which was fifteen years ago this past couple of weeks ago) has affected me, but I was moved to write a little memory of it on a message board that I frequent and I thought it was worth sharing here as well. 

I wrote: "I was 10 months old in December 1980, so obviously I don't remember it [hearing about John's death] firsthand, but I take solace in the fact that I was alive when all four Beatles were. I also get a bit sad this time each year knowing that I can mark how many years he's been gone by the same number of years I've been alive. I've been a Beatles fan literally from birth thanks to my parents. I remember when I was in kindergarten in 1985 and a schoolfriend told me "did you know John Lennon was shot?" I remember running into my house after school crying and telling my mum "somebody shot John!" and she had to explain to me it had happened five years before.

I try to not let the deaths of famous people that I've never met affect me, but the Beatles have touched me on such a deep level over my entire 35+ years on this planet that in the case of John (and George), it does affect me and I'm OK with that. The beautiful thing is that every time I hear his songs and I hear his voice, I feel good inside."

For me, today, as it is every year, is a day for listening to the Beatles and solo John, enjoying the music, and remembering the supremely talented, complicated, flawed, conflicted, and ultimately good man he was. Gone but never forgotten, and somehow a little piece of him belongs to all of us who love his music, his artwork and writing, and his overall message. Thanks for what you gave us, John.

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Personal Growth, Change, and the Power of Positive Thinking

This is going to be a bit different for me as I'm going to get a little personal, yet at the same time I intend to keep this post pretty vague as I don't want to divulge too many personal things. However, I felt as though this is something I needed to share since it was quite profound and impactful. I hope it can spur discussion with anyone out there who has gone through the same thing, or perhaps even help someone out there who is trying to make the same kinds of changes that I am.

Like most people, I've been shaped by the experiences I've had over the course of my life, and like most people a lot of them have been good and a lot have been bad. However, one of the problems I've had over the years is that I've allowed negative experiences, the ones that have hurt me, embarrassed me, or otherwise changed me for the worse, to linger. Beyond that, I've let them change my actions/reactions to certain situations, and I've allowed them to color my perceptions of and interactions with people around me. Most frustratingly, I've known this for many, many years but could never seem to change it. If I really put in the effort, I could change it for a few weeks, but it was more of the "fake it until you make it" approach as opposed to any real sea change in my thinking and processing. I just couldn't seem to let go and move on from anything that had hurt me in the past, and I couldn't seem to stop projecting all of the hurt, anger, and resentment I had toward those past situations and people onto the people around me in the present who had nothing to do with it. It was affecting me and those around me, near and far, quite negatively and, in all honesty, I felt like I was hopeless to ever meaningfully, permanently change it. I was really good at seeming like I was happy and carefree on the outside, but inside I was constantly nagged by all of the slights, however real or perceived, large or small, that I'd absorbed over the years and they completely skewed how I viewed the world and people around me.

And then something amazing happened...

As I said, I'm intentionally keeping this post vague in terms of details because it is my personal life, after all. However, something huge happened to me that changed me forever, and in a life-alteringly fantastic way. Now, I'm a religious person and always have been. I'm a devout Christian and I read the Bible and pray on a regular basis. I believe in the power of prayer and that while we are imbued with freewill and make our own destinies, God does listen to us and offers help, strength, and guidance we need it.  On this particular night a couple of months ago, as I was laying in bed, something triggered what seemed like a lightning bolt inside my heart and mind (metaphorically speaking, of course). Everything that had ever happened to me, all of the hurt and anger, resentment and mistrust, cynicism and negativity, all of the jaded and bitter feelings I'd been clinging to deep inside...they all seemed to just fall away from me. A light bulb went off in my mind and I had a sudden realization that I could let it all go, I could stop letting the past affect my present, and that I had been treating those closest to me as though they had wronged me when they never had.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that when I woke up the next morning, I felt like a completely different person. More than that, I also finally understood that one of the reasons I was never able to grow and change in the past is because I was always looking toward the future, and impatiently (anyone who knows me knows that patience has never been a virtue of mine). I decided then and there, that morning, to live in the present, one day at a time. To put it simply, I was going to just focus on making each moment, each day, great for me and those around me. By focusing on my thoughts and actions each day, I wouldn't be overwhelmed or impatient by worrying about what the future would hold...I would live in the moment. This was quite a contrast from having one foot planted firmly in past hurts while simultaneously having another planted in an uncertain future I was impatient to arrive at. Everyone around me noticed how different I was and were probably skeptical that it would last. I did a lot of reflection and a lot of crying over the first couple of weeks, yet here I am months later, and it's not only here to stay, but feels effortless. I think it's because I'm not putting as much concerted effort into changing (although I am working very hard at it) so much as it seems to be just how I am now.

Two things that have been huge helps in keeping me centered throughout this monumental change are basic meditation and regular prayer, the former for stress/anxiety relief and the latter as a source of guidance and strength. Both have proven to be even more powerful and helpful than in years past...whether this is actually the case or whether I'm just noticing it more, it doesn't matter as the end result is the same. More than that, I'm finding that I'm opening up more, both to myself and others, about my feelings and that I'm communicating and listening better than I ever have.  Given how absolutely terrible I was at all of these, I sometimes feel like that's not saying much, but it's been a process akin to learning to walk although I feel like it's not as scary as I thought it would be.  I have to say, in all honesty it all feels really good although I'm still aware that I've got a ways to go until I'm where I want to be. Rebuilding myself and my relationships with those around me is not a quick fix and learning patience, how to take responsibility for my mistakes, and how to pick myself up and keep moving forward with a positive attitude are difficult things that I'm doing better now than I ever have. However, I know that I'm still a complete work-in-progress. Just tonight (as I write this), I screwed up badly and ended up stung quite deeply by the consequences. While I'm still dwelling on them and kicking myself repeatedly for my mistake, I'm intending on waking up tomorrow morning with a positive attitude and working as hard as I have to to make tomorrow a great day. I'll learn from tonight's stupid mistake but won't keep beating myself up over it...rather, I'll use it as a springboard for growth and for making sure it doesn't happen again.

I know that I've got such a long road ahead of me to become the person I've always wanted to be, but for the first time in my life it doesn't seem daunting. In fact, for the first time in my life it seems like it's completely within my reach. A positive attitude, a lot of changes, and asking for guidance when it's needed will take me a long way. The journey has been great just over these past couple of months...I can't wait to see where it takes me next.

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BOOK REVIEW: Ringo Starr: Photograph

In addition to being the most famous rock and roll drummer in the world from the most famous rock and roll band that ever existed, Ringo Starr has been a very talented photographer for most of his adult life. Indeed, since the Beatles all first got their own cameras around 1963/1964, Ringo has had an interest in photography and has taken scores of photos for his personal enjoyment. In 2013, he decided to open up his archives and release a collection through Apple's iBooks as well as an extremely limited edition hardcover book containing his pictures. I read the iBook and thoroughly enjoyed it, although it only contained a portion of what he'd released in the hardbound book. Luckily, this past month saw the release of the hardcover in a mass market edition so that fans of Ringo, the Beatles, and photography can now enjoy all of the pictures he's released.

***special thanks to Rhianna at Genesis Publications for sending a copy of the book to review!***

While Ringo has famously said that he'll never write an autobiography because people are "only interested in eight years of my life (1962-70)," in Photograph he seems quite happy to focus the bulk of his photos on behind-the-scenes Beatles snaps. The book flows in chronological order from his birth in Liverpool in 1940 through his childhood and the beginnings of his musical career. Much of the material in this early section was collected and saved by his mother and found by Ringo many years later after she'd passed away while he was going through boxes in her attic. What's nice about the photos in this section is that they offer a glimpse as to what it was like growing up in post-WWII England...the houses, the clothes, the prices of common household goods, and how kids and teenagers dressed, acted, and had fun. There are even photographs of Ringo in hospital during his two illnesses, their council home rent book, and the hire purchase papers for his first drum kit. The photographs then trace his musical apprenticeship and his tenure in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes as they played in Liverpool and Hamburg, also documenting his budding friendship with the Beatles. The bulk of the book focuses on his tenure in the Beatles and the decade after their 1970 split. This is where the book really shines as these are shots taken by Ringo and could only have come from the camera of someone who was in the eye of the hurricane that was Beatlemania. Several of Ringo's Beatles photos have become very well known and been widely reproduced over the decades, but the most fascinating ones are those that appear mundane or unremarkable on first glance. Taken backstage, in hotel rooms, at home, on vacation, from the back of a car or while on a train, Ringo captured the sights and feel of the world around the Beatles as they toured America, the UK, Japan, and everywhere in between. Even better are the candid shots of John, Paul, George, Brian Epstein, George Martin, Mal Evans, and Neil Aspinall. Many of them are exquisite shots where the lighting and background just happened to be perfect, capturing them in playful, pensive, contemplative, or relaxed moods. Several shots are of the guys eating, drinking, smoking, listening to music, and doing normal everyday things that Ringo was fortunate to capture for posterity. He also took several pictures of the various photographers, such as Bob Freeman and Dezo Hoffman, who hung around the band in those earlier years as they themselves snapped photos of the Beatles. It's a bit jarring yet quite interesting to see his pictures of the Beatles and their wives on vacations between tours, when they could grow beards and let their hair and clothes get away from the Beatle "look" they had to keep up while in the public eye. Shots like these go a long way toward demystifying the band and showing that behind the great music and iconic fashions, at its heart the Beatles was a band made up of four normal guys who had a deep love and friendship for each other, who were all going through the same incredible experience together.

After the Beatles split, Ringo shares numerous photos of his life in the 1970s and 1980s, many including his closest friends like Keith Moon, Harry Nilsson, and Joe Walsh (who is now his brother-in-law). This section of the book is not as large as the previous sections and speeds up rather abruptly from the late 1980s to present, but it's still nice to see these shots, including several of Ringo with George, Paul and Linda, Eric Clapton, George Martin, and others. As this is the closest the world will ever get to a Ringo autobiography, Ringo did a wonderful job telling his story in photographs. Accompanying the photos throughout are write-ups from Ringo offering his insight, stories, and the memories behind most of the pictures. In particular, the warmth and affection he has for his fellow Beatles, as well as Keith Moon, is quite revealing. His recollections of the real Moon and the sweet guy behind the madcap public persona of "Moon the Loon" was quite touching, especially as I'm a huge fan of Moon and the Who myself.  If I do have a complaint about the book, it's mainly that the post-Beatles years are quite sparse in terms of the number of photos and that they are spread out a bit more haphazardly and not in as tight a chronological order as the previous sections. Perhaps Ringo wants to keep most of these pictures private, and that's certainly understandable as they're his personal property, but as a fan I would have liked to have seen more of them as they document his life as he's gotten older and reached the present day.

Ringo's Photograph book is a fun and engaging collection of photographs that any Beatles and Ringo fan will thoroughly enjoy. Photography books like this can tend to vary in terms of quality and readability, but Photograph is one the better ones in the genre. Flipping through this book feels as though you're sitting on a sofa looking through Ringo's picture albums as he sits next to you and tells you a story for each one; the effect is more like sharing memories with an old friend than simply looking through a book. The pictures are reproduced in very nice quality on glossy paper and Ringo's narrative greatly enhances the images. Photograph is one of the nicest Beatles books I've added to my library and would be a worthy addition to any Beatles fan's bookshelf.

MY RATING: 9/10

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BOOK REVIEW: The Who: The Official History

2015 marks the year that The Who are celebrating their 50th anniversary. I disagree with this classification for a couple of reasons, mainly because A) 1964 was the year in which they solidified their lineup of Daltrey, Townshend, Entwistle, and Moon and released their first single, "I Can't Explain," and B) they really haven't been The Who since Keith Moon died in September 1978. However, as it's their band, it's their choice as to when they want to celebrate their anniversary.  In any event, as one of my favorite bands of all time and one of the most influential bands in history, it was with great excitement that I looked forward to the publication of this official history, especially as it promised to have input from the two surviving members of the band, Pete and Roger. Written by Ben Marshall, upon receiving this attractive book and seeing the eye-catching cover dripping with classic Who iconography, I proceeded to tear into it to see how the story of this fantastic band, this band that has meant so much to my life and the lives of countless others, would be told from an official perspective.

***special thanks to Leslie at Harper Collins for sending a copy of the book to review!***

The introduction of the book hints that, while written by Marshall, there will also be heavy input from Roger and Pete. Of course, upon reading this I was looking forward to the insight they could offer, but it became apparent rather quickly that in actuality there would only be photo captions written by Pete and for all intents and purposes, nothing from Roger, which was very disappointing and gave the book a whiff of being a bit of a half-hearted/cash-in. How could this be an official history with such minimal input from the last two remaining members of the Who? Pete's captions, as would be expected, are quirky, funny, honest, sarcastic, and unmistakably Townshend. The downside is that, the further I got into the book,  the more they served as constant reminders of how more (much more) of his input would have enhanced the book. Ben Marshall starts the Who history (Whostory?) with the backdrop of WWII Britain and the birth of the four members at the tail end of the war (or in Pete and Keith's cases, after the war ended). Inserted in this section were sidebars on life in the post-war austerity period in the UK as well as the rise of Teddy Boy subculture and rock and roll. Sidebars such as these appeared throughout the book and become more and more intrusive and eventually threatened to overwhelm the Who's story, but I'll elaborate on that more later. From here, the author goes through their various pre-Who bands and how they came together until the line-up was completed in early 1964 with the arrival of Keith Moon. The remainder of the chapters are split into eras, focusing on their first album and singles during their Mod period, their Pop Art period of 1966-1968, Tommy in 1969-1970, their period as a top act in 1971-1974, and the remainder of their career with Keith until his death in 1978. This rightly takes up the bulk of the book, with the balance dedicated quite briskly to their attempt at carrying on post-Keith from 1979-1982 and the subsequent reunion tours of 1996-present.

When going through the book, I kept feeling like it wasn't meeting my expectations as to what an "official history" should be but that eventually something I'd hit upon something that would rectify this. However, I kept reading and after finishing the book I couldn't help but think that this book was a real disappointment and, worse than that, a huge missed opportunity. There are several reasons I feel this way. First and foremost, Ben Marshall's written history offers little to no new insight or information about the band or their history. Much of the narrative is quoted verbatim from the Who's remastered CD liner notes and various documentaries and previous books that will be well known and instantly recognizable to any of my fellow hardcore Who fanatics. There were also numerous typos/grammatical errors, as well as several flat-out inaccuracies. These ranged from what I'm assuming are honest errors such as calling the Who's album from 1978, Who Are You, Who's Next (which came out in 1971) by mistake, to the author constantly messing up the name of their recent documentary Amazing Journey, which got to be very irritating. The sidebars, which grew to be almost as long as the chapters themselves, were sometimes fun and informative (such as the ones on Mods and Teddy Boys), but eventually became too long and off-topic, detracting from the central story of the Who. One of them was a long treatise on the history of the hippie subculture; while I understand this happened during the Who's career in the 1960s, the Who were one of the few bands of the era who, apart from dabbling in some florid clothing and LSD, were never remotely close to being a hippie/psychedelic band either in terms of their sound or attitudes, and as such were set apart from the entire movement. There were also some long sidebars on the Mods vs. Rockers fights of 1964 (which made sense as Pete wrote about these on the Quadrophenia album) and a heartwarming but unnecessary (at least in my opinion) vignette about a former London punk drummer telling the story of his brother watching the Who rehearse a few times in the mid-1960s. In all honesty, the book ran out of steam, and quickly, after the chapter-long tribute to Keith Moon. Granted, from that point onward I don't consider the band to really have been the Who, but in my mind if this is to truly be a definitive official history, there should have been more detail on the post-Keith years. There was very little to nothing, for instance, on the Cincinnati incident of 1979, the 1996 Hyde Park Quadrophenia reunion, or their subsequent tours in the 2000s. Apart from a chapter-long tribute to John Entwistle, this final section of the book seemed unnecessary and hurried, and for a band who has desperately tried to convince their fans and themselves that the years after 1978 (and especially after 1982) have been just as vital and essential a part of their history as the 1964-1978 period, it seemed half-assed. Finally, there were far too few picture captions by Pete and far too little input from him throughout the entire book...combined with their being zero input or insight from Roger, it seems a little specious, at least to me, to call this an official history and imply on the cover that it's Roger and Pete telling their story when really, it isn't. This may be an officially sanctioned history of the Who, but it certainly isn't their version of, say, the Beatles' Anthology book which was truly 100% in their own words. A band as important, influential, and revered as the Who deserves better as the official word on their own career.

For all of their visceral, reckless, and aggressive energy, The Who were always one of the most cerebral, reflective, and introspective bands who also were the first (and in my mind, still the best) to reflect back at their audience who they really were. Given what Pete's autobiography was like and what the best of their music offers, it was only natural that I would assume that the official history of the band would embody all of these qualities. However, I have to conclude that this book is a major disappointment and a real missed opportunity to tell their history in their own words, especially as it could have been done really well in a way only Pete and Roger could do. This book is more accurately a band history written by an outside author with minimal input from the two surviving members. Yes, there are some great photographs throughout the book, several that were even new to me, but the actual story, i.e. the words, were almost inconsequential and will offer nothing to any dedicated Wholigan. Is this a book hardcore Who fans should have? Yes, it probably is, but at the same time it's not one they need to have. For a band who has given so much to their fans, and who in turn have demanded so much from their fans in return, the incongruity with respect to this book is jarring. The end result is disappointing, especially if this ends up being the final official word from Roger and Pete on The Who.

*THIS* is what the Who were all about. Crank up the volume and enjoy!

MY RATING: 6/10

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Billy Joel

Billy Joel circa 1977

I always feel bad calling Billy Joel one of my "guilty pleasures"...he's one of the most commercially and critically successful songwriters and musicians of the past fifty years and has written countless hit songs. Perhaps I shouldn't call him a "guilty pleasure" and instead say that he's one of my favorite musicians who most people who know me would be surprised I'm such a big fan of given when compared to everything else I listen to. But really, it should make perfect sense: he's a fantastic piano player, songwriter, singer, and can write hooks with the best of them (and as anyway who knows me know, I am and always have been a sucker for a well crafted song with an infectious hook). Over the course of his active career, Billy Joel released album after album full of great songs and became one of the most successful singer-songwriters of the 1970s and 1980s before retiring from popular music in the mid 1990s.

William Martin Joel was born in 1949 in Oyster Bay, Long Island to a German immigrant concert pianist and an English immigrant mother. He had a troubled childhood, with his parents divorcing in the mid 1950s and his father moving to Vienna, Austria. Reluctantly forced into classical piano lessons at a young age, Joel was captivated, as so many millions of others were, by the Beatles when he saw them on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964 and decided to drop out of high school in order to pursue a career in music full time. After playing on several demos and sessions with a few small-time groups, he joined a local band called The Hassles who released two albums. Following that, in 1970 he formed a short-lived heavy metal duo called Atilla with former Hassles drummer Jon Small. The duo released one unsuccessful album and split up when Joel's affair with Small's wife Elizabeth was revealed. She broke it off with both of them and, distraught, Joel attempted suicide by drinking furniture polish (in his own words, "it looked tastier than bleach"). Surviving the attempt to take his own life, Elizabeth reconciled with Joel and they eventually married.

Signing a terribly lopsided contract with a label called Family Productions, he released his debut album Cold Spring Harbor in 1971. The album sold poorly, much of it due to the mastering being too fast and the songs and vocals being too high-pitched, something which wasn't corrected until many years later. Realizing he'd been ripped off, Joel managed to sign with Columbia Records, who bought out his contract with Family. His second album, Piano Man, was his commercial breakthrough, led by the title track as well as underground radio stations in the northeast (especially in Philadelphia) playing the album's closing track, "Captain Jack." Relocating to Los Angeles, his follow-up album, Streetlife Serenade, is an underrated and overlooked one in his discography. Without any immediate hit singles apart from "The Entertainer," it's a bit darker and more melancholy, with tracks such as the title song, "Los Angelenos," "The Great Suburban Showdown," "Roberta," and the instrumental piano workout "Root Beer Rag" as definite highlights. Homesick for New York City, Joel moved back for good and his next album, Turnstiles, reflected his happiness at being home. Songs like "Say Goodbye to Hollywood," "New York State of Mind," and "Miami 2017 (I've Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)" reflect this, and are among the highlights of the album, as well as the classic "Prelude/Angry Young Man." By this point, Joel had a steady band behind him that would last for the next fifteen years and solidify his sound both in the studio and live on stage.

1977 saw the release of The Stranger, Joel's commercial and critical breakthrough album and the work that is still considered his magnum opus. The Stranger was packed with classic songs...almost the entire album has been in regular rotation on the radio since its release, with such songs as the title track, "Movin' Out," "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," "Only the Good Die Young," "Just the Way You Are," "She's Always a Woman," and "Vienna" as classics. This album would also mark the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with producer Phil Ramone, who would produce all of Joel's albums up to and including 1986's The Bridge. The following albums 52nd Street ("My Life," "Big Shot," "Zanzibar"), Glass Houses ("You May Be Right," "Sometimes a Fantasy"), The Nylon Curtain ("Allentown," "Pressure," "Goodnight Saigon," "Laura") and his homage to 1950s and 1960s pop, An Innocent Man ("Uptown Girl," "The Longest Time," "Tell Her About It") continued a ridiculously strong run of albums and songs. It wasn't just the singles that were great...numerous album cuts were as good, or in some cases better than, the radio hits. There was a bit of a drop-off from here: 1986's The Bridge was very good but not great, but still had some excellent songs ("A Matter of Trust," "This is the Time") as did Joel's final two albums. 1989's Storm Front contained the hits "We Didn't Start the Fire" and "I Go to Extremes" while his final album, 1993's River of Dreams, had the title track and "Lullaby (Goodnight, My Angel)" as highlights. At this point, Joel decided to retire from writing and recording popular music, a surprising decision for someone of his talents. Since then, he's focused on writing classical piano pieces and has continued touring, both with his own band and in tandem with Elton John, playing his hits and entertaining millions of fans around the world. He's definitely on my bucket list of musicians I want to see, and seeing as how he's played Fenway Park in Boston the last two summers, I'm hoping that I have a really good chance of making it happen.

Billy Joel today, in 2015

As for my own fandom, I grew up listening to my parents' copies of The Stranger and 52nd Street on vinyl. My dad isn't a fan, but my mum is, so between those records and hearing all of his songs on the radio when I'd be listening with her, I became a fan at a very young age. Additionally, my best friend from elementary through high school was a huge fan. We sang many of Billy Joel's songs in the high school chorus and acapella groups I was in (including "The Longest Time," on which I performed the solo). From the beginning, I've been captivated by his fantastic songwriting...he writes melodies with the best of them and is also quite talented at writing songs that tell stories. His phenomenal piano playing has always been a highlight for me, as well as his singing voice. In fact, he's one of my favorite musicians to listen to and sing along with. The range of music he's produced goes from story songs like "Allentown," "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," "Miami 2017 (I've seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)," and "Captain Jack" to ballads like "Honesty," "She's Got a Way," and "And So it Goes." There are belting rockers like "You May Be Right," "Big Shot," "Movin' Out," and "Los Angelenos," pure pop singles like "Uptown Girl" and "My Life," and numerous great album cuts like "Laura" (the best Lennon/McCartney song of the 1980s that they never wrote), "Vienna," "Roberta," "Zanzibar," and countless others. For many years during my youth, I used to hide the fact that I was such a big fan because he wasn't considered too "cool" by my peers. He also doesn't fit the mold of most of the musicians I listen to and I'd find many of my friends and family members to be quite surprised when I mentioned how much I liked him. However, as I've gotten older, I don't feel the need to be so coy about my fandom. So many of Billy Joel's songs have meant a lot to me throughout the various stages of my life and continue to do so to this day. Whether it's been during tough times or happy times, reflective, depressing times or exciting times, I've always found that his songs have a way of speaking to me as a listener and conveying their message and emotion both through their music and their lyrics. He may not fit in easily alongside the majority of what I listen to, but I'm proud and glad to be a fan of Billy Joel's music...it's meant, and continues to mean, so much to me and brought me such enjoyment that I can't ever imagine not having it in my life.

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