BOOK REVIEW: Jim Morrison: Friends Gathered Together

It's hard to find a more polarizing figure in the history of rock music than Jim Morrison. In his short life, he was a gifted singer, lyricist, poet, writer, and film director and the breadth of his talents is matched only in the variety of ways he's been thought of since his untimely death in 1971. There are those who subscribe to the cult of Jim and hang on every word he ever wrote, sang, or spoke, treating him as a prophet. There are Doors fans who think he was a great frontman, singer, and lyricist but who are turned off by his antics. There are Doors fans who love the band in spite of Jim, and there are fans of his who hate the Doors and think they were only successful because of him. For many people, their most enduring and cited reference as to who Jim Morrison was is Oliver Stone's 1991 movie "The Doors." To those Doors fans who know better, and especially the people who knew Jim personally, it's frustrating to no end that the inaccuracies and exaggerations peddled in the movie have been accepted as fact over the past twenty-five years. Luckily, Frank Lisciandro has set out to dispel the myths and to show exactly who Jim Morrison really was by chronicling discussions with people who actually knew him and were close to him.

***special thanks to Steven Wheeler who sent me a copy of the book to review!***

Author Lisciandro first met Jim Morrison in 1964 at UCLA film school, where both were studying, and he became one of Jim's closest friends until the singer's death in Paris in 1971. The Morrison he knew was not the caricature that has been created in the years since his death, but instead was a smart, shy, conflicted, yet brilliant young man and a warm and generous friend. In Friends Gathered Together, editor Steven Wheeler and Lisciandro have compiled discussions with Jim's close friends and associates that Lisciandro has recorded over the years. The goal was to get fourteen different and accurate perspectives on who Jim Morrison was as a man and to strip away the layers of myth and falsehood that have been built up since he died.  Ranging from his high school buddy to people who worked at the Doors' office and the friends outside of the rock music world that Morrison was closest to, this book tells once and for all just who Jim was and, to paraphrase the author's favorite phrase in the book,  what he was really like.

I'll admit that, while I've been a Doors fan for as long as I can remember, my perception of Jim Morrison was indeed tainted by the Doors movie. Having seen the movie when it was released and again in subsequent years, I was of the school of thought that he was a talented artist who happened to be a deplorable human being. However, in recent years I've done quite a bit of independent research into the matter and gradually found that much of what I had believed as fact was actually untrue. Going into this book, I knew that Morrison wasn't really as he's been portrayed, and so I was interested to learn more about him outside of the Doors and rock music; I wanted to learn more about him as a flesh-and-blood person. I'm happy to say that on those counts, Friends Gathered Together succeeds in spades.

Beginning with a discussion with Jim's best friend from high school, Fud Ford, we get an idea of a kid who was used to constantly moving due to his father's naval career, and who seemed adept at making new friends when he had to and who was unaffected by moving on at the end of his time in any particular place. However, he was described by Ford as a shy kid who was remembered mostly for being the "funniest person I'd ever met...a real prankster." Ford is the only person interviewed who knew Jim only during his pre-fame years...the remainder of the discussions in the book are with people who met Jim sometime during or after his time at UCLA and the formation of the Doors. These range from people who worked for the Doors' office (including the author's wife), their former manager and his wife, their former road manager, and several of Jim's friends from outside of the band circle, including poet and playwright Michael McClure. The topics pertaining to Jim that are covered range from the subjects' discussions with him on politics, music, art, literature, life, and spirituality. There are also, of course, stories of some of his more adventurous antics, as well as his alcoholism and what he was really like when he was drunk. In the course of these discussions, numerous myths about him are shattered, and the true image of Morrison takes shape as a man who was actually quite shy and soft-spoken, generous to a fault, who was very rarely provoked to anger, and a man who cared so little for personal possessions that he basically had none. In addition, they are all very honest and straightforward about addressing Jim's demons, mainly his out of control alcoholism. Through all of the discussions, it's clear that first and foremost, they all cared about Jim Morrison the person, and his fame and the trappings of his stardom meant little or nothing to them. One thing the book does well is that it really humanizes Jim. It does this mainly by offering glimpses into his life as a normal guy away from the music business and the fame of the Doors. For instance, the recollection of a touch-football played amongst Jim and his friends, which included the author and some of the other interviewees in the book, is looked back with fondness and shows Morrison as just one of the guys. There are other little stories, of meals at restaurants with Jim (where he liked to order several dishes and share with the rest of the table so he could sample a little bit of everything), conversations, and his interest in seeing the world from different perspectives by really listening to the different people he talked with throughout his life. In particular, he enjoyed getting a woman's perspective on issues, and was also fascinated by the pregnancy of manager Bill Siddon's wife Cheri. It's a very different portrait of the man when compared to the way he was characterized in the media during his life, never mind the way he's been portrayed since his death.

In addition to offering personal anecdotes and showing Jim Morrison to be a real person behind his rock star persona, there are also several illuminating revelations about the Doors' career from the friends in the book since they were firsthand witnesses to these events. For instance, at the infamous Miami concert incident in 1969, Jim did not expose himself onstage (while most of the audience actually did, albeit at Jim's urging). While he did go on a drunken rant onstage that night, it wasn't any worse than several Doors gigs in months past, but the media hyped it up to such levels of hysteria that he was arrested and tried in court. However, it was a volatile situation from the outset, with an unscrupulous promoter who oversold tickets, pocketing the extra money and swindling the band out of a large amount of money. Tempers were flaring and discussions were heated hours before the band even took the stage.  Likewise with the New Haven incident from late 1967, when Jim was maced backstage by a policeman before the concert, the officer not knowing he was in the band and thinking he was just some long-haired youth up to no good. During the show, Jim berated the cops from the stage, who eventually dragged him off mid-show...and proceeded to beat him up in a parking lot (where several photographs were taken, leading to the police deciding against pressing charges). There are also tales of his crazy antics walking along tall building ledges, laying down in the middle of traffic, and other dangerous things he did. But according to his friends, he did these to test the limits and to truly feel as alive as he could, although several of his friends were cited as bad influences who egged him on to ever increasingly dangerous antics. Unfortunately, it caught up with him in Paris when various health-related issues came to a head and he died at the age of 27 in the apartment he shared with longtime girlfriend Pam Courson. She's been as enigmatic a figure in Doors history as Jim, and nearly all of the friends in the book say the same thing about her: she was aloof, cold, possessive of Jim, and unfriendly toward everyone else in the Doors' inner circle. It was also revealing that there was a division between Jim and the other three Doors...they got along for the most part and made great music together, but moved in completely different social circles outside of the band.

There are a lot of great black and white photographs throughout the book, taken by Lisciandro and showing Jim and his various friends from the book, as well as other figures from the Doors circle.  Some are from Doors concerts and while these are enjoyable, the best photos are the ones taken of Jim and his friends in candid moments: waiting in an airport, playing touch-football in a park, goofing around on a train, and so on. In addition to the recollections of his friends, these humanize him and help to portray him as more down to earth than anything else.

Friends Gathered Together is a great book that really humanizes Jim Morrison and reveals what he was like as a regular person...this isn't a book about the Lizard King, but about James Douglas Morrison the man. He had passions, dislikes, friends, quirks, and demons just like the rest of us, and he was quite different and normal to the people who knew him personally. After finishing the book, it's hard not to have a greater understanding for who he was and what he was really like, as well as how the instant and ceaseless pressures of fame (and infamy) got to be overwhelming and exasperating for him. Having read the book, I feel that I know who he was a lot better, and I have a lot of sympathy for him and what he had to deal with, especially from the press; his every word and action was dissected, analyzed, and (usually) attributed to some implied negative motive. That wasn't the real Jim Morrison, and Frank Lisciandro and Steven Wheeler have compiled a book that is essential reading for any Doors and Jim Morrison fan...a book which should be the final word on Jim Morrison not as a rock star, but as a poet, writer, singer, and friend.

MY RATING: 9.5/10

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Ray Davies: The Mt. Rushmore of Songwriters Part 2

Clockwise from top left: Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ray Davies, Pete Townshend

PART 1 of this series focused on the songwriting team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. In subsequent entries, I will be focusing on two legendary songwriters who wrote on their own. PART 2 will focus on Ray Davies of the Kinks.

RAY DAVIES

Among the bands to emerge from England in the 1960s, the four best were without question The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Kinks. However, of this group, the Kinks have always been the band slightly set apart from the rest. Although they were and continue to be critically acclaimed and are now considered one of the most influential groups of all time, their initial chart topping and commercially successful albums and singles came to a screeching halt by 1970 in their native UK; at the same time, their popularity underwent a renaissance in the USA. While they faded into the obscurity of cult band status in their home country by the mid-1970s, they simultaneously had a second life in the USA, becoming megastar arena rockers well into the mid-1980s and they remained popular in America until their split in 1996. Over the course of their entire career, however, the one thing that remained constant was the presence of the Davies brothers, Ray and Dave, and the creative direction which was guided by the brilliant songwriting of Ray.  Known for his quirky, humorous and wry observational lyrics as well as his exquisitely constructed songs that draw on influences ranging from blues, R&B, rock, jazz, music hall, country and just about every other style imaginable, Ray is rightly hailed as one of the best songwriters of the 20th century.

Ray Davies was born in Muswell Hill, London in 1944 as the seventh child and first son of his parents; brother Dave followed three years later. They grew up in a very close-knit family, doted on by their older sisters and taking part in the weekly music parties their parents threw every weekend. The entire family, sisters and their boyfriends/husbands, nephews, nieces, cousins, would all cram in the front room of the Davies house to sing, dance, drink, play piano, and listen to records. These gatherings had a profound effect on the Davies boys and both would look back on them fondly in later years. It was in this same front room that they would write some of the earliest Kinks songs before moving out once they became famous. However, whereas Dave was extroverted, fun loving, and friendly, Ray was almost the polar opposite: moody, withdrawn, and emotionally unsettled. However, it was this introspection and homebody personality that in many ways informed the best of his songwriting. More strikingly, while in real life he was a mercurial, introspective, and restless creative type, onstage he was a flamboyant extrovert and master showman. He could also be very calculating and manipulative toward his brother, bandmates, managers, promoters, and others who he worked with. He is certainly a fascinating and complicated man and I would direct anyone who wants to learn more about him to read his two autobiographies, X-Ray and Americana.

The Davies brothers formed the Kinks with their school friend Pete Quaife in 1961 and by early 1964 when they added drummer Mick Avory, their classic lineup was completed. A string of chart topping hit singles and albums followed, written almost entirely by Ray Davies. However, by the end of 1967 the band were at a crossroads...having been banned from performing in the USA by the musicians union under mysterious circumstances after their 1965 US tour, they missed out on some prime years to build their career there, while in England they started a slow commercial decline; the nadir was when they were forced into a package tour of UK cabarets and gentlemen's clubs in early 1968. Even seminal and landmark albums like 1968's Village Green Preservation Society and 1969's Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire couldn't reverse the trend.  Apart from hit singles "Lola" and "Apeman" in 1970" and "Come Dancing" in 1983, they all but vanished in the UK, while at the same time their relentless touring after the American ban was lifted in 1969 led to them becoming one of the biggest concert and recording acts of the 1970s and 1980s in the US. Throughout it all, however, Ray was incredibly prolific, churning out quality singles and albums written in the midst of the usual chaos that surrounded the Kinks, the numerous lineup changes the band underwent throughout their career, and the various personal traumas, both emotional and physical, that he went through. 

Ray was certainly no stranger to writing about topical matters, communicating with his audience about current happenings of importance just as many of his peers did. However, the unique thing about Ray's approach is in the way he did it, using a very observational style of lyric writing that relied on wry humor, wit, sarcasm, and social comment in a manner that was sometimes cutting and aggressive, but suggested much more. When humor wasn't required, Ray's brilliance lay in his ability to write about things both mundane or complicated in a simple and direct manner that was also able to touch something deep inside the emotions of the listener and resonate in a very profound way. He is well known for writing in an almost nostalgic manner about a world in the midst of rapid change that no longer exists; he was doing this at the same time that most of his peers were extolling the "in with the new and out with the old" ethos of the 1960s counterculture. While other bands preached revolution and the  tearing down of old ways, Ray yearned for the England of pre- and post-WWII and the traditions and values they represented. One need only listen to the albums mentioned above, or 1967's Something Else by the Kinks to hear it. Songs like "Autumn Almanac," "Afternoon Tea," and "Waterloo Sunset" have a deep, pastoral longing for the return of the past and an anxious clinging to the shriveling remnants of these traditions at present. His writing reached its apex in this vein with the Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur albums at the end of the 1960s and the two Preservation albums in the mid-1970s. While out of step with the change that the wider rock music scene was going on and on about at the time, Ray's songs still resonated with listeners the world over and these albums continue to be cited as the masterpieces they are.

At the same time, he was able to chronicle topical and contemporary events throughout the band's career in a way that was informative, funny, and thought provoking. Whether this was his absolute dismantling of the music industry on the 1970 album Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround Part 1, social comment on Swinging London in hit singles like "Dandy" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion," rampant globalization in "Holiday in Waikiki," the social commentary of "Sunny Afternoon" and "Dead End Street," or his assessment of the horrific economic climate of the late 1970s on almost the entire Low Budget album (which is just as relevant today), Ray managed to say what he wanted to say in a manner that was instantly accessible and more often than not, was sung with his trademark lopsided smirk.

Beyond that, however, he was and still is a gifted lyricist who is able to be direct and touch on emotions within the listener that cause his songs to resonate beyond merely what the words say...Ray Davies lyrics make you feel but they also make you think. One of my favorite Kinks songs resonated with me so much that I even dedicated an entire in-depth post to it. His lyrical gifts are thankfully coupled to a melodic gift that rivals that of Lennon and McCartney. Beyond the inventive riffs and catchy hooks of "You Really Got Me," "All Day and All of the Night," "Lola," "Come Dancing," and more, songs like "See My Friends," "Sweet Lady Genevieve," "Waterloo Sunset," "Celluloid Heroes," and "Tired of Waiting For You" are amongst some of the most beautiful melodies ever crafted in popular music.

Whether he was writing carefully crafted pop singles, album tracks, or sweeping concept albums, Ray Davies always had something to say with his songs. Often funny, sometimes melancholy, happy or angry, cutting and sarcastic or loving and pleading, his direct and meaningful lyrics were married to instantly catchy, recognizable, and memorable musical backdrops that were and continue to be some of the most respected and popular songs of 20th century rock music. More than that, the songs continue to endure and inspire into the present.  Just as his band were always slightly askew of the mainstream, Ray's songs have that slight bit of an edge to them that makes him unique amongst his peers. Along with the other writers I'm profiling in this series, his songs were among those that made me want to write songs and they've helped me immensely both personally and emotionally throughout the various phases of my life. I still have a distinct memory of sitting in my dorm room during my first year of college playing my guitar along to the Arthur album blaring out of my stereo, later using many of the chord changes and song structures Ray used as inspiration for some of the songs I was writing. I continue to use his songs as a musical touchstone for my own writing. Likewise, he showed me that lyrics can say deep and meaningful things and still have a sense of humor about them. Ray and the Kinks were always conscious of being outsiders and holding a unique place in the musical world, which is something I and countless others can relate to from the teenage years all the way through adulthood. As one of his best songs from the 1960s says, he's "not like everybody else," and we're all the better because of it.

CLICK HERE for PART 3 on Pete Townshend!

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The Rolling Stones at Hyde Park 1969

Also on this day, in 1969, the Rolling Stones played their big free concert in London's Hyde Park, both to unveil their new line-up with guitarist Mick Taylor, and to pay tribute to founding member Brian Jones, who had died two days prior. Enjoy!

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The Doors at the Hollywood Bowl 1968

On this day in 1968, The Doors played at the Hollywood Bowl. It was one of their most triumphant and legendary shows. Luckily, the whole thing was professionally filmed. I thought many of you would enjoy this over the Independence Day weekend...enjoy!

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John Lennon and Paul McCartney: The Mt. Rushmore of Songwriters Part 1

Clockwise from top left: Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ray Davies, Pete Townshend

I realize the title of this post is a bit presumptuous on my part; after all, like anything having to do with the arts, music is subjective and what I think is great is certainly not going to be what everyone else necessarily likes. However, I think I'm safe in assuming that even if you don't agree that the songwriters I'm about to write about are the four absolute best of all time, I think I'm correct in saying that they are unarguably amongst the best.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let me get to the crux of what follows. If I were to create a Mt. Rushmore of who I consider to be the four greatest songwriters of their generation, as well as four of the greatest of any generation, and whose reach and influence extends all the way to the present day, I don't think I could do better (and I certainly could do a lot worse!) than the four I've chosen.  As seen above, they are Paul McCartney and John Lennon of the Beatles, Ray Davies of the Kinks, and Pete Townshend of the Who. Each of them has, in their own way, had an enormous personal influence on me on an emotional level as well as on how they've inspired and influenced my own songwriting, guitar playing, and lyric/prose writing. I was born too late to have experienced their work as it was being created and released (apart from the Kinks, who continued to put quality new material out into the 1990s), but I am a staunch second-generation fan of all of these bands, having been listening them literally from birth thanks to my parents.  I'll warn the reader upfront that as I go through and write about each of them, I am going to make an effort to be somewhat subjective, but at the same time I make no apologies for readily injecting my own personal feelings about these writers and their music into each section. Also, I cannot stress enough that, while each of them are brilliant writers and musicians on their own, each of them were blessed with the perfect musicians in their respective bands, fellow musicians who shared their vision and who fleshed out and expressed their musical ideas. The members of the Beatles, Kinks, and Who were talented and essential musicians in their own rights who added their own personalities into the songs written by these giants and without whom the songs we know and love would not sound a fraction as great as they do.

Now, onto the subjects of this first part in the series...

JOHN LENNON AND PAUL McCARTNEY

I have to write about them together, because even though they were (and in Paul's case, still is) supremely talented and wrote numerous great songs as individuals, they both created the best work of their careers together as a team. Lennon/McCartney remains one of, if not the most successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century and one of the greatest that ever was. It was a perfect blend of their individual musical talents, personalities, creativity, and competitive instincts that was held together and driven by ambition, self-belief, and the deep personal friendship and mutual love and respect they had for each other.  They both brought to their friendship and partnership the experiences they had growing up: John was a good soul who was very angry, confused, and cynical about the world due to his very strange and oftentimes traumatic childhood: abandoned by his parents Julia and Freddie and left to be raised by his aunt Mimi and uncle George when he was a small child, he grew up in a comfortable middle class household in Liverpool. However, a series of events shaped his outlook on life by the time he reached young adulthood: his beloved uncle George died when he was a child, and his mother came back into his life and John grew closer to her and his step-sisters. However, John had several rows with his strong-willed aunt Mimi who disapproved of the freewheeling lifestyle of her younger sister. Julia sparked John's love of music, showing him how to play his first chords, as well as encouraging his wacky sense of humor and love of creative wordplay and art. Tragedy struck when she was struck by a car driven by an off-duty policeman and killed just a block from Mimi's house when John was 17. Friends and family noted a hardening in his personality, which persisted all the way through to the early Beatles career. The cynicism never completely left him, though, and his well-known issues with authority figures and his complicated emotional needs, especially as relating to the women in his life, persisted through to the end of his life.

By contrast, Paul, who became best friends with John in 1957 when John was 17 and Paul 15, had a much more stable upbringing for the most part. Although his mother died from breast cancer when Paul was 14, he and his brother had a hard-working and loving father, not to mention numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins who all pitched in to help raise the boys. And while John's aunt Mimi was dismissive and generally unsupportive of his musical ambitions, Paul's father Jim was a musician himself and nurtured Paul's talent as best he could. John tended to be more cynical and suspicious of the world in general, while Paul was more of an optimist and a charmer. It was these two disparate personalities that formed a deep friendship in 1957 and would serve them in good stead when they started writing songs together shortly thereafter.

The brilliance of Lennon and McCartney is the fact that they had each other as collaborators. Both men were incredibly talented and would have undoubtedly been successful on their own. But together, they merged their individual strengths, covered for each others weaknesses, served as quality control for one another, and pushed the other to produce work of ever increasing quality. In the earliest days, they wrote most, if not all of their songs together, working "eyeball to eyeball" and "in each others noses" as John has said. While the rule was that the main composer sang lead on all Lennon/McCartney-penned Beatles songs (with a few exceptions), the early music they created was undeniably written together. Whether it was John critiquing Paul's original lyrics for "I Saw Her Standing There," Paul stumbling upon the chord in "I Want to Hold Your Hand" that excited John so much that he shouted out "that's it! Play that again!" and of which he later said "made" the song, and the general spirit of collaboration when they sat down to write together, the whole of their partnership was greater than the sum of its parts.

From around 1965 until the end of the band in 1970, they began writing more individually, oftentimes bringing nearly completed songs to play for the other when they'd meet for their writing sessions. However, the input of the other was still invaluable, whether it was in assisting with the lyrics, completing an unfinished section, helping with an arrangement, or adding a song fragment the other had written and stitching two (or more) song ideas together into a cohesive whole. Examples included "A Day In the Life," "We Can Work It Out," "Hey Jude," the entire Abbey Road medley, and many more.

Even though both men continued to write music after the Beatles' split, varying in quality from good to great (and much of Paul's post-Beatles output is among my favorite music of all time), they unarguably produced their best work together between 1962 and 1970 during the Beatles' career. In addition to the reasons mentioned above, they were each others biggest fans and critics. The quality control they offered to one another kept each man's individual weaknesses in check and pushed them to greater heights.

Oftentimes it was John keeping Paul's more ambitious arrangements, song suites, and overly sweet melodies in check; other times, it was Paul pushing John to write more melodically and to make his lyrics a bit more accessible. They had very different styles: John tended to write in a more horizontal manner, whereas Paul tended to write more vertically. John's lyrics were almost always more personal and emotionally bare, while Paul's lyrics were more obscure and he tended to couch his emotions under layers of words. However, the prevailing wisdom that John was the "rocker" and Paul the "balladeer" is easily discarded; one only has to listen to them both writing harder rock songs (Paul's "Helter Skelter" and John's "Revolution") and beautiful melodies (John's "This Boy" and Paul's "For No One"), among numerous examples, to see that both had their own approach to writing in any style, but together they made something truly magical.

As for the music itself, why has it been so popular, effective, influential, and far-reaching in its impact?  The obvious answer is because, first and foremost, the songs are great: they're catchy, inventive, engaging, and timeless. As a duo, Lennon and McCartney had melodic gifts that created some of the greatest songs ever written. Beyond that, lyrically they communicated in a very direct and engaged manner and they were able to get their message across in a variety of ways. Whether it was via more cerebral devices, simple singalongs, metaphors, or direct conversation with the listener, they always got their message across effectively. One of the reasons for this, as explained in later years by Lennon, was that they consciously used the words "I," "you," "we," "me," in order to speak directly to the listener. Another reason is that the overarching theme of their entire body of work in the Beatles is love, peace, understanding, and hope. Sure, they also have songs that are angry, sad, melancholy, and so on...this is real life and they are, like all of us, only human. But overall, the message was one of overwhelming positivity and listening to their music is always a joyous, uplifting experience.  On a personal level, their songs have brought me immeasurable joy and continue to do so.  When I'm happy, I enjoy listening to them, and when I'm sad and upset, I always feel better when I listen to some Beatles songs. Lennon and McCartney also inspired me to start trying to write my own songs when I was around thirteen. I'd only been playing guitar for a few years at that point (again, the Beatles were one of the reasons I started in the first place) and while my first efforts were quite clumsy and derivative for the first few years, by learning their songs, deconstructing them, and using them as inspiration, they set me on the path to writing good songs (which started around the time I was seventeen). The fact that their songs continue to resonate with me and millions around the globe 44 years (and counting) since they broke up should be all you need to know why they are at the top of the heap when it comes to 20th century popular music songwriters.

Click here for PART 2 on Ray Davies!

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BOOK REVIEW: Cream: The Legendary Sixties Supergroup

In the pantheon of influential 1960s rock bands, Cream still loom large forty-six years after their split. Formed in 1966 by Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker, their career lasted a brief three years, but the studio albums and live work they left behind have continued to influence generations of musicians and fans. They were the first bonafide supergroup, bringing together three players who were considered to be the best at their respective instruments, and they showed that virtuosity could go hand in hand with high-quality, well-crafted pop songs, as well as providing a framework for dazzling onstage improvisations that were almost free-form jazz in nature. Cream were one of the first bands, after the Beatles, that I became obsessed with as a teenager, especially once I started playing guitar. Thus, I had been on the lookout for a definitive book on them for as long as I could remember.

In this book, veteran Melody Maker journalist Christ Welch, who interviewed Cream extensively during their heyday in the 1960s, has written a comprehensive overview of their career. Published in 2000, the book covers their entire 1960s career, as well as their 1993 reunion for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Welch draws upon his interviews with the three band members from 1966 to 1968, as well as more recent interviews with Bruce, Baker, former roadies Ben Palmer and Mick Turner, and others. Even with the lack of contemporary interview material from Clapton, Welch manages to make the story cohesive and comprehensive. I bought this book in 2000 when it was released and have read it many times, but for the purposes of this review I've read it again in order to have a fresher perspective on it.

Beginning with short biographies of each of the band members, the story of Cream's coming together in the summer of 1966 is traced through their various musical apprenticeships and the bands they were a part of leading up to their formation. By setting up the main story of Cream in this way, the reader is able to see how each member honed their skills and grew their reputation to the point that their forming Cream was indeed a big deal in 1966. From here, Welch tells the story of their career from the beginning, when he was present at their second-ever rehearsal at a school hall in London, to their first gig at a small club (the Twisted Wheel in Manchester) before their debut performance at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival. What's striking about the overall arc of Cream's career is how their management, which they constantly questioned at the time (and which they still cite as a source of problems to the present day) was short-sighted enough that the band were sent out to play a series of one-nighters at small clubs all over the UK and Europe, barely earning more than they did in the previous bands. This was despite the fact that they quickly built up a reputation and a large and devoted fanbase who clamored to see them. As Ginger said, "there were as many people outside the venue as there were inside...sometimes more!" However, it was when they made their way over to the USA that things really took off for the band; forced to play longer concerts and fill up the time they were allotted, they began stretching out and improvising onstage, creating a new genre of heavy rock, and blowing minds and earning devoted fans all across the country. As their popularity rose, so did their earning power and they ended up becoming one of the highest grossing concert acts of the still nascent 1960s rock scene. Somehow, while being worked literally to the brink of exhaustion by manager Robert Stigwood, they managed to cram in recording sessions when possible and produced three excellent albums: their 1966 debut Fresh Cream, and their two classic albums: 1967's Disraeli Gears and 1968's epic Wheels of Fire. However, by the time of their marathon US tour in the early part of 1968, the cracks that were had been present from the beginning (namely, the earlier issues/feuding between Bruce and Baker) and the grueling and punishing pace of the tour led the band to split at the height of their popularity. After wrapping up the year with two farewell concerts in London, by early 1969 and the release of their final album, Goodbye, Cream were no more. Apart from the 1993 reunion and the London and New York concerts they played in 2005 for an actual reunion, that's been it for the band.

In addition to the story of the band, there is a chapter in the middle of the book that features a more detailed look at each member of Cream, focusing on their talent and influence. Since each section is written by a fellow musician (including Dave Gregory, the superb guitarist from XTC who wrote the section on Clapton), it delves a bit more into the equipment and technical set-ups they each used. As a musician myself, I really enjoyed this but I can see where it might be more than what is necessary for a more casual or non-musician reader. There is also a detailed diary of Cream's entire career at the end of the book, listing in chronological order all of their recording sessions, concert, TV, and radio appearances, and record releases. These are punctuated by recent comments from Baker, Bruce, Palmer, and others who were there at the time. It's a nice section to have, especially for putting into perspective just how many concerts they played (around 275!) in their all-too-brief career. Finally, throughout the book there are some really nice photos, not only of the band, but of various tour posters, memorabilia, records and record sleeves, and more.

If I have a criticism of the book, it's that I feel that Chris Welch is a bit too close to the subject and thus writes with a slightly less than unbiased view. It is, of course, always nice to read a book written by a true fan of the subject, but the best of these authors will be able to detach themselves a bit and maintain a somewhat critical eye, realizing that not everything produced by the artist, no matter how talented they are, is worthy of praise. While Welch is by no means sycophantic or wholly laudatory of Cream, on the whole he is overwhelmingly positive about nearly everything, such that the few times he does offer any criticism, minor as it is, it ends up being a bit jarring.  In addition, the reliance on his 1960s interviews makes some sections of the book seem very "cut and paste." However, at the same time, the book raises several excellent points, ranging from how Stigwood used Cream and their unexpected success (and the financial rewards that came about as a result) to finance his true passion, the Bee Gees. Also, the obsession by Atlantic Records to record the band live throughout 1968 forced Clapton to change his gear and settings in order to accommodate the limitations of the recording equipment...as a result, the gorgeous, miles-long sustain and feedback he had throughout 1967 (listen below) was gone. As a result, while his playing was still otherworldly, his tone and attack changed slightly for the worse. The dispute over songwriting credits and publishing royalties, especially given what was agreed upon at the inception of the band, receives substantial discussion throughout the book, enhanced by extensive comments from Jack Bruce's songwriting partner Pete Brown. It is nuggets like these that elevate the book beyond a simple band biography and really shed additional light on the inner workings of the band, as well as the issues that brought about their eventual downfall.

Cream as they sounded best, in 1967, when Eric had sustain that would last you for days and they played with absolute abandon

While rather brief by the standards of many band biographies, coming in at just under 200 pages, this book is still well worth getting and reading for any fan of Cream, and despite its minor flaws, stands as the definitive book of their career. For more in depth looks at the individual members, I would direct the reader to hunt down copies of each of their autobiographies (which I've linked to in the first paragraph of this review). But if you want the most detailed story of Cream as a band, this book is where you'll find it.

MY RATING: 7.5/10

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BOOK REVIEW: Kink: An Autobiography by Dave Davies

Yes, it's time for a review of another Kinks book. Except this is one of the most important ones because it is Dave Davies' autobiography. Interestingly, it was released in 1996/1997 at the same time as Ray's first book, X-Ray. Even though Ray would release a second book on his life in 2013, there was a lot of tension between the brothers during this period as the Kinks wound down their career, calling it quits for good in late 1996. Amidst all of this, they were both working on memoirs, and while X-Ray ended up being a quirky tale of Ray's life told amidst the backdrop of dystopian fiction, Dave's was a more traditional telling. I first bought this book around the time it came out in the late 1990s and enjoyed reading it but it then sat on my shelf until I re-read it for this review.

While Ray is rightly hailed as the songwriting genius and frontman of the Kinks, Dave is equally important as the other half of the heart and soul of the band; his lead guitar, harmony vocals, and occasional songwriting are as essential and integral to the band as Ray's contributions. In addition to their brotherly bond, they are of course well known for their eternal sibling rivalry and feuding, which also added a component of tension and excitement to the band's records and live shows. However, while Ray has always been a bit withdrawn emotionally and tends to keep his cards close to the vest, Dave is the polar opposite. It is this honesty and openness that makes Kink not only deep and interesting, but also wildly shocking in places.

Dave tells the story of life starting from the beginning with a bit of family history, detailing how his family came to end up in Muswell Hill, north London and how Ray and he were the seventh and eighth, respectively, of their parents' eight children (and the only sons). Offering his own perspective on their relationship throughout the years, it's clear Dave approaches it from the viewpoint that in many ways he felt that even as the younger brother, he had to protect and look out for Ray given Ray's personality and emotional issues. It's clear from both brothers through their books that they love each other, although whereas Ray takes a somewhat condescending view of his brother's life choices over the years, Dave seems more hurt that Ray was never as emotionally supportive and close as he needed him to be, especially during several crucial times in their lives when Dave was there for Ray (ie Ray's divorce, his health scares later in the 1970s and 80s, and so on). However, he also offers perhaps the best insight on Ray that you're likely to read, and it's clear that while he does carry a lot of hurt and resentment, he's also extremely proud, loving, and defensive of his brother.

Where Dave differs from Ray, however, is in how he lived his life, especially during the heady days of the 1960s and early 1970s. Whereas Ray had his own drinking problems and emotional turmoil but was content to try and retain some semblance of normal family life as a husband and father, Dave lived up to every inch of his nickname "Dave the Rave."  Booze, drugs, parties, and numerous affairs with women (and some men) were all part of the whole experience for Dave, although to his credit by the late 1960s he began to tire of it all, realizing how phony and superficial it all was. Getting married and starting a family seemed to calm him down, although the incessant touring and recording the Kinks undertook once their ban from performing in the USA was lifted in 1969 wore him down to the point that he suffered several mental breakdowns which were only exacerbated by his prodigious drug intake. Eventually he had a strange metaphysical episode and spiritual awakening in 1982 that led to his now lifelong pursuit of alternative spirituality, yoga, and meditation. The book continues through the Kinks career up to the year it was released in 1996, but cuts off before the band split at the end of that year. Through it all, Dave offers up his candid opinions on the Kinks' various band members, their records, and his brother Ray, as well as contemporaries from the Beatles, Who, and Stones to the punk and new wave bands who cited the Kinks as inspirations during their late-career renaissance as arena megastars in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In addition to his thoughts on music and life, Dave is very upfront about the drug and alcohol abuse in his younger days, as well as his numerous sexual escapades. While he retells some of the incidents quite graphic detail, it never seems too gratuitous, and it's rather refreshing that he questioned what it all meant at the time and looking back on it, he has some regrets. Along these same lines, it's heartbreaking to read of Dave's anguish over the first love (and daughter) he never got to know as a young man and the jumbled emotions he carried with him for decades, which affected his attitudes toward women and marriage until he was finally able to reconcile everything in the early 1990s.

As for criticisms of the book, I don't have many apart from the fact that it does get bogged down a bit when Dave carries on about the voices he heard in his head and the new spirituality he awakened to in the late 1970s. It's not that I'm close-minded about it, and much of it is quite interesting. It's just that it tended to meander and go on longer than I felt necessary which killed the momentum of the book a little. Also, it would be nice if Dave updated this book to include the demise of the Kinks, his stroke and recovery in 2004, the death of Pete Quaife, and his ongoing and current rift with Ray the sadly continues to the present day.

While Kink is a more straightforward book than X-Ray, it's no less valuable or essential in trying to understand the two sides of the brothers who are the heart and soul of the Kinks. It's also a study in contrasts; as anyone with a close sibling will know, it's amazing how you can come from the same family and yet be almost polar opposites in every way. Any Kinks fan who ventures beyond the band biographies like God Save the Kinks, You Really Got Me, or All Day and All of the Night will need to read Kink (as well as X-Ray and Americana) to get a fuller picture of the band and the Davies brothers.

MY RATING: 8.5/10

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