Michael HeatleyReseñas

A book of dad advice that doesn't take itself too seriously. It is the perfect gift for a new dad or dad to be who probably needs a fun break from the serious literature and how-to books that accompanies most pregnancies these days.

When I first picked up this book, I was really excited to read it. The creative inspiration behind any artistic production is always an interesting topic because it places the art in a historical and biographical context that often explains much of its meaning to the creator. Yet while some of the songs described here are very interesting stories, I found that most of the songs and bands were ones that I didn't know or didn't care about, so the back story was completely lost.

Besides needing an upgrade in terms of song/band-choice, the biggest disappointment was the poor quality of writing. The linguistic style was that of a hack journalist when it could/should havea been the quality of Rolling Stone magazine. The book would have greatly benefited from a more conversational tone, rather than an academically removed tone, because the book is basically filled with gossip, rumours, and personal intrigues.

This book is pretty up to date, from the beginning to Craig’s second turn as Bond. I was a Bond fan at a young age, ordering the books from small mom and pop bookstores looooooong before Amazon existed!
I grew up during Roger Moore’s time. The villain Jaws was my favorite! And I owned the “For Your Eyes Only” poster on page 55! I also own several of the die-cast toy cars (and a mini space shuttle!)! Somewhere, I have the 007 Dark Horse comic books. And I remember when I was in high school and how crazy excited I was that they were filming “A View to a Kill” in San Francisco, not a half hour from my home town!
This book is 5 stars for how it made me feel! I forgot what a Bond nerd I was, and still am! Now I'm gonna go play with my Aston Martin toy car, complete with ejecting villain!

Pretty lame. Some bits of it were fun, but much of it was dated content and some of it was even wrong.

The chapters varied a lot in how interesting they were.

The Boy in the Song: The True Stories Behind 50 Rock Classics (2012) is a companion piece to The Girl in the Song: The Stories Behind 50 Rock Classics (2010)

Both were written by Michael Heatley and Frank Hopkinson.

The female muse was a bit more interesting to me because I knew many of the groups, songs and musical time frames.
But, bear in mind, meeting the man that served as inspiration was still a good read, also providing interesting trivia from "recording history."

I'll let the authors tell you what they hoped to accomplish:
"Explain how each boy or man inspired the song written about him, when the song was released, and the impact it had on the charts, the performers, and the subject himself."

I'll simply call this another good mini-trek into rock history. (143 pages)

★ ★ ★ ★

The Girl in the Song: The Stories Behind 50 Rock Classics, a companion piece to The Boy in the Song: The True Stories Behind 50 Rock Classics
is an enlightening mini trek into rock history (144 pg)
It's not designed to be an exhaustive reference book but it’s a researched book of musical trivia for anyone who’s ever wondered, “Who's the girl in that song?”

Some I easily knew: It Ain't Me Babe (Bob Dylan) and some I found a bit more difficult: Rosanna (Toto)
"Author Michael Heatley explains how each woman inspired the song written about her, when the song was released, and the impact it had on the charts, the performer, and the woman."

There is also mini bio of the muse in that particular song.

An enjoyable read! ★ ★ ★ ★

The edition I own has Ray Bonds listed as the author.

Cute stories, but I would have preferred a chronological order rather than by song title.

I knew most of them. Blame it on my wasted youth, I guess. Or my passion for rock biography, either one. I was a little annoyed at some of the inclusions, which basically concluded, "This song is about someone, but Carly isn't telling." Which we all knew already, thanks. Some of the photos were poignant and evocative- and some of the songs were old favorites. Worth leafing through in the waiting room, but I don't think I'd buy a copy.

If you are expecting a systematic study of club nicknames, forget it.

Very slight but sweet book explaining the inspirations for (obviously) 50 classic pops songs. No huge suprises but some sweet (and bittersweet) stories, along with beautiful B&W photos. A great gift for your favourite songwriter.

Without having read other biographies, or his autobiography, it's hard to say if much has been missed out. However this is well researched, with lots of quotes from John and others around him. Also has a list of John's Festive Fifties over the years at the back.½

We bought the whole series (mom, dad, boy, girl, but haven't found the family one yet) and I've found all of them cute. They do attempt to engage a wide variety of ages. Personally I bought them for bathroom reading and I think its a perfect spot for these books! Light, cute, and kind of interesting!

In particular about this book, my husband didn't find it all that funny... but everyone else has! lol!

Rock & Pop: The Complete Story is a nice reference book and an introduction to several styles of rock and pop music. It presents the styles very shortly - which gives room for a larger number of styles. This also means that the styles are introduced very cursorily.

A great book to get a short introduction to music styles that you had not previously listened to.

A bit of a mish-mash of facts, trivia and history for the ground fans. Not really organised into a coherent whole, and has rather too much filler. The section on Archibald Leitch is good, but wrongly credits him with Arsenal's East Stand at Highbury (that was Claude Waterlow Ferrier - Leitch did the predecessor to the final West Stand - see Simon Inglis' 'Engineering Archie'). Not a bad little pot-pourri, though, to fill the aching void before the next Inglis blockbuster.