Graeme Thomson

The quintessential book on Elvis has yet to be written, I guess. While "God's Comic" was one man's attempt to explain every song lyric - too much so, in fact - this book skims the songs in favor of a journey through Elvis' life with The Attractions, his various periods of musical exploration, and his personal demons (and angels).

You leave the book pretty much like you came in - assuming he was a boisterous, drunken lout in his early days, mellowed and matured as he got older, and pretty much blamed the industry for any slow sales or commercial failures. Yet, he always comes across as a likable bloke you'd love to have a pint with. Just stop at a pint...… (más)

George Harrison:Behind The Locked Door
by Graeme Thomson
2015
Overlook Omnibus
3.5 / 5.0

Known as the quiet Beatle, George Harrison's lifelong inner turmoil balancing his spiritual beliefs with the material needs and demands of his life, career, and fame drove him to become a very reclusive person.
From The Quarryman to the Beatles; his fascination with Eastern philosophy and religion to studying with Ravi Shankar; and his retirement to Friars Park, his estate in England; this is a solid biography of a very complex and interesting man.
Each of Harrisons solo albums and guest appearances are given detailed synopsis, although Thomson does say he believes Harrisons career was at its top when 'All Things Must Pass' was released, and everything since then has not compared.… (más)

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3247829.html

A readable artistic biography, taking us through Bush's career up to the time of publication using public sources and interviews with former colleagues (though not Bush herself as far as I can see). Bush is far from a one-shot wonder, but it's clear that her biggest (and quite extraordinary) success was at the very start of her career, with “Wuthering Heights”, “The Man With the Child in his Eyes” and The Kick Inside. It's extraordinary that those first songs were written when she was a teenager, “The Man With the Child in his Eyes” when she was 16.

After that, she was basically rich enough to do what she wanted, without too much pressure to succeed further (and clearly much more careful with her money than, say, Pete Townshend). And what she wanted was generally studio recording rather than the public stage - between 1979 and 2014 there were no Kate Bush live concerts, and few appearances. Few of her later songs are as successful as the early ones, but some are, and I get the sense that for the last forty years she has been more or less throwing artistic ideas at the wall and seeing what would stick.

I was also very interested to note that despite her eclectic performances and style, she is still very much a music industry insider - an outlier rather than a revolutionary. It was David Gilmour of Pink Floyd who spotted her when she was 16 (here's a 2002 bootleg video of her perfoming "Comfortably Numb" with Gilmour). As The Kick Inside and Lionheart came out she was providing backing vocals for Peter Gabriel (who is co-credited with her on the 1979 Kate Bush Christmas Special). The book includes chummy pictures with Midge Ure and Terry Gilliam. I don't want to exaggerate this, of course - she also cultivated the Trio Bulgarka for The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, well outside the British music industry's normal comfort zone.

Anyway, Thomson's books was an enlightening read even for a non-fan.… (más)