Bill Bruford: The Autobiography: Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks and More [Paperback]

Bill Brufords autobiography is a frequently hilarious recounting of his long life in progressive rock and jazz. Defying every drummer joke you ve ever heard, he writes successfully from inside the music . - David Fricke: Rolling Stone: March 19 2009

Bruford's autobiography not only provides a humorous insight into the daily detail of a successful musician's life but also grapples with the big existential issues of what it takes to be an artist of any sort in the modern world . - David Sinclair: The Guardian April 11 2009

...the text is intimate, clever, concise, and witty a bit like Bill s drumming . - Will Romano: Modern Drummer June 2009

Professorial in its remit and written with a bone-dry wit and an authoritative elegance that will be the envy of many far more high- profile cultural commentators, this might just end up becoming one of the best-informed, most informative textbooks of its time - Marco Rossi: Shindig: April 2009

An engaging and dryly witty style that makes for an easy, can't-put-it-down read...This book addresses matters anecdotal, technical, practical, emotional and philosophical with style, panache and élan . - John Kelman: All about Jazz: March 2009

Head and shoulders above the majority of books in its class.' - Jeff Miers: Buffalo News: March 24 2009

Bruford is a literate biographer and honest . - Steven Rosen: Curled up With a Good Book: March 2009

Its frank, cynical, very amusing, inspiring, thought provoking and highly recommended . -Brent Keefe: Drummer magazine: April 2009

Bill Brufords The Autobiography is one of the most original books you ll ever come across, penned by a man that some would still label a rock star . - Adam Garrie: USA Progressive Music.com: March 2009

The most extraordinary autobiography Ive ever read on music . - David Etheridge: Performing Musician: April 2009

This is an intelligent, articulate and sensitive book . - Andy Robson: Jazzwise Magazine: April 2009

...a terrific autobiography . - Geoff Nicholls: Rhythm: April 2009

His insight is keen, his stories compelling . - Vintage Guitar: June 2009

Bill Brufords story is not just for drummers. It is for all artists, musicians, music lovers, or anyone who wonders what it s really like to spend your life trying to make the music you love . --Neil Peart, Rush, May 2009

An extended treatise on the nature of music itself; not just his place in the pantheon, not just the manifold trials, tribulations and emotional upheavals of the working musician in a marginal genre, but the very essence...Professorial in its remit and written with a bone-dry wit and an authoritative elegance that will be the envy of many far more high-profile cultural commentators. --May 2009

'Frank, cynical, very amusing, inspiring, thought provoking and highly recommended.' 5/5 stars --Drummer Magazine, March 2009

"An extended treatise on the nature of music itself; not just his place in the pantheon, not just the manifold trials, tribulations and emotional upheavals of the working musician in a marginal genre, but the very essence...Professorial in its remit and written with a bone-dry wit and an authoritative elegance that will be the envy of many far more high-profile cultural commentators."
--Shindig Magazine, April 2009

'Frank, cynical, very amusing, inspiring, thought provoking and highly recommended.' 5/5 stars --Drummer Magazine, March 2009

"An extended treatise on the nature of music itself; not just his place in the pantheon, not just the manifold trials, tribulations and emotional upheavals of the working musician in a marginal genre, but the very essence...Professorial in its remit and written with a bone-dry wit and an authoritative elegance that will be the envy of many far more high-profile cultural commentators."

Bill Bruford once called the godfather of progressive-rock drumming has been at the top of his profession for four decades, playing with Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Earthworks, and many more. This is his memoir of life at the heart of prog rock, art rock, and modern jazz. It is an honest, entertaining, well-written account of life on the road and in the studio rubbing shoulders with the famous, the less famous, and the infamous, and creating an impressive tally of great music. A rock musician with the temperament of a classical musician who became a jazz musician, Bruford defies all the clichés about drummers. He says: You write what you have to write, you play what you have to play, because you can t sleep at night. If you can sleep at night, you shouldn t be doing this anyway. From time to time, at polite dinner parties, someone will ask Bill what he does. He replies that he is a musician. Yes, but what do you really do? retorts the enquirer. This unusual, funny, and insightful music memoir answers the question.

Bill Bruford's professional musical career began in 1968. He was a guiding light in the British Art Rock movement, recording and touring internationally with Yes and King Crimson from 1968-74. Since then he has worked with many other artists, including Gong, National Health, Genesis and U.K., as well as leading his own bands Bruford and Earthworks.