Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A man with a hundred tales to tell, 14 Jun 2007
Having been a music fan virtually from the first time I heard I Wanna Hold Your Hand crackling from my parents transistor radio I have stumbled across Tony Visconti's name so many times it's almost spooky. Whatever your particular musical bias there's a fair chance that the man will have touched your life at some point, whether through his work with happening sixties groups like Procol Harum and The Move, the seventies glam of T.Rex, the prog rock of Gentle Giant, the hard-hitting rock'n'roll of Thin Lizzy, or even the pseudo punk of Hazel O'Connor. And all this before we even begin to mention his on/off relationship with Bowie from the Mercury days onward.
I've waited a long time for this book to come out, believing that Visconti must have a hundred tales to tell, and for once it's a boo that lives up to all expectations. Candid, humorous and well-written, the only danger with this book is that you can easily lose a few hours simply through being unable to put it down. What's more, by a wonderful stroke of luck Visconti is a keen amateur photographer too and the previously unseen pictures included here are almost worth the purchase price in themselves.
If, like me, you thought you'd read everything about Bowie you'll be amazed at how much more you learn from Visconti's accounts of their work together. If, on the other hand, you simply enjoy a good read, written by someone who has, musically, tried it all and come out smiling, then this book is equally fulfilling.
|
|
|
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Those were the days, my friend, 23 Feb 2007
Tony Visconti is one of the handful of producers for whom the epithet' legendary' can be applied without the slightest hint of irony. This book is as effortless and multilayered and rich as his extraordinary arrangements. College discos in the 70s and loon pants could not have happened without Visconti. Tony's vibrant strings, plush resonance and musically witty touch was the fairy dust which elevated Bolan's three chord kidrock into mantras to exhuberance. Bowie's diamond dogs, extraterrestrial hubris and all time lows were gifted with chairascuro by his longtime admirer and collaborator. This much we know from the sleeve notes, but Visconti takes us intoi a world we didn't know in this wonderful account of what it was like to sit in studios, squat in flats and grapple with monstrous egos in the rococco decade of excess that was overshadowed by the sixties, reviled in the 80s but which was arguably the most poignant and experimental time for pop music.
This book takes you into the world of valve amps, velvet-lined guitar cases, Mellotrons, bongos and tubular bells, an analogue time where vibe preceded technique and where acts were discovered as opposed to manufactured. Its a vastly readable account, by an icon, of his work with iconic people who, despite their multifarious failings, made a difference. Tony doesn't namedrop or rank his acts - he takes you into the room and lets you soak up the atmosphere in a way which allows the reader to genuinely understand the circumstances of the song and of the time. The book- like a Viscont arrangement- has surprises - I didn't know he write the strings for the Band on the Run Album, for example. Neither did anyone else until Paul McCartney gave him a credit on the 25th anniversary reissue. I didn't know Flo and Eddie sang backing vocal to T- Rex or that Ringo hung out with Bolan. If I ever knew, I'd forgotten he did Live and Dangerous - arguably the best live recording album ever - with Thin Lizzy. I do now.
Tony Visconti's most recent collaboration is with the magnificent Morrissey, who has written a lyrical foreword which sums it all up better than I can. So just buy this book. It's important, it's warm and it's access all areas to the circumstances which produced some of the best pop music of the past three decades. And if you don't understand the title of this review, you will after yoiu've read Tony's book. My wife, a Bolan fan, is hogging my copy, so I'm going to buy another one - and some more to give to my friends, who tell me I should get out more.
|
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Life is Strange, 25 Jun 2007
I enjoyed reading this, however, it does tail off after the first couple of hundred pages. As a previous reviewer notes, the 80s until now is almost presented in list form.
I would have liked to have read Visconti's views on some of the technical aspects of the records he produced, and some of the details of the recordings of the Bowie and Bolan material is limited to material which has been covered before. Indeed he has disclosed more information in interviews for publicising the book than sometimes appears in it! (And material such as Bowie's displeasure with Visconti due to an 80s interview is not mentioned at all.)
It is an enjoyable and easy read, but it seems like an overview. I gained little insight into his production techniques and what he brings to records he produces. It is no fluke that he has worked on some seminal works, so what are his philosophies and techniques?
There are occasional insights which are interesting and it is nice to hear some of his views, and he comes across as a flawed but likeable character, it is a shame that not all of the many stories he must have make it onto the page.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Thomas Jerome Seabrook
by Ian Hunter
by Carl Ewens
by Mick McCann
