Has anyone read this?
faux_rillz
14,343 Posts
Not that I'm particularly interested in the Neville Brothers per se, but I am interested in a lot of the things they were involved prior to becoming "The Neville Brothers," and the people that they came in contact with... and I did think that David Ritz's books with Ray Charles and Marvin Gaye were pretty good.http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0316730092/qid=1128522577/sr=1-10/ref=sr_1_10/002-0709973-9335242?v=glance&s=booksThe Brothersby Art Neville, Aaron Neville, Charles Neville, Cyril Neville & David Ritz[/b] 
After decades as cult musicians, New Orleans's Neville Brothers spent the '90s solidifying their position as a minor American institution. Torchbearers for both tight, lean funk (Art and Cyril were key players in the profoundly influential '70s combo the Meters) and soul-gripping balladry (Aaron scored a 1966 No. 2 hit with "Tell It Like It Is" before resurfacing as a solo and group star in the late '80s), the Neville Brothers band has found a diverse audience with open ears for its message of rhythm and community. Before that happened, though, the brothers lived thug life as hard as Tupac Shakur ever did. Open the first two-thirds of this oral history to any random page, and you'll find rhapsodies about musicians as far afield as Professor Longhair, Ellis Marsalis, and Billy Stewart--or something quite a bit darker, like Cyril's remembrance of a near deadly razor fight: "I'm bleeding like a hog.... [T]hey needed 180 stitches to sew my neck together... [and] some Demerol to get me even higher and let me go back to the gig--the same night--where I carried on, singing 'Cold Sweat' and 'Heard It Through the Grapevine' as though the shit had never happened." Vividly told by the Nevilles and smartly organized by Ray Charles and Marvin Gaye biographer David Ritz, this is a resounding look at how these musicians put drugs, violence, and industry troubles behind them to become a veteran touring act and Grammy machine. If not quite the equal of drummer (and fellow New Orleanian) Earl Palmer's Backbeat, this is a fine, often chilling look both back and forward. --Rickey Wright
After decades as cult musicians, New Orleans's Neville Brothers spent the '90s solidifying their position as a minor American institution. Torchbearers for both tight, lean funk (Art and Cyril were key players in the profoundly influential '70s combo the Meters) and soul-gripping balladry (Aaron scored a 1966 No. 2 hit with "Tell It Like It Is" before resurfacing as a solo and group star in the late '80s), the Neville Brothers band has found a diverse audience with open ears for its message of rhythm and community. Before that happened, though, the brothers lived thug life as hard as Tupac Shakur ever did. Open the first two-thirds of this oral history to any random page, and you'll find rhapsodies about musicians as far afield as Professor Longhair, Ellis Marsalis, and Billy Stewart--or something quite a bit darker, like Cyril's remembrance of a near deadly razor fight: "I'm bleeding like a hog.... [T]hey needed 180 stitches to sew my neck together... [and] some Demerol to get me even higher and let me go back to the gig--the same night--where I carried on, singing 'Cold Sweat' and 'Heard It Through the Grapevine' as though the shit had never happened." Vividly told by the Nevilles and smartly organized by Ray Charles and Marvin Gaye biographer David Ritz, this is a resounding look at how these musicians put drugs, violence, and industry troubles behind them to become a veteran touring act and Grammy machine. If not quite the equal of drummer (and fellow New Orleanian) Earl Palmer's Backbeat, this is a fine, often chilling look both back and forward. --Rickey Wright
Comments
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/030680980X/002-0709973-9335242
Backbeat: Earl Palmer's Story
by Tony Scherman[/b]
By the time Earl Palmer moved from New Orleans to join the Los Angeles session musician Mafia in 1957, he'd already had a couple of careers in entertainment. As a kid tap dancer in black vaudeville, he saw the country, crossing paths with the likes of Art Tatum and Louis Prima before embarking upon a stint in the segregated World War II Army ("You was always running into stuff you didn't like. At first you took it. After two years you ready to hurt somebody"). Back in Louisiana, he took up work as a jazz drummer, little knowing that he'd soon be part of a revolution in music. As a regular on the scene, Palmer played on the seminal sides by Little Richard, Fats Domino, and many other R&B and early-rock & roll performers. Marked by a preternatural sense of propulsion and delightfully sly fills, Palmer's drumming was an indispensable part of shaping the new sound. By the '60s, he was working with Sinatra and Phil Spector, playing jazz (his first love) in clubs and contributing to dozens of movie and TV soundtracks (you'll hear him next time you watch Harold and Maude, Cool Hand Luke, or a rerun of M.A.S.H. or The Odd Couple). Backbeat is an incisive, frequently hilarious read that opens doors on recording studios, show business, and race in America. --Rickey Wright (This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.)
The Dr. John bio, on the other hand, is intense on all fronts...
How about the Earl Palmer book? I thought of you when I saw that one...
Thanks
Not yet, but soon. I got a grip of books for my birthday which I have to work my way through before I get anything else...
...currently 'The Adventures of Augie March' by Saul Bellow, then all of 'Remembrance of Things Past' by Proust, then the Howling Wolf bio...then (maybe sometime in 2009...) the sky's the limit...
ray charles
etta james
neville bros
bb king
marvin gaye
aretha
But, yo, what about that book he did on Robert Guillaume?
I read the Palmer book earlier this year. Great read, really just an "oral history" narrated by Palmer, telling his tales of life as a session man. Sometimes it devolves into "I was on that record, she was cool. I was on that record, we cut it in an hour," but for the most part the stories he tells are full of humor and great recollections of artists he worked with and anecdotes about the music biz from the late 50's through the mid-70's. Takes you about one afternoon to read the entire thing.