<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: What fun!
Review: i enjoyed this book so much, I just ordered copies for all of my music-loving friends. Very fun read.
Rating:
Summary: Ordered several copies
Review: i enjoyed this book so much, I just ordered copies for all of my music-loving friends. Very fun read.
Rating:
Summary: What fun!
Review: This is a fun book with great stories. I enjoyed the writing and the selection of events in "history." This definitely my stocking-stuffer for the holidays.
Rating: 
Summary: Mr. Shea succeeds admirably, but only at SOME of his 'roles'
Review: This is more or less a fun kind of book. But at times the author is more at slighting artists/music he maybe doesn't quite like (or understand). At other junctures he'll spend a disproportionate amount of space on someone he feels more connected to, and write rather profoundly about that particular artist/group. This style of presentation lends a rather uneven ambience to the book as a whole; as he's taking various stabs at being humorist, historian, gossip columnist and music critic all rolled into one. One wonders how successful this approach can be. The book is rather slight in terms of length - and also has a very large printing font. Luckily this is reflected in the price. But the fact it's been rather shoddily edited - mistakes in spelling, punctuation, and even facts abound - is less forgivable, as is the writing style, which is quite choppy. Much of the info has been culled from here and there - that is, it's available elsewhere, often with a much less slanted, more sympathetic treatment - I doubt he did much original research or interviews. One factual error (I didn't read the entire book), which is just plain silly: attributing Gerry and the Pacemakers' #1 British hit "How Do You Do It" from 1963 to Freddie and the Dreamers, who may not even have been together yet in '63. Possibly Mr. Shea is relying too much on anecdotal memory, which at least in this instance was flawed. If one expects to make money writing about pop music, at least invest in (or borrow) one of the industry-standard reference books, for instance those by Joel Whitburn or Norm Nite. Nonetheless Mr. Shea can be . . . very entertaining . . .
<< 1 >>
| 
