Fascinating story of the rock impresario, who led many lives to the fullest. Graham (1931-91), raised in a Berlin orphanage, was sent to the US at age 11, fleeing the pogrom. After serving in Korea, he was an actor; Latin dancer; motorcycle vagabond in Europe; and waiter at the Concord resort hotel—where he undertook his first entrepreneurial project, running an undercover crap game for the guests. Moving to San Francisco, he helped organize the first Trips Festival, with the Merry Pranksters, Big Brother, and the Warlocks (later the Grateful Dead). Graham, who knew only Latin music, opened the Fillmore auditorium and booked acts by asking bands, ``Who is your favorite musician?'' He soon became a favorite among musicians as an honest promoter who paid generously and treated them royally. Greenfield (The Spiritual Supermarket, 1975, etc.), who has constructed his book entirely through first-person voices, puts its heart in the 60's and in the Fillmores East and West. Graham, Owsley Stanley (infamous LSD chemist), Jerry Garcia, other musicians, and Graham's longtime employees here relate what's perhaps the most engrossing collection of anecdotes ever assembled about the era. Especially wonderful are Graham's descriptions of Ike Turner with his pearl- handled revolver clearing the way through a riot for an ermine- clad Tina; of how, for four years, the Grateful Dead tried every devious way they could think of to get Graham high on acid (and finally succeeded); and of Otis Redding in his first performance before the Flower Children. Graham went on to manage tours for such groups as the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan and to organize Live Aid and other world benefits. He died in a helicopter crash at age 60. Tremendous fun for rock fans and an affecting portrait of an extraordinary man. (Fifty b&w photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Oct. 25, 1992
ISBN: 0-385-24077-5
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1992
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
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