Other Reviews

It’s will-nigh impossible to resist the temptation to flip through Canyon of Dreams. Its dimensions may not quite fit the definition of ‘coffee-table book,’ but its plethora of photos make it an ideal piece to casually pick up and peruse.

The wild fluctuations of Storm Large come at the reader fast and heavy while she describes her life and growing up in not the most normal of circumstances.  She is a sentence or sometimes a mere word or syllable away from proclaiming something The! Best! Thing! Ever! before wanting to destroy whatever it was.  Grand statements don’t always end up as amazing events, but Storm has an obvious flair for the dramatic that is on display instantly

It is a little disturbing how many people with very serious problems wrote to the former (and future) Black Sabbath front-man regarding serious medical problems, and while he was always willing to put his two cents in, Ozzy told every single one of them to visit a real doctor. Trust Me, I’m Dr. Ozzy isn’t going to change the way you live day to day, but it will provide you with plenty of entertaining anecdotes that just may prove to be applicable to your life.

Tom Waits On Tom Waits brings together a large number of interviews conducted throughout the great man’s storied career. Covering a remarkable 35-year span from 1973 to 2008, this collection employs Waits’ own words to paint a vivid self portrait of a highly original American artist and iconoclast. The book makes for a very intriguing chronology of Waits’ development as a songwriter, recording artist and performer. Fiercely protective of his private life and notoriously reclusive, Waits nonetheless has always been a lively and unpredictable interview subject.

If you aren’t already aware of Dave Matthews Band fans and their fanatical devotion, So Much to Say: 20 Years on the Road will reveal the myriad ways in which they’ve made being crazy about DMB look easy.  If you’re not already familiar with (or a fan of) DMB, the book certainly won’t make understanding that psychosis any easier. 

Dancing Barefoot recalls many events that may already be familiar to fans of Smith’s career and readers of NYC music history. But the author does bring a deeper insight to the artist’s motivations and a great deal of much-needed perspective on the era in which she blossomed.

Every once in awhile, you come across someone who knows exactly what Jim Marshall was talking about and becomes inspired by his images to pick up a camera and seek out the soul. You wouldn’t think that person would be a tattooed former smack-addicted rock star, who still commands the stage with loud music and tales of past belly-of-the-beast adventures. But for awhile now, Motley Crue bassist and primary songwriter Nikki Sixx has taken his photography very seriously

If the measure of a good autobiography is the extent to which the writing reflects the progression of the life under inspection, then Keith Richard’s Life is an exceptional piece of work. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a stunning read all the way through, but only that it reveals the true nature of its subject, blemishes and all.

Barry’s Maine is one of sun-scorched blueberry barrens, just enough gas to get through the evening (providing the pickup doesn’t end up in the puckerbrush), cheap beer (none of that microbrew stuff), and, yes, drugs. And the thing is, Barry’s Maine is just as real as that postcard version – but you’d have to know about it to write about it.

Mary Lou Sullivan artfully interweaves excerpts from a series of interviews for her biography of Johnny Winter. In doing so she depicts the albino Texan bluesman’s career in such matter of fact terms, she almost but not quite undercuts the implicit sensationalism of the book’s subtitle.