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Jimmy McDonough

Forfatter af Shakey: Neil Young's Biography

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Jimmy McDonough is a journalist living in the Pacific Northwest.

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I would venture to predict that even if you don't love Tammy Wynette, you would probably have a good time reading Jimmy McDonough's thoroughly researched and eccentrically told biography of the country music superstar. He gives us the full scope of Tammy's life and career -- her small town southern upbringing, her rise to stardom, her entertaining (and generally unlucky) love life, her tragic struggle with pain and painkillers, and her early death. He is obviously a superfan, but also looks straightforwardly at Wynette's less attractive personality traits and the low-points of her recording career. His interviews with the friends, producers, fellow musicians, friends, and hairdressers that surrounded Tammy during her life fill the book with humor and honesty, and I love that he extensively uses direct quotes that capture the personalities of the speakers. And because you couldn't tell the story of Tammy Wynette without George Jones, you get quite a bit of the Badger and his wild ways in the course of the narrative. While much of the book is straightforward and chronological, McDonough's unique writing style steals the show. Below is just one of many examples that were so evocative that I immediately started googling to see a performance, photograph, or album cover for myself. If you love Tammy, country music, or fun writing, this is the book for you.

"There is a gleefully voyeuristic 1972 performance of the song taped at the Ryman for the show That Good Ole Nashville Music. Lurking before the minister is a sad, scary Tammy at her most bewitchingly Gothic, sporting a big ol' blonde wig, Magic Marker eyeliner, and a strange amulet-like copper necklace she must've lifted off a Druid. Man, does she look hot. And in a slightly cubist Western suit, there's George, looking more resigned than agitated, his gleaming eyes staring at some offstage ghost. This is one of those classic 'happy' country records that manages to sound quite the opposite. A deathly serious business, marriage." (p. 186)
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kristykay22 | 1 anden anmeldelse | Sep 26, 2022 |
here is a paragraph that sums up why i bothered reading this book that, in the end, i feel kinda weird about:

Used, abused, and still a bit nutty after all these years, Meyer's women fight to scratch out some sort of a living, waiting for the break that never came post-RM. They were too far ahead of their time, too big for this planet, and financially they have benefited the least from the work they helped to create. But somewhere out there a fourteen-year-old scowling bad seed of a girl is seeing Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill for the first time and thinking to herself that the world can't be all bad if Tura Satana's in it.


i was that fourteen year old, or, more accurately, that nineteen year old, girl and i have since had a love/hate relationship with the world of Russ Meyer that i still have trouble reconciling. is it empowerment or exploitation? i still don't know, but here are some positive or interesting things about the book:

1 – mcdonough tells the story, albeit briefly, of each of Russ Meyer's stars, their strange childhoods and troubled adulthoods and interesting life philosophies, all of which is worth the time. these are fascinating women, and i would much rather read a book about them.

2 – all of Meyers films are put into a variety of socio-political contexts that i find compelling on their own. hollywood's struggle with the television set, meyer's fight against censorship, the rise of porn and voyeur culture, etc. etc.

3 – i've read all about the sex pistols' aborted film project from their perspective, or from the perspective of people writing about them -- it was interesting to see it from meyer's. or from the author's interpretation of meyer's perspective, anyway.

some things i found nigh unbearable:

1 – mcdonough seems to think that his book should, for the most part, read like a meyer script, which adds up to all sorts of unneccessary bombast barreling right at you like a bat out of hell. or a v-8 engine out of … something. oh god, god, it's insufferable.

2 – despite the respect and support often given to the actresses that starred in meyer's films, it's obvious that the author's interest in meyer's films is mainly … of a prurient nature, and he seems to assume that people reading the book want to hear about that with some regularity.

3 – in the same vein, i don't want to know that much about roger ebert's sex life.

4 – meyer's a gross scumbag.

still, if you're interested in film history, in gender studies, in art vs. utility, form vs. function, etc. etc., and can stand the sort of things i've mentioned above … while i can't recommend it wholeheartedly, i can recommend it with a half-hearted shrug.
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Markeret
J.Flux | 3 andre anmeldelser | Aug 13, 2022 |
McDonough is a talented writer for which I am sufficiently grateful. There were many times when McDonough was quite happy to not write about Al Green as he was to write about him. His writing is so effortless I did not mind that much when a tangent lasted more than a chapter. I’m not the biggest fan of Green but I know of his popular hits through the years and wanted to explore more about his career. Soul Survivor (318 pp) was an excellent way for me to do that. A few things I learned were:
I didn’t know that he had a major spiritual experience at Disneyland while he scheduled to perform there. I had never heard of this before.
Green's parents were sharecroppers.
Green is now a bishop in his Christian denomination. The church is in Memphis. He also a member of the Freemasons in some manner.
He has been married multiple times.
McDonough has some strange things to say about some of Green’s most popular work. Obviously, McDonough has his preference for Green’s Soul (music was formerly categorized in record stores under Classical, R&B, Rock, Folk) and some of the Gospel albums. But McDonough seems unappreciative of Green’s other work which has kept him in the public eye for so long. McDonough rightly notes that Green was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. But McDonough overplays his estimation of Green by panning his duet with Annie Lennox (Put A Little Love In Your Heart). He says that Put A Little Love In Your Heart is, “manufactured fluff to fill the soundtrack of the Bill Murray vehicle Scrooged…the results are inoffensive and instantly forgettable.” First of all Lennox also has a theme of (disjointed) Love in her work similar to Green which is why Dave Stewart wanted to try the Eurythmics collaboration in the first place. Lennox has a sold plenty of records herself as a solo artist and with the Eurythmics and has become a female icon for her recent humanitarian work. The music video to the song is properly ethereal to maybe being one of her more memorable video appearances. The film Scrooged is now considered a holiday classic.
McDonough also calls Green’s Message Of Love, “an inoffensive piece of catchy, post-“We Are The World” fluff.” This wasn’t a big hit here in America but a YouTube live version of the song is one of the best expressions of Green with total vocal command I’ve ever seen. These two songs are my favorite Green songs that he has put out in the last 20 years.
This is book worth reading even though he has no personal interviews with Green. B&W Pictures, Index, Discography, Bibliography.
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Markeret
sacredheart25 | Mar 11, 2021 |
I've been a semi-fan of Neal Young, I have 4 of his CD's as well as 3 he did with CSNY. Reading this book made me a non-fan. I simply didn't like the guy portrayed in this book. It's an 800 page book, and the first 500 pages are more about drugs than music. Plus, to say the guy is self-absorbed doesn't even come close. I don't think I'd want to even spend 5 minutes in the same room with him. I'll still listen to the music I have, but the man himself seems a waste of talent. Why did I read the whole 800 pages? Well, honestly I skimmed a lot, and read the interesting parts. I've read biography's of David Crosby, Eric Clapton, James Taylor, Jimmy Buffett, and other musicians and always enjoyed them. Not this one.… (mere)
 
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JohnKaess | 3 andre anmeldelser | Jul 23, 2020 |

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ISBN
40

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