Joe Boyd

Advantages: Interesting read, informative
Disadvantages: Not a complete history of 60's music

..."The sixties began in the summer of 1956, ended in October of 1973 and peaked just before the dawn on 1 July, 1967 during the set by Tomorrow at the UFO Club in London." With this statement Joe Boyd sets the tone for his fascinating and very personal potted history of popular music in the 60's. In fact the book is more of a sketchy autobiography of Boyd than it is a complete guide to music in that period. He by no means covers the subject extensively but rather personally however since he was such an influential part of the 'scene' at that time his personal recollection do cover a very wide span of music and the music does give you a cultural feel for time. Joe Boyd is an American born in 1942 from a white very middle class background; he first discovered a love of music from listening to his parent's old scratchy blues and jazz... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Interesting read, informative
Disadvantages: Not a complete history of 60's music

..."The sixties began in the summer of 1956, ended in October of 1973 and peaked just before the dawn on 1 July, 1967 during the set by Tomorrow at the UFO Club in London." With this statement Joe Boyd sets the tone for his fascinating and very personal potted history of popular music in the 60's. In fact the book is more of a sketchy autobiography of Boyd than it is a complete guide to music in that period. He by no means covers the subject extensively but rather personally however since he was such an influential part of the 'scene' at that time his personal recollection do cover a very wide span of music and the music does give you a cultural feel for time. Joe Boyd is an American born in 1942 from a white very middle class background; he first discovered a love of music from listening to his parent's old scratchy blues and jazz... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Brilliant, mesmeric and un-putdownable. Epic proportions.
Disadvantages: Bloody, violent and shocking. Is this bad? I don't know

.... There's this badass muda. Lives in a condo on 16th East. Real smooth. Called Kemper Boyd. Shoots it mainline. He bust a cap in those mafioso guy's asses. With a bat with a nail in. He drove them to a car lot in his Chevy. And smashed their teeth. And so on. The book also manages to beat Joe Pesci in Goodfellas for the shheer volume of profanities. I think you've got the idea. Anyway, I don't want to spoil the story for you, but there's plenty of gratuitious violence to keep your fifteen year old happy as Elrroy weaves his psuedo-factual storylines amidst islands of truth. For instance, JFK messed Cuba. The Mafia had interests in Cuba. JFK gets shot. Ellroy draws lines between, around and through these eevnts, filling in the blank and hazy spaces for us. The three factual characters, Kemper Boyd, Ward Littel and Pete Bondurant are respectively... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Boyd's stlyle.
Disadvantages: A confusing, complex, static plot.

...I came to this book having read and enjoyed Armadillo a great deal. Perhaps it is this comparison which has made my judgement cluded but I do think that a comparison leaves no doubt as to the better book. I do like Boyd's style he manages to gt inside the character's heads and in Particular his portrayal of the middle aged man is superb and would have worked well if he had a plot to match their imaginitive creation. Unfortunately he does not and the book suffers for this, it is slow movig and at times difficult to understand. THe ending leavs a lot to be desired: it gives the ipression that Boyd just plain ran out of ideas! A pity. Also I feel that where as for Armadilo the empoymen was a well researched area Boyds knowledge of the art world is not as finely tuned and it shows. Altogeter dissapointing - if only he' thought of a plot...... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful