Music Books

This is one of the most honest portraits of a human being you will ever find.. I would recommend this along with Charles Mingus' 'Beneath the underdog' for a taste of the 'jazz life'. It is amazing what these guys lived through - and still created such beautiful music!

This was the first jazz biography I have read. Hawes does a great job of portraying the terrible effects of heroin addiction. I knew some jazz musicians were busted for heroin use in his time. But I didn't understand how rampant heroin use was in the industry. This book gives great insight into the life of a wonderfully talented jazz pianist. But more importantly, it gives insight into the tumultuous life of a drug addict. Initially, the piano seems to be Hawes' only love. But then there is the realization that heroin is his real love. It is his only motivation to even play the piano.

This book is all of these things and more. This is the story of an essentially decent person fighting his own demons. A beautifully crafted book written in the subjects own idiom. A must have for anybody wanting to get inside jazz during the be bop era.

I love this book. Remember, back then when you played this music, it wasn't exactly a sweet world for the musicians (Black ones). I'm glad he let everyone know how hard it was out there. Drugs took this Bad Boy out the game and the world passed him by. Musicians like Brother Hawes, will never be acknowledged for their great playing in the U.S.A.

If there was a dumb remark in this book, I didn't see it. Again, think back to the times he was living in. He talked about Jimmy Rushing and the way he thought about things. Jimmy Rushing came out of a different era, yet Some of his thoughts were not far behind. When he described Black people, some were light skninned, some were black... The book is not dated, it's just good.

I enjoyed reading this book very much.

It is first of all Hampton Hawes biography of his life as a jazz musician. It tellls us of his way from being a little boy attending his father's church on Sundays to a highly acclaimed jazz pianist, his downfall because of his heroin addiction, his 10-year jail sentence (which was reduced to six after Hawes had written to John Kennedy!), his way back up on the European market, his love relationship with Jackie, and his new found love after separating from Jackie after almost two decades. The very last sentence of the book speaks about his ex-wife Jackie - and it is very touching and shows that Hawes indeed must have been a nice man.

There is only one really dumb remark in the book that I felt was disgusting. (Find it for yourself... ;-))

Hawes repeatedly talks about Black issues. I personally feel that those statements are very intelligent, and can therefore recommend this book not only to those of you interested in jazz, but also to anyone into Black issues.

Not since the release of The Count of Monte Cristo has a reader felt so deeply for an honest man's demise, nor been so thrilled to see his enemies pay the price.

Rewind is written in a wonderfully revealing style, allowing the reader to see the story through each individual's eyes, one by one. As always, the people portrayed in Bruce Kimmel's fictional novels are not just two dimensional characters; they have personalities we grow to care for, detest, and ultimately want to know more about.

Along with a great murder mystery, the reader also gets a special look at what life is like in the recording business, which is always a treat when written in Bruce's vividly descriptive prose.

My favorite part of reading Bruce's mysteries is reading them a second time, once I know the secret ending. Then all the little hints and cleverly worded phrases pop out and I throughly enjoy the book in a whole new way.

When you finish this one, read bruce Kimmel's other books, you will not regret it!

Here is a novel for those of us who enjoy sweet revenge, who would like to believe that those who have been truly and hideously wronged can occasionally turn the tables and actually see some punishment--in fiction, of course.

In "Rewind," Jonathan Goldman is a seasoned record producer and singer/songwriter of the hit song, "Getting Away With You," whose record company has chosen to part ways. Not content to simply fire him, they are out for blood. Nasty, vicious, vindictive--you name it. They attempt to not just ruin his career, but bankrupt him, as well. The novel has a grit, an immediacy, that I quite like. You're engrossed from page one and stay right there until the end. And a satifying ending it is.

Mr Kimmel demonstrates that he can write a tight novel, pull the reader in, and hold him there until he is done. He writes well and gives us characters which are both believable and interesting. The reader needs no knowledge of the recording industry to enjoy this romp; indeed, one comes away feeling that one has truly been there and seen it first-hand. Highly recommended.

Oh, BOY!! From the giddy-up - and I emphasize "giddy" - this story grabs ya and takes you on the monster roller-coaster, whirling teacups, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and then some. A tight, fast (we're talking white-knuckle fast) blitz of a story, in the multiple-personality first-person. I guessed part of it about halfway through - because of the vicarious thrill of doing in those whose goose I never got to cook... 'Tis said that Revenge is a dish best served cold... Well, for anyone who ever felt majorly WRONGED, and had the tenacity to hold a grudge beyond death, which I suspect is a goodly number of yuz, this gourmet concoction is WAY delicious.

In Bruce Kimmel's new novel, "Rewind" we are introduced to the dog eat dog industry of the recording business. All the in's and out's of what goes into to recording a single track of music is that we take for granted which arrives on our doorstep on a shiny bright CD for our listening pleasure, is dissected here in this novel.

Not only are we introduced to the methods and workings of creating an album, but we are privy to the goings on behind the scenes, behind the music, and ultimately, behnd the people that hold the money. This novel can easily be a handbook on what not to do when attempting to make it in the world of small record label business.

Without giving away what actually happens in this work of fiction, it's a keen example of what I'm sure a lot of people would like to do when they are faced with something as cruel and vicious as what happens to the main charactor in this novel, Jonathan. His story may seem familiar to any reader that knows the business. Kimmel takes it a step further and gives the reader some satisfaction in taking the matter ...

If you are interested in the recording business or have read Kimmel's other novels, (Writers Block, Bejamine Kritzer, Kritzerland, and Kritzer Time) it's worth taking the time to read "Rewind" as it's a great work of fiction and a joy to read.

Rewind, the fifth novel by Bruce Kimmel, is a fast and furious romp through the world of music producing, gone wrong. Mr. Kimmel has once again given us a story that is "un-put-downable", filled with details only someone who spent many years in this business could provide. I opened the book for a quick browse of the first chapter and re-emerged three hours later at the end of the last page. The fast pace derives from the interesting style in which this was written. The story is told in the first person, but each part is told from different character's perspective. To say more would give away too much. Do not miss this one, it is a fun ride, just when you think you know what's going on, you find out you don't!

Great, fun book for Road Rules fanatics

I am obsessed with everything on Road Rules and Real World. To me, this was one of the better MTV books. You should read it if you like learning about how the characters really felt during their adventures. It was great!

I started reading this book and i couldn't put it down. The pictures are so funny, and the entrees are juicy and tell you every thing that you never knew about the casts. I think this is a great book.

As an almost-obsessive fan of both the Real World and Road Rules, this was definitely one of the better books. Even if you have watched every episode of the shows, like I have, you should get this book. It tells what really happened with the romances and fights; what cast members really thought of each other, and it even contains lost missions that were unable to make it onto the show. I would recommend this book to anyone who has seen the show. So order it today!

This book had tons of information. It really made you feel like you were there. It gives you how cast members really felt about what the other cast members were doing. It gives you the FULL story, not the part that Bunim/Murray wants you to hear. You actually find out the reason the cast members were arguing, not just the argument. I hate to read, but I finished this book in just two days. Better than Road Rules: Passport Abroad and In the House: Real World Seattle. If you only plan to get one book about The Real World or Road Rules, this is the one!

Ironic that Amazon would actually piggyback narcotics offers next to a book which uses "narcotic" to describe pop evil. But as Carducci suggests, both pop music and narcotics appeal way beyond their legitimate purposes. So pop some oxycotin and turn on some pop, or do the right thing and rock out.

This book is impressive, and not only for the deep knowledge of rock that Carducci displays. The opening chapters describing what the "real" sounds of rock are should be required reading for anyone interested in forming a band. The scope of this book is unrivalled and the selections for the most influential bands will raise more than a few eyebrows (No where else will you see James "Blood" Ulmer mentioned in the same vein as Sabbath). Carducci rightly praises the "Black" bands (Sabbath and Flag) as the most influential in their respective genre's, but it may come as a surprise to many that Carducci attributes (perhaps correctly) the original "wall of sound" approach to Eddie Cochrane. While this book doesn't cover heavy metal and it's sub-genres very completely (see Ian Christe's Sound of the Beast for that), it wasn't meant to (see Title). In addition, this is one of the few books that credits (rightly) the Ramones for their widespread influence (early Black Flag and the Misfits to name two of the most well-known). In addition to the depth of knowledge displayed, Carducci will have you rolling in laughter more than once. If all the above is not enough, the appendices with original poster art and one of the funniest Ray Pettibon paintings (Give me librium or give me meth....) are worth the price of the book alone. Buy it and then buy some essential music!

This is the first book I read that spoke about rock music intelligently and at the same time it was not the elitist slobber most critical views of popular culture resort to (making us suffer). It ain't policticlly correct--but rock shouldn't be that way either and sadly today--it is--for the most part. After I read this book I incoorporated it in to most of my college research papers. (I am an A student)

Aside from being the first and only book to provide a useful aesthetic definiton of rock and roll, aside from the fact that this book builds a wonderful canon of the music, aside from the fact that the author manages to demolish just about every received opinion generated by rock critics for good -- aside from all of this, Mr. Carducci actually managed to transform me from a life-long left winger to a right-leaning libertarian with just an offhand, tossed-out sentence. When discussing the rock critical establishment as a Left cabal, appropriating the music to further a discredited political agenda at the expense of Art, he says (and I paraphrase) that the Left traditionally uses those under them on the ladder as a cudgel against those above them, rarely actually caring for or helping their constituency (and usually doing some harm; look at the welfare state); I immediately had a flash of self-recognition (and recognition -- I never met a Leftist who didn't suffer from this sort of bad faith.) So, if you ever read this, Joe, thanks for opening my eyes.
The book's damn funny too.

I agree with other reviewers' comments. I read this after Michael Azerrad's "Our Band Could Be Your Life," and Carducci's insider perspective plays off A's chapters on SST bands well. What chaps my hide is C's haughty inclusion of an LA Times article criticizing Black Flag's refusal to intervene when the moshers pounded on the innocent bystanders. C. acts as if the band had no responsibility for the brutality some of its fans perpetrated against other fans. C. thinks that the music matters not its context, and to me, as somebody who was there, that's b.s. The two are inseparable and you don't have to be a PC straight-edge Dischord disciple to agree. C's taking the easy, if provocatively punkish, way out here, just as gangsta rap's apologists do.

That out of the way, I do welcome any tome that celebrates both The Fall and Hawkwind, and his stream-of-consciousness rants on all sorts of po-mo critically reviled 70s music does mesh with what happened as SST devolved into a hair-metal crudge label! Where would Queens of the Stone Age, Velvet Revolver, and all that Seattle sludge have heard that it was ok to listen to Zep and Ozzy?

And, truth be told, Carducci's spot on when it comes to many of his ravings, even if Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer, Chuck Eddy and Chuck Klosterman have all howled the same cry. Much as some of this book in its calculated slumming gets my goat, other chunks soothe my soul, and make me feel as superior as you do to what passes for street cred, as we get angrier and crustier compared to/about those darned kids. Heck, my sons now realize what a cool record collection their geek dad has, and passing along C. to them for expanding their horizons, where the unfashionable joins the unlistenable, continues to further the underground resistance, when real punks don't go to Hot Topic chain stores or don leather and mohawks to prove their commodified (non?)conformity. It's an attitude, as C. points out--not the puerile suburban tantrums that stifled so much creativity in the 80s, as his label's own slump then demonstrated irrefutably.

I knew what I was getting before I purchased this online. Easy and fun book to read. Item was shipped quickly, too.

It's big, it's heavy, full-colored, with a good quality paper, great pictures and complete informaton. It couldn't be better.

I just got this book and let me just say that the words inside are some of the finest ever put between two covers. It's all so informative. So much so that one may think that it is perhaps, too informative, but I doubt it. It's perfect. You'll find some of the most obscure and some of the most well-known facts, on the same page. Incredible.

The main thing I like about this book, is that it's much different from these types of timeline books. Rather than saying "this happened, then this happened", it does that and provides much more information by giving background stories of many of the artists, and also providing a lot about the impact the person or band had. Also, it's great how the devotes entire pages to show the significance of some important events in rock history. This does a lot to show why some of the greatest bands of all time are considered some of the greatest band of all time. So after reading this, you'll never wonder why again. The bold type really helps out too, if you're looking for someone imparticular. Also if you're a Beatles fan, the only thing you're not likely to find out is how many times they went to the bathroom each week. So, in short this is the rock n' roll book I've seen and I highly recommend it. Anything not in here probably isn't worth knowing.

This is probably the best book of its type to date. But it is not without it's problems. The first is that both of its authors are British. Hence it skews to the right of the Atlantic. Not that I don't feel myself, that British Rock has produced some of the best acts of all time, but for instance there are more entries on and photos of Gary Glitter than Alice Cooper. Gary Glitter? This is just one example. Some one in a review here mentioned the happy inclusion of Yes. If you look through the entries for that band you'll find at least Two mistakes saying that Fragile was their third album, (it was the fourth) and that Owner of a Lonely Heart is from Big Generator (it wasn't). This may seem like nitpicking but these are just the equivalent of what might be found on one page. It makes one wonder how many more of the presented "facts" are not trustworthy? You expect more from music critics on the voting board of the Rock & roll Hall of Fame. In the end though it's a valiant effort they undertook, and I'm glad I bought the book. It could/should have been a five star book though.

I fell in love with this book from the very first time that i put my eyes on this page of amazon, but, on that time it had a limited edition and it was sould out. I`ve waited more than 3 months for him to arrive but then it was impossible... One day, by hazard i found it on Fnac in Portugal, it was the only one of it`s kind so i bought it imediately and must tell you that it is really music to your ears to read this amazing book. It is the best book i`ve ever seen about music and i have more than five encyclopedias about the subject so believe it when i say that this book really entertains you with the good and consistent information, the beautiful pictures about the artists, the design, the uk and us charts and much more... From Elvis to Abba, from Eminen to Norah Jones, from Sinead O`Connor to Alanis, from Celine to Mariah, from The Who to Nirvana, from Notorious BIG to Massive Attack, from The Ronnettes to Take That, from Brenda Lee and Janis Joplin to Britney Spears and Christina it really has it all !!!

This unique book follows the Stones from their earliest years as a struggling band through their early fame, as recorded by photojournalist and Stones friend Bent Rej. Many of the photos are more intimate than the typical stuff shot of the band, because Rej knew the members. The book is chronologically arranged, with sections on each individual original member as well. The text is informative and serves as a good backdrop for the photos.

What amazes me is that this fifty dollar book is available on Amazon for under five bucks. What is everyone waiting for!? Jump all over this one.

fantastic book. Awesome pix of the Greatest Rock band ever!!! not enough WOW words to describe this book. Especially love the photos of my favortie musician ever Brian Jones!!

Thanks author and Bill Wyman for their work. Happy to see people from 1960-s. Think, that new volume about Brian Jones' Rolling Stones is great addition to the histiry of the Great Rock'n'roll band and to the history of the our papas and grandfathers' generation. Photos are fine. We can see them only in magazines and fanzines from early 1960s. But quality of prints is better here, in the "RS in the Beginning"

Great pictures, many never seen anywhere else. Essential for a Stones fan.

Bent certainly captured the uniqueness of Brian Jones and his Stones in this collection. Much humor was filmed that many can say is absolutely priceless! Especially Mr. Jones camping in his undergarments. Those were the days!

It's a long title, to be sure, it is so terribly important that more people know who the great Hecky Krasnow is, and what he has made possible, that even those who read the title can get the idea.

He should be a household name, considering that, if not for him, we would never have heard the songs "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," Frosty the Snowman," "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" or one of my favorites, "Suzy Snowflake." He believed in these songs when others did not. He bucked the Columbia brass when they and every other label had no use for Johnny Marks' "Rudolph" song. Even Gene Autry was reluctant. The song made added millions to Autry's bank account, as well as those at Columbia who first rejected it. The only one who did not become rich was Krasnow, who was, like many of us, a corporate worker bee with a wife and children to support.

But as this book makes abundantly clear, Hecky Krasnow was rich in the ways that really count. In an exhaustively detailed account of growing up in a suburban household where Dad often took the kids to work, where the likes of Gene Kelly, Rosemary Clooney, Art Carney, Bob Keeshan, Paul Tripp or Jackie Robinson was doing a children's recording, Judy Gail Krasnow deftly shares her storytelling gifts by providing as many sensory details as possible. You really feel like you're having dinner at the Krasnow's, right down to the tasty roast beef with pan drippings.

The anecdotes run the gamut to the absurdly funny (a party at "Tubby the Tuba" composer George Kleinsinger's Manhattan penthouse, which is a living jungle of wild animals, bugs and shrubberies) to the frightening (personal accounts of racism and a kid's-eye-view of McCarthyism). Either Judy has one astonishing memory or she kept a very copious diary.

When rock & roll and the youth market began to change the face of mass entertainment, the "golden age" of children's records as Krasnow experienced it (with kid discs like "Little Red Monkey" hitting the charts and crossing over into mainstream pop) were fading. (And yes, the success of Disney's venture into recording also crowded out most of the competition -- what can I say?)

Fortunately, Judy Gail Krasnow has created this loving tribute to her father so we can all appreciate his contributions to our lives. It's also reassuring to learn that this man was such a kind and decent human being. It would have been so disillusioning to find out that the person behind these records really cared about what he was doing and who was listening.

His work may not have made him rich, but we are all the richer for it.

This book was a wonderfully written biography of a father, extremely talented, and a period of time - the 40's and 50's - and its music - how it came to be acknowledged and published. Hecky Krasnow, father, husband and friend was a remarkably talented man. I am so glad to have been able to share in his life and the music business at that time, through the excellent storytelling of his daughter Judy. It was a joy to read!!!

I have just finished reading "Rudolph, Frosty, and Captain Kangaroo", Judy Krasnow's loving memoir of her father, Hecky Krasnow. His career in the children's music recording industry of the 1940s and 50s as a writer, producer, and all-around cheer-leader is described in such colorful and interesting detail, that I came away from the book wishing that I could have been Judy's best friend, or even better, a brother or cousin, growing up with her and sharing all of the wonderful adventures that she had being involved with her Dad as a pre-teen in the recording sessions, parties, etc. This book brought to life the very large collection of vintage kiddie records which I own, including just about all of the records produced by Hecky. Prior to reading this superb book, the records on my shelves had an inanimate quality to them. That reality has been radically altered as a result of Judy's sharing of her personal account of the stories behind the records that Hecky produced for Columbia records. But the book goes way beyond just the discussions of the records themselves. It is a great look into an era of "innocence" in our nation's history as seen through the eyes of a kid growing up after World War II in the New York City area. It has been my distinct pleasure to know you, Judy. Thanks!

I met Judy Gail Krasnow as a fellow author in the South Florida Writer's Association. When she began to describe the book she was planning to write about her father, I knew the story would speak to me and I couldn't wait for her to complete the project. This book was worth waiting for. As others have noted, it brings back an era in vivid detail. I found that I was enjoying the book so much that I forestalled finishing it as long as I could because I didn't want it to end. The book gives us an inside peak at a very important time in children's music and it also permits us to appreciate the stories behind the stories of Hecky Krasnow's personal and public worlds and Judy's experiences being a part of it all. Judy is, of course, a master storyteller and she brings us into her story most magnificently. I told my seven year old grandson that I knew the daughter of the man who discovered Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. His eyes widened in awe and the two of us strode up Broadway singing the song. You will sing when you read this book. At times you will laugh out loud; at others you will cry. It is a terrific read. I bought it for everyone on my holiday list.

Here is a unique contribution to the bookshelf of behind-the-scenes memoirs
about the recording industry. Though millions of children grew up listening
to "kidisks" in the decade following World War II, Judy Krasnow is one of
the few kids who actually witnessed them being recorded, and the only one to
write about it. Her narrative is told with childlike enthusiasm, and her
memories are enhanced by several scrapbooks-worth of primary documents.

Judy relates many anecdotes of growing up in the recording studio alongside
her father Hecky Krasnow, a Juilliard-trained musician who headed the
children's record division of Columbia Records from 1949 to 1956, and whose
biggest claim to fame is having produced Gene Autry's megahit recording of
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." He was also the music man behind Captain
Kangaroo, and dozens of popular children's records in between.

There is something in these pages to satisfy almost anyone with an interest
in American popular culture. In addition to the great singing cowboy, we get
a few famous crooners, a very important baseball player, the haunting
specter of McCarthyism, a psychologist and his healing machine, a gig on a
really really big TV variety show, bookburning, payola, Chef Ed Norton, a
totally bizarre party at a composer's penthouse atop the Chelsea Hotel, a
guitar lesson from a Frosty folksinger, and quite a lot more.

We come away with a loving portrait of a very decent, talented man, who,
unlike many of his peers in the record biz, didn't get filthy rich. He did
better than that.

I had the Runnin' Down A Dream DVD so when I purchased the book I was concerned that they would both have the same information. The book has different information and is not the same as the DVD at all. For all of you Tom Petty fans out there this is a must buy!

Book is great(I knew it would be), What amazed me was how quickly I got it!!!

Runnin' down a dream, 30 career years of one of the rock stars that have changed the american rock business compiled in a complete book full of photographs, history and many many personal tales. A must-have for any rock fan.

i really enjoyed this book. it's a great companion to the dvd set. i think it's a must have for any Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers fan. well worth it.

If you want to know more about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, buy this book. Great pictures and JUST GREAT STUFF ABOUT HIM.

Biographies of entertainers are usually pretty shallow, just part of the marketing effort. This one is a little unusual because it was written by a scholar who put a lot of effort into making it both as complete and interesting as possible. The author, Dr. Charles Townsend, also became, to a small extent, part of the story. On Bob Wills final recording with his Texas Playboys, For the Last Time, Dr. Townsend kicks off the music as the announcer, saying "The Texas Playboys Are on the Air!"

My Dad loved this book! It was a great gift for him

I was a little dubious at first because the book seemed kind of thick and was written by a professor. However, the more I got into it the more I loved it. Thick with detail, yes, but the story constantly moves along and we get a rich, complete picture of the man and his music, his triuimphs and his foibles. I could just picture being in a ballroom back in the day listening to Bob Wills and his Playboys as I read through. Truly a labor of love, this book. I picked it up because I'd just recently purchased a four-CD boxed set of Wills' music -- far more than I thought I wanted to hear, but I was wrong, and after reading this book I just want to hear more and more. Truly an American musical hero, and this is one of the best musical biogs I've ever read.

Charles Townsend has captured the real Bob Wills. A fine job, a detailed account on the life and music of the one of the greatest Texas stars to have evolved on the American western scene. Well written and exhaustively researched. Worth buying and reading.

OK. I'm a little biased. My grandfather J.W. Shafer, otherwise known as "Bub Shafer" (don't ask me why...nobody knows why), was a second cousin to Bob Wills. In this book, there's a photo of Bob standing in a cotton field near Turkey, Texas and he's got his arm around a young boy that looks about 13-years-old at the oldest. The young boy was my grandfather, and the caption beneath the photo states that Bob is posing with a relative in the cotton fields near Turkey, TX.

I didn't read this book until a few years ago, and I read it cover-to-cover. It details EVERYTHING, including a consistent barrage of extensive notes and details about the writing and progression of almost every song from concept-to-recording, and all the events surrounding anything that Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys must have done. In fact, you almost feel as though you are reading a virtual daily journal as if the author walked side-by-side and recorded the details as time progressed over many decades of Bob Wills' life. It's all documented perfectly, as most of the documentation came from bandmembers or friends or relatives...and 99% of each person's accounts were cross-checked against other sources for authenticity. Mr. Townsend definitely wanted to get the real Bob Wills rather than a comic book version pieced together by wild tales and drifting imaginations.

My favorite parts of the book deal with the intertwined perfection and imperfection of Bob and his life. Here's a guy who was born into poverty, ran away from home as a young teenager to escape poverty, almost became a preacher when he was found by a Godly family after running away, went back home to help out the family on the farm, almost got thrown into prison had it not been that for the local policeman recognizing who he was and letting him go after a failed robbery of a tire at a closed gas station, and then you've got repeated failures in almost every line of work you can imagine. And all along the way, through all of the misery and the rejection, he always had his fiddle (known as a "violin" for people north of the Mason-Dixon line) that bailed him out of trouble.

Bob didn't WANT to use his fiddle for gain, but it always saved his rear when he was in a real pickle. He finally travels to the Dallas-Fort Worth area during the depression, which wasn't a good place to be, to tell you the truth. He gathered up a couple of guys to audition for a spot on the Light Crust Flour radio spot--Back in those days, companies hired musicians and various entertainers to perform on the radio and at live concerts. Usually, the name of the band was surprisingly enough the name of the product being pitched. In this case, whomever played for the Light Crust Flour company was named "The Light Crust Doughboys." Funny-sounding, yes, but back in the day it was a sure-fire way to make a connection with the blue-collar families that listened to the music on the radio while also being spoon-fed a healthy dose of advertising.

To make along story short, Bob and his boys were a hit. Contract disputes; however, with the head honcho of the Light Crust organization led Bob to lure his bandmates away to Tulsa, OK, where they set up shop and were known as "The Texas Playboys." Huge fame came to Bob and his band. He had the largest band in the world, and had many people laughing at the sight of anywhere from 20-30 bandmembers lining up on stage at one time on any given night. His band rivaled, and probably even surpassed, Benny Goodman and any other mainstream Big Band-style band. Almost like our nation's standing army, if you were approved by Bob Wills to be good enough to be in his band, you were "on call" and could travel and make good money whenever the opportunities presented themselves. Bob was driven, and was a definite Type-A personality who had everything done his way. I can't remember the real number, but he made sure his entire band knew BY MEMORY hundreds of songs, if not thousands. He wanted to be able to play a dance anywhere in Texas, or any other state for that matter, and he wanted to strike up his band in an instant if a spectator from the crowd hollared at Bob to play a certain song.

This brand of customer service made Bob Wills a legend. Every band member knew his role. Every band member knew he'd be cut from the team like a washed up NFL player if he didn't measure up. They practiced all day long, almost every day of the week. They would sometimes travel way out of the way on the way back home from a tour to go and play a funeral for someone, and then REFUSE to be paid for the performance and even for expenses of traveling out of the way. Bob would slip a down-and-out person a few bucks so they could buy their child some food or some shoes...and he'd make sure it stayed a secret as long as it could. In the book, there are countless witnesses who say they knew Bob was so generous because he knew what it was like to go days without a meal and have nothing but what he had on his body at the time. Bob was never consistently financially wealthy because he gave most of it away over the years.

Sadly, Bob had severe faults that often outweighed his good deeds. He was a drunk, sometimes missing performances and thus placing a huge burden upon his band to let the crowd know that "Bob has the flu and can't come out of the tour bus to play." People must have prayed for Bob a lot, wondering how one man could contract the flu as often as Bob did. He had a knack for anger and foul language, and he could "let you have it" (as we say in Texas) at a moment's notice. He couldn't stay married for longer than a day or two, though a couple of marriages were longer than the other three dozen that had failed miserably, and it was mostly due to his overly possessive handling of his wives. His wives were made to stay in the home all the time, especially when Bob was away on a tour. He feared his wife going out and potentially striking up a relationship with another man while Bob was away. The same thing happened every time: The wife couldn't stand Bob's suspicious nature and lack of trust, and who could blame them? If a bandmember stepped out of line on the tour...he'd find himself with a one-way ticket home and he might not ever be asked to go on future tours ever again.

Lastly, the attack at Pearl Harbor paralyzed his career. Almost all of his bandmembers signed up to join the military in the days after the attack. The good 'ole days were over for good. He drifted away. And then as time went on, several country-western artists (Merle Haggard) paid tribute to Bob and recorded a reunion CD with some of Bob's surviving bandmates. At this time, Bob was crippled from a severe stroke and sat in a wheelchair in the recording studio. "Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys, For The Last Time" has Merle Haggard at the helm for many songs, and he does a great job. During one song, "When You Leave Amarillo, Turn Out The Lights..." Bob breaks his paralytical silence and moans audibly on the CD at different points throughout the song. It's a sad sound, and I think it's due to the fact that Bob's memory was not as plagued as the body was at the time...Amarillo held a special place in his heart because his one "true love" lived there when he was a young man. He had lost track of her, but found her in Amarillo and went to her house with flowers for what he knew would be a great reunion of two kindred spirits. The father greeted Bob and told him she was just engaged and the soon-to-be-groom was on his way at that very moment to see her! It crushed Bob something fierce, and he stayed until the young man got to her house. Bob stood right up in the man's face and let him know that he better treat her well. He assured Bob he would, and then Bob wallked out of the door and back into the cold Amarillo winter...crushed, heart-broken, and without anything to really live for. To me, this incident was the beginning of a dark and terrible time for Bob. He went a long time before clawing his way back to the top, and I seriously doubt he ever forgot that cold Amarillo evening. Listen to the song, and hear Bob's groaning when the lyrics say, "...when you leave Amarillo, turn out the lights..." There's something there that says Bob might as well have died in Amarillo than continue on with the thought that he missed marrying his true love by only a few days or months. I am married six years now, and thank the Lord I will never know what that feels like. It must be awful.

Bob represents all of us: We want to do good for other people, even when we have nothing to give or everything to lose. But we also do bad when we know we shouldn't. And through the good and the bad, what's really important is that we never give up trying to do what's right in the face of wanting to do what's easy and convenient for that part of us that desires to do bad. Bob was so eerily conflicted inside: "Do I use my fiddle like some bargaining chip, as a cheap trick to dodge the bullet? Or am I really playing the fiddle because I love it and I want to spread joy to people who love this music?" I think he loved his fiddle, and he loved the music he made--it shows in the quality and in the passion of his music. It was that hint of suspicion that he had of himself, the part of him that said, "Bob, you're using the fiddle as some sort of tool to get what you want, and it's wrong for you to betray the true nature of music to do so" that tore Bob apart all his life. I don't think he ever found peace with himself. He was his harshest critic, and that's a sad thing. When you see older folks from his era get all misty-eyed when they hear his music or when you ask them about Bob Wills and what he meant to them when they were younger in Bob's era...you know he was way too hard on himself. But he couldn't enjoy it to its fullest potential. Born a victim, died a victim. Born to physical poverty, died with emotional poverty. And it was Bob who robbed himself and made himself poor in the end.

The music? It lives on. In dance halls across Texas. On classic country radio stations. In the books. On the CDs. In the hearts of people who know a good fiddle lick when they hear it. As Waylon Jennings sang one time to the enormous cheering of some dance hall's patrons who were listening and dancing to Jennings' live performance, "...In Texas, Bob Wills is still the King." For that, Bob should be proud had he lived a little longer. He would have been a richer man for it.

You would do well to get this book, and read it. It'll teach you a lot of life lessons. Some day, when I have the money...I'm going to make a movie out of it. And what a masterpiece it will be. "The Texas Playboys are on the air!"

-- Pecos Shafer of Amarillo, TX.

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