Good-hearted but lightweight autobiography by the composer of A Chorus Line and many film scores, including The Way We Were. Like Orson Welles, workaholic Hamlisch hit it big while very young, garnering three Oscars at age 28 for 1973's The Way We Were and The Sting, and composing Broadway's longest-running musical ever—but then he found himself floundering on a treadmill with every step a misstep. Hamlisch tells his story with a light hand, much like his own background music, without ever really digging into the nitty-gritty of film-scoring or even of writing musicals. The author covers his work scoring Woody Allen's first two films (Take the Money and Run and Bananas) in less than a page, simply by Hamlisch describing Allen as being uncommunicative. The focus remains always on the author, his music, his ulcers. At six, Hamlisch showed such promise as a pianist that his Viennese- immigrant parents enrolled him in Juilliard. Hamlisch forever was drawn to lyrical fluff while his father insisted that he learn the basics. While still in his teens, the budding musician worked as a Broadway rehearsal pianist, his biggest thrill being with Barbra Streisand and Funny Girl when they opened in Boston and later on Broadway, and then as a musical coordinator for TV's The Bell Telephone Hour. Then came calls to score Sam Spiegel's The Swimmer, to arrange the music for an Ann-Margret Vegas show, and to boost aged Groucho Marx's spirits as his accompanist for his farewell comeback. Writing A Chorus Line and then Hamlisch's subsequent failures (Jean, about the life of Jean Seberg, etc.) are covered thinly here. Pleasant but synthetic, with not enough struggle in the writing. (Two eight-page photo inserts—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 9, 1992
ISBN: 0-684-19327-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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