Testimony

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One of the most spellbinding, entertaining, major books of the fall the long awaited memoir from the Canadian music legend takes us candidly, in his own voice, into his extraordinary life and friendships with some of the greatest artists of the last half century Robbie Robertson s singular contributions to popular music have made him one of the most beloved songwriters and guitarists of all time But few could have expected that a young Canadian would pen some of the most distinctively American songs, music that seems soaked in the mythology of the Old South With songs like The Weight, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and Up on Cripple Creek, Robertson and his partners in The Band fashioned a new popular music lexicon that has endured for decades, influencing countless musicians.In this captivating memoir of The Band s storied career, Robertson weaves together his half Jewish, half Mohawk upbringing on the Brantford Six Nations Reserve and in Toronto his odyssey south at sixteen and rollicking early years on the road with rockabilly legend Ronnie Hawkins the slow formation of The Band, their trial by fire with Bob Dylan on his 1966 world tour, and the forging of their unique sound He recounts being catapulted to fame with the success of their groundbreaking debut, and takes us through the astonishing run of albums that culminated in one of history s most famous farewell concerts the movie The Last Waltz, directed by Martin Scorcese This is the story of a time and place the moment when rock n roll became life, when electric blues legends like Muddy Waters and Otis Rush criss crossed the circuit of clubs and roadhouses from Texas to Toronto It s the story of exciting change as the world tumbled into the 60s, and figures like Dylan and The Band redefined music and culture, with a little help from sex and drugs And it s the moving story of the profound friendship between five young men who together created a new kind of popular music. New Read Testimony [ author ] Robbie Robertson [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr There are two popular narratives about Robbie Robertson One says that he is the ingenious leader of The Band and a luminary among the brightest musical stars of the 60s and 70s The other says that he is an egomaniacal blowhard infatuated by his own perceived greatness, one that pursued a coke fueled vision of Hollywood superstardom at the expense of his bandmates This memoir 500 pages of self aggrandizing storytelling and namedropping is unfortunately enough to convince me that the latter There are two popular narratives about Robbie Robertson One says that he is the ingenious leader of The Band and a luminary among the brightest musical stars of the 60s and 70s The other says that he is an egomaniacal blowhard infatuated by his own perceived greatness, one that pursued a coke fueled vision of Hollywood superstardom at the expense of his bandmates This memoir 500 pages of self aggrandizing storytelling and namedropping is unfortunately enough to convince me that the latter narrative is the accurate one.Robbie Robertson comes o...HmmmI wasn t sure if I should write a review but everyone seems to be raving about this self serving book, which I find rather perplexing, so I thought I d contribute some words, you know, as a fan of The Band.Please check out Andrew Peerless review of the book he has summarized everything wrong with Testimony better than I ever could although I m going to try, obviously indetail of all, I couldn t help but think of the Churchill quote HmmmI wasn t sure if I should write a review but everyone seems to be raving about this self serving book, which I find rather perplexing, so I thought I d contribute some words, you know, as a fan of The Band.Please check out Andrew Peerless review of the book he has summarized everything wrong with Tes...For fans of The Band, this memoir by their main song writer and guitarist is a treasure trove of his memories childhood, learning guitar, the ritual passing through bands that led him to the music of the southern United States, blues and R B, rockabilly, and gospel that permeated the playing he did, first with Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks, then with Bob Dylan when that artist went electric, and then with Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson, and Rick Danko as The Band It s rich...An excellent autobiography of a rock and roll star Robbie Robertson of The Band Such works can be duds, can be okay, or can be really good This is in the latter category The book traces the arc of his career through The Last Waltz, as The Band terminated its career.We get a good sense of Robertson growing up, coming from an intriguing background of native Americans and Jews The book does a nice job of tracing his youth and the point when he was very young 16 beginning a music career An excellent autobiography of a rock and roll star Robbie Robertson of The Band Such works can be duds, can be okay, or can be really good This is in the latter category The book traces the arc of his career through The Last Waltz, as The Band terminated its career.We get a good sense of Robertson growing up, coming from an intriguing background of native Americans and Jews The book does a nice job of tracing his youth and the point when he was very young 16 beginning a music career He got a break by working with Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks Over time, the Hawks change as new talent comes in Garth Hudson, Rich Danko, Richard Manuel, and Levon Helm At one point, they go their way and Ronnie Hawkins goes his as per Bob Dylan You go your way and I ll go mine.They end up backing Bob Dylan on his bizarre transition from folk singer to rock and roll Then, after Dylan s motorcycle accident, they drift to Woodstock, begin...caveat i am a giant band fan and also played his solo debut robbie robertson 1987 on repeat through most of 87 88 and which has a track called testimony on it which is to say, i was a bit stupid excited for this book robertson is a storyteller as a songwriter, and that transfers well to his memoir there wasn t a huge amount of new information for me in testimony, yet it was still very enjoyable and engaging while, of course, this is only robertson s perspective on the years spanning h caveat i am a giant band fan and also played his solo debut robbie robertson 1987 on repeat through most of 87 88 and which has a track called testimony on it which is to say, i was a bit stupid excited for this book robertson is a storyteller as a songwriter, and that transfers well to hi...4 What an exhilarating book Upbeat, positive almost to a fault and full of incredible information Not the introspective revealing tone of Born to Run but undeniably its equal in reporting the unique processes of writing, recording and the ins and outs of the music business Robertson is a few years older than me and I am totally aware of all his many influences in music, which made this book resonate evendeeply with me The experiences that he had and the unbelievable A list of cel 4 What an exhilarating book Upbeat, positive almost to a fault and full of incredible information Not the introspective revealing tone of Born to Run but undeniably its equal in reporting the unique processes of writing, recording and the ins and outs of the music business Robertson is a few years older than me and I am totally aw...Last fall, four autobiographies were released by some of the biggest names in music history Bruce Springsteen Born To Run , Phil Collins Not Dead Yet, Live , Brian Wilson I Am Brian Wilson, A Memoir and Robbie Robertson, who named his autobiography Testimony Knopf , after one of his compositions Of those four, I was most keenly interested in hearing from Robertson, particularly since I couldn t book him for a CBC Radio...Robbie Robertson s autobiography of the The Band is by far the most complete testament to date on one of the hottest rock n roll bands ever.There s certainly enough out there on The Band that one could argue the world doesn t need another Testimony, but Robertson s is by far the most in depth memoir available and it has the advantage of giving us a point of view from one who was not only in the center of things, but one who had a fairly clear head during that time and a razor sharp memory.Many Robbie Robertson s autobiography of the The Band is by far the most complete testament to date on one of the hottest rock n roll bands ever.There s certainly enough out there on The Band that one could argue the world doesn t need another Testimony, but Robertson s is by far the most in depth memoir available and it has the advantage of giving us a point of view from one who was not only in the center of things, but one who had a fairly clear head during that time and a razor sharp memory.Many fans previously had to rely solely on Levon Helm s slim memoir This Wheel s on Fire for inside the band information and most of us were left to ponder whether Robbie Robertson, in effect, stole the songs which had been written by The Band as a group While Robertson does not address Helm s charges per se, he does offer a detailed report of how each song was written and by whom It is no...I didn t know that Robbie wrote almost all the great Band songs Wow I have a whole new respect for him and that he had his Last Waltz guitar bronzed that s just fun I remember an old buddy I had back at Summercamp 1987 telling me I just had to get into the BAND That Was REAL Music In many ways he was totally right The Band made timeless music that affected endless other musicians on their journey Personally, I demanded MORE guitar solos But eventually I got around to watchin I didn t know that Robbie wrote almost all the great Band songs Wow I have a whole new respect for him and that he had his Last Waltz guitar bronzed that s just fun I remember an old buddy I had back at Summercamp 1987 telling me I just had to get into the BAND That Was REAL Music In many ways he was totally right The Band made timeless music that affected endless other musicians on their journey Personally, I demanded MORE guitar solos But eventually I got around to watching the Last Waltz Concert movie Robbie Robertson held his ground with Eric Clapton very nicely I became a fan.This book may be a...I thoroughly enjoyed this book Fan of The Band, HUGE fan of Levon I found it pretty sad Knowing what we know about what happens between them, and that Rick, Richard and Levon are gone, I found it sentimental and heart wrenching that 3 brothers ended up bitterly fighting and broke up at the end of an amazing run This book revived my love for their music, and even had me researchingon Dylan s catalog I would recommend it to any music lover and tell you that if you are a big fan of The I thorou...

Testimony
  • 06 March 2018
  • Hardcover
  • 500 pages
  • 0307401391
  • Robbie Robertson
  • Testimony