Gallagher, Marriott, Derringer & Trower: Their Lives and Music (Rock Chronicles)

Being a guitar fan all my life, it's easy to get lost in the story telling. The breakdown of the four stories were laid out in a very logical sequence with the story provided by those closest to four of my favorite guitarists. It's easier to respect story where the author doesn't seem to pass judgment, but let the story tell itself. Ultimately, according to the Author, the reason for choosing these particular "Guitar Heroes" was for their love of music and their craft, rather than acquiring vast riches or their inevitable place in Rock Music history.

Having listened to all of these musicians at one time or another throughout my life, I found this book fun, entertaining, and interesting. Using interviews with actual players on the scene, Muise gives some good insight into each of the musicians. The only real problems I had with the book were a lack of pictures, as well as missing dialogue from Marriott and Gallaher, both of whom were dead at the time of writing. While Muise did include some dialogue from Gallagher and just a tiny bit from Marriot, I felt as though he could have dug up some other interiews and included some other material to beef it up and round out the portraits.Steve Marriot was one of the greatest of all singer/guitarists to emerge out of the sixties, and he was sorely overlooked by the media during his tenure. Had he been given more deserved attention I can only wonder what he might have become. While Peter Frampton was truly a key ingredient of Humble Pie, it was Marriot who made that band sizzle. I would say, however, that the band was never as good after Frampton left. I would have really liked to have read what Marriot would have had to say about that, and that is what was really missing from the book. We never really get to find out what how Frampton's departure impacted Steve Marriot; we only learned that through the eyes of others, whose perception may or may not have been accurate.Of all of the musicians featured, I was very disappointed in the attitude of Rick Derringer. He seems to think that he was denied super star status. I listened to all of the major players of the day, and most of the minor ones, and Derringer was easily a minor leaguer, and he ought to be grateful for the fame he achieved. He really came off as a whiner. I really liked much of what he did in the 60s and 70s, but I don't think he was ever a big leaguer; and it should be remembered that there is a reason why there was a top tier of guitarists and singers. For example, he never, ever reached the singing ability of Steve Marriot or the guitarmanship of Rory Gallagher or Robin Trower.Robin Trower's career, as depicted in Muise's book, was really disappointing. He seems to have mishandled it at every step. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects was the rationalization of one of his manager, Derek Sutton. Talk about a self absorbed, self serving idiot. It's no wonder musicians get screwed by managers. Reading about Sutton truly made me want to read a good book about rock managers. What a dolt. And the treatment of Jimmy Dewar was just incredible. This was all very interesting. Trower seems to be surrounded by some kind of emotional protective shield, because if I had his behavior, I'd be ashamed.I really liked this book, and I'd recommend it to anyone with any familiarity of these musicians. I will warn you, however, that reading it will send you to the used record store trying to dig up some of the gems about which they discuss.

At first I thought this an odd batch of musicians to group together in a book. Interesting that the author chose this particular bunch, who have not been written about previously (except for Rory) as far as I know. The main attraction to me was the inclusion of Rory Gallagher, who I rate in the top 5 guitarists of all time. My hope was that aside from the normal biographical-type material, that some light would be shed on the causes of Rory's physical decline which were disappointingly absent from Marcus Connoughton's biography (which seemed to take the "Golly gee, he was so mysterious and private, we don't really know what happened." tack....which I suspect was just out of politeness and respect, but made the book an ultimately unfulfilling read). So...on that point, I have to give author Muise major credit for getting many of the principals in Rory's life to go on the record (with speculation) about what caused his tragic demise at the young age of 47.I've always been a fan of Small Faces, Humble Pie, and solo Marriott (and had the pleasure of seeing the Pie twice live). I think his inclusion in this book is a great addition, as I think he has been generally overlooked as the musical force that he was. With regard to Derringer....others may disagree, but I've always considered him a second- or third-tier musician, warranting perhaps little more than a footnote in the overall "story of rock"....so his inclusion in the company of these other three obviously pivotal musicians is a bit confusing to me...a function of the author's personal tastes, I suppose.It may also be helpful to mention that the book is structured as something of an 'oral history', with interview segments with the artists and others with involvement in the artists' career, such as Donal Gallagher (Rory's manager and bro), Steve Marriott's, and Derringer's family, etc.). Honestly, this format is the book's saving grace.I found the Trower section somewhat lacking. Although there is some illuminating info from Trower himself (admitting that he put out quite a few crap albums), most of his part of the book is taken up by his manager Derek Sutton complaining about various issues regarding Robin's career, which becomes wearying and dull, after, oh, 10 pages or so.THEN, we come to the bugbear, which is unfathomable to me.Almost EVERY peripheral musician or music figure has their name written incorrectly, which I can't comprehend. If you go to the trouble to put a tome like this together, wouldn't you take the time to get the spelling of people's names correct? They range from the careless---"Tim Rennick" (Tim Renwick), "Mo Austin" (Mo Ostin), "Cliff Callup" (Cliff Gallup), ---to the borderline offensive-- "Martin Carsey" (Martin Carthy), "Bert Yance" (Bert Jansch), and "Georgio Gromolsky" (Giorgio Gomelsky).The author obviously had no idea who these people were, and in my opinion if you don't at least know who Bert Jansch was, and can't even be bothered to get the spelling of his name correct, you have no business writing a book having anything to do with music, or guitarists in general.The coup de grace was when the author writes about Trower's short-lived band after Procul Harum (misspelled on the back cover as 'Harem', incidentally), featuring the famed "Clive Barker" on drums (actually Clive Bunker, the ex-Jethro Tull drummer). He even asks Trower a question about working with "Clive Barker"....Trower doesn't bother to correct him.So...some people with a rudimentary knowledge of rock history (as apparently the author, unfortunately) who read this book will be fascinated to learn that before Clive Barker became a horror movie director, he played drums in a band with Robin Trower!I was going to dock the book a star for this head-shaking-inducing carelessness, but by the time I got to the end of the book I thought I'd leave the star for the amusement I got from this inexplicable, easily avoidable ineptitude.In summary, I give this 3 stars mainly for the Rory section, and the fact that the bulk of the book is comprised of interview quotes. I found where there was a lack of intrusion by the author, it was a blessing.

My husband bought this book because I'm a massive Robin Trower fan. Reading this book had me getting out my old ticket stubs from Trower, Rick Derringer and the Winter brothers concerts, and having a nice walk down memory lane. This book gives you all the skinny on a quad of LEGENDS plus other stories about members of the bands, people they played with, gigs, EVERYTHING! We're from a generation that didn't have MTV. I didn't even know what Robin Trower looked like until I finally saw him in concert the first time in 1989 in Atlanta. This book has lots of great pictures from private collections, and a total feast of interviews. I didn't know that Rick Derringer is Liv Tyler's Godfather and that Liv was raised as Todd Rundgren's daughter at one time. Buy the book and get the whole story!!! The book is laid out very well, and it's easy to read just a little OR a lot at a time. I didn't think I would like this book so much, but every time I pick it up to read more, I'm transported back to a time and place that was magical for me. It brings back such great memories, plus I've learned so much about some of the musicians that shaped my youth, plus learned about musicians that shaped my husband's youth. He's British and I'm American. We both give this book a big two thumbs up. If you have a spouse who was into any of these incredible musicians, even the segment on just that one musician alone would be enough to buy the whole book.

Useful as an introduction to the guitarists in question