So, yesterday was the official kick-off of the Keep Portland Weird festival here in Paris, which meant that I had a reading/screening in the...
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I became interested in this book after reading that the real Gidget, Kathy Kolner, was an student in the freshman composition class that Ed McClanahan taught at Oregon State University.
This is a wonderful story of a girl's coming of age in southern California in the 1950s. Gidget's parents don't always understand her, and she does some things they wouldn't approve of, but her intelligence and independent spirit carry her through.
My 14-year-old daughter read it too, and, while expressing some disdain for the Gidge's 50s surf jargon, she agreed that it was a pretty good read.
This is what rock and roll in the 1960s (and 70s) was about, told by a musician who was in the middle of it, who was sober enough to remember most of it, and happens to be an excellent story teller besides. Hear these accounts
- The inside story of being a teen-aged sideman in the Brill building
- How "This Diamond Ring" was actually intended to be an R&B song
- How Kooper got into Dylan's "Highway 61" sessions, fumbled his way through the only take of "Like a Rolling Stone," and inspired a whole generation of folk-rock B3 players
- What really happened in Blood, Sweat, and Tears
- And to discourage guitar wankers from jamming with you by playing in C# (Hint: it's one up from C)
I had two editions of this book stolen from me, and, frankly, I can't blame them one bit.
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eric_janik has commented on (2) products.
Gidget by Frederick Kohner
eric_janik, January 30, 2008
I became interested in this book after reading that the real Gidget, Kathy Kolner, was an student in the freshman composition class that Ed McClanahan taught at Oregon State University.This is a wonderful story of a girl's coming of age in southern California in the 1950s. Gidget's parents don't always understand her, and she does some things they wouldn't approve of, but her intelligence and independent spirit carry her through.
My 14-year-old daughter read it too, and, while expressing some disdain for the Gidge's 50s surf jargon, she agreed that it was a pretty good read.
Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards: Memoirs of a Rock 'n Roll Survivor by Al Kooper
eric_janik, January 30, 2008
This is what rock and roll in the 1960s (and 70s) was about, told by a musician who was in the middle of it, who was sober enough to remember most of it, and happens to be an excellent story teller besides. Hear these accounts- The inside story of being a teen-aged sideman in the Brill building
- How "This Diamond Ring" was actually intended to be an R&B song
- How Kooper got into Dylan's "Highway 61" sessions, fumbled his way through the only take of "Like a Rolling Stone," and inspired a whole generation of folk-rock B3 players
- What really happened in Blood, Sweat, and Tears
- And to discourage guitar wankers from jamming with you by playing in C# (Hint: it's one up from C)
I had two editions of this book stolen from me, and, frankly, I can't blame them one bit.