An undraped and juicy peek at rock's hierophants and hetaeras.
Insider's story of Bruce Springsteen's early career, focusing on his first manager and his ouster after the money started to roll in.
On July 29, 1976, Mike Appel—Springsteen's first manager/producer/promoter—sued Jon Landau, CBS Records, and Springsteen to prevent Landau from producing Springsteen's next record. Here, Eliot (Rockonomics, 1989, etc.) tells how this maverick manager was the first to believe in Springsteen and sign him to a contract. Appel has supplied detailed accounting-sheets of band expenses, publishing royalties, and Springsteen's profits in the initial four years of his career. This little-seen and interesting view of rock exposes the real nuts and bolts of the business. For example, in 1973, after his second album was released, Springsteen made only $3,300 touring. He paid his band members $35 each per week, but assigned to them no songwriting credits, ensuring that they would remain hired help. And by 1976, Springsteen's royalties amounted to $259,000 for the first quarter alone. Landau, a 27-year-old "rock critic'' for Boston's Real Paper and Rolling Stone at the time of the singer's first album release, was an early booster. Eliot depicts him as an archfiend in human form who weaseled his way into impressionable young Springsteen's confidence. Landau, although entirely without studio experience, persuaded Springsteen he could produce him with superior sensitivity, bad-mouthed Appel at the drop of a guitar pick, and muscled him out. Once Landau's influence was in the ascendant, Springsteen sued Appel for fraud and for permission to use Landau as his producer. In turn, Appel brought his own suit, which was settled out of court with him receiving $800,000—a sum that he calls "absolute beans.'' Eliot provides 40 pages of lively deposition in which Springsteen gives a churlish, profane, and none-too-swift performance.
An undraped and juicy peek at rock's hierophants and hetaeras.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1991
ISBN: 1-56129-119-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1991
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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