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The Soundtrack Of My Life (2013)

by Clive Davis(Favorite Author)

3.5 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1476714800 (ISBN13: 9781476714806)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Simon & Schuster

review 1: I really enjoyed the first half of this book because I could relate to all the artists Davis signed. As a musician in a band in those days, our dream was to be signed by Davis, so it was interesting to see the process that he went through in signing those acts. It doesn't seem like even once he discovered an act on his own. They were always brought to him by either his own people or recommended by a powerful friend. So I don't feel so bad, since we were never seen by anyone very powerful. The second half of the book was terribly boring to me, and made me question Davis' tastes overall. His embracing of rap as a music didn't seem very genuine. It seemed more like a business decision (as I'm sure all his signings were). But the lack of quality music over the past 10 years ha... mores been astounding. I also found it fascinating his business dealings. Even Clive Davis could get screwed by other businessman. Overall a very interesting book. 3.5 stars.
review 2: Although overly long, this book really doesn't deserve the mixed reviews it's gotten. The book begins in a pretty stereotypically auto-biographical way in that you get the first third of his personal life until he moves up the ranks of Columbia Records. After that the book oddly veers towards each chapter being devoted to a particular artist/genre which he uses to highlight a few years/era. The last third of the book finally reverts back to a pretty typical biographical format.There are no 'ah-ha!' moments in the book & it suffers for that. While it is interesting hearing about some of the marginal talents he's worked with, and those disappointments do serve to highlight his explanation of how you just never know who will hit or miss, those pages might have been better spent examining some of his more famous artists (Springsteen gets mentions but Roy Parker Jr is talked about more! and there's not mention of the fact that Roy Parker stole his only hit song, no mention of the lawsuits...).The chapter on Whitney is downright touching, the pages about corporate wheeling and dealings are absolutely fascinating but overall the book is just Good. Four Star good and completely worth a read - it's just uneven. With each passing music bio, it is clear that we live in a post-Richards "Life" world where everything will be judged against perhaps the greatest auto-biography ever written. less

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