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Fire And Rain: The Beatles, Simon And Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, And The Lost Story Of 1970 (2011)

by David Browne(Favorite Author)

3.76 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0306818507 (ISBN13: 9780306818509)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Da Capo Press

review 1: This book tells the story of 1970, focusing mainly on the music of 1970 (while throwing in a bit of non-music history). Browne focuses on The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, CSNY, and James Taylor. He is able to effortlessly mingle these four stories into one, cohesive-enough story. There are lots of great little anecdotes (many of which were new to me) but the book does not feel like a copy-and-paste of interesting anecdotes, it feels like a single story that continues to gain momentum as the year progresses and races towards December. Browne overstates CSNY a bit by painting them as if they would have been the next Beatles had they not broken up. He paints his most endearing portrait of the emotionally troubled James Taylor. I knew nothing about Taylor’s stay in a psychi... moreatric ward before reading this book, and subsequently knew nothing of Taylor’s vulnerability and forthrightness to discuss his mental and emotionally dark past. I felt like Browne was fair to Paul McCartney in showing how isolated from the other three members of the band he was as the Beatles were breaking up. I feel like Paul is often the easy target… it’s easy to forgive John for being a jerk, but when Paul is a jerk people love to point the finger. (Probably because Paul painted himself as “the nice guy”; therefore it’s easy to point the finger when he’s not “the nice guy”.) But, Browne gave a more fair portrait of the struggles (which included moments of being a jerk and moments of being thoughtful) from each of the Beatles (well, except Ringo, who does seem to actually be a nice guy… I don’t think he had the innate jerkishness that the other three had). Also, the Simon and Garfunkel narrative was engaging the whole way through as well. It’s a fun book to read where each chapter focuses on one of the four featured bands/artist and each time a chapter ends you want to hear where the story with that band goes next, but then the next chapter starts and you’re now totally engrossed in that band’s/artist’s story. Besides a few annoying moments of soapbox, political dialogue (just in case you forgot this book was written by a Rolling Stone contributor), I found this a very enjoyable book.
review 2: Browne's thoughtfully written history focuses on the transitional year of 1970 as the Beatles, S&G and CSNY break up and James Taylor catches on. Fascinating details abound. Garfunkel began 1971 teaching geometry at a prep school. At his first solo performance, Simon was booed off the stage. Taylor decried drugs while having a heroin habit. And the petty McCartney served lawsuits on his fellow Beatles on New Year's Eve! less

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