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A Cure For Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage by Joe Jackson
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Joe Jackson Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2000-10-25 ISBN: 0306810018 Number of pages: 288 Publisher: Da Capo Press
Book Reviews of A Cure For Gravity: A Musical PilgrimageBook Review: Acerbic, snarky, and funny. Written for a pianist. Summary: 5 Stars
First, the bad points:
1. No index.
2. No photos. NOT ONE. (We all know that Joe Jackson is not the softest to look at, but at least *some* pictures to put faces with names might have been nice.)
3. No chapter list.
4. The book was published in 1999. Why the flipping hell did he end the book in the 1980s? And why were there so few words about the writing of "Look Sharp" (and therfore "Steppin' Out")?
And the good points (they much exceed the bad ones):
1. This book was written for a pianist/ musician. The author uses techincal terms to describe things such as the playing of a lounge pianist. "Rhythmic Aphasia" and "Arpeggi-itis" (which is actually not a word-- yet) are things that I hear all the time but that I have heard very few people describe accurately. (Rant begins on p. 58). He also speaks to the technical difficulties in playing stride/ ragtime piano (p. 52), and this is something that I can appreciated. He intersperses lots of mentions of good literature that he has read in the text.
2. The author had a great facility with words, and that made the book a delight to read. (I think that Zappa has described rock journalism/ other types of rock writing as: "People who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read.") Not so for Joe Jackson: This man is very articulate. He also seems to be very well read.
3. Jackson also has a good sense of humor. For example, his phonetic spellings of different regional English accents had me laughing out loud.
4. Acerbic? Yes! Bitter? Yes! He mentions names of people that are pianists but aren't really all that great (Jerry Lee Lewis, for example).
5. He makes intelligent commentary on many different musical styles. And this is not just the type of commentary of critics in paper who are trying managing to be very informative because they overstretch in the attempts to be cute. There is thought given to what is written. Jackson's commentary about writing about music is concise and pithy (p. 20): "First, you have to understand the music. Second you have to translate it into a different language: The language of words. And third, you have to use the words to produce a good piece of writing." There are three steps there, and much writing about music misses out one or two.
6. Orchestration: He talks about some of the nuts and bolts issues of being a composer, and understanding a little bit about each instrument. As a musician, these are conclusions that I might have reached had I pursued music as a career.
This book takes about 3 afternoons to read. The hardcover can be purchased for a single penny (plus shipping), and so I would consider this to be a great value for the money. When I look at the unknown label on which he published the book (United States Public Affairs-- a member of the Perseus Group), I get the impression that a lot of editors didn't appreciate the wonderful insights contained in this book.
Summary of A Cure For Gravity: A Musical PilgrimageSince the release of his first best-selling album Look Sharp in 1979, Joe Jackson has forged a singular career in music through his originality as a composer and his notoriously independent stance toward music-business fashion. He has also been a famously private person, whose lack of interest in his own celebrity has been interpreted by some as aloofness. That reputation is shattered by A Cure for Gravity, Jackson's enormously funny and revealing memoir of growing up musical, from a culturally impoverished childhood in a rough English port town to the Royal Academy of Music, through London's Punk and New Wave scenes, up to the brink of pop stardom. Jackson describes his life as a teenage Beethoven fanatic; his early piano gigs for audiences of glass-throwing skinheads; and his days on the road with long-forgotten club bands. Far from a standard-issue celebrity autobiography, A Cure for Gravity is a smart, passionate book about music, the creative process, and coming of age as an artist. Something more than a journeyman and less than a superstar, Joe Jackson has a reputation for being a reclusive and prickly character. But he refuses the low road with A Cure for Gravity, a resolutely non-lurid autobiography of a man who considers music to be a noble calling. It matters not that the author was once lumped in with England's insurgent first-generation punks and new-wavers; here Jackson insistently focuses on his development as a composer, player, and performer, approximately in that order. Born to modest means in a setting where a sickly, creative youngster such as Jackson was regarded with suspicion, if not contempt, the young Brit was trained in the classics and developed his keyboard skills, playing everything from cabaret to progressive rock before finally setting off on his own as a sharp-tongued, ska-influenced Angry Young Man. A more sophisticated musician than his rag-tag running mates (he's recently released an ambitious fusion of pop, jazz, and classical elements dubbed Symphony No. 1), Jackson revels in the intricacies of his craft--as much or more than he does in telling his own up-from-the-gutter tale. Old new-wavers who remember the author from his 1978 Look Sharp! debut and devotees of his more stylish early '80s recordings may be caught off guard by the short shrift Jackson gives his actual recording career; indeed, he shrugs off a couple decades in the final pages of the book. But the articulate, idiosyncratic author is clearly more interested in addressing what makes a musician than what happens once a musician has it made. --Steven Stolder
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