If you were around in the second half of the twentieth century, your life was touched by television and music. There’s no way around it. Now, as adults, deeper into the 21st century, we grow nostalgic and many of the icons of our younger days are passing, from life and from memory. This fall, publishers have released a number of notable biographies and autobiographies of major celebrities. They provide fascinating insight into the subjects’ lives and the times that they had a large part in shaping.
I’ve
just completed Norman Lear’s autobiography Even This I Get to Experience. Norman Lear is perhaps the most successful
television creator of all time, dominating 1970s television; at his height – at
a time when only 3 networks existed – he was the creator of nine different
shows on the air, including some of the most controversial, groundbreaking,
popular, and critically acclaimed shows of all time, including All in the Family, Good Times, Maude, The
Jeffersons, and Mary Hartman, Mary
Hartman. Lear spares no details about his childhood and tumultuous family
life, his marriages and his own shortcomings as a father and husband, his
political activity, and his professional career which spanned 50 years of
radio, television, and movies. I didn’t
know, for example, of his close relationship with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
at their height in the 1950s. It was
also interesting to learn about the relationships and conflicts behind the
scenes of the shows I grew up watching, among the network executives, creators,
actors, and political groups.
Next up is Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story by Rick Bragg. Rick Bragg is a journalist and author of
great books about his own southern family’s story that reflect the 20th
century history of the South. In this
book, he has collaborated with rock and roll legend Jerry lee Lewis. It is exactly what you’d expect a candid
autobiography of Jerry Lee Lewis should be:
full of wild and crazy, full speed ahead, rock and roll
experiences. Even his birth was wild and
crazy; Lewis was a breech baby delivered by his own father because the doctor
was passed out drunk.
The
Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, released an autobiography about 15 years ago, co-written with noted
musical biographer David Ritz. Then, it
was criticized for being superficial and glossy. Now, Ritz has written his own biography which
digs deeper and uncovers more stones, Respect:
The Life of Aretha Franklin.
While it’s not a smear in any way, it does reveal facts about her life
and personality that she did not want revealed before. It’s still a respectful rendition, that
treats her more like a real, fully formed personality, with the good and the
not-so-good on display.
Finally,
in the music arena, there’s Fleetwood:
My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac. For a long time, Fleetwood Mac’s album Tusk
was the biggest selling album in the world, and nobody expected it to be
surpasses until Thriller came
along. The band has an incredibly long
and chaotic career, engaged in a sold-out tour currently, after 40 plus
years. Fleetwood doesn’t hold back
revealing the rock and roll, drug fueled excess and the relationship issues
within the band that not only fueled some of its greatest work but also caused
tremendous stress and strain.
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