Customer Reviews

Across the Great Divide: The Band and America

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is full of blatant and unacceptable inaccuracies. For instance, it has the wrong year for Robbie Robertson's birthday. It plagarizes a quote out of Levon Helm's book (a quote by Levon Helm), paraphrases it inaccurately and attributes it to Robertson. (pg 401). It misstates the name of F.S. Walcotts Rabits Foot Minstrels etc. etc. Quotes are taken from the interviews in the Last Waltz and deceptively placed here as if they were obtained by some research done by the author and again they're not 100% verbatim despite the quotation marks. There is an immense amount of conjecture and unwarranted personal opinion interjected throughout. The inaccuracies completely destroy all credibility of this book. Even Robbie Robertson stated in a Rolling Stone interview that he read the first 30 pages and had to put it away because of all the mistakes. This is a third rate product. There are better books to read to learn about the Band.

First written some years ago, this book has long been out of print. Now Hal Leonard has finally issued a new revised and expanded edition. It contains all the information from the original book plus updating the information on the members of the band. This includes an obituary of Rick Danko and a brand-new interview with Robbie Robertson.

With the years that Mr. Hoskyns has put into this book, it is likely to remain the definitive book on 'The Band' and on the early years of rock. The Band pioneered not only music, but many other things. Here were a group of young men that were suddenly thrust into the spotlight. Here was a band that put out two of the most significant albums of our time, and then fell apart.

This book chronicles the interplay between the members of the band that led to their breaking up, it talks about the suicide of Richard Manuel, and of course the life that Rick Danko lived with drugs and pain killers until his fatal heart attack.

This is one of those books that is literally a labor of love by a professional writer of course, but also by a devoted fan.

George Harrison called The Band 'the best in the history of the universe', and other rock musicians applauded them as well, so it's importantb to note ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE: THE BAND AND AMERICA is essential for any in-depth understanding of the group and it's lasting influence on rock music. This revised edition offers a detailed survey of its members, with the new US edition including a postscript, obituary of Rick Danko, and a new interview with Robbie Robertson, among other features.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Unfortunately, this book is a third-rate hack-job, filled with misquotes, wrong information, speculation presented as fact and lots of plain old-fashioned bad writing. The Band deserve much better than this, and hopefully someday someone will write a much better book about them.

Levon Helm's "This Wheel's On Fire" is an infinitely better read, showing Helm's deep South musical upbringing, Levon and Ronnie Hawkins' being inspired as kids by Sonny Boy Williamson and the King Biscuit Flour Time, through their many wild nights on the road as The Hawks, through hitting the big time and working with Dylan, playing at Woodstock, The Last Waltz, etc....

"This Wheel", of course, presents a subjective view. Helm and Robertson, for example, have become completely estranged and Helm's book shows only his side. I was hoping that Hoskyns' book would be a sober balance to "This Wheel,' but I was sorely disappointed. It is so poorly written as to be almost unreadable, and Hoskyns doesn't seem to use a fact-checker or proofreader. He does, however, steal several lengthy quotes from Helm's book without attribution, as well as quoting Greil Marcus repeatedly--while also belittling him. Weird. A 'rare interview' with Robertson, presented as an appendix, is little more than a chance for him to plug a new 5 cd Band compilation. Yawn.

If you're interested in The Band, I recommend reading Helm's vastly superior book, and leaving this disappointing, half-assed attempt alone. Sure, Levon's book is not objective--but it is a great read and paints a vivid, finely detailed portrait of life in The Band.

For the record, I read Hoskyns' "Hotel California" and thought it was pretty good. Not particularly well-written, but passable and provided lots of presumably good information on the whole Laurel Canyon scene.

"Across the Great Divide" just sucked.

The only good parts of this book are those that are taken from--and attributed to--other sources. Then, of course, there are the many passages that were out-and-out lifted without attribution. Hoskyns obviously assumed that everything in print about The Band was accurate, because he even lifted the errors.

A fun exercise: see how many pages you can find that DON'T contain blatant errors. Better yet, see how many PARAGRAPHS you can find that don't.

Hoskyns would love people to think that The Band conspired to not grant him interviews, but that's not the case. The Band was very accessible when Hoskyns was penning this comic book; he just didn't try.

ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE gives fans a look inside the workings of The Band from their early days until success, drugs and time pulled them apart. Although it does have its fair share of errors it's hardly the 1 star book that many other reviews have characterized; there are some thoughtful observations by author Hoskyns about The Band's career, how quickly they evolved, how they complimented each others strengths and weaknesses.

Beginning with a brief biography of each member the book then details their love of contemporary music in all of its forms and finally how they achieved fame outside of Bob Dylan's spotlight after working as his backing band when Dylan went electric. Hosykins gives a good, interesting glimpse into how they created their albums. What's missing though is the personal. It's been commented over the years by many how know him how elusive and difficult it is to discover WHO Robbie Robertson truly is. I'd say that Hoskyns' book suffers from the same problem--he shows us all of the surfaces, gives us the texture of their music and a general overview on their personalities but we really don't get to know one of the members of the band intimately.

As a "biography" of The Band ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE fails to jump the chasm that separates a superficial overview of an artist and an intimate glimpse into the creative process. It's a lack of first person access to some key members and digging. It's not for lack of trying as Hoskyns clearly loves The Band, their music and did his research. Hoskyns does gives us an idea as to how each member "fell" into their roll in The Band and does touch on the personal demons that drove the band apart (not surprisingly the one member most MIA is Garth Hudson)as well as the personal ambitions of Robertson and how that contributed to the end of a group that briefly redefined and influenced music in a major way during the 70's.

This book bought back many happy memories for me. Throughout the time The Band were playing and creating their wonderful music I was into jazz, blues and Bach, Beethoven et al. I listened to others, but The Band were the only group that I really admired and respected. They told me things about America that no other group, or musician did. Their first two records "Music From Big Pink' and 'The Band' retain hallowed places in my collection and is played often - they are simply the best two albums produced by American rock artists. And their movie 'The Last Waltz' is also a classic. This book gave me more insights into the making of these albums and the movie and allowed me to appreciate them even more. It should be read by any ageing, or even new, rock fan to understand what musicians go through to produce great music....and encourage more people to listen to their timeless music and see the movie. Highly recommended!

ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE is an in-depth look at the development, importance, and innerworkings of one of the most quietly influential bands in American Rock music. The author, Barney Hoskins, blends anecdotal information about The Band members with intelligent analysis of their music and their influence. A very balanced approach identifies each member's strengths and importance to the group, without shying away from personal shortcomings that led, ultimately, to the band's demise.

Well this is hard. It's been noted by others that there are inconsistencies with the truth, and they're surely there. Yet, this is the first book I have read that has dealt with the Robbie Robertson vs Levon Helm running feud in a different way. As in.. SHOCK.. it isn't all Robbie's fault and that was refreshing.

I read Levon's book, wish Robbie would write one, or Garth too. For that matter maybe John Simon should too because a few things are obvious to all: their first two albums were awesome and it went down quickly (IMO) after that although there were great songs later.

This different look on the feud is the only reason I gave it 3 stars, otherwise it would be 2.

Finally read this book as it was out of print for a long time. 5 very distinct characters that made up the Band made this an enthralling read. Though I felt that Robbie Robertson was cast as a bit of a villian. The one thing that did come out was that the world is screaming for a biography on Richard Manuel.