Customer Reviews

Bill Bruford The Autobiography

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If there was no Bill Bruford, we would have to invent one.

I was probably more excited about this book, than any other in recent memory; not only by virtue of being an enormous fan of his various projects over the years, but also because he has been the most reliably erudite and witty interviewee in the history of rock and jazz.

For anyone remotely familiar with Bill's umistakably dry and sardonic wit, there will be little doubt after a single chapter that no ghost writer lurks underneath. This book is the closest thing admirerers of Mr. B will ever get to their ultimate fantasy-namely sitting across a cafe table from Bill with a good cup of coffee and getting him to answer all those questions you've had for ages, that you would never have the courage to actually pose, knowing full-well that you'd receive well-deserved eye twinkle and thinly veiled contempuous barb for your temerity. In other words, reading this book, in some ways, is rather like playing a car racing game on the Xbox..you get much of the satisfaction without the risk of plunging your noggin into a thinly padded steering wheel at 80 miles an hour.

There are so many terriffic antecdotes here, with so many quotable quotes, you may want to read it with a yellow hi-lighter in reach. Very seldom have I laughed so well and been so thoroughly entertained, while learning so much I wanted to know.

Keep in mind, at only 300+ pages, the read is disappointingly brief, and many episodes in a great career, seem to be glossed-over far too quickly, considering their enormous import. The Yes and KC years take-up probably no more than 20-or-so pages each (although not covered in strictly chronological order) which, in almost any other circumstance would leave you feeling dissatisfied. But this is not really a detailed document of his relationship with other musicians. It is much more a witty and entertaining essay of Bill's views and musings on various aspects of being a musician than a "life story" in the traditional sense. As long as you put away any expectations of getting a detailed account of what happened during the recording of "Larks Tongues", or intimate relations of fights with Chris Squire, you will, I'm sure, find this a thoroughly engaging read.

*Note to Mr. Bruford: Please sir, now that you've sadly retired from touring...how about a sequel with all the detail and dramatic bits we're all ashamed to ask you about? :)

As a drummer, Bill Bruford has been an inspiration to me since I was a teenager back in the early 70's. Bill's autobiography is written with the same thoughtfulness and care that has exemplified his career as a musician. He gives a very intelligent analysis and history of the music industry from the heydays of the late 60's-mid 70's to the current situation of corporate cultural totalitarianism.
The book's chapters are set-up as answers to "frequently asked questions" he has been dealing with his entire career. Throughout, there is a personal, measured, fair-minded humanity that interjects all subjects be it his ambivalent relationship with Robert Fripp, his restained loathing of Chris Squire or the trials and tribulations on the road and in the recording studio. This book is a must read for all prog rockers. Finally, the quality of the book in terms of paper choice and binding reflect the sincerity and humility of one of this era's greatest musical artists.

Bill Bruford has announced his retirement and, seemingly during the same week, published this book. One could read this as "hey, this is gonna be some kind of tell-all, dish-the-dirt backstabber", of the sort issued by many a retired athlete and/or coach. But then again, this is Bruford we're talking about, a man whose name usually appears in conversation with the word "integrity" not far behind.

So what is this book then? Is it really an autobiography? Well, yes and no. Bruford writes about his entire career arc, but not in the conventional birth-school-work-death order. Instead, like his drumming, he isn't content to just stick to the beat. The man has a million stories, racked up over 40+ years of albums, touring, hopping around from group to group, and finally becoming his own bandleader/businessman/do-everything guy. Many of his vignettes are hilarious; others convey the long and lonely road that all touring musicians face.

But the thing that strikes me most is how good of a writer that Bill is. It's common knowledge that he's very witty, and is often regarded as the smartest one in the band (whatever band that it is). But the fact is, his writing style is highly entertaining. If he ever decides to retire from drumming (oh wait, he just did!), Bill could easily have a second career in writing...and, in fact, I hope he does a lot more of it if he's so inclined.

About that "smartest one in the band" comment above: Some have labeled Bruford as arrogant, detached, and so on...but if you read his actual words, as set forth in this book, you'll understand why he's chosen the paths that he has in his career. Bruford has carefully collected all sorts of observations over the years, cataloged them, and released it all in this book. And as you read the book, you'll understand why he gets irritated when people ask him for the zillionth time "Why did you leave Yes?", "What's it like working with Robert Fripp", and "Do you enjoy interviews?" These are the actual titles of the chapters, and it's how the book is organized. And, after reading each of these and putting myself mentally in Bill's shoes, even *I* started getting irritated at some of the things he's had to put up with!

Not many of these chapters go into extreme depth on each subject, and in fact some of the chapter titles don't really have anything to do with the actual contents. For example, one of these chapters has a series of very funny musings about food (such as it is) on the road, in conflict with the chapter's title. And the "Do you ever see any of the old guys?" chapter contains virtually nothing about this particular subject.

Full disclosure: I started listening to Yes in the late 70s, when I was fourteen. Bruford had left Yes a few years earlier, and yet That Snare Drum Sound is all over Fragile and Close to the Edge, captured for posterity and heavily influencing rock music to this day. In high school, someone played me "One More Red Nightmare" from this band called King Crimson - and there was That Snare Drum Sound again. (There was also That Dirty Cymbal Sound, whose origin Bill reveals in this book.) I bought the Genesis album, "Seconds Out"...any guess what I noticed about that album?

Later on, with the Discipline album by K.C., Bruford's dalliance with electronic drums came to the fore. At the time, I was a huge fan of Al DiMeola, and...who should appear on his "Scenario" album but B.B.? (Tony Levin, too, as an added bonus. Bill and Tony always sounded so good together that it was ridiculous.) The fact is, Bruford's made his mark everywhere in this business, and this book is a fascinating read that touches on all these things.

So I've come to be a Bruford fan over the years, and have listened to a ton of his work. But not Earthworks, to which a large part of the book is devoted. Helpfully, Bill has included a free CD offer with the book, so I'll be checking out some of the Earthworks stuff very soon.

So, if you're a fan of any of these bands mentioned above, if you're interested in the Process By Which Music Is Actually Made, and if you always wished that you too could try lots of fresh ideas in your lifetime, get this book...it's worth every penny. If you're looking for soap-opera-esque stuff, skip it. (No, Bill doesn't get on with Chris Squire. Yes, Bill thinks Fripp is, uh, eccentric. But who cares? That kind of stuff has been beaten to death.) Bill's writing is very English, of course, some of which may bypass an American audience...it helps if you're familiar with a few English idioms/phrases/slang, or at least have been to the UK at least once in your life.

While reading this book, I imagine it's just Bill and me down at the pub, and he's telling me all his stories. The difference is I don't have to buy all the beer to bribe him with, and that we don't have to drink it, become incoherent, and spoil all the stories. This book is just a lot of fun to read. Very well done.

(I was going to write all of the above and send it directly to Bill, but after reading this, I understand that he honestly does not have enough time to respond to every letter of his. So putting this here on Amazon, perchance to increase sales of his book, would be a better way for me to say thank you for many wonderful/musical years.)

This autobiography is well written, entertaining, and informative. Three qualities one doesn't expect from a celebrity rocker, but as we learn from his book Bruford isn't of that ilk. He is a committed artist who didn't allow his success to enslave him. He has struggled with his notoriety and it is ironic that he owes his fame to his tenure with Yes and King Crimson, two bands he eventually outgrew.

There are plenty of anecdotes about his early bands to satisfy the hardcore fans. Some of them are hilarious. Yet he throws in enough philosophizing to appease the hardcore musicians.

This is a rare tale of a man obsessed with his art who neither lost his moral bearings nor the reason for his pursuit of excellence. While entertaining to fans, this book will be an inspiration to all those who pursue a creative life.

In the case of Bill Bruford, you'd call him an articulate and intelligent author of one of the most insightful assessments of a career that you'll ever likely read. I would agree wholeheartedly with the reviews this is garnering. Bruford has written a book that is always articulate, often hillarious and sublimely genuine in his discussions of teh costs and rewards of a life dedicated to serving Music.
His has been an extraordinary career, and with his recent announcement of ceasing to perform live and turn his attention to the cultivation of his thoughts and back catalogue, let's hope that if there are to be no more CDs (and as he puts it, the iPod is full anyway), let's hope for more books. Bruford is a man who writes with a command of the language at least as sublime as his command of his 4 appendages. No mean feat. Ahem.
This is not a gossip book nor a cartoon (Patty Boyd and David Crosby take note), but a brutally honest and insightful examination of a life well lived and creatively awake. In fact, you can't put the book down. It is a page turner and is provactive from a noetical cliff that few writers in any discipline achieve. Mind you, I very much liked Clapton's book as well - an unaffected account of his life, career, inspirations and demons. One thought even more of Eric after reading the book than one did just on the merits of his musicianship. This book raises the bar significantly higher.
Bruford carries few grudges. Chris Squire is left unforgiven for a level of unprofessionalism that Bruford felt was just in bad form, as does Al Di Meola. Apart from the backhand toward these two, there isn't a negative aspersion in the book. You might not like his regard for the inanities of some of the punters, but he doesn't come at them with the ill will some of his other colleagues have honed to a craft.
Instead, he assembles the epochs of his life into a polyrhythmic whole whose conclusion is seen coming and whose final rest is accomplished with grace. His discussion of the craft that he practiced and the the use to which he put his talent are set in historical contexts not just of his career, but in the arc of the development of percussion and small group play in the aesthetic of history. He is inspiring and brilliant.
Socrates would have been proud to know Bruford. Demosthenes could have called off his search. Pythagoras would have loved to play lyre in his band. In short, his is a philosophical as well as aesthetic consideration of his life as musician and husband, father and leader, son and partner. He draws an interesting analysis of our times in the course of his coming to terms with the turn that music has taken in the world itself. By that I mean, Bruford sees the reification of Music down to "sound" as symptomatic of the reification of the human spirit into an obsession with commodites. And that is also part of what compels him to lay down the public sticks at this time. Like Sartre, he sees the conspicuous consumption of the vicarious thrill of adulation as what is killing us off in other dimesnions of life. Like Heidegger, he poses a question for Aesthetics: to recover the soul, in Music and elsewhere. But if it aint got that swing, it really don't mean a thing.
There are many fronts on which to recommend this book. I hope there is more to follow.

Bruford is an intelligent, witty, innovative, disciplined, and hard working musician who has, throughout the span of his career, pushed and expanded the limits of his instrument and, along the way, created amazing music with fantastic artists.

His writing is conversational, and zips right along, yet provides enough detail to draw the reader into the world he's describing. He's very funny, in a droll sort of way, and I found myself chuckling as I turned page after page.

While this is directed at fans of Yes, King Crimson, and of Bruford himself, I don't think it's focus is so narrow as to exclude folks who enjoy biographies generally, or are interested in the minds and experiences of great artists. In other words, there's something for everyone here.

The most surprising thing, perhaps, is that the book itself is quite hefty. It's printed on quality paper, features some great photos, and feels like something you can keep on your bookshelf for years to come.

There's also a free CD offer! You can choose one of two retrospective discs, each focused on a different span of his career. I'm going to order the more modern stuff.

Because the book is so affordable, I think I'm going to order another copy or two as gifts for friends!

As much as I enjoyed this book as a big fan of Yes and Bruford, I initially was only going to give it four stars because I felt that it did not contain enough stories about the "old days" with Yes and not as many details of Bruford's personal life as one would expect from an autobiography. Rather than include more such details, Bruford spends a considerable amount of time discussing the philosophy of music and the book at times reads like a text book on the subject, complete with footnotes and an index. Bruford combines these discussions with thoughts on his own anxieties about playing and performing, a reflection of his obvious perfectionism. By the time I had finished the book, I realized that he had given us much more than some sordid tell-all book filled with stories of drug use and infighting. Instead he had revealed his deepest insecurities about his own musicianship and in doing so he has shown us the core of who he is. In the end, Bruford wrote a book much as he has lived his life - thoughtfully, intelligently, and on his own terms.

In another life, Bill Bruford may have been an astronaut. Or perhaps a geologist.
Maybe the intrepid explorer. That's the kind of stubborn intellect we're dealing
with here. I've been making it a habit of reading autobios and non-autobios of
musicians for years now. When I first started this one, I was immediately
intimidated by the fluency and complexity of his lyrics. Most bios are simple
recollections of drug abuse, women abuse and maybe a little actual music
history along the way. Basically ego-stroking manuscripts. This one, however,
requires concentration - ha ! I find myself rereading most sentences if not just in an attempt to completely grasp his explanation but to fully enjoy the colour of the
words. That's it! He would have made a great writer in another existence. I'm
also a lover of sci-fi's Ray Bradbury, an extremely colourful and energetic author
of beautiful prose. This book requires that kind of attention to really absorb the
contents. Anyway, this is a thoroughly enjoyable account of his years as a
musician - which we all hope are not over despite his thoughts otherwise. Its full
of fascinating ditties about the groups he's had membership within. Don't look
for any nastiness here. He doesn't dwell on what obviously excites most readers
of this type of book. ie: Who's the biggest arsehole, who was the best guitarist,
who had the most groupies, etc. He simply give us an inner sanctum view of his
world as he's lived it. That;s not to say he's easy to live with either. He sounds
like a challenge. But who isn't? It took me a while to work thru this one. But I
plan to pick it up again in a few months to grab what I must have missed in the
first read. Its that good. Enjoy!

As a fan of Mr. Bruford and progressive rock, I had to read this and I got through it pretty quickly. Full of dry wit and wry observations, the book is an entertaining read.

Perhaps it could have been a bit shorter, some ideas were expounded on at lengths not in proportion to their importance, and there is a reasonable amount of repetition.

That said, there are many fun anecdotes, many careful descriptions of the life of a (mostly) travelling musician and some very cogent observations on the business side of music then and now. Anyone actually considering the possibility of making a living with their music really should read this, I don't think you will be disappointed.

I picked up Bruford's book after reading a less than glowing review but thought "Why not? As a drummer, aren't I somewhat obligated to read it?" What I expected was a lot of stories and anecdotes regarding Yes and his subsequent departure, crazy times with Robert Fripp and King Crimson as well as other glorious tales from the road. If that's your expectation as well, you're in for quite a surprise. What surfaces instead is an on going, almost open-ended discussion regarding the struggles of a musician attempting work and create within the confines of the ever shifting and changing music business. The portrait that emerges of Bruford is one of a musician with deep convictions about where he desires to go musically and the struggle to stay true to that in the face of an industry that simply has no interest in such things. This is not simply the autobiography of a very talented drummer. It is more of a discussion on the inner workings of an enormously talented musician (with some pretty strong perfectionist tendencies!) trying to reconcile his need to create, grow and survive within a market where such goals simply aren't applauded or rewarded. It's encouraging to get this kind of perspective from someone who seems to be a very genuine guy, all the while doing it with wit, humor and sarcasm. This book is highly recommended for any musician who has considered such issues. It's a great look "behind the curtain" from someone who has been looking there for a long time.