Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me [Large Print] [Paperback]

Marlon Brando (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 13, 1994

An honest, revealing self-portrait by the critically acclaimed, fiercely independent actor discusses his early life, career, world travels, social activism, and profiles of friends, lovers, and professional colleagues. (Biography).

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The publisher reportedly paid $5 million for this book but expects to recoup its investment; after all, this will be the only Brando autobiography available. Lindsey, who authored the prize-winning The Falcon and the Snowman, also helped Ronald Reagan when he faced writer's block over his autobiography. A 500,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

When Marlon Brando, playing Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, bemoaned the fact that he "coulda been somebody," audiences hung onto his words, but according to Brando, the role "was actor-proof, a scene that demonstrated how audiences often do much of the acting themselves in an effectively told story. " Brando's evaluation of his acting and that of other celebrated actors, e.g., Olivier in Wuthering Heights, mark this rumination on his life. In his analysis of his films, from Streetcar to The Freshman, the master tries hard to demonstrate hubris and to provide public lessons. At the same time, he claims that luck, physical desires, and the need to make money motivate him. The book, which the publisher would not release in galleys, strikes the reader as a confession, an attempt to set the record straight, to circumvent "a carrion press that has an insatiable appetite for salaciousness and abhors being denied access to anyone, from pimps to presidents." Is it coincidence that Manso's unauthorized Brando and this book are being published a month apart? Whatever its raison d'{ˆ}etre, Songs My Mother Taught Me has much to offer. First, it's beautifully illustrated, beginning before the text with 24 pages of photographs covering Brando's early life, continuing with a number of well-placed photos documenting various film shoots, and concluding with 32 pages of photographs near the end. Brando's account of his early years rings true as he records the frailties of his alcoholic parents. His anecdotes about work and play are entertaining and memorable, and he addresses the many social causes he has championed. It's an interesting, albeit incomplete, work: according to coauthor Lindsey, Brando promised to "hide nothing . . . except his marriages and his children." (So many marriages, so many children.) Readers of Manso can't come here to find Brando's side of his marital troubles or the perplexing murder of his daughter's husband at the hands of his son. But they will find insight into the life of a man who was definitely a contender. Bonnie Smothers --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 575 pages
• Publisher: Random House Large Print (September 13, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679756922
• ISBN-13: 978-0679756927
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,114,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The one you need, April 26, 2006

By 

Snorre Smari Mathiesen "Buster" (Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me (Hardcover)

After I read Marlon Brando's own memoirs, my view on him changed. That he was one of the most brilliant actors in history is a fact most people are aware of, but what fewer know is that he was a very intelligent man who helped discriminated folk groups more than many. I knew this even before I read this book, SONGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME. But what I was not aware of, was how sensitive and funny he could be when he felt comfortable. I believe much of his "tough" behavior simply was an image. Not all the time, of course, he was very masculine and could --which he admits in this book-- be brutal at times, but this side of him is obviously exaggerated by the press through the years.

After a four-page long introduction by Robert Lindsey, who put this book together with Brando, the actor opens chapter I with the sentence, "As I stumble back across the years of my life trying to recall what it was about, I find that nothing is really clear." I respectfully disagree with this. Brando tells his story with so many interesting, funny and sad details and comments that I can't do anything else. The sentence that follows, however, is more telling -- "I suppose the first memory I have was when I was too young to remember how young I was. I opened my eyes, looked around in the mouse-colored light and realized that Ermi was still asleep, so I dressed myself as best as I good and went down the stairs, left one foot first on each step."

Ermi was the childhood love of Marlon (or 'Bud,' as he was referred to at that time). She was his nurse maid, and he writes lovingly about how she took care of him during his earliest years. But only a few months after his first school year began, she married a man Marlon never got a chance to even see and left him. Although Marlon tells the story with understanding, there is a clear bitterness between the lines. At the time Ermi said good-bye, Marlon discovered a heart-breaking fact -- his parents were abused to alcohol. This did, of course, not make the situation more pleasant.

Marlon's picture of his mother, Dorothy is filled with bitter-sweet love, while his father, Marlon Sr., is described as a "brutal bar-fighter." He had his reasons. During his teens, he and his sisters (two and four years older than him) had to bring their mother home from the police station often once a week after a "night out." In these circumstances, it happened now and then that their father took his wife upstairs and beat her. One time when this was the case, Marlon ran up to the bed-room, put his teeth in a Goliat-position and said terrifying, "If you ever touch her again, I will kill you."

In spite of such unhappy memories, Brando's pre-acting years are also often described with much humor. Escpecially one episode impressed me. While he was in a military school --which he hated but his father had sent him there-- one thing annoyed him more than anything else -- a bell that rang every quarter. One night he stole the bell and buried it. The next day, the school had never been as quiet before. They finally had to use a tromphet to make the ring signals, and every time the instrument made a sound, Marlon fell on the ground with laughter.

When he was twenty, he went to New York to make a living as an actor (though "only to survive"). He began his career on Actor's Studios, where later many other great actors, James Dean among them, would start their careers. His "wonderful teacher Stella Adler" saw what she had between her hands, and after some small parts in a couple of so-so Broadway plays, he got his chance as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee William's masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947. Brando was praised from the beginning on. But Brando himself has several times --also in this book-- claimed that he don't care about Stanley Kowalski, a brutal bar-fighter (do you see the resemblances?). "He isn't impressed of anything, I detest the character," is Brando's words, which puzzled a whole world, myself included. Marlon Brando's portrait of Stanley Kowalski is --together with his portrait of Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront and Don Corleone in The Godfather-- the best acting he ever did.

Streetcar was filmed in 1951, and was a huge hit. It made Brando world famous. But he admits in his autobiography that he truly would have been happier if he had not been a movie star.

Brando describes each film he appeared in with interesting and funny notes, how he became the characters he went into, etc. A deilightful surprise was that he actually co-wrote a lot on several of his movies, including Sayonara, The Young Lions, The Godfather, Last Tango in Paris, The Missouri Breaks and Apocalypse Now. The characters in these movies were his creations in every way.

Although he has left out information about his three marriages and comes out with only a little --actually very little-- stuff about his children, Brando's private life is tension and funny reading through the whole book. He tells shamelessly about a handful of his affairs with all kinds of women, about his love for animals, about his temperament --like when he knocked out the front windows of a bus with both fists-- and when he gradually learned to control this anger. The life on Teitora --the island where he had the happiest moments of his life-- are described with deep love and yet honesty for the Tahitian people.

There is something for everyone here, but personally, I found the chapters where he confirms his political opinions and his views on human nature most interesting. I agreed with almost everything. It helped me a lot to understand human behavior and it was a very good source to a school test I was forced to do while I still was reading the book.

No doubt. Marlon Brando was one of the greatest actors in history, we know that. But besides, he was also one of the greatest storytellers in history. Buy, rent or steal this book (personally I bought it here on Amazon.com), read it, and then you know everything you need to know about the genius Marlon Brando. You don't need to be a fan of him already to enjoy this book, but it is doubtful that you can read it through without becoming it.

Peter Manso's mammoth-book might be filled with information, but it's cynically written and dwells on names and incidents over and over again, without very many conclusions. SONGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME is a wonderfully told biography which reads like one of the most affecting novels I've ever put my hands on.

Forget the ridiculous gossip-books -- this is the one you need.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost Succeeds, December 4, 2005

By 

Jimmy (Birmingham, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me (Hardcover)

This book provides great insight into Marlon Brando, the man, and his view of the world and himself in it. Marked by poignant, eloquent, intelligent, and fascinating interludes on philosophy, history, and--perhaps most surprisingly--the craft of acting itself, readers will enjoy getting to know the Brando behind the tabloid images and salacious gossip mongers. Brando also almost succeeds in his thinly-veiled project of deconstructing his own myth. Perhaps betraying just how deeply his father's early and constant beratements of his abilities and potential affected him ("You'll never amount to anything"), Brando cannot seem to believe that he did anything out of the ordinary. He is beyond disparaging about his own acting and dismissive of his titanic achievements in cinema, art, and cultural redefinition. Generally considered the finest actor of all time, Brando--in two separate decades--twice revolutionized acting and redefined the medium. He was a liberal and a humanitarian eminently more interested in making a contribution to humankind in some other (in his words, "more important") endeavor than acting. He several times states that not all is black and white, it is a "polka dot" world, and he is understanding of the shortcomings of others. Yet he is a harsh judge of himself and seems to view his own life in either/or terms. He succeeded in important ways in helping mankind or he frittered away his talents on the meaningless if lucrative game of acting. Still, his achievement as well as the pervasiveness of his cultural influence (think blue jeans and t-shirts), despite his own discounting of it here, was remarkable. Sensitive, thoroughly enjoyable, very funny, and exceedingly humble, this memoir is not complete, but it gives us a window into the mind of one of the most remarkable and influential personalities of the last century.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing. Period., June 26, 2000

By 

"sparklyh" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me (Paperback)

Marlon Brando is a rare man, a deep and churning soul, and his lyrical journey into self is vulnerable and honest. He lays himself open on these pages, discussing himself and his world intelligently and ardently. He doesn't merely touch on his celebrity journey; he takes us further and shows us his causes and passions, all the dimensions that make his life purposeful and valuable beyond playing make believe on the silver screen.

Brando's avoidance here of his personal relationships with wives and children is admirable; he owes us no explanations and fully deserves to keep such intimacies as private as he chooses. I did not miss these details, so full was this chronicle, for he gives us something better: a thoughtful, sometimes raw look at the relationships which formed him. Parents, siblings, friends... these are the figures central to Brando the boy, who still seems to tremble not so far under the skin of Brando the man.

It is impossible to review such a complicated man and his amazing, personal story in less than 1,000 words. The best review for "Songs My Mother Taught Me" is, in fact, "Songs My Mother Taught Me." It's not another cheesy celebrity expose'; it's a detailed gaze into the sensitive and firey soul of a rebel poet. It bears multiple readings, for this isn't just a book about a movie star. It's a book about a thriving and vital human being.