Customer Reviews

Go Ahead John: The Music of John McLaughlin

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

 

 

The book starts off very well with interesting antecdotes of McLaughlin's early years. As it progresses, however, there is very little information about McLaughlin the man. There is also very little discription about his years with Miles Davis and the time he spent in India with Shakti. Most of the book seems to focus primarily on reviewing each album one after the other, but many of the reviews are not positive.

Granted, the book is subtitled the "music" of John Mclaughlin, and there is definitely some worthwhile information in the book for McLaughlin fans. A book about his life is long overdue. Its unfortunate that it could not have been written by a closer source or perhaps from the man himself.

I paid around $4.00 because I found it through Amazon marketplace , and due to that I suppose I got my moneys' worth for the extensive discography appendix included at the rear of the book . Paul Stump , the author , finds something wrong with every single album recorded over a very long 40+ year career . The tone of the book was bitter enough to make me question why Stump would even want to write about McLaughlin in the first place . I found out about guest appearances made by McLaughlin on other artists' albums that I did not know about due to the discography mentioned earlier , other than that , the book was a very difficult read due to the attitude of the author . I would compare the pleasantness of reading this book to having several teeth extracted at the same without the benefit of anesthesia .

I have just read this tome and I am totally disgsuted. Not only is it no more than a poor extended record review but this author has made some HUGE mistakes. 1) pg38 "..the presence of two of the Band of Gypsies, Buddy Miles and the bassist Billy Rich.. His name is Billy Cox!!! 2) pg51 "..when he regarded the astronomical sucess his (white, with the exception of Herbie Hancock) proteges would win... When did Herbie turn white? The mundane droll that ensues could possibly be tolerated if the book was not riddled with such blantant mistakes. I would suggest anyone interested in this book purchase John McLaughlin cds instaed.

This book, written by someone that says he loves Mclaughlin's music, show's very little in the way of love for the music or the man. A total waste of paper and ink.

There is almost nothing interesting in this book.

This is a tireless history of John McLaughlin and the amazing places and experiences that he has had. Paul Stump has some great insight, as well.