Customer Reviews

Merle Haggard's My House of Memories : For the Record

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a very major fan of Merle Haggard, and feel he is one of the best songwriters we have in America. I think this added to my disappointment in this book. I had already read his 1981 biography, SING ME BACK HOME, so was really surprised to start reading this book which is about 4/5 a duplication of that book. Not only is the typeprint in this book LARGE, there is almost no additional information in this book. Merle, with the life you have led, you certainly could have offered different stories than the ones you did 18 years ago.

I also learned a lesson about ordering on-line, maybe the good old bookstore would have been a good idea when deciding if I really wanted to spend the $$$ on this rehash!

Years back, I read Merle's first biography, "Sing Me Back Home". This was very in-depth and interesting; which I found this book totally opposite of. There are parts of this book which you know are Merle's words, and others, which are clearly Tom Carter's. There, it's an inconsistency.

Merle chooses to delete certain information which he reveals in his first biography, so therefore, it really isn't a secret. Also, some of the language used in this book is deplorable. The point can be well made with those words omitted.

Overall, I prefer his first book. While that one only extended to a certain point of his life, it was better-written and held the reader's interest much better. This book should've been written the same way, and picked-up where the other one left off. Instead, it rehashes old facts which we already know.

I enjoyed the book, but I thought it could have been so much better. I learned more about Merle Haggard than I knew before. I liked the stories and Merle's sense of humor. I just think there was something missing. I can't really put my finger on what it is, but I was expecting more. The book was pretty good though. I read it cover to cover. I am sure anyone who likes Merle Haggard will enjoy this book.

Through the hobo jungles to performing at the white house. Merle Haggard has lived a life most of us only read about or see on the big screen. Born in a boxcar, he lost his father at the age of nine. This sent him on a downhill fall that landed him inside San Quentin Penitentiary at twenty years old. Upon his release from prison he was determined to make a go in the music business. After forty one number one singles and millions of dollars (most of which was sqaundered away) to his current happy home with wife number five and there two children. Merle Haggard has done it all.

I'm a big Meryl fan, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading his book. It's well written, and good reading for anyone who likes autobiography.

The second (!) autobiography of country singer/songwriter Merle Haggard. Very interesting for his fans, for others I'd recommend his music instead. His reputation as "the poet of the common man" is not undeserved. The book deals mostly with his misspent youth which wound up with him doing a stretch in San Quentin prison, before he really discovered his talent and got his life together, including 42 #1 hits on the country charts, playing at Carnegie Hall and the White House, etc. This was an abridged audio book, engagingly read by Merle himself.

Merle's genius for lyric and creativity shines through some of the rough and ugly stories that help us understand him. A lot of the language is rough but it is part of the story that better defines the experiences that made Merle who he is. There are many times throughout the book where Merle's descriptions and thoughts ring with poetic flare.

I grew up in Bakersfield and often heard stories about the legendary Blackboard, Lucky Spot and Texas Barrell House on Union. I have family that are rumored to have sung with him at times and used to watch Merle play before he was starting out. I could appreciate many of the stories described in the book and have worked the same oilfields and packing sheds he describes. I don't live there anymore but I do go back and visit.

Over the course of the book it becomes clear how Merle has been able to completely turn around his life around and gain control of his finances, his family, his career and most importantly his spirituality.

I enjoyed the book very much. I grew up listening to Merle Haggard. I wish I could meet him someday, one ol' Bakersfield boy to another and just pick the guitar with him.

I picked up this book because I am a Haggard fan and what I knew of his life fascinated me. I was interested in learning more. This book is heavily focused on the years before his rise to superstardom. By heavily, I mean about 80% of its pages. That is not a bad thing because you definitely get a sense of what a truly restless youth he was and how growing up in juvenile halls and, ultimately, going to prison influenced his drive toward music and left a shadow over his life.

As others here have stated, his life post-1963 is not well-covered in this book. Really, what I gathered from this book is that his early life was so eventful that it was worthy of a full-length book, and this is that book. The next volume probably needs to be written (I have not read Sing Me Back Home, though).

I also have to say that the writing style was sometimes sort of 'jaunty' in the sense that the authors would be telling you a story about 1956 but then suddenly (and often with difficulty) connect it to an event in, say, 1993. And to be quite frank, a few pages were sort of rambling and boring. There also was at least one big topic -- his father's death -- that I felt was not covered well, especially considering the impact it obviously had on his life. Finally, there were numerous typos from misplaced words to mispelled words.

While it may be unfair to compare them, the autobiographies of Waylon Jennings (Waylon Jennings: An Autobiography) and Johnny Cash (Cash: The Autobiography)were much better (and in that order). Overall, I have to say that I enjoyed reading this book and learning about Merle's early years. He is unquestionably the 'real deal', so to speak, and I feel there are few artists around who can say that.

If you are a fan of Merle Haggard, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

I enjoyed reading this book about a singer whose music I've always loved. Tom Carter did a good job with the chatty style, and I liked Merle's humor and honesty and humility. I highly recommend the book.