Customer Reviews

Steve Marriott: All Too Beautiful

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

 

 

Paolo Hewitt has done a good job of describing the tragi-lovely life of Steve Marriott, a serious rock and roller who lived to make music, instead of making music to get rich. (Readers will be shocked by how little money he made.) Clearly Marriott was gifted, funny, infuriating, and damaged by years of betrayal. The tragic parts were mitigated by Steve's optimistic outlook. The book is well researched, well-written, non-judgmental, and has a good selection of photos. I recommend Ian MacLagan's book, "All The Rage", as a good follow-up read. (MacLagan's book has a happy ending, which you will crave after reading the Marriott bio.)

I've always thought Marriott was a truely gifted musician and Humble Pie was a truely exceptional ban, but I knew very little about Steve's earlier times with the Small Faces and before. My only complaint about this book is it was written by Mods and mainly for Mods. By this I mean that almost 2/3 of the story takes place before Humble Pie happened and the authors lament endlessly through out the remainder of the book about how the quality of Marriott's music was never as good after the Small Faces. That is simply untrue. There are certainly many Humble Pie fans around that would disagree. The great Humble Pie albums like 'Rock On' are scarcely mentioned, 'Smokin' gets a whopping 1/2 page review. 'Eat It' which is certainly the best Pie album gets slammed. Everyone always complains about the sound quality of 'Eat It', it's been years since I listened to the album, but I think the reissued CD certainly does the sound justice. 'Thunderbox' is deemed the best Humble Pie album but in reality is probably the sixth out of nine. Anyway the entire Humble Pie saga runs 40 pages. Steve's life after Humble Pie is really kind of sad and at times funny. He would tell anyone where to get off. He also had a very chronic drug and alcohol problem which was surely the cause of most of his bad luck and untimately claimed his life. Having said that it was a great read and I couldn't put it down. Marriott was a huge talent and his music is alot better that 99% of the dribble that passes for song nowadays.

incredible indepth writing, you actually feel like you are there with steve and his bands! great photos and an absolutely fascinating story, ultimately heartbreaking but what a ride!! we miss you steve but you will always be with us in your music.

This is a story fleshed out through numerous interviews with people who were connected or involved with Steve Marriott at various points in his life. It is a sad story that I found quite frustrating at times (as a fan) because you realise how the booze, drugs and record industry parasites distracted and distorted his potential to further develop his musical talents.

This is a great read for anyone interested in Steve, or the story of The Small Faces and/or Humble Pie. The author is non judgemental, and appears to have researched the life and times of Steve Mariott in detail

This book isn't so much a Steve Marriott bio as a Small Faces bio. Steve's years with Humble Pie are given incredibly short shrift, and what precious little Humble Pie coverage there is sounds almost dismissive in tone. The end result is that the authors come off sounding more like starry-eyed Small Faces fans than objective investigators or historians. Marriott's American fans would have been better served had the authors enlisted a third party who might have offered a better-researched, more thorough, and more thoughtful overview of the Pie years. For just such an account, I wholeheartedly recommend Jerry Shirley's memoir "Best Seat in the House." Mr. Shirley's outstanding book provided the window on Humble Pie for which I searched "All Too Beautiful" in vain.

The first thing I said to myself after reading this well crafted biography was two words...'what if?'. I'm always fearful of people becoming famous at a young age and not having the tools to deal with it. Steve Marriott was the poster boy for this. Musically, he was incredibly gifted, but business wise and personally, he scraped the bottom of the barrel. What if Peter Frampton had joined the Small Faces? What if Marriott had joined the Stones? There are so many questions offered here. The supporting cast of managers Dee Anthony, Don Arden, guitarist Peter Frampton, Ronnie Lane, his 3 wives and hangers-on make this a must for any music fan.