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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent biography!, July 30, 2003
This review is from: Unfinished Business - The Life and Times of Danny Gatton (Book) (Paperback)
Finally! The long awaited biography of Danny Gatton by Ralph Heibutzki has arrived. The best biographies provide insight into the character, motives, and personality of their subject. Who was Danny Gatton? In answering this question, Heibutzki has done an admirable job. Through many, many interviews from all the people who were part of Danny Gatton's life; family and friends, I know so much more about this brilliant musician who Steve Vai (no slouch guitarist himself!) describes on the cover jacket, "...Danny Gatton comes closer to anyone else to being the best guitar player to ever live." What drove Gatton to suicide? How did he view himself as a
musician? Why was he at once once blase about fame and at
the same time so driven to acquire it? At one point, he
forgot to call John Fogerty back to join his band, but was
clearly very excited to be signed to Elektra Records.
He craved the notoriety and money that came with stardom,
but would rather play small clubs close to home and
work on customizing vintage cars. Why wasn't he more famous? Wasn't he arguably the best?
Maybe it was precisely because of his extraordinary skill
level. Can it be that he could only be appreciated by other
musicians or guitarists? Many people (non musicians) I play
his music for elicit a "ho hum" reaction, while my mind is
reeling with his stunning technique and musicianship. Who
knows? As someone who knew him observed, "he never threw
away a note". Those issues, and more, are addressed in this biography,
and I feel after reading it that I know Danny Gatton, the
person, a bit more. Good job Ralph!
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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very good biography with a couple of weak points., January 21, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Unfinished Business - The Life and Times of Danny Gatton (Book) (Paperback)
I enjoyed this book overall. It gives one a good enough idea of who Danny Gatton was and what made him such a respected guitarist. I knew a little about Gatton going in, not a lot though, and I feel like the author succeeded in filling in the blanks. I also thought the book handled Gatton's unfortunate death in an objective fashion while remaining sensitive to the emotional issues involved.
[Reviewer note: This review was edited on 02/07/2005. After looking it over again, I decided it appeared a bit more negative than I had actually intended.]
But this book also has a couple of problems, I think. The most significant being that, in an effort to give Gatton the status he deserves, the author includes a fair amount of material that puts down other great guitarists as a way of building Gatton up. You can see this, for example, on page 76 with regard to Chet Atkins, and at other times throughout the book with some other guitarists.
This happens most often, though, in relation to Roy Buchanan. And I particularly think that's a shame. Danny and Roy were both great guitar players, two of the greatest of all time, in fact, and neither one gets near the recognition he deserves. That being so, I don't see where pitting them against each other adds much to the discussion. But regardless, which one was 'better' is highly debatable, and the relative status of the two should be presented fairly as such, as was done in Phil Carson's Roy Buchanan: American Axe.
The other thing I thought could have been improved would have been for the book to have spent a little more time giving us an idea of who Danny Gatton was as a person. Don't get me wrong, it does give you a better idea of who he was, and the book certainly does a great job covering Gatton's music and career, but I didn't come away from the book feeling like I really knew the man behind the guitar god, at least not as well as I would have liked.
This is a very worthwhile book though, despite the minor drawbacks. You may want to supplement the book with some CDs to get a better feel for Gatton's status as an elite guitar player, and who his influences were. Of course that starts with Danny Gatton CDs, but I would also suggest picking CDs by the following: Roy Buchanan, Hank Garland, Lenny Breau, and Tal Farlow.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thorough Research & an Appreciative Ear, October 28, 2004
This review is from: Unfinished Business - The Life and Times of Danny Gatton (Book) (Paperback)
The other reviewers have discussed the merits of Danny's playing, so I will mostly stick to extolling the book. Heibutzki talked to just about everybody, and found most if not all of the print material and used this in his thoughtful, comprehensive biography.
As an interviewer, the author got his subjects to open up, and what they say frequently tells as much about themselves as about Danny. As a consequence, the reader gets a sense of the mileau of clubs, studios, band and record label politics, and Washington DC and Southern Maryland music and lifestyle from the 60's to the 90's. A great deal of attention is paid to Danny's interest in cars, and his family life, as well as his early days gigging in various teenage bands and with Liz Meyer & Friends before he became "unfamous".
Also, the book comes with a bibliography and discography, as well as a useful index, showing the author's almost academic thoroughness.
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