Roadshow: Landscape With Drums: A Concert Tour by Motorcycle by Neil Peart Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Roadshow: Landscape With Drums: A Concert Tour by Motorcycle
Book Review: Motorcycling with Life on the Road anecdotes.
Summary: 5 Stars
I believe Neil had allready secured his future as a writer years ago. I've followed Rush for many years, but when I learned of Neil's passion for riding motorcycles and getting off the beaten path during the touring schedule of Rush, I was curious.
I've read some reviews that criticize Neil's reclusiveness and his comments about Rush fans who seek him out. He rarely if ever hangs out after a concert and is usually out the venue door within 5 minutes. One would believe he neither enjoys touring nor understands the importance that he has had on millions of drummers. He clearly has difficulty dealing with his fame on the publicity end but the writing gives him an opportunity to reveal his beliefs and where his interests lie.
I enjoyed reading about his experiences just prior to the first show date. I could feel his stress as he described it. The tours from that point seem to go by pretty quickly, and we are on the road with him and his quest to obtain various National Park stamps while he describes the landscapes whizzing by him and some of the historical backround of the areas. We enter Neil's mind here on the road. He is witty, and comical at times.
This book will appeal to motorcycle enthusiasts who enjoy reading a travel narrative, as well as the Rush fan who wishes to learn more about Neil's life on the road. He does not disappoint and has all the angles covered.
Book Review: entertaining and insightful
Summary: 5 Stars
Being in a band myself and studying the "professor" of the drum kit it was a must read. Neil captures life backstage, life on the road and the inner workings of a twentieth century rock show. He starts at his front door and captures evrything that happens or can happen to you while travelling on the road. It also captures the open road and the feelings you get when having a road trip. Awesome work!Book Review: Fan blog or book review?
Summary: 3 Stars
So, what we have here is a whiney rock-star who hates his fans and a bunch of whiney fans who are either apologists or critics. It seems that the more material he puts out the more it drives people nuts who are desperate to have a personal relationship with their idol. Star power is truly amazing! Book Review: ESSENTIAL READING FOR TRAVEL FANATICS
Summary: 5 Stars
You don't have to be a Rush fan to read this; just a travel enthusiast who loves people watching and their on the spot appraisal. (We all do it)
You'll laugh out loud at times as Neil's sometimes cutting sarcasm explains things the way they really are rather than the way we are supposed to see them (based on what was "forced" on us as kids given no choices, if indeed that happened to you, if not then imagine those to whom it does).
Accross North America and pretty much all of the top left quarter of Europe, with intelligent non-biased perspectives and insights into local life.
Just don't tell Neil of the one typo (no fair) on page 298, or the misspelling of Schawartzwald! It's Schwarzwald with no "t". Isn't Schwartz some American product?
Book Review: Too boring and self-indulgent...
Summary: 1 Stars
Well, well.. This is my first review ever and the last book of Neil that I've bought. I'm a Rush fan since 1984, have all the albums, all the books...the usual stuff.
An idea that already came to my mind when reading his earlier books, although in those books there was always something compelling, became now clear to me. Neil is not writing his books for an audience, but solely for himself. A good travel writer never puts himself in the spotlight, though. Malignant narcissism? (the instrumental on the S&A album is maybe about Neil himself).
This book in particular, more than any of his previous books, is filled with tedious descriptions NOBODY is interested in (not even a Rush fan). Somewhere in the book he writes that he realizes all at once that all those people in the audience who buy his books know what's written in them and so know all those details about his personal life. Well what can I say to this? If he only figures this out in his fourth book, it's time he came down from his cloud and interact with us simple mortals, he might learn something. At a certain point I thought about advising Neil to read books of Bill Bryson to show him what travel writing is about (the perfect mix of background information, humor, dialogues, connective story writing) until I found out to my astonishment further in the book that he had read them all! He didn't learn from Bryson, on the contrary! And then all those self-references: "In traveling music I wrote this, in Ghost Rider I already cruised that highway" etc. The repetition of these events makes it even worse. After skipping the east coast part, I quickly browsed through Europe to see that he found the Dutch (I am one of them) enthusiastic in Rotterdam. Will be there again in October though to cheer him up again. And Neil: please keep to your sticks and lyrics.