Waylon: An Autobiography
by Waylon Jennings
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Book Summary Information
Author: Waylon JenningsCollaborator: Lenny Kaye
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-09-01
ISBN: 0446518654
Number of pages: 418
Publisher: Warner Books, Inc.
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780446518659
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Waylon: An Autobiography
Book Review: +1/2 - The extraordinary life of an extraordinary artist
Summary: 4 Stars
Jennings is widely regarded as one of the all-time greats of country music, and his autobiography goes a long way to explaining how he got there. Most revealing is the incredible string of mentors who helped fashion Jennings' career, both as an artist and as a businessman, the generosity with which he gives credit to others, and the bidirectional fluidity between his private and artistic lives. Jennings writes openly about both the good and the bad in his life, and is unsparing of himself in describing his problematic early marriages and womanizing, extensive drug taking, and legendary beefs with those who stood in the way of his artistic visions.
The book begins slowly with the requisite description of Jennings' childhood, but picks up as he turns into a teenager. His early association with Buddy Holly is extraordinary, both for his service as protégé to one of rock 'n' roll's early architects, and for the sophistication with which the 20-something Holly tutored his charge. Many of Jennings later run-ins with Nashville can be traced back to career advice he received from Holly. Jennings' descriptions of his early years as a performer in Tucson are vivid, as are his associations with Bobby Bare, Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Jack Clement, each a seminal figure in Jennings' development. His move to Nashville offers up terrific details of great songwriters with whom Jennings crossed paths at the Boar's Nest, Harlan Howard's office and various bars, lounges and clubs. His portrait of Chet Atkins remains sympathetic, even as their relationship moved from hero worship to adversaries. Jennings convincingly explains that transition as a combination of and the individualist rock 'n' roll inspired ambitions first planted in him by Holly and the effects of Jennings' drug abuse.
Unlike the "Outlaw" press packages that suggest Jennings got fed up and broke free all at once, he describes a dissatisfaction with Nashville that grew in bits and pieces. Nashville's tight-knit, in-bred business world left artists starving on the road, while the insular major label promotion staffs in Los Angeles and New York ignored their country music counterparts. Worse yet for a road warrior (and early rock 'n' roller) like Jennings, the labels insisted he record with studio hands that had no grit and couldn't swing. After giving Nashville their shot at making him a star, he grew estranged by its limits and his lack of success, and after Atkins saddled him with less sympathetic producers, he launched a successful battle for artistic freedom.
Jennings describes how a canny New York lawyer (Neil Reshen) helped him break free of Nashville's constraints (both artistically and financially), and how a fraternity of like-minded musicians, including Tompall Glaser, Shel Silverstein, Kinky Friedman, Guy Clark and Jimmy Bowen developed an alternate way doing things at Glaser's Hillbilly Central studio. Jennings and his co-writer do a good job of pulling the early threads through the story, giving the reader a sense of why things happened, in addition to what happened. There are some terrifically insightful passages on touring, such as "the shows become stop-overs, the highway is where you spend most of your time. In transit. In transition." Jennings shows uncommon introspection about his career and his relationship to his audience and fans, and though his recitations on drug use get repetitious, they provide the set-up for his eventual recovery. A few writerly turns suggest the hand of Lenny Kaye, but most of this autobiography sounds like Jennings.
A few redundant passages would have benefited from tighter copy editing, but overall this is a compelling and informative read that will magnify any fan's appreciation of Jennings' work. 4/1-2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]
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