|
Post by Stranger on Mar 2, 2022 16:13:26 GMT
Disappointing book. It's basically just a guy giving his opinions on the Hollies songs without much apparent research. Mining various already published liner notes, interviews and articles could easily have put together an interesting track by track tome.
He even gets standard Hollies lore wrong like speculating who Lullaby To Tim was aimed at. He suggests Timothy Leary.
|
|
|
Post by JamesT on Mar 2, 2022 20:23:39 GMT
He even gets standard Hollies lore wrong like speculating who Lullaby To Tim was aimed at. He suggests Timothy Leary. Yes, that was a complete clanger.
|
|
|
Post by baz on Mar 2, 2022 22:59:23 GMT
Disappointing book. It's basically just a guy giving his opinions on the Hollies songs without much apparent research. Mining various already published liner notes, interviews and articles could easily have put together an interesting track by track tome. He even gets standard Hollies lore wrong like speculating who Lullaby To Tim was aimed at. He suggests Timothy Leary. Oh for goodness' sake. I'll bet Graham would get a laugh out of that clanger! Given that there are some interviews where Allan talked about how he wrote that song for his son only for Graham to have his "great" idea transforming it with that weird gargly vocal, this just goes to prove the "research" is questionable and utterly inexcusable. If I was going to attempt to write such a book, I'd have been hunting down every possible interview to glean whatever was said about what songs they spoke about. Oooh... hang about... gotta dash to the window to feed a flying pig. It's called Pegasus in case you didn't guess...
|
|
|
Post by gee on Mar 3, 2022 0:32:56 GMT
one more Alan Coates number - with Clarkey on lead vocal and Coates on high harmony vocal / guitar this gives us some idea of how The Hollies COULD have gone in the 90's....
|
|
|
Post by Mevrouw Bee on Mar 3, 2022 14:04:07 GMT
Disappointing book. It's basically just a guy giving his opinions on the Hollies songs without much apparent research. Mining various already published liner notes, interviews and articles could easily have put together an interesting track by track tome. He even gets standard Hollies lore wrong like speculating who Lullaby To Tim was aimed at. He suggests Timothy Leary. Oh, for the love of mike....
|
|
|
Post by Gralto on Apr 29, 2022 15:30:00 GMT
Hi All - my first post in AGES - sorry! I picked up this book recently and have just starting dipping into it.
My attitude is to grab every book on The Hollies regardless of reviews, quality etc as I applaud anyone who takes the time to write something substantial on the band. I can remember the time - and not THAT long ago - when there were absolutely no books dedicated to the Hollies, save for the one they 'wrote themselves' (well, as told to Anne Nightingale) in 1964. When I first put together my very humble Hollies newsletter 'Look What We've Got' in the early 1990s, it was precisely for this reason; pre-web days, there was simply so little information to be found on The H, particularly down here in Australia.
Finding a book on The Hollies in 1990 was a pipedream. Now with Bobby’s, Malcs, Southall’s and this one – on top of a few others from the past, plus Nash’s bio, Peter Doggett’s CSN(Y) book…there is a lot more literature able to be sourced on The H’s history. It’s a good thing but still leaves space for others (ahem…I’ll get there….eventually) to fill further gaps in their published history.
My first impressions - I think the author has done a satisfactory job of covering the band's recorded output, song by song, and believe most purchasers will get something out of it. I’m only a short way in and have already picked up a few little tidbits new to me (South African group The Vedettes did a cover of Please Don’t Feel Too Bad in 1966? Nice!)
On top of the song information, the author has also included plenty of text to keep the basic story of The Hollies’ history ticking alongside nicely. It’s not perfect and there are some obvious mistakes found early on – which every book contains (including the aforementioned Tony singing lead on ‘Suspicious Look In Your Eyes’ and engineer Peter Bown being named Pete Brown…it’s early days; I’m only 24 pages in…!); a pre-release read through by a knowledgable fan – many of whom lurk on this site – would clearly have benefitted the final result.
Flipping ahead, there are some other obvious quibbles - why do so many books on The Hollies have almost zero photo attribution? There is nothing in this one or in Brian Southall's for that matter indicating source, photographer or copyright holder. It appears most images in the photo section are frame grabs from television clips. But the front cover shot taken by Tony Gale of the band at the BBC’s Playhouse Theatre in early 1964 is not credited. Presumably the author paid some money to Alamy photo agency and that was it? (And of course, the nature of research brings up new errors – Alamy themselves state that the photo on this book’s cover was taken at a Saturday Club session in Feb 1964…except they didn’t record a Sat Club session in Feb 1964…. Dec 1963 then March 1964…sigh…so much info online you simply can’t trust…). It’s an interesting choice for a front cover photo given only Clarke is clearly seen!
I also noticed the new songs first issued on 1988's Rarities album were not given the same formatting and prominence as the rest of the book's entries. This should be corrected if an updated version is attempted.
Overall, at this early stage of reading through, I would still recommend this to casual fans wanting to have a nicely comprehensive understanding of the band’s recorded ouput. The author has put in a commendable level of effort here given the task at the hand, coupled with the rather modest ambitions of the publisher.
I'll post more thoughts upon conclusion of the text.
|
|
|
Post by gee on May 1, 2022 22:17:18 GMT
Besides his not mentioning Alan Coates 20 odd years or so Hollies contribution at all or including the (then) important UK compilation LP / CD 'Not The Hits Again' - with 'Wings' and, as per the compilation title, for once looking beyond the hit singles at their much overlooked album catalogue and adding the (then) quite rare EP track 'Honey And Wine'
He also seems to think Tony Hicks sang 'Burn Out' too....when a quick check on youtube would have told him otherwise...!!
|
|
|
Post by becca67 on Jul 31, 2022 1:19:39 GMT
I'd buy a Terry Sylvester book if it wasn't mostly about The Hollies! I want to know lots more about his experiences before then. I was rightly cheesed getting a Ron Wood book and there wasn't enough on The Birds, The Creation, The Jeff Beck Group and other groups before The Stones! Maybe he didn't remember enough.
|
|
|
Post by Mevrouw Bee on Jul 31, 2022 13:34:10 GMT
I'd buy a Terry Sylvester book if it wasn't mostly about The Hollies! I want to know lots more about his experiences before then. I was rightly cheesed getting a Ron Wood book and there wasn't enough on The Birds, The Creation, The Jeff Beck Group and other groups before The Stones! Maybe he didn't remember enough. I suspect the editor would have a say, wanting him to focus on what's the most "sellable." Hardcore music fans are rarely the target market for books like this...
|
|