White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s

Description

When Muddy Waters came to London at the start of the '60s, a kid from Boston called Joe Boyd was his tour manager; When Dylan went electric at the Newport Festival, Joe Boyd was plugging-in his guitar; when the summer of love got going, Joe Boyd was running the coolest club in London, the UFO; when a bunch of club regulars calledPink Floyd recorded their first single, Joe Boyd was the producer; when a young songwriter named Nick Drake wanted to give his demo tape to someone, he chose Joe Boyd. More than any previous '60s autobiography, Joe Boyd's White Bicycles offers the real story of what it was like to be there at the time. His greatest coup is bringing to life the famously elusive figure of Nick Drake - the first time he's been written about by anyone who knew him well. As well as the '60s heavy-hitters, this book also offers wonderfully vivid portraits of a whole host of other musicians: everyone from the great jazzman Coleman Hawkins to the folk diva Sandy Denny, Lonnie Johnson to Eric Clapton, The Incredible String Band to Fairport Convention.

Record and film producer Joe Boyd was born in Boston in 1942 and graduated from Harvard in 1964. He went on to produce Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, REM and many others. He produced the documentary Jimi Hendrix and the film Scandal. In 1980 he started Hannibal Records and ran it for 20 years. Boyd lives in London where he writes for the Guardian and Independent.

An excellent memoir * Sunday Express * [Boyd] was at the heart of the action... But there's much to interest non-music fans as well * Mail on Sunday * Drake's suicide provides the memoir with its most poignant episode, but there are plenty of colourful anecdotes * Sunday Telegraph * Gloriously entertaining... even those unfamiliar with back catalogues and B-sides will be intrigued by Boyd's ability to dish the dirt * Observer * From Dylan to Pink Floyd, Boyd was there and luckily for us, he can remember it all * Daily Express * The simple brilliance of "White Bicycles" is that its author never overstates his own importance or exaggerates his failings, and still ends up telling an irresistible tale. * New York Times * A brisk, wised-up and highly entertaining consideration of a crucial musical epoch's many facets. * Kirkus * One of the most entertaining and insightful rock 'n' roll books I've read -- Noel Mengel * Courier Mail, Brisbane Australia *