This really is a beautiful book. Very affecting. The loneliness and the dreaming and the wry smiles and the whole great life force of Doc Pomus sink right into you. As a quick primer for those who don't know who he is, at various times Doc was the only crippled, jewish blues singer in america, hack writer of million selling selling teen pop records (including some timeless classics like 'save the last dance for me' and 'lonely avenue'), professorial gambler and mafia card game organizer, among other things. His life in music criss crossed with so many significant artists i could not possibly list them here, but I greatly enjoyed seeing them pop up from page to page, Big Maybelle to Rodney Dangerfield.
A lot of research has obviously gone into this book, but it's written in the style of novel for full dramatic and emotional effect. Just have a read of the of the introduction...
It's something, huh?
Here's some great descriptive parts from when he's living 'the life'...
And I love how it's always talking about the food they're eating at 5 in the morning. Makes me hongry...
And the loneliness...
And heres another bit I love describing the lobby of The Forest Hotel, where he lives while doing his well paid hackwork for hill and range...
Just read the dang book, okay?
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Did you read Art Pepper's autobiography, "Straight Life". Whoah, nelly. It was quite a read... hard to get through at times, but very fascinating.
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