Moon:The Life and Death of a Rock Legend - Hardcover

Fletcher, Tony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0380973375 ISBN 13: 9780380973378

Publisher: Spike, 1999

Synopsis

Keith Moon was an exception to every known rule. He revolutionized the concept of the drummer in rock & roll, leading from the back rather than offering mere support. With the Who, he achieved far greater international fame than his instrument was meant to inspire, only to treat his celebrity as an ongoing opportunity to send up the whole notion. He sneered at the dominant British stiff upper lip while appropriating it effectively enough to delete his working-class background at will. He tempted fate with an almost unparalleled intake of alcohol and drugs, beckoning the world to laugh with him at his apparent charmed existence. More than twenty years after his death, Moon is still revered as the greatest drummer in rock history and the single wildest personality in an age of pop excess. His life and work have become the stuff of legend. Here, in the pages of this masterful book, is the unvarnished truth.

Music Journalist Tony Fletcher has spent more than three years researching Keith Moon's life and interviewing dozens of Moon's friends, colleagues, and associates. The result is an instant classic, the definitive biography of one of rock's seminal figures, a work that brilliantly illuminates both the tender and self-destructive sides of this singular personality.

Wielding the force and propulsive power of a novelist, Fletcher leads the reader through Moon's whirlwind career, making his incredible creative trailblazing easily understandable even to nonmusicians. His clear-eyed reporting of Moon's hyperactive, peripatetic offstage life is compelling and comprehensive, remarkable in its ability to remain fixed on the very human being at the center of the maelstrom.

This is the story of one of the most outrageous rock stars ever born -- and one of the greatest rock biographies ever written.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The Who’s Keith Moon was the bad boy of rock & roll. Alongside Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle, Moon was the most manic member of an aggressive and fabulously successful band, a full-throttle hedonist who lived at the center of an unending party. He was also a musical genius who inspired whole generations of artists, a generous friend to nearly everyone who crossed his path, and a guileless man of immense personal charm to whom the sweetest sound on earth was surf music.

Decades after his death, Moon is still revered as the greatest drummer in rock history and the wildest personality in an age of pop excess. Venerated music journalist Tony Fletcher interviewed dozens of Moon’s friends, family, and peers—including John Entwistle, Ginger Baker, Jeff Beck, Ann-Margret, and Alice Cooper—to find the truth behind the legend. The result is one of the greatest rock biographies ever written. A brilliant portrait of both the tender and self-destructive sides of this singular personality.

About the Author

Tony Fletcher, who was born in Yorkshire, England, almost the exact week Keith Moon joined the band that would become the Who, still treasures the great drummer's autograph on a 1978 issue of the magazine Jamming!, which he started as a schoolboy in London. In the several lifetimes since, Fletcher has written books on R.E.M. and Echo and the bunnymen, contributed to magazines, newspapers, and television shows all over the world, and worked extensively as a DJ and A&R consultant. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and young son.

About this edition

• Publisher: Spike
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0380973375
• ISBN 13: 9780380973378
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 608