Musicians in Tune: 75 Contemporary Musicians Discuss the Creative Process

Rock and jazz musicians discuss the creative drive, the unconscious, peak artistic experiences, drugs and creativity, and creative potential

Boyd used her familial connections to the rock 'n' roll world--she was married to Mick Fleetwood, and her sister married George Harrison and later Eric Clapton--to interview 75 musicians, ranging from Queen Latifah to Ravi Shankar, about creativity. This book, which began as a doctoral thesis in psychology, is packed with information and opinions about phenomena such as the "peak experience"--a euphoria felt during performance--and the "visionary mode"--a sense that the act of creation seems to happen without one's conscious will. Sometimes, however, where one anecdote would have sufficed, Boyd piles them on, the performers echoing one another's ideas--such as the fact that they all had a special relative who encouraged their talent. Boyd also weaves in the story of her own creative self-awakening, but her revelations fail to ignite much excitement, especially when they are forced to compete with George Harrison's description of how perplexed the Beatles were by their own popularity, or Eric Clapton's acknowledgment of the hold that alcohol once had over him. Still, this is an often-fascinating glimpse into the inner lives of performing artists.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Based on author Boyd's doctoral dissertation, this work is the result of interviews conducted with rock, pop, rap, country, and jazz musicians from 1987 to 1991. Artists, ranging from the truly gifted (Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Ravi Shankar) to the marginally talented (Julian Lennon, Peter Frampton), were given the same set of questions from which the authors gleaned interesting musings on the creative process. Boyd, the ex-wife of Mick Fleetwood, knows the music business, but has a simplistic approach to psychology and tends to lapse into psychobabble. Quotes from "in" psychologists are interspersed with brief and frequently trite responses from artists. Nothing new or insightful is presented here. Not an essential purchase.-- Deborah Richey, California State Univ.
Fullerton Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.