Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out

The late rock promoter recounts his life as a refugee from the Holocaust, his rise to fame in the recording industry, and his launching of such stars as Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, and the Grateful Dead. 75,000 first printing. $75,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Rock music promoter Graham and Greenfield ( STP: A Journey Through America with the Rolling Stones ) were collaborating on this unfailingly entertaining portrait when Graham died in a helicopter crash in 1991. The book's chronological but unusual format--it consists almost entirely of freestanding quotes, without transitional narration--works well. Sources include Graham's family, members of the Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and actor Peter Coyote; Graham, shrewd and outspoken, tells anecdotes of his own and never misses a chance to rebut his illustrious colleagues who reminisce here. His tale is the stuff of legends: a Jew born in Germany in 1931 and orphaned soon after, he was evacuated to France in 1939 and sent to the U.S. in 1941. He lived with a foster family in the Bronx, working as a waiter and cabbie until he found his calling as a rock impresario in 1960s San Francisco. Notoriety and controversy followed--for the next quarter century, he had a hand in everything from the Trips Festival to the Fillmore West to Woodstock to Live Aid to Amnesty International's Conspiracy of Hope tour. This look at a businessman unencumbered by timidity is recommended reading as an often hilarious overview of rock 'n' roll. Photos not seen by PW. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This lively, loose autobiography of rock's most respected promoter pieces together hundreds of oral interviews with Graham, his family, friends, musicians, agents, and so forth, with connecting passages by Greenfield. The format works well, for the additional comments temper Graham's colorful but frequently caustic and confrontational style. Graham died before the book was finished, and there is an incomplete feel to the story, but all the major events in the impresario's life (e.g., the Fillmore concerts, the Led Zeppelin fight, the Rolling Stones tours, etc.) are covered. The book provides an insightful insider's view of the music industry by one of rock's greatest figures. Recommended for both public and academic libraries.--Debora Richey, California State Univ.
Fullerton Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.