Picture of author.
3 Works 79 Membros 4 Críticas

About the Author

Includes the name: Peter 'Dougal' Butler

Image credit: Jim Summaria

Obras por Dougal Butler

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Sexo
male
Ocupações
biographer
roadie

Membros

Críticas

For a told-to memoir of the drug-addled days of a rock-n-roll drummer and his p.a., this book is surprisingly well-told and often hilarious. The scribes kept the author's cockney voice, which is a part of what makes it work so well (there's even a glossary in the back of the book as an added bonus--which is a bit like A Clockwork Orange, come to think of it). I read this in high school (I was and am a huge Who fan), picked it up recently to peruse, and was amazed at how engaging I still found it. Which is either a testament to how well it's written, or how little I've matured.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
alexlubertozzi | 2 outras críticas | May 24, 2021 |
As a diehard Who fan for 30 years and counting, I had great expectations prior to reading this. I’ve watched Dougal Butler’s interviews in three documentaries on Keith Moon (countless times over), and he’s always among the best interviewees.

To a degree, my expectations were satisfied, but not to the extent I’d hoped for. For one thing, certain information is inaccurate, such as the author’s recollection of the incident at the Cow Palace. I have this concert on DVD, and Mr Butler’s memory doesn’t fully match the evidence on film.

His memory is “like a sieve”, to quote him early on in the book, which doesn’t fill the reader with confidence. Because his memory for dates, etc., are this bad, he doesn’t portray a chronological account of his time with my favourite drummer. Rather, he goes for an episodic approach, dedicating a different subject matter to each chapter.

Although I prefer my biographies lineal and with dates – not necessarily to the day, but at least the year – I still enjoyed this collection of wild and often amusing stories of Keith Moon’s “days off” on the most part.

The only thing I really disliked was the narrative being written in the present tense. Past tense will always rule for me, though I know more and more authors opt for the present. To me, it doesn’t flow as naturally as the past tense. Specifically in this book, the present tense sounded so unnatural at times that I needed to re-read certain sentences to grasp their meaning.

Overall, this isn’t what I’d hoped for, but it’s definitely worth the read nonetheless.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
PhilSyphe | 2 outras críticas | Sep 19, 2018 |
Well, it certainly did take me a while to read this book.

I'd been interested in reading this book for many, many years. Originally this book was released around 1980, and only went through a single printing if I'm not mistaken. Being how it was around '05 or '06 that I first heard of this book it was already long out of print, copies of it for sale were startlingly rare, and it was a lucky day when you could find a copy for sale for $80. On an unlucky day it could go up to $300 easy.

The ebook that I ended up purchasing was released in June of this year, and was considerably cheaper. The interview with Mr. Butler at the beginning was well worth getting the 2012 copy of the book, let alone all the stories contained therein. This chronicle of Keith Moon's life was fascinating, bittersweet, and all in all one of the best portraits I've ever seen as to the extremes by which Keith Moon lived his short life.

[a:Dougal Butler|284455|Dougal Butler|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg] conveys the generosity of Moon, along with his madness. On the subject of Moon's treatment of Kim he is both blunt and apologetic. At the book's end I found myself feeling the compassion and frustration that I imagine Butler felt. Nothing much happened, yeah, and then Moon died. There could have been more in Moon's life - there could have been a lot, but that just wasn't the way the fellow was cracked up to be.

There was a lot of trivia in the book that a Who fan would find interesting - from how Dougal got the nickname by which he is not commonly called, to how Moon and Ringo ended up as close as they were. All in all, however, I shudder to think at what the Moon fangirls I've known in my life would think of these stories. [a:Dougal Butler|284455|Dougal Butler|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg] put a very, very human face on Moon. I'm thinking that the people who were unable to finish reading [a:Tony Fletcher|22791|Tony Fletcher|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1348064514p2/22791.jpg]'s biography on Moon will be equally unhappy with the stark reality [b:Full Moon|237665|Kitten's First Full Moon|Kevin Henkes|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348819209s/237665.jpg|330237] shows.

Keith Moon was a tragic figure for sure, and his legend only grows as the years without him roll by.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Lepophagus | 2 outras críticas | Jun 14, 2018 |
Worth reading if you want a no-frills, laugh-a-page, unexpurgated and unchronological celebration of the drum-meister's unique attitude. Would they allow this to be printed today?
 
Assinalado
Novantae | Mar 9, 2008 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
3
Membros
79
Popularidade
#226,897
Avaliação
3.8
Críticas
4
ISBN
6

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