nonsuch
21st September 2011, 04:37 PM
Sex and Violins
John Schroeder
John Schroeder’s account of his career as a producer for EMI and Columbia records is packed with insider information about the record industry and his encounters with legions of popular performers. From 1957- 1980 Schroeder produced or co-produced for such stars as Cliff Richard and Helen Shapiro and sundry jazz-based bands. From the account of his wartime childhood and his somewhat fraught relationship with a control-freak father, the author outlines his climb from office boy to famous producer.
Despite its title the book contains surprisingly little sex and almost no violins. For Schroeder music is sex, which he finds embedded in the rhythm of life, publicly expressed as music. Music, his obsession from adolescence, in this book outweighs even domestic issues and family life. The mere list of his achievements occupies many pages and the book is replete with photographs of the once and still famous.
My only quibble with this extremely well-produced book with its seductive cover of a Young Man of Music is the author’s penchant for tired phrases and slovenly English – the word ’meticulous’, for example, appears 4 times within 5 pages, while exclamation marks and laudatory adjectives abound. Well, that’s showbiz, folks!!!
John Schroeder
John Schroeder’s account of his career as a producer for EMI and Columbia records is packed with insider information about the record industry and his encounters with legions of popular performers. From 1957- 1980 Schroeder produced or co-produced for such stars as Cliff Richard and Helen Shapiro and sundry jazz-based bands. From the account of his wartime childhood and his somewhat fraught relationship with a control-freak father, the author outlines his climb from office boy to famous producer.
Despite its title the book contains surprisingly little sex and almost no violins. For Schroeder music is sex, which he finds embedded in the rhythm of life, publicly expressed as music. Music, his obsession from adolescence, in this book outweighs even domestic issues and family life. The mere list of his achievements occupies many pages and the book is replete with photographs of the once and still famous.
My only quibble with this extremely well-produced book with its seductive cover of a Young Man of Music is the author’s penchant for tired phrases and slovenly English – the word ’meticulous’, for example, appears 4 times within 5 pages, while exclamation marks and laudatory adjectives abound. Well, that’s showbiz, folks!!!