But I and I Know...
FINALLY! 16th book of 2012 completed. My goodness, that took a long time. Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley by Timothy White.
Likelihood of me recommending this book to anyone (out of 5) - 3.5 out of 5. I hate to give it a lower review, but allow me to explain. This book has a lot of what I consider to be useless filler/unnecessarily heavy research. Examples include: I don't need lengthy background information on the music producer, every politician in Jamaica, each band member, etc. You see what I mean? I want to read a book about Bob frickin' Marley's life, not Bob Marley's life and those of every single person he encountered. Ya dig? Way too much convoluted information about the politics in Jamaica. I realize some of it is necessary, but not to this degree. I ended up skimming through large portions of the book because they were boring, tedious, and had nothing to do with Bob himself (this is part of the reason it took me so long to read). A large junk of the book is posthumous information...but, again, useless information! The lawsuits his family went through are relevant, as well as the lives of his family; however, describing the political climate after Bob's death, or giving a discography of surviving band member(s), is not something I'm interested in. I finished reading this book feeling like the author barely touched on Bob's life compared to the amount of research he put into everything else. Oh, one part that really bugged me was the author's description of the recording session of the song Jah Live. His description was that it was thunderous, virtually shaking the building as Bob screamed the lyrics. Uhhhh...kay? If you listen to the song, it sounds kind of sombre with passion, but certainly not like the lyrics were being belted out. Observe:
So, if you're a Bob Marley fan and interested in catching a glimpse into his life, I would recommend this book. There's information about his life growing up which was quite interesting as well as Jamaican superstitions and spirituality, Bob's relationship with his wife and numerous girlfriends, the assassination attempt on his life (and what happened to the fools behind it), etc. I would just add that there are lots of parts that you should just skim through.
Likelihood of me recommending this book to anyone (out of 5) - 3.5 out of 5. I hate to give it a lower review, but allow me to explain. This book has a lot of what I consider to be useless filler/unnecessarily heavy research. Examples include: I don't need lengthy background information on the music producer, every politician in Jamaica, each band member, etc. You see what I mean? I want to read a book about Bob frickin' Marley's life, not Bob Marley's life and those of every single person he encountered. Ya dig? Way too much convoluted information about the politics in Jamaica. I realize some of it is necessary, but not to this degree. I ended up skimming through large portions of the book because they were boring, tedious, and had nothing to do with Bob himself (this is part of the reason it took me so long to read). A large junk of the book is posthumous information...but, again, useless information! The lawsuits his family went through are relevant, as well as the lives of his family; however, describing the political climate after Bob's death, or giving a discography of surviving band member(s), is not something I'm interested in. I finished reading this book feeling like the author barely touched on Bob's life compared to the amount of research he put into everything else. Oh, one part that really bugged me was the author's description of the recording session of the song Jah Live. His description was that it was thunderous, virtually shaking the building as Bob screamed the lyrics. Uhhhh...kay? If you listen to the song, it sounds kind of sombre with passion, but certainly not like the lyrics were being belted out. Observe:
Click to viewSo, if you're a Bob Marley fan and interested in catching a glimpse into his life, I would recommend this book. There's information about his life growing up which was quite interesting as well as Jamaican superstitions and spirituality, Bob's relationship with his wife and numerous girlfriends, the assassination attempt on his life (and what happened to the fools behind it), etc. I would just add that there are lots of parts that you should just skim through.