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Product Description

A name synonymous with ground-breaking music, Tony Visconti has worked with the most dynamic and influential names in pop, from T.Rex and Iggy Pop to David Bowie and U2. This is the compelling life story of the man who helped shape music history, and gives a unique, first-hand insight into life in London during the late 1960s and '70s. Soon after abandoning his native New York to pursue his musical career in the UK, Visconti was soon in the thick of the emerging glam rock movement, launching T.Rex to commercial success and working with the then-unknown David Bowie. Since his fateful move to the land of tea and beer drunk straight from the can, Visconti has worked with such names as T.Rex, Thin Lizzy, Wings, The Boomtown Rats, Marsha Hunt, Procol Harum, and more recently Ziggy Marley, Mercury Rev, the Manic Street Preachers and Morrissey on his acclaimed new album 'Ringleader of the Tormentors'. Even Visconti's personal life betrays an existence utterly immersed in music. Married to first to Siegrid Berman, then to Mary Hopkin and later to May Pang, he counts many of the musicians and producers he has worked with as close friends and is himself a celebrated musician. This memoir takes you on a roller-coaster journey through the glory days of pop music, when men wore sequins and pop could truly rock. Visconti's unique access to the biggest names and hottest talent, both on stage and off, for over five decades is complemented by unseen photographs from his own personal archive, and offers a glimpse at music history that few have witnessed so intimately.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37830 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
'What makes this latest instalment of the baby-boomer's tale so readable is his easy-going, unjudgemental familiarity with the professional foibles of his clients. Not many people can remark, as he does of Bob Geldof, that "singing is not his forte", without the slightest trace of bitchiness or reproach.' The Sunday Times Culture magazine 'Without question, Visconti is one of the greatest and most innovative music producers of all time. His gritty history of two decades of British pop makes me want to brush the dust off my old Bowie and T.Rex albums and skip-jive around the kitchen' Daily Mail Four star review in MOJO: ' A life in music, rich in chemical romances, bickering stars and some wonderful work, is recounted with great dignity.' 'Just as George Martin was the definitive '60s producer, so Tony Visconti's work with David Bowie and Marc Bolan shaped rock's landscape in the '70s.' Q '[Morrissey] is so spectacularly presented by producer Tony Visconti that we end up not just with a Morrissey masterpiece ! but also a Visconti masterpiece ! Ultimately, Visconti helps transform Morrissey's dogged oddness and phenomenal fussiness into pure magic.' Observer, 2006 'Visconti recently teamed up again with his old foil David Bowie to record Bowie's best album in 20 years; now he has helmed Morrissey's best in 15 years.' Scotsman, 2006 'Visconti's sparky autobiography takes you stomping back to the frantic, glory days of glam rock and pop' London Lite 'His outsider's view of London's tiny, tatty underground scene of the late 1960s is wonderfully vivid.' '!worth seeking out.' Sunday Times '!a fascinating glimpse into the working practices of genuine rock royalty.' Glasgow Herald 'The book has a good period feel, a fair quota of rock anecdotes, but, above all, it conveys the author's total absorption in the serious business of recording music.' Sunday Times 'A must read.' Dublin Evening Herald

From the Back Cover
Tony Visconti is synonymous with ground-breaking music. He has worked with the most dynamic and influential names in pop, from T-Rex and Thin Lizzy to David Bowie, Morrissey and U2, and is hailed as one of the greatest music producers of all time.

However it is for his work with Marc Bolan and David Bowie that Visconti is most revered. His relationships with these artists has been hailed as two of the greatest artist/producer partnerships in pop history; Visconti has worked with Bowie on eleven albums to date.

With a back catalogue that reads like a who's who of the movers and shakers in popular culture, this memoir takes you on a roller-coaster journey through the glory days of pop music, when men wore sequins and pop really rocked.

About the Author
Tony Visconti was born Brooklyn in 1944. His family's traditional love of music ensured an early exposure to music that soon developed into a life-long obsession. Following a chance meeting with his 'British music industry cousin', Denny Cordell-Laverick, Visconti moved to the UK to begin one of the most famous careers in music production, launching and supporting some of the biggest names in pop history. He has now moved back to New York where he lives with his third wife, Mai Pang, but continues working within the UK music scene.

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Customer Reviews

A man with a hundred tales to tell
Having been a music fan virtually from the first time I heard I Wanna Hold Your Hand crackling from my parents transistor radio I have stumbled across Tony Visconti's name so many times it's almost spooky. Whatever your particular musical bias there's a fair chance that the man will have touched your life at some point, whether through his work with happening sixties groups like Procol Harum and The Move, the seventies glam of T.Rex, the prog rock of Gentle Giant, the hard-hitting rock'n'roll of Thin Lizzy, or even the pseudo punk of Hazel O'Connor. And all this before we even begin to mention his on/off relationship with Bowie from the Mercury days onward.

I've waited a long time for this book to come out, believing that Visconti must have a hundred tales to tell, and for once it's a boo that lives up to all expectations. Candid, humorous and well-written, the only danger with this book is that you can easily lose a few hours simply through being unable to put it down. What's more, by a wonderful stroke of luck Visconti is a keen amateur photographer too and the previously unseen pictures included here are almost worth the purchase price in themselves.

If, like me, you thought you'd read everything about Bowie you'll be amazed at how much more you learn from Visconti's accounts of their work together. If, on the other hand, you simply enjoy a good read, written by someone who has, musically, tried it all and come out smiling, then this book is equally fulfilling.

Those were the days, my friend
Tony Visconti is one of the handful of producers for whom the epithet' legendary' can be applied without the slightest hint of irony. This book is as effortless and multilayered and rich as his extraordinary arrangements. College discos in the 70s and loon pants could not have happened without Visconti. Tony's vibrant strings, plush resonance and musically witty touch was the fairy dust which elevated Bolan's three chord kidrock into mantras to exhuberance. Bowie's diamond dogs, extraterrestrial hubris and all time lows were gifted with chairascuro by his longtime admirer and collaborator. This much we know from the sleeve notes, but Visconti takes us intoi a world we didn't know in this wonderful account of what it was like to sit in studios, squat in flats and grapple with monstrous egos in the rococco decade of excess that was overshadowed by the sixties, reviled in the 80s but which was arguably the most poignant and experimental time for pop music.

This book takes you into the world of valve amps, velvet-lined guitar cases, Mellotrons, bongos and tubular bells, an analogue time where vibe preceded technique and where acts were discovered as opposed to manufactured. Its a vastly readable account, by an icon, of his work with iconic people who, despite their multifarious failings, made a difference. Tony doesn't namedrop or rank his acts - he takes you into the room and lets you soak up the atmosphere in a way which allows the reader to genuinely understand the circumstances of the song and of the time. The book- like a Viscont arrangement- has surprises - I didn't know he write the strings for the Band on the Run Album, for example. Neither did anyone else until Paul McCartney gave him a credit on the 25th anniversary reissue. I didn't know Flo and Eddie sang backing vocal to T- Rex or that Ringo hung out with Bolan. If I ever knew, I'd forgotten he did Live and Dangerous - arguably the best live recording album ever - with Thin Lizzy. I do now.

Tony Visconti's most recent collaboration is with the magnificent Morrissey, who has written a lyrical foreword which sums it all up better than I can. So just buy this book. It's important, it's warm and it's access all areas to the circumstances which produced some of the best pop music of the past three decades. And if you don't understand the title of this review, you will after yoiu've read Tony's book. My wife, a Bolan fan, is hogging my copy, so I'm going to buy another one - and some more to give to my friends, who tell me I should get out more.

Life is Strange
I enjoyed reading this, however, it does tail off after the first couple of hundred pages. As a previous reviewer notes, the 80s until now is almost presented in list form.

I would have liked to have read Visconti's views on some of the technical aspects of the records he produced, and some of the details of the recordings of the Bowie and Bolan material is limited to material which has been covered before. Indeed he has disclosed more information in interviews for publicising the book than sometimes appears in it! (And material such as Bowie's displeasure with Visconti due to an 80s interview is not mentioned at all.)

It is an enjoyable and easy read, but it seems like an overview. I gained little insight into his production techniques and what he brings to records he produces. It is no fluke that he has worked on some seminal works, so what are his philosophies and techniques?

There are occasional insights which are interesting and it is nice to hear some of his views, and he comes across as a flawed but likeable character, it is a shame that not all of the many stories he must have make it onto the page.