Afbeelding auteur

Jorma Kaukonen

Auteur van Been So Long: My Life and Music

16 Werken 73 Leden 4 Besprekingen

Over de Auteur

Jorma Kaukonen is one of the most highly respected interpreters of American roots music, blues, and Americana, and at the forefront of popular rock and roll. He is the founding member and guitarist of Jefferson Airplane and the still-touring Hot Tuna, and has recorded more than a dozen solo albums. toon meer He's a member of the Rock Roll Hall of Fame and a Grammy nominee. Jorma and his wife, Vanessa, operate Fur Peace Ranch Guitar Camp, a center in Ohio for studying guitar and other instruments. toon minder

Werken van Jorma Kaukonen

Been So Long: My Life and Music (2018) 44 exemplaren
Quah (2003) 8 exemplaren
Blue Country Heart (2008) 5 exemplaren
Too Hot To Handle (1985) 2 exemplaren
River of Time (2009) 1 exemplaar
Jorma 1 exemplaar
Ain't in No Hurry (2015) 1 exemplaar
Stars in My Crown (2007) 1 exemplaar
12/21/96 1 exemplaar
The Land of Heroes 1 exemplaar
Too Many Years 1 exemplaar

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Algemene kennis

Geslacht
male

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Besprekingen

A tiny bit long and uneven, but a lot of heart and soul from the guitarist in one of my favorite bands (Jefferson Airplane) when I was a teenager. I was never a big Hot Tuna fan, but of course that was Jorma’s band far longer than he was in JA. Lots of SF 60s atmosphere!
 
Gemarkeerd
steve02476 | 3 andere besprekingen | Jan 3, 2023 |
I love Jorma and his music. I have learned much from him and he has helped me become a capable guitar player. I have a long appreciation for his music and I have looked forward to this book. I enjoyed reading this tome but a few things got in the way of five star endorsement. The book would have benefited greatly from the services of a developmental editor. St. Martins's Press is a reputable outfit so I'm surprised that some things slipped by - there were many instances of repeated phrases, sometimes on the same page. There were repeated descriptions of "well that's her story (or his) not mine" but it created a halt in the flow and made me wonder what the value of that approach was imagined to be. The middle third of the book - more, actually - described travel, drug use and bad relationship decisions. It was bleak and got tedious after a while. It would have been interesting to have heard about threads, commonality, insights, learnings from these experiences. My biggest problem, overall was that the book is extremely chronological. I guess it was not officially called a memoir and the tag line is "My Life and Music" which is true but it would have been a more compelling read if the time line was non-linear because let's face it - that is how memory works. We hop and skip around and gain knowledge about ourselves at the most unexpected times and often, or mostly, this is out of sequence. I am glad Jorma has found peace and I did enjoy reading his book. I'm just saying that a 2nd pass through after it was done, with the oversight of a developmental editor would almost certainly have bumped up the pace and the interest for the reader.… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
shaundeane | 3 andere besprekingen | Sep 13, 2020 |
Hmmm. This ain't a book about Jefferson Airplane--oh, they're there, but really only for about one of the twenty chapters. It's more about Hot Tuna, but not really about that band, either. What it's really about is Kaukonen's life.

One story: He grew up in a dysfunctional family, had a dysfunctional marriage, had a good marriage (which he nearly sabotaged a couple times).

Another story: This man has spent his entire life on the road. His dad was a Foreign Service Officer, which took the family all over the world. Then he joined a successful band and took to serious touring. That's never stopped.

A third story: Eventually he grew up. It took a long time.

A fascinating read, really, though it's occasionally confusing. The sequence is approximately chronological, but he gets distracted and diverted pretty regularly; sometimes, too, his prose runs in circles and we get a sort of piecemeal portrait of the current topic. For someone who claims to be primarily a guitarist, he sure spends a lot of time sharing lyrics--there are lyric fragments all over the book, and the last quarter of the volume consists of complete lyrics for every song he's recorded. Probably those are not what I signed up for.

Good portraits of his family members and lifetime friend Jack Casady, and mentions of lots of celebrities he's known. There's far less substance about other members of his bands, which is disappointing. There's some hints about what made the Airplane work so well for a few years, but really not enough for this reader.

Enjoyed the book, and don't regret the effort. But most folks will get more out of his music than out of this memoir.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
joeldinda | 3 andere besprekingen | Oct 14, 2019 |
This book is really for a fan. You need to have followed Hot Tuna to follow the book. As a fan I found the book fascinating as Jorma to me was a musical idol but as a person I knew so so little. Really there was very little written about him. After reading his biography you quickly understand why. He pretty much was a private person that turned into himself whenever life threw an obstacle at him. He'd disappear from his bandmates (just decided to quit Jefferson Airplane and let his bandmates know by not showing up without notice and never coming back) and friends. But then he was loyal beyond what most people would tolerate for his first wife Margareta. My biggest problem with the book is that it jumps around far too much, often leaving you trying to figure out what period he is talking about now and where he's going next. In fairness Jorma does warn you that he's writing via train of thought and the book will jump around. As a fan I'd give it a 4th star, but being this is the only review on LibraryThing I thought it fairer to members to rate it without starry eyes.… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
rayski | 3 andere besprekingen | Nov 11, 2018 |

Lijsten

Statistieken

Werken
16
Leden
73
Populariteit
#240,526
Waardering
½ 3.4
Besprekingen
4
ISBNs
11

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