Bill Bruford's Autobiography now out!

It may finally be possible to settle the question of "Who's the greatest Yes-man?" (a question which recently appeared in a P.A. poll), now that Bill's autobiography is available, at least to those living in the United States who apply for it on Bill's own website. Here in the U.K. (where I live), Amazon still gives the publishing date as "April 2009".

Like so many of you, I can't wait to read this book. From interviews he has given throughout the years, I gather that Bill is by far the most communicative of Yes' present or former members. The question remains how much light he's actually prepared to throw on the genesis of such seminal albums as CLOSE TO THE EDGE, LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC, FEELS GOOD TO ME, DISCIPLINE and FOOTLOOSE AND FANCY FREE.

fuxi wrote: It may finally be possible to settle the question of "Who's the greatest Yes-man?" (a question which recently appeared in a P.A. poll), now that Bill's autobiography is available, at least to those living in the United States who apply for it on Bill's own website. Here in the U.K. (where I live), Amazon still gives the publishing date as "April 2009". Like so many of you, I can't wait to read this book. From interviews he has given throughout the years, I gather that Bill is by far the most communicative of Yes' present or former members. The question remains how much light he's actually prepared to throw on the genesis of such seminal albums as CLOSE TO THE EDGE, LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC, FEELS GOOD TO ME, DISCIPLINE and FOOTLOOSE AND FANCY FREE.

Shouldn't it rather be "The question remains how much light he's actually prepared to throw on the Yes of such seminal albums like..."? 

Hi,

Edited by moshkito - March 20 2009 at 11:05

I've got half way through the book and I think its a stonking good read! I was a bit nervous because, if you hear Bill speak, it all gets a bit posh and plummy, but although he is musically a bit of a snob, it is (so far!) a great read. A well produced tome, paperbook but with quality paper and cover, some nice colour pics, it does sort of travel chronologically but picks up on themes - for instance the chapter I am on is about rock and rock critics, and their limited view of prog back in the 70s.

Phil wrote: I've got half way through the book and I think its a stonking good read! I was a bit nervous because, if you hear Bill speak, it all gets a bit posh and plummy, but although he is musically a bit of a snob, it is (so far!) a great read. A well produced tome, paperbook but with quality paper and cover, some nice colour pics, it does sort of travel chronologically but picks up on themes - for instance the chapter I am on is about rock and rock critics, and their limited view of prog back in the 70s. Interesting to hear the albums that he's played on - or created - that he has real affection for; from Yes, Close to the Edge; from KC, it's Red, and from his own stuff - Winterfold anyhow - its "One of A Kind" (though personally I prefer Feels Good to Me, just thought I'd get that in). No tales of debauchery; at one point as he recalls lying in agony in a hotel bedroom , he admits the injury came not from some Rock star type behaviour but from gardening...!!! It does get intellectual in places (nought wrong with that....) like his descriptions of the types of music over the course of history, and the involvement of the perfomer - and he quotes at one point what he learned from Jamie Muir, that he is there to serve the music not the other way round.  Any interesting tittle-tattle? I liked his classification of "artists" as opposed to "craftsmen"...so in UK, he and the clearly temperamental (but brilliant) Allan Holdsworth were the former, Wetton and Jobson the latter. He recalls Eddie Jobson asking Holdsworth if he could re-create the solo from "Dead of Night" (which Bruford takes time out to praise) exactly the same each night; Holdsworth looked aghast. When Wetton came to ask him (Bruford) to split from Holdsworth and join him and Jobson, Bruford of course stuck with Holdsworth. He clearly has strong views that he is able to articulate concisely and sometimes with bite......the words  "bland" and "Asia" are to be found in one sentence. One suspects he is not full of admiration for John Wetton - perhaps he regrets not doing more to stop David Cross being unceremoniously dumped from Crimson. There are clearly many musicians he really does admire...the aforementioned Holdsworth, though it seems he is a sensitive character, and he talks admiringly about finding and recruiting Jeff Berlin. Not much yet about Robert Fripp though...but then I think there may be more in a later chapter. I hope so.   I know it seems a bit odd to do a review only half way through but at my pace the darn thing will be out of print otherwise!   Oh and I sent for a free sampler (Summerfold, as I'm not so familiar with the later stuff) - not sure the length of the offer for this one.   And he comes across, as I suspected, as a throughly decent if somewhat highbrow musician. Shame he has retired from performance - I only got to see him once, with KC on the "Discipline" tour, another album he has great affection for. His retirement was discreet and apparently not caused by any personal or health issues. Happy retirement Bill. I do hope the studio music continues for many years to come.   Highly recommended.

from what i remember from reading/watching interviews of Bruford, and from reading Robert Fripp's biography, the 2 got along pretty well and had much admiration for each other. i mean, cmon, Bill came back to King Crimson TWICE

Well, I've now finished the book, and I warmly recommend it to you all!

The interesting thing is that BB has relatively little to say about the genesis (here we go again ) of compositions he wrote or contributed to. He writes far more about personal and logistic matters, such as his relationships with fellow musicians, the mechanics of touring etc. If I remember it well, something similar could be said about Nick Mason's memoir of life with the Floyd. (Mason's book is much lighter reading than BB's, however; it does not contain that many anthropological or, erm, "culture-critical" reflections.) Could it be that Bill is right when he points out that (good) critics are better at analysing music than the musicians who actually compose and perform it? (Bill states that musicians do not usually understand what they are doing, until some critic labels their work for them.)

For me, the best parts of the book are those where Bill expresses affection for some of the musicians he has worked with. His admiration for the likes of Allan Holdsworth, Dave Stewart, Jeff Berlin, Django Bates and Tim Garland is obvious. (A pity he's got virtually nothing to say about Mark Hodgson, Patrick Clahar and Steve Hamilton, who contributed so much to Earthworks' best albums. I would have loved to know something about their working relationship.) Bill obviously loves jazz musicians in particular, for playing the best possible music for relatively little pay.

There's one of Bill's anecdotes I can personally vouch for. On one of Earthworks' tours, sax virtuoso Tim Garland had to be replaced at the last moment by the great Julian Arguelles, who had to master all of the band's music in just 24 hours. Arguelles then went on to perform a blistering gig with the band (for a paltry £300, Bill says) but if you didn't know any better, you could not have told that he wasn't with them all the time. (I was in the audience that night; I'd brought my wife and daughters; I even went to shake Bill's hand afterwards, but no - I did NOT have an old copy of CLOSE TO THE EDGE for him to sign. )

P.S. In his book, Bill merely states Tim Garland was unavailable "for one reason or another" but in a public interview he gave in Blackwell's bookshop the afternoon BEFORE the concert he explained Tim had suddenly been whisked away for a lucrative gig with Chick Corea. The fact Bill omits this particular detail from his book just goes to show with what grace he describes his fellow musicians. The only players he occasionally denigrates are Chris Squire (whom he despises for keeping fellow musicians waiting) and Robert Fripp, who comes across as some sort of Frankensteinian monster!

Now this will be an interesting read.  Some great details about Yes, King Crimson (3 different eras), UK, Bruford, and his small stint with Genesis will be there.  It will be nice to read his reasons for joining/leaving many of these and other projects. I haven't read a good music bio in some time.

I just picked up this book today at the local Chapter's.  I went there looklig for a bio, and I did not expect to see this at the store.  I'll post my thoughts after I finish if I have any.

Hearing about Bill's autobio effort reminds of one of, if not the (in the olden days, anyway) great raconteurs/ storytellers (well, the storytelling continues): Mr. Wakeman. How do his books compare relative to Bill's, I wonder? Anyone got the lowdown here? Do tell!

fuxi wrote: Or else: "how much light he's prepared to throw on the National Health of bands like Yes, Genesis, Pavlov's Dog" etc. etc. - are there any major prog bands Bill HASN'T played with? (Oh yes, VDGG, I guess )

He even played with Gong for a short time.