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The Brothers: An Autobiography
After decades as cult musicians, New Orleans's Neville Brothers spent the '90s solidifying their position as a minor American institution. Torchbearers for both tight, lean funk (Art and Cyril were key players in the profoundly influential '70s combo the Meters) and soul-gripping balladry (Aaron scored a 1966 No. 2 hit with "Tell It Like It Is" before resurfacing as a solo
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Community Reviews
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One of the most interesting books about New Orleans to be published in the past dozen years isn’t a guidebook or a novel or a book of poems. It's THE BROTHERS NEVILLE, an oral biography of--guess who?--from 2000 edited by David Ritz. From their childhood in the New Orleans streets to their difficulties with drugs to their re-embrace of Christianity, the path each brother has been on is different but interestingly parallel—almost like a giant song, with harmony laid upon harmony. Such voices will
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I really, really wanted to like this book. So much that I finished it, hoping it would turn into the book it seemed to promise. But, sadly, the bulk of the book dealt with each of the brothers' drug use, crime, jail time, and scattered children. Oh, there was music scattered here and there, but often fuzzily recalled as part of a drug score, before they went on stage.
Every music fan needs to read one of David Ritz's biographies. The best is DIVIDED SOUL, still the place to go for Marvin Gaye. This one's great about 67% of the way, when the seemingly endless tales of dope and women begin to blur and get boring. The big surprise for me, though, was how much sheer adversity (much of it self-created) delayed these musicians' access to the true fruit of their labors.
Jul 01, 2008
Lil Mike
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
nawlins music fans
Great storytelling style as Ritz compiles tales that bounce from brother to brother. One gets a picture of the Nawlins family & neighborhoods that bred & bled these brothers from their 1950's start in music on through their hectic periods of haphazard heroin use, robberies and record industry rip offs, to their height of successes & triumphs in the late 80's and 1990's.
The format took some getting-used-to but I finally started appreciating it about halfway through the book. What a great story, or more like four stories. I finished last night and will be listening to the Nevilles all day today!
I love oral histories, especially the musical kind. The 4 brothers Neville have been playing music for 50 years. Their tales of growing up in New Orleans and being out on tour in the 50's and 60's are wild. I didn't realize what crazy junky criminals they all were. Except Art. He was too busy being a funky Meter.
Mar 15, 2014
Driscoll (Joe & Jerry)
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
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Excellent book by and about an excellent N'Awlins band.
I love this book!!!!! Excellent read a/b evolution of r& b/funk, the civil rights movement, harsh realities of living in NOLA during Jim Crow, and heroin additiction. The format is very creative and engaging - a collective memoir of three brothers. Highly recommended, whether or not you're into the music. (Although how could you not be?)
