Easy Reading on Easy Listening

Categories: music, books

Tags: Music, Books

Date: 29 June 2009 16:52:03

Recently found myself reading My Life My Way by Cliff Richard. It wasn't so much an intentional choice as a convienient one....something going cheap at a sale of 2nd hand books at church which I could switch off totally with.

Have to say it's the sort of book which should probably only be read if you want something that is so mind numbing it enables you to switch your brain into neutral. Basically the book takes a couple of hunderd pages to tell you that this guy has a private life he intends to keep private. It can also be summed up by saying: he has cares about his family, had an inspirational English teacher at school, has had a successful career singing, believes in God, likes tennis, has some famous friends and acquaintences and owns a few houses. These facts are generally already well known but are trotted out repeatedly at various points in the book.

There are odd paragraphs where you feel you might be learning something about the guy and what makes him tick but these are few and far between.

Critics might accuse this bland easy reading of being the literay equivilent of his music, but I would beg to differ. In 1988 I saw Cliff live at Greenbelt and realised that actually his music is v.g. and not only has the catchy sing-a-long element but has some good tunes and lyrics to it. Not saying everything he's done is to my taste but alot of it is. Carrie, for example, is I think one of the classic tunes of the 20th century.