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Re: [bomp] review of Brett Milano's book
where is this Boston everyone is talking about?
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Michael Baker
201 736 0137
27 Bonn Place Apt 3
Weehawken, New Jersey 07086
roky@optonline.net
http://www.myspace.com/michaelsbaker
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Robinson" <wytches@lycos.com>
To: <bomp@xnet2.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2007 9:14 PM
Subject: Re: [bomp] review of Brett Milano's book
>
> Yeah.....a bit more of a personal attach rather than review, but
> having been in the Boston scene for some thirty years (of and on), I
> can attest that Joe is a great guy, historian and continues to help
> bands by providing contacts and guidance.
>
> ---------[ Received Mail Content ]----------
>
> Subject : Re: [bomp] review of Brett Milano's book
>
> Date : Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:39:45 -0400
>
> From : mingus2225@aol.com
>
> To : bomp@xnet2.com
>
> Wow, what a caustic and bitter review.
>
> I can understand having issues with Milano's book,
>
> but that "review" is nothing but an all-out attack.
>
> "HE DIDN'T WRITE THE BOOK I WOULD HAVE WROTE WAHHHH"
>
> Go write your own book, Joe.
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: Louis Shukat
>
> To: bomp@xnet2.com
>
> Sent: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 4:34 pm
>
> Subject: [bomp] review of Brett Milano's book
>
> from our friend Joe
>
> REVIEW:
>
> Brett Milano is passionate about the music he likes,
>
> but "The Sound Of Our Town: A History Of Boston Rock &
>
> Roll" (Commonwealth Editions, 2007) is more about
>
> Milano's tastes than what actually transpired. This
>
> book is his version of the Boston music scene, and
>
> doesn't even scratch the tip of theiceberg.
>
> Looking for information on the highly influential
>
> Wayne Wadhams, Berklee Professor and producer of Full
>
> Circle, singer in The Fifth Estate? Don't look here.
>
> There should be a lot more about Moulty & The
>
> Barbarians, there's nothing I could find about Jon
>
> Butcher's Axis & Johanna Wild bands, Farrenheit (one
>
> mention of Charlie Farren?), Girls Night Out, Didi
>
> Stewart & The Amplifiers(one mention of Didi that I
>
> could find), MCA artist The Rings, two mentions of Fox
>
> Pass - nothing on Fox Pass founder Jon Macey who went
>
> on to produce demos for Elektra Records'. Maxanne
>
> Sartori is not discussed and with only two references
>
> to Sartori - a powerful scenemaker responsible for
>
> helping Billy Squier, Aerosmith, The
>
> Cars, Fox Pass...in fact, why is Squier and his band
>
> Piper merely glossed over?
>
> If you want to read about "Brett Milano's Favorite
>
> Boston Rock & Roll Bands" - The Pixies, Mission of
>
> Burma, The Lyres and a few more essays from the Milano
>
> scrapbook, the list is $24.95. If you want to read an
>
> objective overview of the Boston Music Scene just put
>
> "Boston Music Scene" in google, you'll get much better
>
> results. Brett is a much better
>
> writer than this and needed to be more objective and
>
> less tunnel-vision. This is hardly "The Sound Of Our
>
> Town" and by leaving so many important individuals
>
> out, or putting other acts higher up on the
>
> ladder, Milano does a great disservice to the scene he
>
> is claiming to document. There are thousands of
>
> hours of interviews on audio and videotape and tens of
>
> thousands of articles on the Boston area scene that
>
> Milano could have accessed if he really wanted to
>
> write "a history of Boston Rock & Roll". That he
>
> failed to do put the elbow grease into this
>
> collection of thoughts is an insult to the thousands
>
> of hard-working musicians who built the scene long
>
> before Brett Milano joined the party after-the-fact.
>
> A critical moment in scene history, when The
>
> Neighborhoods defected from original manager Richard
>
> Nolan, lead singer of Third Rail, is not even
>
> mentioned. Nolan wrote a lengthy article for
>
> Boston's THE REAL PAPER "I created Frankenstein's
>
> Monster". It is harrowing stuff, and it is that
>
> information that is missing in this text.
>
> But far worse, after the few pages on The
>
> Neighborhoods the unfocused Brett Milano writes a
>
> paragraph about The Fools - a band that can
>
> still out-draw and out-sell The Neighborhoods. So
>
> this material isn't about what the community wants or
>
> what happened in real time in 1975, 1976, 1980, 1985,
>
> it is only what Brett wants to discuss and put his
>
> blessing on. There's no doubt that Maxanne Sartori
>
> was more important to the launching of the Boston
>
> music scene than Oedipus Hyson, a man who -
>
> like Milano - jumped on later and capitalized on the
>
> hard work of others, but Milano goes to Hyson instead
>
> of Sartori for his information. A better
>
> source would have been the wife of a member of Blue
>
> Oyster Cult, Deborah Frost, who wrote for New York
>
> Rocker and had a punk show before Oedipus on
>
> the rival station WHRB (Oedipus was on WMBR). With so
>
> much missing and much too much revisionist history
>
> don't expect Volume 2 because it is obvious Mr. Milano
>
> thinks he has the final word on the Boston scene. If
>
> Mission Of Burma are featured, yet leader Roger Miller
>
> hailed from Ann Arbor, why couldn't Milano have done
>
> pages and pages on other huge figures
>
> like Al Kooper, Stones producer Jimmy Miller, Herb
>
> Reed of The Platters and author of Grammy winning song
>
> "A Natural Man" and "Sunny" Bobby Hebb
>
> who lived in the Rockport area for decades. Scruffy
>
> The Cat and The Neats were fun, but hardly as
>
> influential as Brian Maes and RTZ (featuring Brad
>
> Delp and Barry Goudreau of the band Boston). If you're
>
> looking for extensive information on Ron Scarlett,
>
> Childhood, Little Joe Cook (with a
>
> world's record number of appearances at The Cantab),
>
> Mickey Bliss, John Kalishes (of Susan and the Ben Orr
>
> Band), Jonzun Crew/Peter Wolf/New Kids
>
> On The Block guitarist Tony Rocks, Quill (a sentence
>
> and a half or so), Shane Champagne, Gary Shane & The
>
> Detour, Pure & Easy Records and other key figures
>
> there's always Wikipedia. The New York Dolls get
>
> more coverage than the band New England. Don't let
>
> Milano try to tell you that Hirsh Gardner, Gary Shea &
>
> John Fannon were too mainstream because the
>
> author does cover the band Boston which was just as
>
> arena rock as New England.
>
> Andy Pratt gets a mention but Clint Conley gets pages
>
> and pages and pages.
>
> Is Milano trying to pass Clint Conley off as a bigger
>
> star than Andy Pratt?
>
> How is that objective?
>
> Conspicuous In Their Absence is a play on an album by
>
> Grace Slick's The
>
> Great Society. It is a perfect title for Brett
>
> Milano's revisionist
>
> history of The Boston Rock & Roll Scene. It is a
>
> travesty.
>
> Thank God we have the internet
>
> http://bostontheeighties.blogspot.com/2007/07/80s-boston-rock-roll.
> html
>
> --
>
> Joe Viglione
>
> p.o. box 2392
>
> woburn, ma 01888
>
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> Rev. Mark R. Robinson
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