Nonfiction
David Brinkley:
A Memoir
By David Brinkley. Knopf. 273 pp. Illustrated, $25.00
The subtitle of David Brinkley's engaging, if idiosyncratic, memoir suggests both the range of the book's contents and its wry tone: "11 Presidents, 4 Wars, 22 Political Conventions, 1 Moon Landing, 3 Assassinations, 2,000 Weeks of News and Other Stuff on Television and 18 years of growing up in North Carolina." This is not so much an autobiography as a loosely organized collection of anecdotes and ruminations, and because its spare prose reproduces the distinctive cadences of Brinkley's speaking voice (is it possible to hear his name and not bring that voice to mind?) reading the book is like spending the evening in the company of an amiable, accomplished storyteller. And he has wonderful tales to tell. As that subtitle reminds us, Brinkley, one of the most visible and influential television journalists of the past several decades, has covered or commented on most of the major events of in our recent past.
What he has to say, about politicians past and present, about the political and social eruptions that have reshaped the country, about the current state of the nation, is almost always interesting, and often startling. But the book is most lively when Brinkley describes, precisely and with wit, the more peculiar features of our political system, including the increasingly odd way in which we select presidential candidates, and the memoir is most moving (and hilarious) when Brinkley recalls his "rich and pungent" boyhood in Wilmington, NC., and the hectic, improvisational nature of news reports in television's early days.
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Rock & Roll:
An Unruly History
By Robert Palmer. Harmony Books, 325 pp. $40.00
What could be a more thankless endeavor than compiling a chronicle of rock and roll? Music fans already have their own notions about the pioneers, heroes, and villains, and the world needs another rock book like Michael Jackson needs another nose job.
Yet in just 325 pages -- including photos -- former New York Times critic Robert Palmer bravely delves into that well picked-over material, and comes up with an assured, intelligent, and often surprising account. A companion to the PBS series of the same name, Rock & Roll: An Unruly History rightly begins with the sound's early blues and jazz stirrings and cuts a clear swath straight through the decades. It's unfortunate that in the end, Palmer describes "beginnings, origins, roots" as "the stuff of history," and gives only passing lip service to rock in the present. History is an ongoing project, and his brush-off of today's innovators is a cheat in an otherwise lavish account.
To his credit, Palmer sticks to the title and keeps the discussion to music which, taken in its purest groove, is what we mean when we say rock. Thus, funk and reggae are okay, synth pop is not. Along the way Palmer credits some of the lesser-known yet seminal figures, and manages, in this well-worn turf, to present new information -- at last, a book that explores the religious significance in K. C. and the Sunshine Band's imperative to "get down tonight!" Aficionados may already be well-versed in much of the lore, but Palmer's insights and lively perspective lend freshness to all but the most tired Grateful Dead anecdotes. This unruly history is not the definitive encyclopedia, but if you had to choose one person to give an account of rock's history, you would want someone with an impressive knowledge and a true enthusiasm, someone who's got his yayas out to stay. You'd pick Palmer.
--By Mary Elizabeth Williams
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