Re: Ventures book
Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 11:08 pm
My take on the Ventures book--
A lot of stuff was finally answered for me, in the form of direct quotes from the Ventures themselves. I think most of the guitar related stuff that comes from direct quotes with the Ventures is accurate, or at least--accurately reflects the Ventures' opinions. Some of the things that have been pointed out already in this thread on the forum were revelations for me, so I felt the book was worth it for that.
On the other hand, the book was written by a fan and you can tell that the author is not a guitar "geek," some of the facts that are presented (like the "Merle Travis was the first to play a Mosrite" when all it takes is a google search and 15 minutes to find out that Joe Maphis was the first guy to play a Mosrite) seem ill-informed and poorly researched. If you think I'm rushing to judgement let me just state that I'm a huge Merle Travis fan and have even been in talks with Merle's daughter Merlene Travis about writing the Travis biography myself, and I have seen thousands of photos of Merle Travis, and he has never been photographed with a Mosrite guitar over his shoulder. Before I digress too much, I'll just state that there is a lot to the book that comes off as "fan" research and not professional research. Not to knock the guy, I can tell it was a heck of an undertaking. But that's my 2 cents on the book....it's worth getting, but don't take anything in it to be gospel or undisputed fact, because it's mostly a bunch of quotes, recollections, and opinions.
Deke
A lot of stuff was finally answered for me, in the form of direct quotes from the Ventures themselves. I think most of the guitar related stuff that comes from direct quotes with the Ventures is accurate, or at least--accurately reflects the Ventures' opinions. Some of the things that have been pointed out already in this thread on the forum were revelations for me, so I felt the book was worth it for that.
On the other hand, the book was written by a fan and you can tell that the author is not a guitar "geek," some of the facts that are presented (like the "Merle Travis was the first to play a Mosrite" when all it takes is a google search and 15 minutes to find out that Joe Maphis was the first guy to play a Mosrite) seem ill-informed and poorly researched. If you think I'm rushing to judgement let me just state that I'm a huge Merle Travis fan and have even been in talks with Merle's daughter Merlene Travis about writing the Travis biography myself, and I have seen thousands of photos of Merle Travis, and he has never been photographed with a Mosrite guitar over his shoulder. Before I digress too much, I'll just state that there is a lot to the book that comes off as "fan" research and not professional research. Not to knock the guy, I can tell it was a heck of an undertaking. But that's my 2 cents on the book....it's worth getting, but don't take anything in it to be gospel or undisputed fact, because it's mostly a bunch of quotes, recollections, and opinions.
Deke