Musician and former em PRESS author Craig Horner is gathering some impressive reviews for his biography of the rise and fall of one of Australia's favourite rock and roll bands, Daddy Cool.
A review by music critic Ian McFarlane raves:
"There are many fabulous tales to be told in Australian rock’n’roll and the story of Daddy Cool must surely rate as one of the most entertaining. This is the kind of book that I had hoped to read one day... and now musician and author Craig Horne has delivered the goods.
" Horne has the musician’s sense for the minutiae of life on the road and the author’s flair for telling a good story. He also provides great insight into the music of the 1960s and 1970s which gave rise to a band such as Daddy Cool, by placing it within the political milieu of the day, a time of enormous social change and cultural revolution.
"There are many great passages throughout. When Wilson wrote the prototype ‘Eagle Rock’, coming up with the finger picking, country blues guitar lick in A that he was sure he’d stolen subliminally from somewhere, he asked anyone who would listen, “have you heard this before?”. He finally realised he’d come up with something unique when no-one could quite pinpoint the connection.
"He took the title ‘Eagle Rock’ from a picture he’d seen in a newspaper article; it showed African Americans dancing in a Juke Joint during the 1930s and the caption said they were “Doing the eagle rock and cutting the pigeon wing”.
Craig wrote two early novels about a young public servant who wants to become a rock star. He does, and the consequences are dire! While there's a certain amount of semi-autobiographical wish-fulfilment in the pair of novels, they're essentially black comedies. Both were published by em PRESS and you can purchase Bureaucracy Blues and its sequel Alpha Jerk by visiting the SHOP ONLINE
Craig playing with Gary Young, on the drums, at the launch of Daddy Who? at the Arts Centre.
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