I do not advise purchasing this book. The author seems focused on Morrison's anti-journalism to the extent that he seems to lose sight of his subject. Since Morrison is difficult (if not impossible) to interview, the author has been left with little more than the music to review. His reviews are passable but his insistence on noting numerous incidents where Morrison is arrogant and/or unappreciative of others turns the book into one long, cynical complaint regarding Van's character. The ending alone, wherein the author quotes Morrison's obscene rant to an audience member who requests a song from him, is depressing enough for me to recommend anyone to pass on this one. Sometimes ignorance IS bliss. Go buy Saint Dominic's Preview and listen for the real story!

After reading John Collis' VAN MORRISON: INARTICULATE SPEECH OF THE HEART, I'm not sure of the author's intention. In the introduction, Collis claims that he "offers only respect, and simply wants to get amateur psychoanalysis out of the way at the outset." During the course of the next 200 or so pages, however, Collis revels in shameless psycho-babble of the lowest sort while repeatedly criticizing Morrison's notoriously reticent personality.

Another criticism is that Collis seemed to focus a disproportionate amount of his ten chapter biography on Van's years with Them and Van's early solo career. The first seven chapters roughly cover Van's childhood in Belfast up to the release of the WAVELENGTH album in 1978. It is thus left to the remaining three chapters to cover a twenty some odd year era which many fans consider to be Morrison's most consistently rewarding years.

Considering that Van has, on average, released an album every year, Collis' focus on this early era comes at the expense of adequately covering the middle and later periods of Van's career. Indeed, the overall feel of Collis' book is that it was rushed into to print to capitalize on the fact that no Van biographies were available when it was published in 1996.

Fortunately, with the publication of Brian Hinton's CELTIC CROSSROADS, this is no longer the case. Collis does offer some insightful comments on Van's albums, but I would recommend Patrick Humphries' THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE MUSIC OF VAN MORRISON to fulfill this task. Overall assessment: inconsistent and incomplete. Not recommended.

This book is so full of mistakes (as well as being poorly written and designed) it would be funny if I hadn't had to pay for it. Probably rushed out to take advantage of the Beatles' "new" success because of the "1" CD, this is one you should avoid.

I ran accross this book at a local book store and bought it for a Christmas gift. Being a first generation Beatles fan, I think I know a fair amount about the Fab Four. I found this book to be full of errors. A photo of Paul McCartney with Jane Asher is identified as Paul and Linda. Another picture is labeled as being of John and Yoko. Even a non-fan would be able to see that the people in the photograph are clearly NOT John and Yoko.

DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!

Steer clear of this one. Though the choices of albums is fairly good, it is amateurishly written and the contents are hollow, filled with the authors self-indulgence. Tobler does not speculate about the artistic importance of the albums but rather decorates the book with statistics concerning chart placings and so forth. "You don't become a writer by writing a book". This book is a prime example of that statement.

I read a copy of this from my local library and asked that they remove it. This "book" employs yellow journalism to the hilt and finds nothing good nor objective to say on every event on the Beatles. Sources are lacking and conversations fabricated. Truly horrible.

This book isn t any good false info and has some bad remarks on the beatles down with who ever made up this wacked out stuff PEACE Rumplestiltskin

This book contains very general information on the basic steps and equipment required for a concert. It is very basic and provides very little technical information.

I can’t deny the fact that this book is anything less than what it claims to be—a biography—among countless others, a partial account of John Lennon’s life. Another important fact about this book is that it is an extremely careless attempt. David Stuart Ryan seems content in skimming over most events he recounts rather than attempting to discuss any of them in depth. So what’s the big secret according to Mr. Ryan? He offers nothing more than a pseudo-psychological, amateur, freudian analysis. Ryan claims that since John Lennon didn’t grow up in a “normal” family setting he was perpetually in search of an adept mother and father figure (Cynthia, Yoko and Brian Epstein served as candidates). On another note, if the zodiac’s your thing, you’ll love this book and will be drooling over descriptions such as “Cynthia’s virgoan faithfulness,” and John’s “hedonistic libran inclinations.” Enough already!