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Dreamory
Improvisor/composer/touring musician Eugene Chadbourne's own description of the book:
"After years in preparation, the Good Doctor has released his most intimate venture into the realm of Fine Literature: DREAMORY.
Dreamory is a soft cover perfect bound book with more than 1000 pages. It weighs in at a bit over 3 pounds, so earns the all important status of "thick" as established by legendary guru Pinky Das Gupta.
It is a collection of my tour and dream diaries, teenage and draft dodging memoirs and much more. It is my life, up til now, and I am very proud of it."
"After years in preparation, the Good Doctor has released his most intimate venture into the realm of Fine Literature: DREAMORY.
Dreamory is a soft cover perfect bound book with more than 1000 pages. It weighs in at a bit over 3 pounds, so earns the all important status of "thick" as established by legendary guru Pinky Das Gupta.
It is a collection of my tour and dream diaries, teenage and draft dodging memoirs and much more. It is my life, up til now, and I am very proud of it."
Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
26 people want to read
About the author
Eugene Chadbourne
2 books5 followersEugene Chadbourne (born January 4, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and music critic.
Chadbourne was born in Mount Vernon, New York, but grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He started playing guitar when he was eleven or twelve, inspired by the Beatles and hoping to get the attention of girls. Although he was drawn to Jimi Hendrix and played in a garage band, he found rock and pop music too conventional. He gravitated to the avant-garde jazz of Anthony Braxton and Derek Bailey. Braxton persuaded Chadbourne to abandon his intention to enter journalism and instead pursue music.
During the early 1970s, he lived in Canada to avoid military service in the Vietnam War. Returning to the United States, he moved to New York City in the mid 1970s and played free improvisation with Henry Kaiser and John Zorn. Around this time, he released his first album, Solo Acoustic Guitar. In the early 1980s, he led an unconventional rockabilly band named Shockabilly with Mark Kramer and David Licht.
Chadbourne explored other genres, playing with a Cajun band and a Russian folk band at a festival in Winnipeg. He mixed country, Western, and improvisation in the band LSD C&W. For many years he was in a duet with Jimmy Carl Black, who played drums for Frank Zappa. He has also worked with Han Bennink, Fred Frith, Elliott Sharp, and Charles Tyler.
A solo album, Songs (Intakt, 1993), featured politically oriented originals, such as "Knock on the Door" and "Hello Ceausescu", and covers, such as Nick Drake's "Thoughts of Mary Jane", and Floyd Tillman's "This Cold War With You".
Chadbourne invented an instrument known as the electric rake by attaching an electric guitar pickup to a rake. He played a duet of electric rake and classical piano with Bob Wiseman on Wiseman's 1991 album Presented by Lake Michigan Soda. He also played the instrument on a Sun Ra tribute album.
Chadbourne was born in Mount Vernon, New York, but grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He started playing guitar when he was eleven or twelve, inspired by the Beatles and hoping to get the attention of girls. Although he was drawn to Jimi Hendrix and played in a garage band, he found rock and pop music too conventional. He gravitated to the avant-garde jazz of Anthony Braxton and Derek Bailey. Braxton persuaded Chadbourne to abandon his intention to enter journalism and instead pursue music.
During the early 1970s, he lived in Canada to avoid military service in the Vietnam War. Returning to the United States, he moved to New York City in the mid 1970s and played free improvisation with Henry Kaiser and John Zorn. Around this time, he released his first album, Solo Acoustic Guitar. In the early 1980s, he led an unconventional rockabilly band named Shockabilly with Mark Kramer and David Licht.
Chadbourne explored other genres, playing with a Cajun band and a Russian folk band at a festival in Winnipeg. He mixed country, Western, and improvisation in the band LSD C&W. For many years he was in a duet with Jimmy Carl Black, who played drums for Frank Zappa. He has also worked with Han Bennink, Fred Frith, Elliott Sharp, and Charles Tyler.
A solo album, Songs (Intakt, 1993), featured politically oriented originals, such as "Knock on the Door" and "Hello Ceausescu", and covers, such as Nick Drake's "Thoughts of Mary Jane", and Floyd Tillman's "This Cold War With You".
Chadbourne invented an instrument known as the electric rake by attaching an electric guitar pickup to a rake. He played a duet of electric rake and classical piano with Bob Wiseman on Wiseman's 1991 album Presented by Lake Michigan Soda. He also played the instrument on a Sun Ra tribute album.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 13, 2021
Gift from a friend. Add to list of "Great-musician books that are really not great." Dan Plonsey's review gives this massive splat of self-indulgence more serious consideration than I care to. Chadbourne was writing great stuff for magazines in the 80s and 90s; who knows what happened. I guess I read about ten pages, skipping around, trying to find a way in.
August 13, 2016
I am pausing, a little after p. 200 out of over 1000. The structure of the book is: autobiographical passages, not entirely in chronological order (and sometimes the time is unclear); passages written by Eugene's brother about family vacations of 50 years ago; and passages of dreams. Transitions are abrupt. Right now I'm with Eugene in NY, where his accounts of the music scene are peopled by pseudonyms, and good for details about the color of ink used in annotating his datebooks and the amount of money paid for various gigs (mostly in the $2-$5 range), but not so much about the content of the music, or of what was being thought at the time -- or in retrospect. Some pseudonyms are obvious, others I can only guess. Both fascinating and frustrating.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews