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Lefty Frizzell: The Honky-Tonk Life of Country Music's Greatest Singer
A biography of one of the founding fathers of modern country music. Until he died in 1975, Lefty Frizzell's life was one of endless touring, drug and alcohol abuse, prison, divorce, decline and resurgence.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 10, 2008
As far as the writing goes, this isn't the best biography ever, but it does cover Lefty Frizzell's life pretty thoroughly. It's interesting to know what context the songs were written and recorded in; it gives it an extra dimension for me when I listen to them now. I also learned a lot about the history of country music, and I think I learned one of the factors that caused the advent of one of my most hated musical genres--pop country. Apparently, it was Elvis. ;) And rock-n-roll in general. To compete with them, record countries started having their artists do pop-ready crossovers of their stuff. Blech. I also learned interesting factoids, like the Hollywood guy who made a lot of the rhinestone-studded, fringey cowboy outfits for country singers like Lefty was a former G-string maker in the 1950s who went by the name Nudie the Cowboy Tailor. The book would have been worth reading to find out that alone, in my opinion.
December 20, 2022
Chose this one from one of the two accessible Lefty bios; I was wary of the other one written by his brother, David. I can’t say this was a great read…it’s often hard to rate biographies, as they’re generally uniquely exceptional or piss poor. Everything that’s not on either end of the spectrum tends to be serviceable.
Learned a lot of about Lefty Frizzel that I didn’t know already, but there was little about his music that leapt out. I suppose that unless you’re a huge fan, a run through his discography would be a more rewarding cumulative five to six hours.
Learned a lot of about Lefty Frizzel that I didn’t know already, but there was little about his music that leapt out. I suppose that unless you’re a huge fan, a run through his discography would be a more rewarding cumulative five to six hours.
September 12, 2009
An affectionate but clear-eyed look at a colorful, larger-than-life country legend.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews