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We Didn't Have None of Them Fat Funky Angels on the Wall of Heartbreak Hotel, and Other Reports From America
237 pages
First published January 1, 1971
11 people want to read
About the author
Bob Greene
41 books51 followersRobert Bernard Greene, Jr., who writes as Bob Greene, is a journalist.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 17, 2025
As a newspaper writer for more than 30 years (laid off in 2017 because print journalism is the economic equivalency of poverty), I always saw Bob Greene as my writing hero. Still do.
I've also communicated with him for the past 20 years or so and recently told him I had gotten this book as an anniversary present from my wife. I had heard of the book, but never saw it. I was stunned when I opened the package and saw this.
Bob wrote back and said he hoped I liked the book, but to remember these were written when he was 23 years old.
It shows. But know this; Bob at his early days of writing at 23 are what the rest of us aspire to at the pinnacle of our careers. The pieces in here are not from his Chicago Tribune column so many fans grew to know, but instead from his days at the Chicago Sun-Times. The nostalgic look backs from his later days of writing are not there. Rather, there are articles that are a tad more, I found, acerbic. They are also neat time stamps of the early 1970s.
The book opens with a look at Elvis Presley's concert in Las Vegas. It's more about those who attended the show and the mania behind his following than a concert review. There are also pieces about Frank Sinatra, an insult comic, David Brinkley on a cattle drive in New Mexico, Bob Greene on a cattle drive, three gamblers who fly quarterly from Chicago to Vegas and radio jocks at WLS.
There's also his story about following Abbie Hoffman and others in the Chicago 7 conspiracy trial to Madison, Wisc., on the eve of their verdict. Bob flies with them and watches as they plan to speak about the trial. The story won a national award for magazine writing.
I've been a huge Bob fan for decades. This book is a treasure because it reveals the early writings; it's akin to Johnny Deadline, his first book of the columns he wrote that captures the feel of 1970s Chicago.
I've also communicated with him for the past 20 years or so and recently told him I had gotten this book as an anniversary present from my wife. I had heard of the book, but never saw it. I was stunned when I opened the package and saw this.
Bob wrote back and said he hoped I liked the book, but to remember these were written when he was 23 years old.
It shows. But know this; Bob at his early days of writing at 23 are what the rest of us aspire to at the pinnacle of our careers. The pieces in here are not from his Chicago Tribune column so many fans grew to know, but instead from his days at the Chicago Sun-Times. The nostalgic look backs from his later days of writing are not there. Rather, there are articles that are a tad more, I found, acerbic. They are also neat time stamps of the early 1970s.
The book opens with a look at Elvis Presley's concert in Las Vegas. It's more about those who attended the show and the mania behind his following than a concert review. There are also pieces about Frank Sinatra, an insult comic, David Brinkley on a cattle drive in New Mexico, Bob Greene on a cattle drive, three gamblers who fly quarterly from Chicago to Vegas and radio jocks at WLS.
There's also his story about following Abbie Hoffman and others in the Chicago 7 conspiracy trial to Madison, Wisc., on the eve of their verdict. Bob flies with them and watches as they plan to speak about the trial. The story won a national award for magazine writing.
I've been a huge Bob fan for decades. This book is a treasure because it reveals the early writings; it's akin to Johnny Deadline, his first book of the columns he wrote that captures the feel of 1970s Chicago.
Displaying 1 of 1 review