There's not a lot more Eagles but there seems to be plenty of Joe.
...I could have done so many things, baby
if I could only stop my mind...
Some guys are born to Rimbaud
some guys breathe Baudelaire
some guys just got to go and put their rockets everywhere.
"Roadwork: Rock and Rolled Turned Inside Out" by Tom Wright and Susan VanHecke is the book we're discussing.
Walk this Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith is the book I mentioned earlier.
Wintertime is a razor blade that the devil made
It's the price we pay for the summertime - J.W. '69
I agree with everyone that it is natural for every individual to have their own version of the truth. I expect that anyone who tells a story does so with their own biases, recollections, and value systems. But Luna, I have to say I do have a problem when autobiographies contain lots of contradictions, inconsistencies, and facts that can be easily refuted. To me, it is incumbent upon the author to do some basic fact-checking if they want their story to be viewed as credible. I personally feel cheated as a reader if they neglect to make a good-faith effort to get their version as accurate as possible.
"People don't run out of dreams: People just run out of time ..."
Glenn Frey 11/06/1948 - 01/18/2016
Oh I agree, and due diligence concerning those facts which can be verified and are considered valid across several accounts absolutely should be done. That's the bedrock of historical research. It's just that there are situations in which a fact might not be verified if there are conflicting versions of details. I have encountered this situation several times in the course of this project, and in one particular case there's no way I can absolutely verify one version over another because the documentation is non-existent and one of the key participants is deceased.
...I could have done so many things, baby
if I could only stop my mind...
Some guys are born to Rimbaud
some guys breathe Baudelaire
some guys just got to go and put their rockets everywhere.
This talk about conflicting versions of a story makes me think of the Barney Hoskyn's book (Hotel California). It has a wonderful opening with a tale of five naked young men in a sauna and that got used in newpaper articles and promotional blurb (link to an article). There's just one problem. In another book (probably Marc Eliot's), Don Henley tells the same story but with one difference - instead of Don in the sauna, it's JD. I believe Don because a) it's Don-fricking-Henley and he should know if he was there and b) in 1971, JD was more part of that crowd than Don.
i still love that opening.
Yes it is Don who tells that story in To The Limit.
Here's another version of a conflicting story: in the HotE documentary, Kenny Rogers says it was Don who asked him to come and see Shiloh, but in To The Limit Michael Bowden relates it was Jerry Surratt, who of course was later killed in a highway accident before Shiloh relocated to Los Angeles.
...I could have done so many things, baby
if I could only stop my mind...
Some guys are born to Rimbaud
some guys breathe Baudelaire
some guys just got to go and put their rockets everywhere.