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yulelogue's review
3.0
One thing I'm learning while going through a series of biographies on old country music stars is that they're all assholes.
This is the rule with bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe in his biography "Can't You Hear Me Callin': The Life of Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass" by Richard D. Smith. Monroe had a long 60-year career in bluegrass and country music being relatively important for at least more than half of those years and appropriately revered for the last 10 years. He was the progenitor for a genre of music that closely defines America and spawned so much great music.
He hated foul language. He didn't drink, smoke or do drugs.
And yet it would be pretty hard to find a bigger son of a bitch in music history. His womanizing was legendary. But it's one thing to sleep with a bunch of women and think nothing of it. But he attached himself to these women, created relationships and, in turn, precipitated certain promises of fidelity.
Instead, he left long-time companions on the side of the road, destitute and caring little for where they ended up as he leaned on his career and ability to bedevil women his whole life.
I can't take much from the man knowing what he did in music, but if Bob Dylan was a murderer or if Elvis Presley were an SS officer at a concentration camp, wouldn't we think of these people differently? Sure.
Smith did a wonderful job of not glossing over Monroe's curmudgeonly attitude and rudeness that he displayed pretty much his whole life. Yet, it's all kinda overshadowed because he could play the mandolin. Had he been a farmer, nobody would've given a flying flip about the guy or cared whether he lived or died.
This is the rule with bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe in his biography "Can't You Hear Me Callin': The Life of Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass" by Richard D. Smith. Monroe had a long 60-year career in bluegrass and country music being relatively important for at least more than half of those years and appropriately revered for the last 10 years. He was the progenitor for a genre of music that closely defines America and spawned so much great music.
He hated foul language. He didn't drink, smoke or do drugs.
And yet it would be pretty hard to find a bigger son of a bitch in music history. His womanizing was legendary. But it's one thing to sleep with a bunch of women and think nothing of it. But he attached himself to these women, created relationships and, in turn, precipitated certain promises of fidelity.
Instead, he left long-time companions on the side of the road, destitute and caring little for where they ended up as he leaned on his career and ability to bedevil women his whole life.
I can't take much from the man knowing what he did in music, but if Bob Dylan was a murderer or if Elvis Presley were an SS officer at a concentration camp, wouldn't we think of these people differently? Sure.
Smith did a wonderful job of not glossing over Monroe's curmudgeonly attitude and rudeness that he displayed pretty much his whole life. Yet, it's all kinda overshadowed because he could play the mandolin. Had he been a farmer, nobody would've given a flying flip about the guy or cared whether he lived or died.
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