The name of one of the best rock n roll authors is one that is as random as it is anonymous..Neil McCormick. The author of "Killing Bono," has written one of the most interesting, thoughtful, and entertaining books on the music industry or the entertainment industry in general that I've ever come across. It's title sounds a bit psychotic, and may disappoint anyone who has a disdain for Bono, world renowned frontman for U2. I picked the book up after finding the liner notes interesting. McCormick grew up alongside Bono and the other members of U2 as they went to school together in Ireland. McCormick had lifelong aspirations of becoming a world famous musician, larger than life figure who made music that transcended genres and generations, pretty much everything that Bono and the rest of U2 went on to accomplish.
The sad part about the tale is, with as much fame, success, and fortune U2 had, Neil McCormick had an equal amount of hard times, misery, and misfortune. All of this makes for an extremely entertaining tale. He hits just about any brick wall imaginable in the music business, and to make matters worse, one of his closest friends was simultaneously taking the world by storm. Bono called McCormick his doppelganger, a real life Bizarro Bono in the flesh, even himself admitting to Neil that the only way for his life to be set right would be by "Killing Bono."
Recently, I read the autobiography of guitar legend Eric Clapton because I'm a sucker for music biographies or other true stories in paperback. Clapton's autobiography however, was one of the biggest letdowns I've ever had as I made it a habit over the years not to read much unless I was really interested by something. Since I've started commuting via mass transit every day though, I've had more time to read, and all the time I wasted on Clapton's autobiography, I would have rather had reading McCormick's book again. I haven't lost any respect for Clapton as a musician, but as an author, his book painfully and just barely scratches the surface almost feeling like a cliff's notes version of the book everyone would have wanted to read. If you were thinking of this book, don't buy it unless it's at a garage sale, Clapton phoned it in. A 40 plus year career through the trials and tribulations of rock and roll decadence, and a guy who only scratched the surface of the music industry had an endless amount of more interesting tales to tell.
In reading McCormick's book, it feels like half U2 biography told from a luckless man on the side, watching everything go right for them as the whole world around him fell apart. In his failures as a musician McCormick shines most. His endless determination and conviction make the book comical but touching at the same time. He's a man with a dream, who won't give up on it no matter what. The fact that he constantly gets a figurative kick to the groin with U2's gradual rise to super stardom from their beginnings in the high school gym to selling out Wembley Stadium gives the book a style unlike any other rock n' roll saga. He gets cursed out by Sinead O'Connor, has nightmares about being abandoned by Bono outside the velvet rope, and gets ripped off by Adam Clayton, U2's bassist who sells Neil his first piece of junk instrument.This book is also just as valuable to a U2 fan, since you're getting the brutally honest opinion of someone who grew up next to them. With a summoned typical biographer there's no doubt going to be inflated stories as well as untold tales. With an authorized biography, a band or musician has the control to leave out some embarrassing memories that they might want to leave in their inner most circles. With a unique and interesting person as McCormick telling it, you get brutal honesty along with an unmatched style. He's not afraid to tell you that Adam Clayton was the most maniacal of U2's members when they were growing up, in one case horrifying girls at their in home rehearsals in the early days only wearing a robe that inadvertently flashed them his own member. I'm also somewhat certain an authorized U2 biography wouldn't dare tell the story of how Bono was invited to join Bob Dylan onstage in Dublin for "Blowin' In the Wind"
but fumbled the lyrics like Ray Finkle trying to kick the Miami Dolphins a Super Bowl victory.
These are stories you couldn't make up, and the luck that they have been told by a guy with a unique and hilarious literary style is the same stars aligning in the sky occurrence U2 has had in becoming one of the biggest bands on the planet. His combativeness with Bono is hilarious, as are his many encounters with people from every depth of the music industry. This book would make one hell of a film, but odds are it could never be visualized nearly as fantastic as it reads. Neil McCormick's tale is one that comes along once in a lifetime, about as often as a monumental band like U2 comes along, perhaps only several times for each generation. The luck of this Irishman had it that he also had the writing chops to get it all down on paper for the world to read. Go out and read this book now. The quote on the cover by Elton John says it all: "The best book I've ever read about trying to make it in the music business."
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