Fire and Rain

The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY and the Lost Story of 1970

By: David Browne

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

January 1970: the Beatles assemble one more time to put the finishing touches on Let It Be; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are wrapping up Déjà Vu; Simon and Garfunkel are unveiling Bridge Over Troubled Water; James Taylor is an upstart singer-songwriter who's just completed Sweet Baby James. Over the course of the next twelve months, their lives---and the world around them---will change irrevocably.

Fire and Rain tells the story of four iconic albums of 1970 and the lives, times, and constantly intertwining personal ties of the remarkable artists who made them. Acclaimed journalist David Browne sets these stories against an increasingly chaotic backdrop of events that sent the world spinning throughout that tumultuous year: Kent State, the Apollo 13 debacle, ongoing bombings by radical left-wing groups, the diffusion of the antiwar movement, and much more. Featuring candid interviews with more than 100 luminaries, including some of the artists themselves, Browne's vivid narrative tells the incredible story of how---over the course of 12 turbulent months---the '60s effectively ended and the '70s began.

©2011 David Browne (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Browne's engrossing account of this fertile but volatile period sets the standard by which comprehensive musical histories should be judged." ( BookPage)

Very interesting in the life of Keith Richards

Where does Fire and Rain rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

To me it was a good account of how Keith Richards even made it thus far !. Liked the life accounts of how the Rollings Stones & how songs came to be.. Amoung other Rock & roll groups !. Great Guitar player !.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Fire and Rain?

How Keith ended up in so many close call's !!.

What does Sean Runnette bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

One could just picture's Keith'Richard on his way through messes....Like a voice picture.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Laugh !Laugh ! !Laugh !

Any additional comments?

Get the book . I could listen to it again !.& again.
Good luck Keith !.

Probably better on paper than spoken

Would you try another book from David Browne and/or Sean Runnette?

I wouldn't listen to another spoken version musical history by David Browne.
Mr. Browne was describing multiple artists using a chronological order. So as he went through the time period he jumped from artist to artist. Perhaps in the book there was a heading or some other way to indicate a change coming, but on the audible format you have no indication that a change has occurred...after awhile it becomes annoying to suddenly realized he has jumped to another performer/group when a name gets mentioned. "Oh", you think, "James Taylor didn't do that, it was Neil Young".

The story was also rather depressing - I wanted to know more details but wasn't prepared for the downer this story would become.

Has Fire and Rain turned you off from other books in this genre?

Not necessarily - maybe other authors have organized their books differently.

NIce nostalgia

I was looking for something different, and though I was young, I do remember 1970, so I thought - why not? There are some interesting "behind the scenes" anecdotes, so overall it's entertaining. The hardest part was trying to get all those old songs out of my head!

Fire and Rain

Focusing on four of popular music most influential groups to tell the story of 1970 draws the music junkie into a history lesson of one of the most turbulent times in recent American history. Mr Browne is able to focus on the groups while giving an over all background history of the end of the sixties and the beginning what some refer to as the desert of the seventies. In an effort to maintain focus on the chosen subject he gives cursory or no attention to the other forms which also developed during this time (prog rock-Jethro Tull Yes Pink Floyd King Crimson et al, the horn bands-Chicago Blood Sweat and Tears, the rise of funk-Earth Wind and Fire Tower of Power) which leaves the listener with the feeling that we were only bound for the land of Disco. Overall, the nit picking aside, this is a very informative and enjoyable book.

Easy listening about easy on the ear music

At 18 I first heard James Taylor in 1970 in a hippy flop house in India. For years I thought. For years I thought I was in love with the pretty American 'chick' whose cassette it was. Now I understand it was the music I was in love with. In 1986 I saw JT in concert in London and with the advance in technology he sounded better live than on record. In Oct. 2003 I saw Crosby, Stills and Nash in Aruba. How come David Browne didn't mention that gig? No matter, I've got the pics. This is book is a great listen and like the music I'll listen to it again and...

A comprehensive look at a pivotal year in music!

Fire and Rain is deep dive look on the stories of some of the greatest acts in music in 1970 and how their paths crossed during this pivotal time.

Written by David Browne, who is a prolific and fantastically articulate rock genre writer and biographer and is for anyone who is a fan of the Beatles, CSNY, Simon and Garfunkel or James Taylor OR you have a curiosity about the 1960's and 1970's era of music and culture.

Fire and Rain covers one year in music history and 1970 is the year it all changed. This book covers an INCREDIBLY pivotal year in music history which the author will point out fits perfectly to what was happening and changing in the culture in 1970. Why were Bridge Over Troubled Water and Let It Be the 2 songs of the year?

You should buy this book if you really want to know the stories of the Beatles breakup, CSNY's hilarious key stone cop like hi-jinx, Simon and Garfunkel's on again off again relationship and the life and rise of James Taylor onto the music scene.

This book, while extremely informative does end (like the year) on a low. So while super enlightening this book will leave you more informed and quite less inspired as you watch the stories of these super rich and talented 1970 rock stars duke it out over music, money, drugs and girls.

Congratulations to David Browne - Great Work! (I read this because I was born in 1970 and a huge fan of all involved in your book)

A nice look back

I was in my first year of high school in 1970 and a Beatles fan, I remember the newspaper story telling of the Beatles brake up. I was sad and for several years I wondered around trying to find something that excited me, but I was not a fan of the other three this book followed. In fact, I thought I would go back and visit their music after all these years and see if I was missing something. I was not. I didn't likle their music then and I don't like that music now ; but that being said I enjoyed this book. It was a much about the times as the groups and it was interesting hearing about the trials and tribulations of creative people trying to make music while personal issues pushed them apart. Sean Runnette's reading was very good, perfect for the story and the music it talked about. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who lived through that period of time. Oh, and by the way, after drifting through old 50s rock for a couple of years I heard Deep Purple's Machine head album and was hooked. I've been a hard rock fan ever since.

You Had to Be There

Being of an age, it is hard for me to imagine how this expansive review of the year 1970 would read for a younger person. My kids do seem to be interested in the era, but I suspect it is because 1) the first ones there mined that musical vein out; and 2) nothing better has come along since. In any event, I was there and this multi-biography/social history gets it just right. The narrative is balanced and if anything gives The
Beatles less attention than the other three acts. If you were paying attention all those years ago (and since) not a whole lot new is here, but its fun and entertaining to reminisce. One remarkable fact the book brought out was the radicalism of the times, with respect to bombings and social turmoil. We tend to forget the nastiness of it all. The narrator is very good and the text flows elegantly. Nothing challenging here, but for those who were there, a fun rewind.

End of an Era

Like the author, as he confesses in his foreword, I felt like I just missed out on the 60s. I was 13 when Woodstock took place just ten miles from where I spent my summers, but my parents wouldn't let me go, especially when they saw the parade of hippies going down our street. I had just transitioned from 45s to LPs and was listening to some the very albums this book discusses in detail -- Abbey Road, Deja Vu, Sweet Baby James, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Let it Be, and many of the solo albums that followed.

Fire & Rain posits that the end of the 60s era was heralded by the break-up of the biggest acts of the moment -- the Beatles, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Simon & Garfunkel -- rather than the more common watershed moments (the deaths of Hendrix, Joplin, and Jim Morrison, in addition to the universally accepted Beatles break-up, or Altamont). These break-ups, this theory says, reflect the shift from the collective attitudes of the 60s to the "me" generation of the 70s -- they were the result of that shift as well as emblematic of it at the highest level of musical pop culture.

What weakens the argument is the introduction of the fourth artist, James Taylor, who was just emerging at the same time the others were breaking up. Taylor represents the transition away from the group form of the 1960s to the solo singer-songwriter of the 70s, away from the politics of 60s music to lyrical introspection, which was the case too with the solo work of the former Beatles, CSNY, and Paul Simon.

That angle makes sense to an extent, but there was too much going on to put it all on JT. He didn't start that movement, he wasn't its only big name, his brand of mellow music didn't ruin things like some others (think: Seals & Croft), and there was a lot more going on besides mellow rock -- for example, a new group that came in second to CSN as best new band in the 1970 Grammies, a band that didn't break up by the end of the year like CSNY, you might have heard of them, Led Zeppelin. And lots more.

Not to mention that the solo work of two of the Beatles (Lennon and Harrison), most of CSNY (especially C and Y), and Paul Simon was quite notable in and of itself, especially the very albums released or started in 1970 in the immediate aftermath of the break-ups, retaining much of the collective consciousness and pointed politics of the groups -- yes, there was the same type of personal reflection that you see in James Taylor, Carole King, et.al., but those songs were always there, the mix was similar to what it always was.

What is so key to the author's case and the reader's ability to enjoy the book and learn something from it is how he ties in the political and social moments and movements that rocked the world during 1970, making a good case of how they contributed to the end of the era and the start of a new one. On the other hand, the events of 1970, like its music, did not happen in a vacuum -- they were part of a continuum that started much earlier and continued for quite some time. The author overlooks some of the larger trends to amplify the impact of his own argument.

Completely outside of the greater theme, there is a lot of inside baseball about how these groups imploded, professionally and personally, individually and collectively, during this volatile year. But the stories do start to get repetitious, the clashes of drug-addled sex-crazed egos starting to sound like a broken record after a while.

I have listened to several similar works about my favorite forms of pop culture -- music (The Wrecking Crew), film (Easy Riders Raging Bulls), TV (Difficult Men), comedy (7 Dirty Words), sports (Fever Pitch) -- as well as history (American Nations) and politics (Double Down). Fire & Rain is far from perfect, taking perhaps too strong a view on the importance of its central thesis. But being a big fan of the musicians that are the central focus, having come of age at that time, and being a fan of this type of non-fiction, I definitely feel it's worth a listen.

Excellent!

I lived through that time. He nailed it! The reader does a great job too. Excellent.