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mlboyd20's review against another edition
5.0
It's been awhile since I read this book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. While reading I had Duran Duran's greatest hits playing on repeat and I think it really made a good book great. I highly suggest this book for any Duran Duran fan.
tschmitty's review against another edition
4.0
Things I learned from Any Taylor:
He really hated making the "New Moon on Monday" video.
He single-handedly wrote every Duran Duran song ever done, minus lyrics.(love ya Andy, but not buying it)
He and JT were giant coke heads through much of the 80's.
Juliane was DD's "Yoko" and (my inner Duranie could not be happier!)
DD tours had loads of excitement including bloodshed and knife fights.
They had to cheat to beat Spandua Ballet at British trivia game show. (C'mon guys! Like you could not have done this legit, coke-headedness aside?!?!?!)
Andy had a low tolerance of Nick and his control freak, pretentiousness.
Andy blew the coup again instead of being forced to work with people like Justin Timberlake. (Can't blame ya Andy, the new record sucked!)
Despite it all, Andy remained a good hubby and father, good for him. Andy's father seemed like a wonderful man too.
Fun read, whether Andy truly wrote it or not. I liked his take on things, and would gladly read a tell all by any of the remaining four. I miss Andy in the band. DD is not the same without him!
He really hated making the "New Moon on Monday" video.
He single-handedly wrote every Duran Duran song ever done, minus lyrics.(love ya Andy, but not buying it)
He and JT were giant coke heads through much of the 80's.
Juliane was DD's "Yoko" and (my inner Duranie could not be happier!)
DD tours had loads of excitement including bloodshed and knife fights.
They had to cheat to beat Spandua Ballet at British trivia game show. (C'mon guys! Like you could not have done this legit, coke-headedness aside?!?!?!)
Andy had a low tolerance of Nick and his control freak, pretentiousness.
Andy blew the coup again instead of being forced to work with people like Justin Timberlake. (Can't blame ya Andy, the new record sucked!)
Despite it all, Andy remained a good hubby and father, good for him. Andy's father seemed like a wonderful man too.
Fun read, whether Andy truly wrote it or not. I liked his take on things, and would gladly read a tell all by any of the remaining four. I miss Andy in the band. DD is not the same without him!
tatbenatar's review against another edition
2.0
To be completely honest, I held no allusions that Andy would even begin to fully explain why he and Duran Duran parted ways on two occasions. Nor did I think for a moment that he would actually own up and take responsibility for some of the things that occurred - he seems to enjoy playing the blame game and taking things ridiculously out of context. For some reason, that didn't surprise me. Based on what I knew of the very public way that he and Simon Le Bon lashed out at each other in the press shortly after Andy's first departure from the band, I'd kind of already painted a picture of him, albeit an unfair one. That being said, when it comes to his family, Andy seems like a top notch guy, and that was very apparent in the book. If nothing else, that is the one great thing I will take away from having read this.
I think Andy is a phenomenal guitar player - heck, you've probably heard him on tracks for acts you didn't even know he was associated with - but he didn't do himself any favours by "writing" this book. It is so obviously ghost-written that it borders on painful. Most of the information contained within it were things I already knew, or could be found by typing Duran Duran into Google. Having finished Steven Tyler's autobiography before picking this one up, and groaning about the lack of consistency and competent co-writing, I thought that Andy's would be a breath of fresh air. Nope. Surely there must be a happy medium between the two? At least Steven's had heart - something that Andy's lacks entirely.
After having read the final sentence in his memoirs, I was struck more by his tellings of acting like a petulant child than I was of his detailed accounts of the song writing process and working with Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, and Roger Taylor (no relation). I don't hold the other four members of Duran Duran in a regard of God-like status, I'm certain that they're no saints either, but I don't think Andy comes across as how he wanted to. And maybe that was his intention. Maybe in rock and roll (and 80's synthpop), there is nobody who comes out smelling like roses, and he wanted to show us that. But I just can't help but think that this was a wasted opportunity to tell us so many things about the inner workings of the band - beyond his fights with Nick and cocaine binges with John.
I would recommend this book to any Duran Duran fan, but that's about it. I really wanted to enjoy this book, and in some aspects I did, but it ultimately fell flat and left me wanting.
I think Andy is a phenomenal guitar player - heck, you've probably heard him on tracks for acts you didn't even know he was associated with - but he didn't do himself any favours by "writing" this book. It is so obviously ghost-written that it borders on painful. Most of the information contained within it were things I already knew, or could be found by typing Duran Duran into Google. Having finished Steven Tyler's autobiography before picking this one up, and groaning about the lack of consistency and competent co-writing, I thought that Andy's would be a breath of fresh air. Nope. Surely there must be a happy medium between the two? At least Steven's had heart - something that Andy's lacks entirely.
After having read the final sentence in his memoirs, I was struck more by his tellings of acting like a petulant child than I was of his detailed accounts of the song writing process and working with Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, and Roger Taylor (no relation). I don't hold the other four members of Duran Duran in a regard of God-like status, I'm certain that they're no saints either, but I don't think Andy comes across as how he wanted to. And maybe that was his intention. Maybe in rock and roll (and 80's synthpop), there is nobody who comes out smelling like roses, and he wanted to show us that. But I just can't help but think that this was a wasted opportunity to tell us so many things about the inner workings of the band - beyond his fights with Nick and cocaine binges with John.
I would recommend this book to any Duran Duran fan, but that's about it. I really wanted to enjoy this book, and in some aspects I did, but it ultimately fell flat and left me wanting.
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