Evening's Empire
A Novel
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
THE YEAR IS 1967.
In England, and around the world, rock music is exploding—the Beatles have gone psychedelic, the Stones are singing "Ruby Tuesday," and the summer of love is approaching. For Jack Flynn, a newly minted young solicitor at a conservative firm, the rock world is of little interest—until he is asked to handle the legal affairs of Emerson Cutler, the seductive front man for an up-and-coming group of British boys with a sound that could take them all the way.
Thus begins Jack Flynn’s career with the Ravons, a forty-year journey through London in the sixties, Los Angeles in the seventies, New York in the eighties, into Eastern Europe, Africa, and across America, as Flynn tries to manage his clients through the highs of stardom, the has-been doldrums, sellouts, reunions, drug busts, bad marriages, good affairs, and all the temptations, triumphs, and vanities that complicate the businesses of music and friendship.
Spanning the decades and their shifting ideologies, from the wild abandon of the sixties to the cold realities of the twenty-first century, Evening’s Empire is filled with surprising, sharply funny, and perceptive riffs on fame, culture, and world events. A firsthand observer and remarkable storyteller, author Bill Flanagan has created an epic of rock-and-roll history that is also the life story of a generation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As in his previous novel, A&R, MTV executive Flanagan presents a life in the music biz, this time in the form of a perhaps too-sprawling history of rock and roll and the men behind the scenes. In 1967, young attorney Jack Flynn ingratiates himself to budding British rock act the Ravons by easing singer Emerson Cutler out of a messy divorce, getting the band out of a disastrous contract and taking the rap for the musicians' attempted drug smuggling, the last of which gets Flynn disbarred. For the next four decades, his fate is intertwined with the band, even as it dissolves at the first whiff of success: Emerson goes solo and becomes a minor sensation in America, while keyboardist Simon's dreary tunes send him touring the Communist bloc. Tragic bass player Charlie fades quickly into obscurity, but nearly strikes it rich through other avenues. Flynn's role as manager is a wonderful balancing act, both for the protagonist and the author, and Flanagan, despite his tendency to leave absolutely nothing out (and, curiously, a missed opportunity with a devilish producer), pulls it all together into a complex, humorous and touching story.
Customer Reviews
It's a musical journey…
So if your like me and your a fan of the fabulous world of Rock 'N' Roll you gotta get this book. Flanagan created a story follows this fictional yet cliché rock band from England during the 60's, 70's & 80's. The story follows all members of the band as time goes on and is great how he attaches real historical events and musicians (like The Who, Bono, Sting, Led Zeppelin and others) to the story to make it feel as if this band The Ravons actually existed. I literally couldn't put this book down, the adventurous story of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle is one that has been told many many times yes but Bill Flanagan really made this story unique in his own way and the result to me is a masterpiece. This book is a must have! This is what Spinal Tap was supposed to be folks!