The Islander
My Life in Music and Beyond
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
An Uncut Magazine Book of the Year
A Telegraph Book of the Year
A Financial Times Book of the Year
'An adventurer, an entrepreneur, a buccaneer, a visionary' - BONO
As the founder of Island Records, renowned music producer Chris Blackwell has discovered and worked with some of the most legendary artists of the second half of the twentieth century - from Steve Winwood to Cat Stevens, Bob Marley to Grace Jones, U2 to Roxy Music, via Nick Drake, the B-52's and Robert Palmer. A maverick free spirit himself, Blackwell turned Island into a home for groundbreaking musicians and their wildly divergent music styles, playing an instrumental role in bringing reggae to the world stage.
Now, as he turns eighty-five, the great raconteur takes us back to the island where it all began: Jamaica - the paradise where his family once partied with the likes of Noël Coward, Ian Fleming and Errol Flynn and where, as local Jamaican sounds began to adopt contemporary American trends, Blackwell's burgeoning musical instincts flourished. It was also the birthplace of the cutting-edge Island Records, founded by Blackwell in 1959. But that was just the start of a truly remarkable career...
Winding through the music industry, this fascinating memoir makes for a giddy ride, encountering Island's many esteemed collaborators over the years and unpacking the initiatives, decisions and risks that ultimately brought such enduring success to Blackwell, both in music and beyond.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Blackwell, founder of Island Records, delivers a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of his consequential career as a record producer. Following his family's move from England to Jamaica in 1938, less than a year after he was born, Blackwell lived a comfortable, cloistered life. That changed when, at age 18, he and two friends took a boating trip that left them stranded on an unfamiliar stretch of shore; eventually they were rescued by a community of Rastafarians. As the impresario observes, his encounter with people he'd been taught by "white Jamaican society" to regard as a threatening "gang" was life-changing; most significantly, it planted a seed within Blackwell that ultimately led him to partner with "Rastafarianism's most celebrated... ambassador, Bob Marley." His career began humbly in the late 1950s, as a selector, responsible for picking out songs for jukeboxes around Kingston to play, and eventually led him to start his own label, Island Records, in 1959. Throughout, Blackwell provides engrossing details of his road to success—including discovering such famed musicians as Bono and Cat Stevens—but most impressive is his refreshing self-awareness; as he writes, "There's no two ways about it: I am a member of the Lucky Sperm Club. I was born into wealth and position." Music lovers shouldn't miss this.
