Scott Martelle, a rather productive freelance book critic (who also does general assignment features and profiles), appeared in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer Sunday with a short review of "Big Man," a three-pronged memoir by Clarence Clemons, the sax-playing sideman in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.
The book was written with TV producer Don Reo, a longtime friend of Clemons'. This is from Martelle's review:
" The format here is promising, a triptych of short segments by Clemons and Reo augmented by uneven "legends" vignettes spun out of possibly real Clemons encounters with Norman Mailer, Kinky Friedman, Thomas Pynchon and others. Some of these work as satirical takes on music and rock celebrity -- like a "Shouts & Murmurs" piece in The New Yorker.
"Unfortunately, the Clemons sections, which seem to have been ghost-written by Reo, hover at the surface. Even the news that Clemons, already suffering from bad hips and knees, suffered a mild heart attack slides into the book almost as an afterthought."
Martelle, a 12-year veteran at the Los Angeles Times, has recently had reviews and author pieces appear in the LA Times and the Washington Post, and has written profiles for Publishers Weekly, as well as travel pieces and other magazine profiles. He also is an author, finishing up his second work of history for Rutgers University Press.
"With more than 100 releases, a catalog of 500-plus songs and more than 8 million CDs sold, including the platinum-selling "Toddler Favorites," Music for Little People is an improbable survivor in a niche industry that not only presents singular marketing challenges, but also is subject to the ups and downs of the recording industry at large.
