Life in Double Time: Confessions of an American Drummer

By Mike Lankford

Book Overview

Anyone who has ever had a set of drums or tapped out a beat on a table has fantasized about joining a band and going on tour. This gritty and hilarious memoir by drummer Mike Lankford takes readers on a wild ride, from the raucous garage band of his teenage years to the bright lights and slick sounds of his professional but small-time road band. Playing some serious blues and rock'n'roll and pushing the broken-down van in between, Mike Lankford shows us the unglamorous side of the music business and takes us places we never thought we'd go.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811806839
• ISBN13: 9780811806831
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 1.0" x 1.0"
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Riveting

This is a musician's biography that soars above its genre. The writing is so good that truth loses importance. Life meets art. If another book is not forthcoming from Mike Lankford soon, he should be incarcerated for squandering a national treasure.

A MUSICIAN'S TRIUMPH--A READER'S DELIGHT

Mike's book is a triumph, a deliciously honest look at life behind the traps. Because he spares himself nothing, Mike puts us smack dab in the middle of the energy and time he spent in garages and on the road. The writing is marvelously alive (some compare it to Kerouac, Exley, Mailer), but there isn't a wasted word here. The cumulative effect is to put in your hands one of those unfortunately rare books that speed you through an experience that's painfully and gorgeously real. You'll never be quite the same after your time spent with Mike Lankford.

bravo!

Finally a book comes along that tells the REAL story of how 99% of the musicians in this world live! Oh joy! This is not another dribbling ode to the "genius" of some stupid adolecent drunk who got famous too fast and couldn't understand that what he was "creating" was making him rich because it was simply a marketable product. How refreshing not to read yet AGAIN about how the "purity" of the music is tainted because someone was (gasp!) making money at it. And, Mr. Lankford, you spared us from the cliche of cliches: "O.k. kid, even though it's NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE, we're gonna let you try it YOUR way. We'll probably all get fired for this, but go for it kid..." Thank you Mr. Lankford for helping the rest of the world see through all the romantic [junk] of the entertainment business and show them for what it is...a business. Those of us who work in the music industry appllaud you for enlightening readers that his is our JOB. We could be pumping gas or working at burger king, but we'd rather do this. And yes, we (gasp!) make money doing it.

An absolute must read for anyone who loves a drummer.

Trying to get a drummer to open up is always difficult, if not impossible. This is a "behind the beat" story about a regular guy who whacks on skins. If you are a musician or If you have ever had a dream about being one, this book will help you appreciate your life as an accountant or police officer - it will also make you wish that you could go on the road with a band. Just once. Read it and chuckle through.

Why is this book so unknown?

Lankford's memoir is the best book ever written about life on the road as a musician. Not the glamorous life of the superstars, but the daily grind of living out of a van and dodging beer cans in a redneck honky-tonk. His story begins like all musicians' stories begin: practice practice practice in somebody's garage and then high school band contests, all in preparation for the big time with groupies and stardom. But Lankford takes us on the road traveled by most musicians: long drives, cold nights, minimum wage pay. His description of the time he spent as the white drummer in a black trio is rendered in prose that is both meta-physically insightful and descriptively physical. Lankford's journey is laced with violence and drugs and sex, but his language is brilliantly funny as well as graphically disturbing. If you know any kid who is beating on a drum or strumming a guitar, this is a MUST gift book. For anybody interested in the real life of a musician, this is also a MUST book. Buy it, read it, tell your friends. Lankford deserves the notice. He also has his email address listed on the cover. Write him and share your own road story.