Damp Squib (Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin - David Evanier)

Member Name: rosebud2001

Product:	Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin - David Evanier
Date:	22/04/09 (320 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tells the story of a compelling life - albeit poorly

Disadvantages: Bad pictures, bad writing, bad editing, author's ego gets in the way.

Simon Cowell's all-time favourite song is "Mack the Knife" by Bobby Darin. It figures I guess - the song is punctuated by several key changes which turn it from a dirge into something very, very special. Cowell, of course, is well known for his over-use of the key change in his Idol/X-Factor "winner's songs", which will be forgotten in 50 years time, unlike the classic "Mack".

Bobby Darin was a musical genius. He was also a musical chameleon, changing styles several times in his short, but successful career - never allowing himself to be restricted by the suits of the business and enabling himself to be the first rocker that appealed to both kids and parents in the process.

"Roman Candle" by David Evanier tells Darin's story but fails to sparkle like the firework or Darin himself - instead it's a disappointing read, which irks given the fact Darin's life story is pretty compelling.

Darin was born in the Bronx as Walden Robert Cassotto on 14th May 1936. He was a sickly child - his rheumatic fever damaged his heart and from the age of 8 he was aware he wasn't expected to live a long life. This news defined him and instilled in him the burning desire to succeed.

At first he wanted to be an actor but he didn't feel he had the time to study - so instead he took to playing drums, then piano - all learned by ear - and then progressing to telling jokes and singing. Once he had found his voice and realised he could write songs too, he was on his way.

His whirlwind of a life in the public eye began in 1958 with "Splish Splash" a novelty rock n roll song which was incredibly well sung and for the next 15 years Darin recorded and performed music in a variety of different styles both alienating fans and picking up new ones on the way. He made movies, he performed in nightclubs and in Las Vegas, becoming the ultimate Vegas performer and entertainer. He met, married and divorced the actress Sandra Dee, he worked in music publishing, he mentored other singers, songwriters and comedians. He campaigned for Civil Rights and against the Vietnam War. He even sold everything he owned and quite literally "dropped out" for several months, living in a trailer on Big Sur in the late 1960s following the assassination of Robert Kennedy, who he had actively campaigned for.

What Darin was best at however, was entertaining. His motto was "always leave them [the audience] wanting more" and even towards the end of his life when his body was beginning to shut down, his performances were always outstanding, something thankfully preserved on TV shows he did in the early 1970s.

Darin could turn the meaning of a song on its head by a simple nuance of a word..."Can't Take My Eyes Off You", which was rather chaste in the hands of Andy Williams and Frankie Valli becomes the ultimate make-out song with Darin simply because he changes one word in the song and because of the way he sings that word - "touch". His singing was outstanding - he could sing smooth, he could sing sweet, he could sing rock, he could sing soul. In many live recordings I have heard of him he never got a note wrong and he really understood lyrics and language in a way few others have before or since.

Darin wasn't the best looking guy on the block - he was short at 5 foot 9 inches and skinny. He had a big nose and went bald prematurely, but he oozed charisma and sex appeal. He also had the most important thing you need to entertain an audience and that was confidence - and lots of it.

So on to the book, first published in 2004. Several years ago I read Dodd Darin's book about his parents called "Dream Lovers" and reading "Roman Candle" I got more than just a hint of deja vue. Evanier has used this now out of print book as more than just a reference point - he repeats entire quotes from it verbatim.

The book is difficult to read in parts because - and I hate to say this I am not the best writer myself - it's badly written. Evanier finds it difficult to separate quotes from different people and in places you find yourself having to go back several times to see to whom a quote refers. His prose is also littered with spelling mistakes - particularly people's names which is unforgiveable in my opinion - and other basic errors, such as referring to Sandra Dee's movie "Gidget" as "Bridget".

Where this biography really falls down however is Evanier's habit of critiquing Darin's work, choices, family and friends. Instead of being the neutral bystander retelling the story of Darin's life, he cannot resist adding his own opinions and comments, and even worse, his turgid reviews of Bobby's recordings. These reviews of single albums run to ridiculous lengths and make me question the abilities of his editors. However, crucially, Evanier seems to only be interested in the recordings Bobby made before 1966 when he turned his back on the swing and lounge style music Evanier clearly likes best - reviews of later work are either dismissively negative or simply non-existent.

His ignorance comes through in places too. He asserts that Sandra Dee, Bobby's first wife, was as ambitious and driven as he was. This quite simply isn't true however - Sandra's career was completely orchestrated by her overbearing mother. And while its true that Sandra was no match for Darin's intellect, Evanier constantly rams the point home in a manner that is downright bitchy.

Dee declined to be interviewed by Evanier for the book, whereas the second Mrs Darin and her sister did speak to him. Evanier talks of Andrea Darin in saintly tones, however a direct quote from her whilst discussing how sick Darin was in the final few months of his life and referring to how she felt more like a nurse than a wife speaks for itself. He also glosses over the fact Darin was only married to Andrea for 3 months, divorcing her before he died.

Evanier includes an anecdote from Andrea's sister who worked with Bobby in the last couple of years of his life as a valet which tells a tale of how excited Bobby got on stage when performing which veers into the "too much information" territory. Evanier even goes so far as to suggest that on the basis of watching one of Darin's televised concerts on video that there may, indeed, be some truth in this story - which is just astonishing.

However it is when discussing Bobby's musical output from 1966 onwards when he started to experiment with folk music and became more politically vocal that Evanier really starts to tell us what he thinks and is quite scathing in his opinions on Bobby's changing image and musical direction.

Instead of celebrating the fact that Bobby was one of the first pop singers to reinvent himself, Evanier mocks some of the more personal work Darin produced, simply because it isn't swing or the sort of thing that went down well in the nightclubs of the 1960s - or probably more truthfully, what Evanier likes.

There is a nasty tone of "I told you so" in his writing when Bobby went through a period when he was being booed offstage for ditching his tuxedo and toupee, calling himself Bob and singing songs berating Spiro Agnew. One suspects Evanier's politics are quite simply to the right of Bobby's, who was an idealistic liberal - at one point he even suggests that Bobby would no doubt be a fiscal conservative if he were alive today which one suspects is said for Evanier's own benefit rather than anyone else's.

Evanier also seems to take delight in having several pops at Darin's family. None of them spoke to him for the book and Evanier seems to enjoy reiterating how poor and ignorant most of them were.

He grudgingly has to concede that it was to his family back in New York that Bobby turned in the last few weeks of his life however. Bobby's relationship with his family was completely dysfunctional, but despite his desire to escape poverty, he never severed ties with them - even after discovering the woman he thought was his big, blowsy, vulgar and ignorant sister was actually his mother. This in itself says something about the ties that bind, yet Evanier fails to spot this or comment upon it.

Now I am not saying Bobby Darin was a perfect person. He could be pushy, arrogant, rude, mean spirited and cocky; he alienated Frank Sinatra in the late 1950s by stating his plan was to be a legend by the time he was 25. The Rat Pack famously played darts on a board with Bobby's picture on it. However they weren't to know that Bobby was sick - even at the age of 22 he couldn't climb stairs on the subway or to dressing rooms. By the time he made his tuxedo and toupee comeback in 1971 he was facing open heart surgery and had to take breaks between songs for oxygen - but he kept his health problems a well guarded secret.

Even in the knowledge of this, Evanier is mean spirited when discussing this comeback when Bobby gave the Vegas punters what they wanted all along. He smugly comments on how much better Bobby looked in his toupee and tux, but he ignores the fact that Bobby still included some of his protest songs in his new act in Vegas - he was just smart enough to include "Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea" as well. In private, Bobby remained a balding man with a moustache who lived in denim, listened to Dylan, hated Nixon and sailed a boat on Lake Mead - but that seems to matter little to Evanier.

So I really do not rate this book at all. It seems such a shame that someone as open minded to new ideas and to change as Bobby Darin was should have a book written about him by someone as narrow minded as Evanier who would have done a far better job by simply letting the story of Bobby Darin's life speak for itself and leave his own thoughts on Darin to himself.

If you want a far better read on the life of Bobby Darin, try to find "Dream Lovers" by Dodd Darin - its not the perfect biography, but it's the best one out there.

Available on Amazon for £12.74 in hardback.

Summary: Not the definitive biography of Bobby Darin - doesn't even come close