According to Eric Clapton, John Mayer, and the late Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Guy is the greatest blues guitarist of all time. An enormous influence on these musicians as well as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck, he is the living embodiment of Chicago blues. Guy's epic story stands at the absolute nexus of modern blues. He came to Chicago from rural Louisiana in the fifties—the very moment when urban blues were electrifying our culture. He was a regular session player at Chess Records. Willie Dixon was his mentor. He was a sideman in the bands of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. He and Junior Wells formed a band of their own. In the sixties, he became a recording star in his own right. 'When I Left Home' tells Guy's picaresque story in his own unique voice, that of a storyteller who remembers everything, including blues masters in their prime and the exploding, evolving culture of music that happened all around him.
When I Left Home: My Story
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
Review
Kirkus, 2/15/12
“Tasty as a Buddy Guy guitar lick.”
Library Journal, 3/1/12
“Guy is a vibrant and hilarious storyteller. With a natural ease and honesty, he captures the spirit of the age, the culture of violence in the clubs, and the personalities of his colleagues...Highly recommended for any fan of Guy and those interested in the history of blues music.”
“Guy is a vibrant and hilarious storyteller. With a natural ease and honesty, he captures the spirit of the age, the culture of violence in the clubs, and the personalities of his colleagues...Highly recommended for any fan of Guy and those interested in the history of blues music.”
Publishers Weekly, 4/16/12
“As mesmerizing a storyteller as a guitarist, Guy, writing with Ritz, regales readers with tales of growing up picking cotton in rural Alabama, of seeing his first guitar and standing transfixed in front of Lightning Slim for several hours just memorizing the movements of Slim’s hands, of his father’s friend buying his first guitar for him, and of his endless efforts to play the blues as he had heard and seen Slim and others play…Guy’s memoir is a joyous celebration of the blues, one of our greatest musical treasures.”
Chicago Magazine, May 2012
“[A] must-read autobiography…What makes the breezy and revealing book special is its ability to bring history—Guy’s own, as well as that of Chicago blues—to life.”
Internet Review of Books, 4/6/12
“In When I Left Home: My Story we finally get inside Buddy Guy, guitar muse to Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and the Rolling Stones (to name but a few)…Buddy's narrative is cousin to his music. It's down home. It's not clean and prissy…This biography gives the reader unabridged stories of many of the great blues artists of his day and before, and raw images of the Chicago blues scene as it was from the 1950s to the 1980s…A valuable and rare insight into the music and the musician.”
Record Collector, May 2012
“Gives the whole picture, from sharecropping family to big city hustling; guitar-playing to womanizing and back again…[Guy] gives a real flavour of the age and circumstances he grew up on.”
“Gives the whole picture, from sharecropping family to big city hustling; guitar-playing to womanizing and back again…[Guy] gives a real flavour of the age and circumstances he grew up on.”
Boston Globe, 5/11/12
“A lively, sharply etched account of Guy’s unlikely ascent from sharecropper roots in Louisiana to the blues hotbed of Chicago and beyond.”
Memphis Commercial Appeal, 5/4/12
“The music fans [Guy] has affected so profoundly over his 50-plus year career will at last know how he feels.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 5/11/12
“Buddy makes his life come alive…Told in his own style and language, the book reads more like a blues song than an actual book, each verse telling a different story. And what stories they are…Buddy's book is as colourful as the blues…If you're looking for a reasonably unvarnished account of the blues life, Buddy has it here…The book is funny, sad, tragic, lusty, honest, loving and insightful. Just like the blues. Just like Buddy Guy. If you love the blues and all that it means, you should love this book.”
Houston Press, 5/8/12
“In this memoir, the story of [Guy’s] life is also the tale of the music itself of the past 50-plus years…There’s a treasure trove of stories here.”
BluesPowR blog, 5/10/12
“When I Left Home covers an amazing amount of ground in its close to 300 pages…Relayed in a simple, conversational manner, the book does a terrific job of documenting the life of one of blues music's biggest living stars, making it a must-read for any fan of the blues…When I Left Home isn't, as the title indicates, just Buddy's story; in many respects, this is a story of the blues.”
“When I Left Home covers an amazing amount of ground in its close to 300 pages…Relayed in a simple, conversational manner, the book does a terrific job of documenting the life of one of blues music's biggest living stars, making it a must-read for any fan of the blues…When I Left Home isn't, as the title indicates, just Buddy's story; in many respects, this is a story of the blues.”
Shelf Awareness, 5/15/12
“The stories in this memoir read as a veritable who’s who of modern electric blues…The man who defined the sound of the Chicago blues and influenced a generation of rock guitarists shares his life story.”
BackstageAxxess.com, 5/8/12
“The book is a musical journey…A great read, not only for the blues enthusiast, but for the rock and roll enthusiast as well.”
Toronto Star, 5/13/12
“[Guy’s] co-writer, David Ritz, has served his partner well: Guy’s down-home syntax reads like well-wrought fiction.”
Booklist, 6/1/12
“[An] amiable and entertaining biography…Full of fascinating anecdotes about some of the greatest of the twentieth-century bluesmen and the now mostly shuttered South and West Side Chicago blues clubs they played in…A must for Buddy Guy fans and blues enthusiasts.”
DownBeat, July 2012
“Buddy Guy is a stellar storyteller…The guitarist relates the fascinating story of his life in the well-organized, speedily read When I Left Home…Guy weighs in on the blues experience, good and bad, maintaining a warmth of spirit…Guy gives his two cents on blues Chicago without lapsing into romanticizing…Buddy Guy’s smile on the cover of When I Left Home is every but a lasting image for modern blues.”
“Buddy Guy is a stellar storyteller…The guitarist relates the fascinating story of his life in the well-organized, speedily read When I Left Home…Guy weighs in on the blues experience, good and bad, maintaining a warmth of spirit…Guy gives his two cents on blues Chicago without lapsing into romanticizing…Buddy Guy’s smile on the cover of When I Left Home is every but a lasting image for modern blues.”
Washington Times, 5/25/12
“Filled with high spirits, good humor, magnanimity toward old foes and gratitude toward those who helped him. [Guy] tells his story in the earthy, salty style of the blues itself, honest about feelings, frank about sex, all imbued with an unconquerable love of life, even (especially?) at its hardest. Mr. Guy owes a debt to his co-author, David Ritz, who has helped capture the sound, the rhythms and the raw energy of the language bluesmen speak…The book is rich in anecdotes, hilarious and tragic, about the giants he knew…Quite a tribute. Quite a book. Quite a Guy.”
PopMatters.com, 5/30/12
“When I Left Home: My Story is exactly what is promises to be: the recollections of a 74-year-old blues maestro who paid his dues, grew up poor, gigged a lot and rubbed elbows with some of the most remarkable musicians of his time, even as he himself developed into another of that elite group…A compulsively readable book.”
Blogcritics.org, 5/25/12
“[A] lively autobiography...Throughout Guy’s vivid character sketches, anecdotes, and descriptions of his work in the studio and in clubs, Guy reveals the realities of the music business…A perfect blend of insights, observations, and behind-the-scenes looks into a seminal place and time in American music. Guy’s perspective seems balanced, candid, and level-headed…He knows how to tell a story with an open-hearted personality and down-home style.”
WBEZ Blog, 5/29/12
“Guy takes the reader on a wonderful ride filled with humor, sadness, some regret, lucky breaks and, of course, music.”
“Guy takes the reader on a wonderful ride filled with humor, sadness, some regret, lucky breaks and, of course, music.”
Los Angeles Times, 6/10/12
“A colorful account of [Guy’s] 50-year-long tenure as perhaps the most influential guitar slinger in Chicago blues.”
Jackson Clarion Ledger, 6/7/12
“Next to B.B. King, there's no bigger blues star today than George ‘Buddy’ Guy, a major influence on Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix…Blues fans will cherish this insider's take on the last half-century of the genre.”
The Daily Beast, 6/7/12
“Ramblingly entertaining.”
A.V. Club, 5/28/12
“In memoir, likeability helps, and Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy is an easy guy to like.”
BlindedBySound.com, 6/1/12
“It's fascinating to hear Guy tell of his formative years…In addition to seeing the journey of his life through his own eyes, the real joy in this book is the cast of characters we're introduced to…His stories bring these men back to life and his love for them is genuine and palpable…A breezy yet engaging read.”
Maclean’s, 6/6/12
“In unvarnished prose dotted with vernacular poetry, Guy relates his journey from rags to relative riches with the help of younger acolytes such as Keith Richards and Eric Clapton; along the way, he gives us the story of the blues as an art form and unstable, even dangerous, business. He tells it like it was.”
Guitarist (UK), July 2012
“Entertaining, lively and vivid…[Guy] emerges as real as you’d dare hope…Guy is connected to the blues in a way that runs so deep it’s difficult to fully understand and appreciate; this book explains the link.”
“Entertaining, lively and vivid…[Guy] emerges as real as you’d dare hope…Guy is connected to the blues in a way that runs so deep it’s difficult to fully understand and appreciate; this book explains the link.”
Living Blues, June 2012
“What makes this rendition special is the care with which Guy and his co-writer David Ritz limn the details and make everything come alive…The ‘you-are-there’ feel of living history that the best autobiographies afford us is among the richest gifts to be garnered from this book…Rewarding reading for long-time fans as well as newer, more casual acquaintances.”
New York Journal of Books, 5/22/12
“[An] entertaining first-person narrative by an iconic musician…Many amusing ane...
About the Author
Buddy Guy was born in 1936 in Lettsworth, Louisiana. He is considered among the best blues guitarists alive today. He lives in Chicago. David Ritz is the coauthor of many bestselling autobiographies of musicians, including Ray Charles, Etta James, Scott Weiland, Grandmaster Flash, and more. He is the author of 'Divided Soul', the definitive biography of Marvin Gaye, and lives in Los Angeles.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Ymmit
Format:Hardcover
I got this book a fathers day gift this year and I what a great read. I couldn't put it down and read it in a matter of days. There are a few aspects of this book that made it so I couldn't put it down.
The most striking is Buddy's personality. He's gotta be the most humble soul to ever come out of the Chicago blues scene. Buddy tells you about his life, but because he feels that others had a greater contribution he spends much of the book telling you the history of other blues greats such as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Little Walter, and Junior Wells. For me, this was truly enjoyable.
Buddy spends just the right amount of time describing the recording sessions and how the artists came up with some of the classics we know and love today. The book is full of anecdotes about these sessions and how they came about. He focuses on the personalities of the people evolved and doesn't spend on line of the book getting into the 'technical' aspects of he play. It just further adds character and depth to some of the blues records that we have come to love over the years.
The last thing that made this book a page turner for me, was the actual history of all these blues legends in the 50's ' 60's. It was fascinating for me to read about the Chicago blues scene back then and how all of these great blues musicians not only knew each other, but lived in each others houses, watched baseball games together and were best friends / enemies. For anyone who likes Chicago blues and would like to hear very interesting stories of it's past, I'd recommend this book.
The most striking is Buddy's personality. He's gotta be the most humble soul to ever come out of the Chicago blues scene. Buddy tells you about his life, but because he feels that others had a greater contribution he spends much of the book telling you the history of other blues greats such as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Little Walter, and Junior Wells. For me, this was truly enjoyable.
Buddy spends just the right amount of time describing the recording sessions and how the artists came up with some of the classics we know and love today. The book is full of anecdotes about these sessions and how they came about. He focuses on the personalities of the people evolved and doesn't spend on line of the book getting into the 'technical' aspects of he play. It just further adds character and depth to some of the blues records that we have come to love over the years.
The last thing that made this book a page turner for me, was the actual history of all these blues legends in the 50's ' 60's. It was fascinating for me to read about the Chicago blues scene back then and how all of these great blues musicians not only knew each other, but lived in each others houses, watched baseball games together and were best friends / enemies. For anyone who likes Chicago blues and would like to hear very interesting stories of it's past, I'd recommend this book.
By Sly
Format:Hardcover
This book is a marvelous way to know Buddy Guy inside out. He really told you what happens in his life, the way the Chicago Blues legends really are that Willie Dixon stole some of his songs from others musicians.
The pepperoni sandwich Muddy Waters gave him when he was hungry alone in the center of Chicago, and about to leave the city ! And Muddy told him after he ate the sandwich that he can make it and asked him to stay in Chicago !
You’ll know that BB King and Buddy are really true gentlemen of the blues. He told you the real problems between him and Junior Wells for the first time. The only bad thing about this book is that it can be longer !
A page turner for sure for any blues fan !!! You’ll surely read it in 2 or 3 days !
The pepperoni sandwich Muddy Waters gave him when he was hungry alone in the center of Chicago, and about to leave the city ! And Muddy told him after he ate the sandwich that he can make it and asked him to stay in Chicago !
You’ll know that BB King and Buddy are really true gentlemen of the blues. He told you the real problems between him and Junior Wells for the first time. The only bad thing about this book is that it can be longer !
A page turner for sure for any blues fan !!! You’ll surely read it in 2 or 3 days !
By Rob
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you're a fan of the blues and a fan of Buddy Guy, then this is a must read. Buddy tells his story in his own words, intertwined with stories of some of the legends of blues. I read this book in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. I can't wait to see him perform again!
Want to see more reviews on this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 84 reviews
4.8 out of 5 stars
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
