Readers of Brian Cullman’s Memoir Should ‘Prepare’ To Pick Up All the Names That Get Dropped

‘How to Prepare for the Past: Travels in Music & Time’ By Brian Cullman ZE Books, 272 pagesA few years back, the actor David Hyde Pierce interviewed Eric Idle at Symphony Space upon the publication of the latter’s autobiography. Mr. Pierce made a comment that the book was among the noisiest he’d read given that it clattered with the sound of names being dropped. A similar thought came to mind while reading “How to Prepare for the Past: Travels in Music & Time” by Brian Cullman.Celebrity means different things to different audiences. The glitz attendant to a life led by a founding member of the comedy troupe Monty Python’s Flying Circus is likely to be different from that of a journeyman musician. Though Mr. Cullman’s memoir is peppered with names a general reader might recognize — the lead singer of The Doors, Jim Morrison, say, or music producer and fifth Beatle George Martin — the majority of them are less mainstream.The first chapter sets the tone. Mr. Cullman recounts an impromptu meeting between his businessman father and Ed Sullivan, the host of the long-running television variety show that bore his name. The setting is a shoe repair shop on east 59th Street; the conversation takes place after a notorious 1966 interview in which John Lennon not only predicted the end of Christianity, but averred that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus.”“I don’t know who they think they are . . .”, Mr. Cullman has Sullivan saying, “Too big for their f–-kin’ britches. Pardon my French.” Sullivan starts grilling young Brian about his tastes in music and elaborating on the fleeting nature of fame. “The words were almost avuncular,” writes Mr. Cullman, “but there was a hint of malice behind them.” The author goes on to note that Sullivan’s days as an entertainment power broker were numbered.‘How to Prepare for the Past: Travels in Music & Time’ by Brian Cullman. ZE BooksA luxury afforded by hindsight colors this reminiscence, but that’s not to say Mr. Cullman is wrong or that his book doesn’t capture the headwinds of a burgeoning counterculture that the author seems to have been preternaturally privy to. “How to Prepare For the Past” is an eccentric venture, particularly given the passivity with which Mr. Cullman records his experiences. It is not, strictly speaking, an autobiography or a memoir, being a compendium of sidelong glances, of brushes with destiny rather than an engagement with it.The author details his years on the fringes of a Manhattan bohemia and his run-ins with ill-fated Andy Warhol doyenne Edie Sedgwick, rhythm-and-blues shouter Big Joe Turner, cultural gadfly Quentin Crisp, jazz musician Miles Davis, fashion designer Betsey Johnson, and the unruly music critic, Lester Bangs. Travels abroad — to the United Kingdom, France, and, most memorably, Morocco — are ingrained with the spirit of youthful adventures caught on the fly. Mr. Cullman had a coming of age that was wayward, rich, varied and, when he had a run-in with the lovely Layla, potentially dangerous.Mr. Cullman places fast-and-loose with chronology, and his prose tends toward a logorrhea reminiscent of the poems of John Ashbery or the songs of Bob Dylan. The author is a longstanding member of the press, having written for forums like The Paris Review, The Village Voice, Vogue, and The New York Times Magazine. He’s at his best when the subject is outside the realm of slackerdom, as in a chapter titled, “Jajouka: Burning a Hole in the Night.” Mr. Cullman describes the region’s Sufi music as “the world’s best horn section jamming with an ambulance, like chaos sitting in the darkness, like the four horsemen of the apocalypse auditioning for a gig at eternity’s house band.” A mite rich, you might think, but if you’ve had occasion to listen to Jajouka music, the description is fairly on-the-nose. Forgive the author his flourishes and you’ll end up slouching your way through “How To Prepare For The Past” to rewarding effect.

Readers of Brian Cullman’s Memoir Should ‘Prepare’ To Pick Up All the Names That Get Dropped

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