---
product_id: 8782606
title: "Bill Bruford: The Autobiography. Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks and More."
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price: "€ 29.88"
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---

# Bill Bruford: The Autobiography. Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks and More.

**Brand:** bill brufordmike portnoymark guiliana
**Price:** € 29.88
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- **What is this?** Bill Bruford: The Autobiography. Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks and More. by bill brufordmike portnoymark guiliana
- **How much does it cost?** € 29.88 with free shipping
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Bill Bruford: The Autobiography. Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks and More.

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Worthy of a six-star review on a scale of five
  

*by M***. on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 11, 2009*

Bill Bruford has announced his retirement and, seemingly during the same week, published this book.  One could read this as "hey, this is gonna be some kind of tell-all, dish-the-dirt backstabber", of the sort issued by many a retired athlete and/or coach.  But then again, this is Bruford we're talking about, a man whose name usually appears in conversation with the word "integrity" not far behind.So what is this book then?  Is it really an autobiography?  Well, yes and no.  Bruford writes about his entire career arc, but not in the conventional birth-school-work-death order.  Instead, like his drumming, he isn't content to just stick to the beat.  The man has a million stories, racked up over 40+ years of albums, touring, hopping around from group to group, and finally becoming his own bandleader/businessman/do-everything guy.  Many of his vignettes are hilarious; others convey the long and lonely road that all touring musicians face.But the thing that strikes me most is how good of a writer that Bill is.  It's common knowledge that he's very witty, and is often regarded as the smartest one in the band (whatever band that it is).  But the fact is, his writing style is highly entertaining.  If he ever decides to retire from drumming (oh wait, he just did!), Bill could easily have a second career in writing...and, in fact, I hope he does a lot more of it if he's so inclined.About that "smartest one in the band" comment above:  Some have labeled Bruford as arrogant, detached, and so on...but if you read his actual words, as set forth in this book, you'll understand why he's chosen the paths that he has in his career.  Bruford has carefully collected all sorts of observations over the years, cataloged them, and released it all in this book.  And as you read the book, you'll understand why he gets irritated when people ask him for the zillionth time "Why did you leave Yes?", "What's it like working with Robert Fripp", and "Do you enjoy interviews?"  These are the actual titles of the chapters, and it's how the book is organized.  And, after reading each of these and putting myself mentally in Bill's shoes, even *I* started getting irritated at some of the things he's had to put up with!Not many of these chapters go into extreme depth on each subject, and in fact some of the chapter titles don't really have anything to do with the actual contents.  For example, one of these chapters has a series of very funny musings about food (such as it is) on the road, in conflict with the chapter's title.  And the "Do you ever see any of the old guys?" chapter contains virtually nothing about this particular subject.Full disclosure:  I started listening to Yes in the late 70s, when I was fourteen.  Bruford had left Yes a few years earlier, and yet That Snare Drum Sound is all over Fragile and Close to the Edge, captured for posterity and heavily influencing rock music to this day.  In high school, someone played me "One More Red Nightmare" from this band called King Crimson - and there was That Snare Drum Sound again.  (There was also That Dirty Cymbal Sound, whose origin Bill reveals in this book.)  I bought the Genesis album, "Seconds Out"...any guess what I noticed about that album?Later on, with the Discipline album by K.C., Bruford's dalliance with electronic drums came to the fore.  At the time, I was a huge fan of Al DiMeola, and...who should appear on his "Scenario" album but B.B.?  (Tony Levin, too, as an added bonus.  Bill and Tony always sounded so good together that it was ridiculous.)  The fact is, Bruford's made his mark everywhere in this business, and this book is a fascinating read that touches on all these things.So I've come to be a Bruford fan over the years, and have listened to a ton of his work.  But not Earthworks, to which a large part of the book is devoted.  Helpfully, Bill has included a free CD offer with the book, so I'll be checking out some of the Earthworks stuff very soon.So, if you're a fan of any of these bands mentioned above, if you're interested in the Process By Which Music Is Actually Made, and if you always wished that you too could try lots of fresh ideas in your lifetime, get this book...it's worth every penny.  If you're looking for soap-opera-esque stuff, skip it.  (No, Bill doesn't get on with Chris Squire.  Yes, Bill thinks Fripp is, uh, eccentric.  But who cares?  That kind of stuff has been beaten to death.)  Bill's writing is very English, of course, some of which may bypass an American audience...it helps if you're familiar with a few English idioms/phrases/slang, or at least have been to the UK at least once in your life.While reading this book, I imagine it's just Bill and me down at the pub, and he's telling me all his stories.  The difference is I don't have to buy all the beer to bribe him with, and that we don't have to drink it, become incoherent, and spoil all the stories.  This book is just a lot of fun to read.  Very well done.(I was going to write all of the above and send it directly to Bill, but after reading this, I understand that he honestly does not have enough time to respond to every letter of his.  So putting this here on Amazon, perchance to increase sales of his book, would be a better way for me to say thank you for many wonderful/musical years.)

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    The best in its class
  

*by W***B on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 11, 2014*

While doing interviews, Bill Bruford always came across as one of the most articulate and intelligent people in music.Now that he's written an autobiography, it may be possible to drop the qualifier. Bruford might be the most articulate and intelligent person in music.That's probably an overstatement, of course, but music covers a lot of different types of intelligence. "Bill Bruford : The Autobiography" certainly takes its place as one of the smartest and most thoughtful books in the bookstore, especially in the entertainment and arts section.Bruford is best-known, perhaps, for what he did at the start of his 40-year career. He was a drummer for the original Yes, putting out five albums that went a long way toward defining progressive rock. You can still hear "Roundabout" from the "Fragile" album playing on classic rock radio stations every so often. Yes sold lots of albums back then and filled plenty of hockey rinks. Then, just like that, Bruford took the unheard-of step of walking away. He says now that he thought he had done the group had done its best work on its last album, "Close to the Edge," didn't particularly like the slow, creative process with that set of individuals, and bought his way out.Bruford jumped to King Crimson, which came and went over the years on the whim of founder Robert Fripp. When that band split up, Bruford went off to go in a variety of directions, mostly jazz-related. He's best known for his own band, Earthworks.In one of his books, actor Alan Alda wrote that he had taken a back-end payment plan when he started working on "MASH," which turned out to be far more lucrative than anyone could have imagined. So he didn't have the obligation of taking any job that came along just to pay the bills. He could afford to be choosy and do parts that interested him. It seems as if Bruford could relate to that. The quarterly royalty payments kept, and keep, rolling in from past work, and Bruford could pursue his craft without being the proverbial starving artist that many jazz performers must be at some point.Bruford does cover his musical life in something of chronological order, but there are few stories about life on the road or what Jon Anderson of Yes is really like. Each chapter gets a title that's a question he's heard a zillion times over the years, such as "Yes, but what do you do in the daytime?" and "Why would you want to form your own group?" That serves as something of a launching point for his own thoughts and views on a variety of different music-related subjects.Bruford covers such areas as the changes in the business over 40 years, the concept of artist vs. craftsman, the use of computers in music, reaction to critical opinions, the relationship between artist and audience, and the role of changing music in our society over time. The list goes on.As you may have guessed, this is not a book to be taken lightly. The background music should be down or off to allow for some concentration. Best of all, you don't have to know much at all about the drums and drumming to enjoy the at-times universal message.Bruford announced he was finished with performing on January 1, 2009, issued this book, and said he'll pursue his musical interests in other ways. Let's hope that more writing is one of them. If "Bill Bruford : The Autobiography" is any indication, there's no doubt he has plenty more to say.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    More of a treatise on the music business than an autobiography
  

*by G***E on Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 4, 2020*

Most of us know what to expect from a rock musician's (auto)biography: how they started, the success, fall-outs and break-ups and debauchery. This book is different.  I think the nearest the author has come to trashing a hotel room is leaving a towel on the floor- and he'd have probably apologised when he checked out.  Rather than write about himself Bruford has written about his work; how the music business has changed, the impact of changes/improvements in technology and production techniques and the "democratisation" of the music industry. You'll learn a lot about the modern music industry but little about Bruford's private life. I don't recall him stating the names of his children. Plenty of food for thought in this book; he supports his arguments with evidence from  the likes of Simon Frith and Theodor Adorno. Someone intent on a serious career in music would be advised to read this book. It was a refreshing change to not have to wade through tales of drunkenness and debauchery.

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*Last updated: 2026-01-22*