Bill King's Memoir Celebrates A Fascinating Life In Music

By FYI Staff

Bill King is something of a Renaissance man: photographer, musical arranger, music producer, songwriter, performer, impresario, author, journalist, columnist, broadcaster, and now a memoirist. He’s also one of the kindest, gentlest and grounded individuals you can hope to meet. His history is remarkable. His story is one of being at the right place at the right time, and he’s played with the best. What follows is a summary of what’s in store for readers in his latest book:  Coming Through the '60s – An American Rock 'n' Road Story.

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"Over the past 40 years, I have been keeping notes, writing essays, and sharing recollections of my travels; the interactions and stage exploits, the thrills and mishaps, fifty-year marriage, with friends, acquaintances, and readers of my weekly column at FYI Music News and Cashbox Magazine. I am often asked, ‘When are you writing that book?’

“The book is here.

“Not a book of celebrity run-ins, but a document of early life, ancestry, the anxiety and pressures of living with a decorated World War II veteran suffering PTSD; discovery, boyhood schemes, that first piano lesson, those early jazz concerts, education, leaving home, crossing America, homelessness, the flower generation, relationships, California, Greenwich Village, the army and then Canada!

“The good Lord has generously bestowed a near-photographic memory of places and events within me. At an age when past experiences commonly blur and fade, I've neatly stored a newsreel of occurrences that shaped my early life through the '60s - on the ground, near the highways, hitchhiking, sleeping in parks, begging for quarters, jamming the blues, and funking up the bandstand – the way I saw it! It is Coming Through the '60s – An American Rock 'n' Road Story.

“During high school, dad was diagnosed suffering from the trauma of war: Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD.  Instead of sidestepping the implications that took on my early life, I communicate the atmosphere in which the many children of veterans navigate survival lanes around the fear and anger and find forgiveness! Dad is that long thread between us that ties the love of music to our rocky history. The last decade-plus, dad and I bonded through books, photography, and music and spoke every week or so. I'd send him books – travel essays, war stories, biographies, all of which he consumed. We'd talk of others' experiences and our own.

“The tone of this memoir may be difficult to comprehend at times, but I'll always honour the man who gave so much of himself in service of his country and jazzed up the home.

“Coming Through the '60s – An American Rock 'n' Road Story never stalls in one place. It is my journey—one that packs serious mileage and countless adventures—written in the language as heard from where the events occurred: the bandstand, streets, barracks and barrooms."

– You can order through eTransfer, Pay Pal or by Check. All inquiries or payments. billkingpiano@gmail.com - or Bill King - 427 Christie Street, Toronto, ON, M6G 3C7 - 7arts.press - Book -$25 - postage Ontario +$15 - Canada/U. S + $15.