Mel Cherens Autobiography

[conor l]

Im considering buying this book, My Life In the Paradise Garage, and Id like a second opinion on it.

Can anyone tell me what this is like?

Would it be worth buying?

What clubs/djs does he discuss other than the garage & levan?

[JussiK]

It's most certainly worth buying - immense amount of interesting information and inside facts. The illustrations include fab shots of Grace Jones for one thing, though there are maybe too many stills of men with big mustaches and too much visible body hair. The downside is the gloomy, joyless narrative and somehow one gets the impression that without heavy doses of daily drugs those folks wouldn't have been dancing at all.

[Svend]

Much of it was very interesting and, while I am glad I read it, by the end of the book I had had more than enough of Cheren's astonishing, colossal ego. Mel thinks very highly of himself!

[thommy2458]

Hi Conner-the prior comments are accurate.From the title of
the book you'd think it was all about NY club culture circa
Larry Levan.It goes into alot of detail about Mel's love life,etc..
which is fine it just didn't make good reading.The benfits of
the book is that there are lots of tid bits I found interesting-
and there are the photos,club lists,etc..Something that you might find far more interesting is "love saves the day" by
Tim Lawrence.A description explains"a history of american dance music culture,1970-1979" and it is that and so much
more.Beautifully written with detail and facts from everyone
you could think of-I've read it 3 or 4 times and refer to it
constantly.Good luck Conner! Thom

[markydefad]

I bought Mel's book mainly for the Disc-o-la Fortune 500 in the appendix!!! Quelle surprise!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D I have skimmed it--especially the Tom Moulton innovations chapter--but haven't actually read all of it--particularly the stuff about Mel's love life. :roll: :oops:

It looked like a "skimmer" to me. However, he was in the thick of it and knew all the key players in the development of disco. So maybe one day I'll actually read it. :P

[conor l]

Something that you might find far more interesting is "love saves the day" by
Tim Lawrence.A description explains"a history of american dance music culture,1970-1979" and it is that and so much
more.Beautifully written with detail and facts from everyone
you could think of-I've read it 3 or 4 times and refer to it
constantly.Good luck Conner! Thom

I have it already and have read it countless times without being bored. Its a great book but Ive found ti left out the SF scene and didnt really go into detail on a lot of the big djs on the white gay scene in the late 70s(Thode, Burgess etc.) which was a shame as I already knew loads about the likes of Levan, Scott, Knuckles et albut there was still loads I didnt know whihc was in the book

anyway Im waiting for the sequel so i need something interesting to read

[Mixmachine]

I bought Mel's book mainly for the Disc-o-la Fortune 500 in the appendix!!! Quelle surprise!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Dis-o-la is free here for download.

[born2disco]

Much of it was very interesting and, while I am glad I read it, by the end of the book I had had more than enough of Cheren's astonishing, colossal ego. Mel thinks very highly of himself!

Agree totally
Love the book though

[remicks]

the book you'd think it was all about NY club culture circa
Larry Levan.It goes into alot of detail about Mel's love life,etc..
which is fine it just didn't make good reading.

JussiK

It's most certainly worth buying - immense amount of interesting information and inside facts.
The downside is the gloomy, joyless narrative and somehow one gets the impression that without heavy doses of daily drugs those folks wouldn't have been dancing at all.

Svend

Much of it was very interesting and, while I am glad I read it, by the end of the book I had had more than enough of Cheren's astonishing, colossal ego. Mel thinks very highly of himself!

This is THE disco book .
If you want to understand disco, where it came from , how it emerged within a particular era's environment ...
iow, how it came to be ...

just follow Mel's personal journey step by step ....he was there from (before) beginning to end and every day in between. .

IF ANY book needs to be made into a feature film to properly document the disco story, This Book Is It.

Of course its full of Mel's personal life and escapades - ( its an autobiography)
--- its always the personal lives of people that frame the bigger resulting story. How great to follow disco's evolution framed in that context.
And yes Mel is full of himself ... as one who lived his life couldn't help but be/has every right to be . I'm not finding it gloomy or joyless ( especially considering when all's said and done - disco's horrific ending) .... just brutally honest with no holds barred - just as I'd hoped it to be ...

This is not your just an ordinary girl angled disco story.
This is the real deal.

I'm still in the middle of reading it -
savoring -
every-
poignant -
word....


*****

[RobbaDobba]

I just recently read it. It is interesting, and then at the halfway point it starts to get very, very depressing as everyone around Mel begins to die from the AIDS virus. In that respect, you get an up close and personal feel for how this dreaded disease wiped out so many good people. The scope of how it went from a trickle to a tidal wave feels very real and visceral. But it is a rough read, nonetheless.

I agree that his ego sometimes overshadows others' contributions in his recollections, but after all it's an autobiography...what else would one expect?

I also agree that Tim Lawrence's "Love Saves The Day" is the absolute best chronicle of the Disco era.

[DonaldCleveland]

I think that Tim Lawrence's book is valuable if you want to believe it to be absolute truth.
It is more or less a survivors recollection told to a man who had no anecdotal recollections of his own.

If Tim stuck a microphone in your face or called you- the story got to be told- by you.
How close those stories are to the truth is a matter for dispute.

THE MOST accurate, day by day week by week chronicle of those disco days is partially on this website (Billboard Disco Compilation Consensus Charts) and in the pages of "The Disco Files" by Vince Aletti. You'll notice in those sources people who are NOT Gay or Italian or the Latino lovers of those are quoted.
Alettis book has so many Latino, Irish, Female and West Indian surnames that compared to the more recent recollections of that time period (especially who was doing what where, and first)- you would think you were reading a science-fiction novel.
Aletti's book has 2 names relegated to hip-hop history as disco chart reporters in the first 2 months of the chart. How'd that happen? Well Aletti's book is the truth. Not the stories told by the guys left standing around NOW who get to bend the story to fit their needs.....or egos.

Read Tim Lawrence' book and you'll notice the comparative absence or Blacks, Latinos, Irish, Women and Straights except as they fit underneath or on top or as a beard to the survivors who (I'll say it again) told their story. Ray Yeates is used as a prop to explain a novelty song title instead of as a leader of a burgeoning movement.

The truth is often more subtle and more involved than can fit in any ONE book. I agree, read the Tim Lawrence book. But read the others too. Read the Casablanca book. Read the James Brown and Barry White autobiographies (Why wouldn't you? they were there).

If you're a Danny Krivit you love all the books. If you're a Phil Gill who no longer works full time (but is still a part-time DJ) in the music industry but instead works in Education you wonder why the books ignore you.

If you're me- you wonder why that is...........that there was a time when Disco WAS inclusive of sex or color or lifestyle or income or nationality.

But now after the fact? It's very much segregated in its own way.

[DonaldCleveland]

Oh gosh, I forgot the MAIN POINT! God Rest His Soul: MEL CHEREN~!!

That book creeped me out because it was too intimate for me. Way too intimate. And that infamous all Male rooftop pyramid photo made me cringe. And gave me good ammo too as I got to tease a couple of friends "You did THAT when you were younger? And took PICTURES? What were you on?". The Smokey Robinson book creeps me out for the same reasons. Too much coke and sex. Not enough bathing was happening for me, dig? I mean do what you wanna. Sleep with who and what you wanna- dont ask dont tell- but damn. Slow down and bathe once in a while?

I was standing in the now-defunct record store Bondys in NYC and we were holding court discussing the book. Mel Cheren this. Mel Cheren that. Those of us who read it LOVED the music stuff, hated the relationship stuff. So more Mel Cheren this, Mel Cheren that.....

A younger employee walked over to us and asked innocently- "What's all this Male Sharing stuff you guys talking about?"

We all just about died laughing at that point.....

[remicks]

Oh gosh, I forgot the MAIN POINT! God Rest His Soul: MEL CHEREN~!!

That book creeped me out because it was too intimate for me. Way too intimate. And that infamous all Male rooftop pyramid photo made me cringe. And gave me good ammo too as I got to tease a couple of friends "You did THAT when you were younger? And took PICTURES? What were you on?". [/I]

.

I'm feeling deprived .....my copy of Mel Cheren's autobiography seems to be missing this tantalizingly audacious photo..........(??????) ......


******

[DonaldCleveland]

Now you have me second-guessing my memory (book packed in a box----and I dont remember WHICH box), maybe that photo is in another of the Disco Books?
Otherwise I'd list the page for you.

[conor l]

Im pretty sure its Siano and his friends on the roof of his apartment block after a night at The Gallery. Its in Love Saves The Day

[RobbaDobba]

Not enough bathing was happening for me, dig? I mean do what you wanna. Sleep with who and what you wanna- dont ask dont tell- but damn. Slow down and bathe once in a while?[/I]

I laughed out loud (literally, not like "LOL") at that!

[DonaldCleveland]

Im pretty sure its Siano and his friends on the roof of his apartment block after a night at The Gallery. Its in Love Saves The Day

That sounds right! I have reached the point where I need to unpack these books and look at them again. They are blending into one mish-mash of disco memories.

[remicks]

Originally Posted by DonaldCleveland
Not enough bathing was happening for me, dig? I mean do what you wanna. Sleep with who and what you wanna- dont ask dont tell- but damn. Slow down and bathe once in a while?!

I laughed out loud (literally, not like "LOL") at that !

For the record: there was plenty of bathing .....

Lots of glorious sex during the bathing ... true,


but plenty of bathing .





*****