A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other: The Story of Shannon Hoon and
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Music
A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other: The Story of Shannon Hoon and Details
Review "People who know and love Shannon will enjoy reliving the moments chronicled. Anyone who didn't know him will certainly know him now. You managed to capture the personality of Shannon, the good and the bad, I'm thankful it was mostly good. Thank you for immortalizing my son in print." --Nel Hoon (Shannon Hoon's mother), letter to author "Probably as close as anyone outside the group will ever come to knowing our story, 'A Devil On One Shoulder' is an honest portrait of the Blind Melon experience as told by those who were there. A great read - thanks Greg." --Glen Graham (Blind Melon drummer) "Greg, you did a great job on the book, you captured so many details. Maybe too many details. Ha! When my daughter is old enough, I will let her read it. On second thought, maybe I should let her read it after I am dead..." --Brad Smith (Blind Melon bassist) "I was able to find out things that I never knew before. I really liked the perspective of having all the band's quotes basically in the timeline fashion. And also the perspective of family and friends from what happened. And from such a huge fan of the band, it also brought me back into my fandom. It made me go back to the records and I became an avid listener again of those records. It brought a whole new meaning and level to the records to read the book." -Travis Stever (Coheed and Cambria guitarist)"'A Devil on One Shoulder' offers an unparalleled account for the many fans who were left bewildered by Hoon's untimely death." --subba-cultcha.com"From its startling jacket image of Shannon Hoon standing on the ledge of a high balcony apparently about to step off, there's an air of melancholic inevitability about Greg Prato's excellent history of Blind Melon." --Classic Rock Magazine, December 2008"I am absorbed by what already goes down as one of my favorite all-time reads...'A Devil on One Shoulder.' I swear to you, it is a must read. I strongly recommend this. A killer effort." --Jeff Pearlman (Author, 'The Bad Guys Won!')"Prato not only manages to gather the specifics, but more importantly paints a picture of a band and frontman possessed of brilliance yet troubled demons." --Under the Radar Magazine, Year End Edition 2008"A Devil on One Shoulder' shows that Blind Melon was more than a one hit wonder band on some 'best of the 90's' show. It's gives you a real feel of what Shannnon really meant to music." --Stone & Double T WXRX, Rockford, IL Read more About the Author Greg Prato is a Long Island, New York-–based journalist, whose writing has appeared in such renowned publications as Rolling Stone, All Music Guide, and Classic Rock Magazine. He is the author of several popular books, 'A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other: The Story of Shannon Hoon and Blind Melon,' 'Touched by Magic: The Tommy Bolin Story,' 'Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music, 'No Schlock . . . Just Rock!,' 'The Eric Carr Story,' 'MTV Ruled the World: The Early Years of Music Video,' and 'Sack Exchange: The Definitive Oral History of the 1980s New York Jets.' Read more
Reviews
I am generally not a fan of oral histories, but Greg Prato does a great job structuring this book to make it very readable and remarkably fascinating. I decided to read this after becoming obsessed with the "Soup" album for nearly a month, listening to it in its entirety everyday, sometimes more than once. This book really makes you feel as though you are a fly on the wall for the formation of the band, recording sessions, live shows and everything in between and even as Shannon's path is a given part of you still hopes the end will be different and it is the hope and passion with which Prato shows for his subjects and his understanding of the hopefulness of their recordings that give you a sense of hope where there is none. This is a wonderful, tragic story of a real band coming together with all their brilliant flaws on display and making some of the most powerful music of the 90s that was ultimately lost due to Hoon's untimely demise.
