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Paul Weller: The Changing Man | 
| Author: Paolo Hewitt
Publisher: Corgi Books
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £6.99
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Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 4106
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0552156094
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.42166092
EAN: 9780552156097
ASIN: 0552156094
Publication Date: June 16, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Disappointing Really November 6, 2008
Up until a few years ago, any Weller fan would have probably put money on any official biography of Paul Weller being written by Paolo Hewitt. Over the years, the two have been close friends, Hewitt has written books on the man, made documentaries, written sleeve notes and conducted countless interviews. But, for whatever reason (and the book's saving grace is that this is not made clear), the two are no longer friends. The sad pity about this book is that having read his biography of Steve Marriott, Northern Soul and his own childhood, I know he can actually write well. Sadly, this is not the case here.
The central problem of the book is that it doesn't do what it sets out to on the tin,; provide inside knowledge of Weller through his lyrics and Hewitt's personal accounts. It's nearly all of the latter and none of the former. He claims that it will be an analysis of his psyche; Hewitt has only researched two books and mainly quotes one. There are no interviews with key players and has to get much recent information form the Into Tomorrow documentary. Key figures on his records such as Steve White, Mick Talbot, even Rick and Bruce from the Jam are given scant mention in their dealings with him, although Dee and Gary Crowley do get a fair amount. He actually gets the titles to several of the songs he is analysing WRONG and even admits to jealousy on his part over Weller's childhood.
You can't help but think that this, along with the proximityt to their fallout at the time of compiling, may have clouded his judgement in writing this book. It's a hurried job, and all the worse for it. Some of the stories are enlightening, but in regards to Weller's character of intense extremes, it's nothing his fans won't know already. It has some good moment, but this is abook that could have been done ten times better by this author.
 Compost? September 28, 2008
Paul Weller: The Changing Man
If all require from a biography about Paul Weller is a cobbled together collection of interviews, reviews & hearsays about him, then this is perfect for you.
I would love to say I couldn't put it down, but I truthfully couldn't wait to put it down. So much so I only managed to get to page 112 before growing tired of Paolo Hewitts he said, she said style of writing.
Non swimmers will also love this book, it's so shallow you'll barely get your feet wet. If Mr Hewitt were to write a Weller style song, it would surely be called "Skimming Stones".
So, in answer to my heading Compost? this book is definitly being added to the garden compost.
what BOLLOCKS !!!! August 19, 2008
get your kleenex tissues out for mr hewitt, he has had a rift with paul weller and he wants us all to shed a few tears. what BOLLOCKS.
sorry i bought this bloody shambles of a book.
The Bitterest Pill July 23, 2008
This book is as much a bitter and twisted account of the demise of Paolo Hewitt's friendship with Paul Weller as it is about the songs he alleges he's discussing. Paul Weller gave Hewitt a year's salary so he could freelance. He took Hewitt to his child's christening when Hewitt wasn't going to go. The Weller family has been kind to the author. Yet on every page he stabs him in the back. In the end you end up sympathetic to Paul Weller. There is not enough about the songs. There are mistakes throughout. A discography would have been useful. It should have been called Sour Grapes or the Bitterest Pill.
Have you made up your mind? June 3, 2008
It's taken me ages to decide what I think about this book; and to be honest, I still haven't really worked out whether it's any good or not. Being an avid Weller fan, I got it hot off the press and zapped through it with gusto!
But while it's very readable, I'd agree with some of the other reviewers who were disappointed that it doesn't tell us anything we don't already know about the man. I suppose my problem is that I don't know what Paolo Hewitt was trying to achieve with this book. Unlike his excellent biography of Steve Marriott "all too beautiful", this work struggles for a clarity of purpose, and by the end of it, I could only surmise that it was almost an apology at having fallen out with a long-term and much-missed friend.
We all have friends with temparement like Weller. People who, whilst they lack Weller's lyrical and musical talents, share many of the same behaviour traits. We learn to manage them if we value them, and benefit from the parts we value, and tolerate the parts we don't. But we don't all write books about them. It would make for fairly shallow reading, which I'm afraid, this book is.
So buy it if you like - I did! Laugh at the bits you know are coming; cringe at some of the others. I suspect Weller is no different from many of us "ordinary folk"; a complex mix of individual parts; inconsistent and flawed. Why should he be the perfect human being just because his music inspired so much of our teenage (and beyond) years?
You know, I suspect Paolo Hewitt still likes Paul Weller. And though I've only ever been lucky enough to say "hello" to him a few times, I still like him, too.
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