Devil Take the Hindmost, The Otherworldly Music of Allan Holdsworth: FMS Edition

If you love Holdsworth, the Master...this book is for you. Very thorough.

I have been following Allan's guitar playing and his music since I heard him on the Tempest album. At that time a friend/guitarist who worked in a record store give me a copy of the Tempest LP and said, "If you think you can play guitar check this out ...". I continued following Allan's recorded collaborations and solo releases, also searching out interviews in various magazines - After 45 years I thought I had a pretty good understanding of Allan's music and his gear, but this book showed me I had only seen the tip of the ice berg! If you want a historical view of Allan's recordings and the many other musical adventures (some of which were captured on BBC broadcasts, others dug up and discussed, and many if not all with live links to sound files!) then get this book.

I have never, ever seen a book so detailed on the subject of a musician. I followed/ enjoyed AH's music since the mid 70's, but had not listened much recently. In searching out information on outstanding Japanese guitarist Mikio Fujioka I discovered a video of him happily playing "Road Games" and dove back into Allan's music. Allan inspired countless musician's worldwide for a long time. This book dives into such detail nothing can explain other than saying "Buy it.".

If you are a serious Allan Holdsworth fan, this book is a must have! It goes into great detail about all his recordings, equipment, and so on. Even beer! LOL I've been listening to Allans music for 40 years, and I learned things I never knew before.

Devil Take The Hindmost is an exhaustive and fascinating exploration of Allan's music, for musicians and non-musicians!

Hard work has been put here. Nuce balance of biography and music analysis. More photos would be more than welcome

fantastic!

Informative

The book was a labour of love for the man and his music. A big thank you to Ed Chang for detailing Holdworth's career in such painstaking detail. Like frank Zappa, AH forged his own path, never easy but the only way he knew how. What was touching was the good things said about him by his excellent band mates who added so much to his vision. His depressing time with Warner Brothers showed the business for what it is as FZ would testify. So buy it and absorb then like "The Big Note", reread again. What I disliked was the book was only available via Amazon Prime with all the baggage that carries.

Wonderful insight into the mind of a musical maestro of late 20th / early 21st century music.Apart from some of the superb innovations in legato technique, harmony, etc... that Allan Holdsworth produced in his musical career, what becomes increasingly more striking as you read through Ed Chan's book, is the relentless determination of Mr Holdsworth to create his own path virtually without compromise. I had the good fortune to get to 2 Allan Holdsworth gigs over the years, and he remains high on my list of musical influences.Rest in peace maestro Holdsworth.

If you are a fan of Allan Holdsworth, this is a must have book. Lots of fascinating background to the life and music of one of the most important electric guitarists in history. Not really a biography but more a listening companion and background information source for his chronology of recordings. Well written too!

Respect to the author for producing a detailed analysis of everything that Allan played on.

Very detailed coverage of Allan and his work