Kiss the Sky: My Weekend in Monterey for the Greatest Rock Concert Ever

(Paperback)

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Description

For his eighteenth birthday, Dusty Baker's parents gave him a great present: Two tickets to the Monterey Pop Festival of June 1967, a three-day event featuring more than thirty bands, and use of the family station wagon for the weekend so young Dusty could drive down from Sacramento to the Monterey Bay Area. He was another young person, trying to take it all in, sleeping on the beach with his buddy, having the time of his life soaking up the vibe and every different musical style represented there. Baker's lifelong love of music was set in motion, his wide-ranging, eclectic tastes, everything from country to hip-hop. He also caught the Jimi Hendrix Experience, who put on such a show that to this day Baker calls Hendrix the most exciting performer he's ever seen. He went on to years of friendship with musicians from B.B. King and John Lee Hooker to Elvin Bishop. This account grabs a reader from page one and never lets up.

Reviews

"At its best, the book evokes not only the pleasure of music, but the connection between that experience and the joy of sports." Charles Bethea, iNewYorker.com "(Baker's)interest in music might be instructive, after all, pulling a group of talented soloists together so that an underachieving baseball team could be, like their new manager, much more than that." Billy Witz, iThe New York Times "A mini-memoir, the book also appears through the lens of all the different flavors of music that shaped Baker's life to this day. In one layer of the narrative, Baker elaborates on his childhood and teenage years, including near-decisions to either play basketball at Santa Clara University or attend San Jose State solely because it was designated by Playboy as a party school. But his love of music, in a variety of genres, from the very beginnings of his youth, is what shaped him. As a kid, he was required by his mom to attend a Baptist church and give piano recitals, but he was forbidden to attend the local Pentecostal church because it was the first in his hometown to feature music with drums and guitar." Gary Singh, iSan Jose Metro

Author Bio

Dusty Baker is a former slugger for the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's and a three-time Manager of the Year whose 1,671 wins as a manager rank 16th all time. He's a lifelong fan of music whose friends among prominent musicians include Elvin Bishop, John Lee Hooker, Carlos Santana and B.B. King.