3 stars: Enjoyed parts of it

I went on a bit of a music bio kick this year. I didn't know much about Dolby, but he left the music industry early on after struggling with some ethical issues in it, moved on the Silicon Valley where he did reasonably well (though not jillionaire status) and ultimately left it for the same reason, now he is a professor. I enjoyed parts of his book, with a few memorable aspects below.

Some quotes I liked:

"Years earlier I'd seen Roxy Music perform on the BBC's late night stoner music show 'The Old Grey Whistle Test'. Their singer was a lithe and sexy crooner in a sharp suit, but their heavily made up synth player just stood at the back in his seven inch heeled, knee length lizard skin platform boots, arms folded, looking thoroughly bored. Every now and then he would lazily reach out a gloved hand to tweak a knob on his Moog, which was apparently playing itself. His name was Brian Eno. I thought to myself 'If all you have to do is pose around and twiddle a few knobs and meet girls and make bags of money, that's the career for me.'

I would look out over the railroad tracks and imagine how London might have turned out if one of the many threatened invasions of our island had been successful. I imagined living under a repressive regime, where free speech was prohibited and everything rationed. Would there be a resistance movement? A secret society of free thinking artists and writers, lurking in the ruins of abandoned factories? Of course there would, and I would be the one to write their anthems.

I ran into Dr. Pyke [from "Blinded by Science" video] many years later at a conference. I asked him how his recent lecture tour had gone. "Badly, Dolby. Every time I walked down the sidewalk someone would sneak behind me and yell SCIENCE! at the top of their lungs! It seems that bloody MTV video of yours is more widely recognized than my body of scientific work."

In conversation with his good friend Andy Partridge of XTC on why he explored virtual reality instead of continuing his music:
If I had answered sincerely, I would have said this: "Andy, I can't make music now because of the pain. The pain of Terry Jackson's death, the pain of commercial failure of the music I am most proud of, and my revulsion at the state of the record industry, which is rotten to its fucking core."

Description from amazon:

The remarkable story of rising to the top of the music charts, a second act as a tech pioneer, and the sustaining power of creativity and art.

Thomas Dolby’s hit songs “She Blinded Me with Science” and “Hyperactive!” catapulted him to international fame in the early 80’s. A pioneer of New Wave and Electronica, Thomas combined a love for invention with a passion for music, and the result was a new sound that defined an era of revolutionary music. But as record company politics overshadow the joy of performing, Thomas finds a surprising second act.

Starting out in a rat-infested London bedsit, a teenage Thomas Dolby stacks boxes by day at the grocery and tinkers with a homemade synthesizer at night while catching the Police at a local dive bar, swinging by the pub to see the unknown Elvis Costello and starting the weekend with a Clash show at a small night club. London on the eve of the 1980s is a hotbed for music and culture, and a new sound is beginning to take shape, merging technology with the musical energy of punk rock. Thomas plays keyboards in other bands’ shows, and with a bit of luck finds his own style, quickly establishing himself on the scene and recording break out hits that take radio, MTV and dance clubs by storm. The world is now his oyster, and sold out arenas, world tours, even a friendship with Michael Jackson become the fabric of his life.

But as the record industry flounders and disillusionment sets in, Thomas turns his attention to Hollywood. Scoring films and computer games eventually leads him to Silicon Valley and a software startup that turns up the volume on the digital music revolution. His company barely survives the dotcom bubble but finally even the mavericks at Apple, Microsoft, Netscape and Nokia see the light. By 2005, two-thirds of the world’s mobile phones embed his Beatnik software. Life at the zenith of a tech empire proves to be just as full of big personalities, battling egos and roller-coaster success as his days spent at the top of the charts.

THE SPEED OF SOUND is the story of an extraordinary man living an extraordinary life, a single-handed quest to make peace between art and the digital world. ( )

Never knew Thomas Dolby was a pop singer. One of the best autobiographies ( )