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We'll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin' Showbiz Saga
Unavailable
We'll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin' Showbiz Saga
Unavailable
We'll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin' Showbiz Saga
Audiobook8 hours

We'll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin' Showbiz Saga

Written by Paul Shaffer and David Ritz

Narrated by Paul Shaffer

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

From Paul Shaffer, lifelong music junkie, hipster, and longtime leader of David Letterman's band, comes a candid, endearing, hilarious, and star-studded memoir of a life in-and love of-show business.

How does a kid go from a remote Canadian town at the tip of Lake Superior to the bright lights of Broadway and a gig leading the band on Letterman? This book is Paul Shaffer's answer to that question. From playing seedy strip joints in Toronto, to his first legitimate job out of college-which found him working with future stars (and friends) Gilda Radner, Martin Short, and Eugene Levy-to being first musical director of the nascent Saturday Night Live and helping to form the Blues Brothers, to being onstage every night with Dave and playing with the greatest musicians of our time, Shaffer has lived the ultimate showbiz life.

Now, in this hilarious, entertaining, and candid memoir-in which he dishes on everyone from John Belushi and Jerry Lewis to Mel Gibson and Britney Spears-Paul gives us the full behind-the-scenes story of his life, from banging out pop tunes on the piano at the age of twelve to leading the band every night at the Sullivan Theater.


From the Hardcover edition.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 6, 2009
ISBN9781415967065
Unavailable
We'll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin' Showbiz Saga

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Reviews for We'll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives

Rating: 3.619047619047619 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

21 ratings4 reviews

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This book was co-witten by David Ritz. It's an as-told-to volume if ever there was one. The autobiography is not strictly chronological, and sometimes tangents lead to other tangents. There are a number of more and less interesting anecdotes involving celebrities and music industry insiders. There are no penetrating insights or profound revelations. It's just the easy-going story about an easy-going piano-player who is lucky enough to turn his passions and predilections into a career.

    I found it interesting, but not all that absorbing. I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone not intensely interested in modern pop, rock, and jazz; "Saturday Night Live;" "The David Letterman Show; and/or celebrities.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Paul's been one of the most coo coo nutty marvelous cats in the business, and of course by the business I mean the industry, since the mid 1970's. Hearing how he got there and all that has happened along the way has indeed been a gas.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Paul Shaffer was being interviewed at the 92nd St. Y by Glenn Close last November. He was promoting his book, "We'll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin' Show-Biz Saga" (co-author, David Ritz). And if knowing (sort of) both participants wasn't enough, I'd picked up an advance copy (nice 8 x 11 size with easy-to-read large print) at the Times, so the event was a must.I hadn't yet read the book but brought it with me to possibly get signed. The interview was fun. Close kept the atmosphere relaxed and took Shaffer through his early life and career, with a piano onstage to illustrate various songs. At one point, he mentioned his old friend from Canada, Martin Short, and Short himself bounded up to the stage to join the discussion. Cool! I felt too shy to get the book signed or talk to Glenn Close again, so just left afterward.I later read the book. Gilda Radner called Shaffer "the most show business person I know" and he's full of stories about absolutely everyone. One question to Shaffer at the Y had been who he wanted to work with who he hadn't yet worked with. He had a hard time coming up with an answer (I don't remember if he ever did) since he's worked with everyone. If he name-drops, it's because he really does know all of show business. It doesn't come across as obnoxious but makes for a fun read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I've been a fan of Paul Shaffer's ever since I first saw him do his Don Kirschner impression on Saturday Night Live, so I was really looking forward to reading this. It's a breezy, funny, sometimes poignant (especially when he writes about people no longer alive, like his parents, Gilda Radner, and John Belushi) memoir that is completely readable, at times, compellingly so.The chapters are thematic rather than chronological, and he covers his life from his childhood dreams of showbiz and playing the piano at shul (Jewish temple) to becoming David Letterman's band leader and everything in between. This is a very entertaining show business memoir, without the backstabbing and tell all trash that mars so many such books.It was my first Kindle book and I read most of it on the plane while on vacation, the perfect travel book!