In 1974, at the age of seventeen, author Glenn Berger served as
"schlepper" and apprentice to the legendary recording engineer, Phil
Ramone, at New York City's A&R Studios. He was witness to music history
on an almost daily and nightly basis as pop and rock icons such as Paul
Simon, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Frank Sinatra, Burt Bacharach, Bette
Midler, and James Brown performed their hit-making magic, honed their
sound, strutted their stuff, bared their souls, and threw epic tantrums.
In this memoir, full of revelatory and previously unknown anecdotal
observations of these musical giants, Glenn recounts how he quickly
learned the ropes to move up from schlepperhood to assistant to the
tyrannical Ramone, and eventually, to become a recording engineer
superstar himself. Not only is this book a fascinating, hilarious and
poignant behind-the-scenes look of this musical Mecca, but Berger, now a
prominent psychologist, looking back through the prism of his youthful
experience and his years working as a counselor and therapist, provides
a telling and honest examination of the nature of fame and success and
the corollaries between creativity, madness and self-destruction.