What, and Give Up Showbiz: Six Decades in the Music Business
Fred Taylor (with Richard Vacca)
276 Pages
978-1493051847
Backbeat Books
2020

In his upcoming biography (December, 2020), What, and Give Up Showbiz?: Six Decades in the Music Business, Boston's late legendary and iconic music impresario Fred Taylor reveals six decades of promoting, booking, and personal friendships with an "A" list of musicians. With an ear for talent, endless energy, and a belief in each artist he promoted, Taylor would make an indelible mark on the early career of performers who would later become household names in the music industry. Anyone who met Taylor, whether you were an artist, fellow promoter, talent agent or simply a music enthusiast, found yourself inside an enormous circle of inter-connecting relationships. More often than not, you also became a lifelong friend of Fred Taylor. Throughout What, and Give up Showbiz? you hear an amazing, detailed first-person account of the people, places and events that were directly a part of his orbit, as booking agent, promoter, producer and marketer from the early 1960's all the way up to his 90th birthday.

Taylor breathes life into this narrative, literally having a conversation with you, including many hilarious anecdotes, home-spun punch lines while always making you feel like you were re-living the moment with him. Through these chapters, an extraordinary personal intersection occurs with a wide range of historical talent. A gifted storyteller, Taylor walks the reader through memories of presenting artists such as