The Music and Mythocracy of Col. Bruce Hampton: A Basically True Biography

Author/Contributor(s):	Grillo, Jerry
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Date:	04/01/2021
Binding:	Paperback
Condition:	NEW

"Colonel Bruce Hampton (the stage name of Gustav Valentine Berglund III) was a regional cult musical figure who launched and continued to influence the jam band genre over his more than fifty years in performing. The Myth of Col. Bruce Hampton is neither a true biography in the Boswellian sense nor a work of cultural studies, although it combines elements of both. As one of the reviewers said, Grillo's account of the life and music career of Col. Bruce (1947-2017) "reads like a novel." Grillo aims not so much to document and demystify the often self-mythologizing performer so much as explain why his fans and friends loved him so dearly. Hampton's family history, his place in Atlanta and southeastern musical history, significant friendships and musical relationships, and controversies over personnel in his Hampton Grease Band are covered. The author makes heavy use of interviews with Hampton, his bandmates, family, friends, and fans. The late Bruce Hampton's legacy includes being a touchstone for acts like the Allman Brothers, Widespread Panic, and the Grateful Dead. Hampton's mythology quickly outgrew his truth and he was quite happy that way"--