Doug Bradley played basketball with the Miracles, shared a joint with Grace Slick, and held Dionne Warwick’s hand when he told her Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated. He watched his Doo-Wop singing brother and World War II veteran father battle over the birth of rock and roll, brought the music of Stax and Motown to a small college in the West Virginia hills, and soaked in the sounds of CCR, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix as an Army journalist in the “air-conditioned jungle” in Vietnam.
In The Tracks of My Years: A Music-Based Memoir, the acclaimed co-author of Rolling
Stone’s 2015 music book-of-the-year, We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of Vietnam War, tells the story of a life lived with, and in, music. He provides a poignant, sometimes painful, series of portraits of a young man maneuvering the intricacies of family life, love and romance, and a complicated relationship with a high school teacher who inspired him but was a constant source of bewilderment. As Bradley discovers who he is and, crucially, who he isn’t, the soundtrack evolves from Sinatra and the Beatles to Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan.
The Tracks of My Years is a book for anyone who grew up in post-World War II America,
and for their children and grandchildren trying to look beyond the haze of myths surrounding Baby Boomers. It opens windows into the echoes of the heart. Cue up Alexa, Siri, or Spotify and curl up for a journey through The Tracks of My Years.
“Bradley’s memoir is remarkable. Through the use of music, he anchors the reader not only to the time of the narrative, but the feeling of the time. Few writers achieve this in any genre.”
- Karl Marlantes, NY Times bestselling author of Matterhorn, What It Is Like to Go to War, Deep River, and Cold Victory
“There could be no better way for Doug Bradley to explore the meaning of his life than through the music of our generation. I felt soulfully connected to this book, and his compelling story, as it moved through the decades.
- David Maraniss, NY Times bestselling author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and associate editor at the Washington Post
“Doug Bradley has an incisive way of getting to the heart of the role music plays in our lives, how it lifts and supports us in difficult times and allows us to access our deepest emotions. His writing illustrates brilliantly the importance of music and how it is a universal force for good.”
- Maggie Ayre, Series Producer, “Soul Music,” BBC Radio Four
