This is a warts-and-all portrait, with friends recounting that Steve was victim to a temper that could lay waste to a city block. Goodman, in violation of the dress code, would get into fights with hosts at restaurants, or run down behind home plate at Wrigley Field and get into ferocious arguments with the home plate umpire. (When the umpire proved he was right and Steve was wrong he was able to laugh at himself, but he was still mad).
It's Clay's insistence on accuracy that actually makes Steve Goodman seem that much more amazing an individual. While the accolades tell us what we already gathered from the fact that book was written, that Steve was a remarkable, it's the warts that keep him human and someone who it is that much easier to identify with.
Of course some of the anecdotes about Steve and famous people are a lot of fun: Johnny Cash walking on stage and taking his boots off when Steve said all he needed was Johnny's boots and he'd look just like him, or Kris Kirstofferson and Steve Martin both saying the biggest mistake they ever made in their lives was having Steve Goodman opening for him as he would do such an amazing 40-minute set that they couldn't compete with him.
In 1972 Steve and his wife Nancy adopted their first child Jessie. They had been warned that the possibility of Steve passing the disease along to a next generation was a real enough risk that they should consider not having children. According to people Eals interviewed once they began to raise children (three in total), Goodman's obsession became to leave them a legacy.
"City Of New Orleans" ensured that the family of Steve Goodman will probably never want for much. It also seems that in the minds and hearts of thousands of people, all those interviewed for this Facing The Music at least, that Steve created an indelible impression on people that will also be his legacy.
Clay Eals has created something unique in the biographic genre and it took me a bit to pin down what the difference was in this book from others of the type. Every single source is first-hand. All the stories that you read, all the anecdotes that are retold, are told by the people who were there to see them. He didn't go to a library and read books about Steve, but he has written the book that people will seek out in the future.
Piece by piece Clay has built a picture of this remarkable singer whose music and person touched countless people. A proud man who never used his illness to generate sympathy for himself but lived with the fact that he only had a limited amount of time to accomplish all that he wanted. There is information in this book and stories that offer insight into some of the fear that Steve must have lived with, and the courage that it must have taken him to get up every morning and to keep going.
Article comments
1 - June Moore
Thank you. I enjoyed your review. sounds like an exhaustive book. I saw Steve open for Steve Martin in Lubbock in the 70's and he just blew us away, especially "20th Century." Then we couldn't move for laughing so much at Martin. What a great night. June Moore, Austin, Tx