The musician author is best known for his work with Yes, the prog band that more or less defined the genre with such classic records as Fragile and Close to the Edge. Here the literary drummer talks about his work with Yes, King Crimson, his own jazz band Earthworks, and a life spent behind a set of drums.

Bruford is a literate biographer and honest. He talks about his rather unhappy experiences with those bands he's worked with. He seems to hold his work in the jazz field as above what he did in the rock world and more than once has taken verbal shots at former bandmates and various musicians in the rock community like Jimmy Page and Keith Emerson.

What comes across these pages is a musician who grew increasingly unsure about what he was doing. He describes the new generation of drummers with obvious awe and admits that he is not as good a player as these modern drummers.

Though the writing gets a bit heavy and philosophic, Bruford is a bright, self-deprecating author only too happy to lay out all his inadequacies and feelings of inferiority on these pages.

Read this book while listening to the Fragile album and you'll find it hard to believe that the same person created both.