Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher – (Conversations on Life, Recovery, Faith, and Music)

As much a scrap-book as a biography… You can read Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher in bite-sized pieces
Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher – (Conversations on Life, Recovery, Faith, and Music)

Author(s): Dion DiMucci and Adam Jablin

211 pages
Lyons Press                                                                                                                                                                                 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1493088025                                                                                                                                  ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1493088027

Your enjoyment of Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher will depend, to some extent, on your expectations about the book – in other words, what it is and what it isn’t. First, the book is essentially a tabletop format at slightly more than 8”X11” – in lieu of a dust jacket, there’s a smooth matte-black hardcover featuring a printed portrait of Dion. The interior pages are colorful and feature pictures (color and black and white) on almost every page. Text portions sometimes are bordered with a small guitar-motif and contain color titles and highlighted passages.

The book isn’t DiMucci’s memoir, his biography, or an introspective tome about his philosophy of life – although there are aspects of all of these to be found within the book’s pages. In fact, the book doesn’t ‘speak’ solely with Dion’s voice but share’s generously with the ‘voice’ of life-coach, inspirational speaker and author, Adam Jablin. Crediting the singer-songwriter as his mentor, Jablin acts as more than DiMucci’s researcher, proof reader, or stylistic contributor, but is very much front-and center as a character in the book. Chapter two, in fact, is “About Adam Jablin,” and is written by Dion. The narrative point of view in Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher shifts from Jablin to DiMucci and back several times as you go through the pages.

The 48 short (but illustrated) chapters are preceded by a forward by Paul Simon, a preface by Bishop Robert Barron and a prologue by none other than Eric Clapton! If you’re looking for more name-drops there are plenty throughout the book including an appendix at the end - “Words From Friends,” features appreciations by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townsend and Dave Marsh – with (for some reason) a tribute by Dion to Dick Clark, wrapping it all up!

If you’re getting the idea that this is as much of a scrap-book as a biography, you’re at least partially correct. You can read Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher in bite-sized pieces, most chapters being two to six pages long. Many of the chapters start as a narrative of DiMucci and Jablin in a restaurant, or walking down the street, engaging in conversation.   

In fact, as the sub-title of the book implies, the basic format is a book of collected conversations – but it’s not a format the author(s) stick to. There are some chapters that read like essays (“Attitude” by Stevie Van Zandt), a couple of chapters are basically R&R Hall of Fame induction speeches. There are ‘chapters’ consisting of lists (one literally called “My Top Lists - by Dion”) and chapters that are collected thoughts about various subjects by DiMucci. The framing style of the text is Jablin contextualizing Dion’s philosophies by placing them in conversational formats in one-on-one environments. The conversations come across somewhat as a master/student interface, with Dion as the goatee-stroking master and Adam Jablin as the eager-to-learn student. From chapter one:
"_{Dion was wearing his black-on-black New York Yankees baseball cap, a black cotton T-shirt under a black jacket, with black jeans. He had a razor-sharp salt-and-pepper goatee, and cool rock ‘n’ roll glasses. “Adam, I want to bring people into our reality. A Higher Reality. How God directs all our thoughts and all our decisions.”
I nodded. …}"

These remembered conversations take on an idealized quality that render them possibly a little more smoothly-polished than they actually were, but they illuminate Dimucci’s emotional and spiritual evolution from street-gang member to crooner, to the artist we know and love. Along the way, the usual spiritual roadblocks of excess give way to the artist’s realization that “success and fulfillment are two different things” and his eventual transforming surrender to God in 1979.  

Today, the iconic singer is a happy man in his eighties, married to the same woman for more than sixty years, and still making music with no end in sight. Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher will give you some insight into the man and his journey. It’s sprinkled with his thoughts on art and spirituality and is certainly a fan’s must-have book. You might want to clear a space on your tabletop.
                

• Bert Saraco

You can see Bert’s concert photography at www.facebook.com/express.image