About this item
A tour diary of life on the road with one of Minnesota's greatest bands - with nearly 100 never-before-seen photographs "Don't bore us, get to the chorus" is Bill Sullivan's motto, which will come as no surprise to anyone who opens Lemon Jail. A raucous tour diary of rock 'n' roll in the 1980s, Sullivan's book puts us in the van with the Replacements in the early years. Barreling down the highway to the next show through quiet nights and hightailing it out of scandalized college towns, Sullivan - the young and reckless roadie - is in the middle of the joy and chaos, trying to get the band on stage and the crowd off it and knowing when to jump in and cover Alice Cooper. Lemon Jail shows what it's like to keep the band on the road and the wheels on the van - and when to just close your eyes and hit the gas.
About the Author
A lifelong writer, Sullivan has worked as a reporter for 10 newspapers and two universities as a public information officer.He fell in love with the New York Mets as a boy in Schenectady, NY, ignoring the pleas of his uncles to root for the popular team in New York, that being the Yankees.Long Before the Miracle...the Making of the New York Mets is Bill Sullivan's second self-published book. His first was Sullivan's Practical Landscaping Guide, a book on his current trade. Sullivan runs Sullivan's Landscaping in Alexandria, VA, designing and maintaining residential gardens.Sullivan spent three years interviewing over 90 people for his book on the Mets. He talked to members of the Original Mets, other players of the 1960s and family members of deceased Mets players. He also talked to city officials, a National League umpire, the Mets bat boy from 1962 and the Mets batting practice pitcher from 1963. Casey Stengel had long since passed away but Sullivan reached two of his relatives.Jerry Koosman was kind enough to pen the forward to the book. Jerry and Bill became friends but Bill still hasn't made it to Osceola, WI, to join Koosman on a fishing excursion. The O'Malley family in Los Angeles was instrumental in helping Sullivan with the prologue to his book, which won the Ron Gabriel Award for the ``best research, published or non-published on the Brooklyn Dodgers." It was the exodus of the Dodgers and New York Giants from New York in 1957 that created a NL void filled by the Mets in 1962.Sullivan still follows the Mets and on Sundays, plays in the Ponce de Leon Baseball League in the Washington, DC suburbs.
