Book overview
"My last book, Nobody Told Me, was the story of the best days of my life, and a musical career that took me from a holiday camp in the English west country to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. This book, on the other hand, begins on the very worst day of my life, June 7, 2020- with the death of my wife Elisabeth. Lizzie." She Walks In Beauty is the tale of Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty's lifelong quest to unravel the mysteries of the world that exists beyond the world in which we live. Beginning with a childhood fascination with the paranormal that only gathered strength as he grew older, this book explores the world hidden just out of reach, the shadows that are just out of sight and the certainty that there is an enduring connection between the living and the dead. Woven in and around his career as a musician, McCarty reflects upon the books and films that signposted his course, and the myriad places to which his curiosity led him, from war-time bomb-sites to public seances, from suburban English healing centres to pilgrimages to India, China and the Himalayas. He looks back at the songs he has written that chart that journey, beginning with the Yardbirds' "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," through to his recent solo work. He recalls the friends and musicians who have joined him on his quest, including Yardbirds vocalist Keith Relf, and Renaissance/Stairway bassist Louis Cennamo. And he tells stories... so many stories... of his years in and out of music, forever searching for answers to the questions he had - and, ultimately, finding them. She Walks in Beauty is not the typical rock'n'roll autobiography. There again, Jim McCarty is not the typical rock'n'roller.
