Bruce Thomas (2) (1948–)

Immortal Combat gives a complete overview of all aspects of combat, form the primitive to the cutting-edge, examining the crucial differences between the soldier and the warrior, and the martial artist and martial sportsperson.

Author Bruce Thomas argues that the path of the true martial artist is that of self-knowledge and self-mastery, while the lesser ambition of the martial sportsperson sets him-or herself above and apart from others. Thomas explores the fundamental questions, What is martial art? What are its origins? And what is its greatest potential? He look at both internal and external martial arts, using martial art icon Bruce Lee, spiritual master Morihei Ueshiba, karate champion Joe Lewis, and others, as examples of these different paths.

With this book, you'll see how the developing skills of the martial artist can lead from ordinary phyiscal abilities into extraordinary ones--skill that point both to the most advanaced combat technology and, at the same time, to its deepest origins with the warriors of the past. You'll learn how a renewed relationship with the forces of the natural world goes hand-in-hand with a renewed awareness of the 'super-natural,' helping any practitioner, from beginner to master, to deepen self-understanding and access hidden potential.

Author of Bruce Lee: Fighting Spirit, and Bruce Lee: Fighting Words, Bruce Thomas has done numerous interviews and articles on Bruce Lee for national newspapers, martial arts and music magazines, as well as radio and television. He initially trained for several years with Master Derek Jones, founder of Body Mind and Spirit (part of the wing chun lineage shared by Bruce Lee), but has more recenty become interested in the approach of Morihei Ueshiba.

Thomas is also known for his work in popular music, as a session musician on both sides of the Atalantic, and as the bass player with Elvis Costello and the Attractions. As a former member of this band he was inducted into the U.S.Rock'n'Roll Hall Fame in 2003.

Contents

Introduction
Part 1 Contenders
Chapter 1 The legend: Bruce Lee
Chapter 2 Ultimate Fighter: Joe Lewis
Chapter 3 Spiritual warrior: Morihei Ueshiba
Part 2 Martial art vs. Martial sport
Chapter 4 Extreme martial art
Chapter 5 Swinging with it
Chapter 6 Playing with the mind
chapter 7 Armed to the teeth
Chapter 8 The energy body
Part 3 The way of the warrior
Chapter 9 The art of war
Chapter 10 Psychic warrior
Chapter 11 Shadow boxing
Chapter 12 The new warrior
Part 4 Immortal combat
Chapter 13 Going the distance
Chapter 14 The art of self-defense
Acknowledgement
Bibliography… (més)

Vic Damone told his guards to go easy on the little Chinese guy. 'Just knock him on his ass with one good shot.'
Suddenly there was a loud wrenching noise as the door flew clear off its hinges, taking the first guard with it, as Bruce followed through in one motion and kicked the cigarette out of the second guard's mouth while he was still frozen in place. The singer managed the comment, 'Holy shit.'

Bruce Lee was a truant child and practical joker whou drove himself to realize this highest human potential and become the supreme exponent of martial arts in modern times. Through a short but explosive film career, he made the world aware of the Chinese fighting arts and philosophies, and in the process he became the highest paid movie star in the world. He died suddenly at the age of thirty-two, seemingly at the height of his powers. Bruce Lee' Fighting Spirit is his extraordinary story.

Born in the northeast of England, Bruce Thomas played with rock bands in London in the late 60s, later playing with Paul McCartney, the Pretenders, and Madness. He spent 1977-87 and 1994 recording and touring the world as bass player with Elvis Costello and the Attractions. The Big Wheel, his critically acclaimed 'novel' of his experiences on tour was short-listed for the Ralph J. Gleason prize for music writing. A later book, The Body of Time, deals in part with the philosophy behind martial arts. He trained with the late kung fu master Derek Jones at his school in West London.

Contents

Foreword
Publisher's preface
Introduction Bruce Lee A brief life
Part One The life and work of Bruce Lee
1 Childhood
2 Kung fu
3 Fighting crazy
4 Ruby Chow's
5 The Shadow
6 Summer in Hong Kong
7 Linda
8 Fighting fit
9 Screen test
10 The Green Hornet
11 Jeet kune do
12 Student/Master
13 The warrior
14 The Silent Flute
15 Longstreet
16 The Big Boss
17 Fist of Fury
18 Way of the Dragon
19 Game of Death
20 Enter the Dragon
21 Collapse
22 Goals
23 July 20, 1073
Part Two Legend...and reality
24 Women
25 Foul play?
26 Beyond the limits
27 A new Bruce Lee?
28 Legend
29 ...and reality
Part Three Fighting spirit: The essential Bruce Lee
30 Fighting spirit
31 The roots of combat
32 Mastery
33 Completing the circle
Dedication
Appendices
I Bruce Lee: Films and publications
II Wing Chun-and beyond
Sources and reading list
Index… (més)

Bruce Thomas was essential to the brilliance of early Elvis Costello records, including This Year's Model, which is impossible to imagine without his driving, virtuosic, furious bass lines, and Get Happy. But Costello and Thomas, unlike the other Attractions, no longer play together. Knowing that Costello's own memoir was imminent, I read Thomas's self-published book to find out why.

The picture he paints of himself and and his times is vivid: Thomas seems to have met everyone in British music from the late 1960s on and played in bands of every genre. Once he joins Elvis Costello's Attractions, the book really takes off, as the fame and energy of that band brought them all into a world more exhausting and exciting than anything can have been before or since. It quickly becomes clear that, as brilliant a musician as he is, Thomas is both thin-skinned and almost compulsively eager to give offense—a deadly combination. Thomas openly acknowledges his faults to some degree, but he can't resist sticking the knife in to those he's had disagreements with, including his ex-wife and, of course, Elvis Costello, who comes off here as moody, self-important, and a bit cruel. I don't doubt that he has these sides to him. I also don't doubt that there is far more to him than that, including large reserves of generosity and patience, and that if I had had Bruce Thomas in my band, I would have found it at least as impossible to get along with him.

But overall, I found this a worthwhile corrective to the cult of Costello, of which I have often been a member, and an entertaining collection of yarns.… (més)