"Songs are what I listen to, almost to the inclusion of everything else. I don't listen to classical music or jazz very often, and when people ask me what music I like, I find it very difficult to reply, because they usually want names of people, and I can only give them song titles. And mostly all I have to say about these songs is that I love them, and want to sing along to them, and force other people to listen to them, and get cross when these other people don't like them as much as I do."
Nick Hornby, "31 Songs"
Chapter 1: "Teenage Fanclub: Your Love is the Place Where I Come From"A Fan's Notes is a great book about being a fan (in this case football, which I know and care nothing about) and so was Hornby's High Fidelity.(If you've only seen that movie --or this one-- read the book(s).)
Teenage Fanclub is one of my favorite bands too --probably my #1 Fave Rave. Norman Blake, Gerard Love and Raymond McGinley each have distinctive songwriting styles, and with Francis Macdonald working up a sweat at the drum kit the band is giving tour audiences this summer some great shows.
Through the magic of the internet, I joined up with some people who are even more diehard fans of the band than I am for shows in DC and NY. We started talking about books that get the world of music, bands and fans right.
Fargo Rock City by Chuck Klosterman was recommended by one of the cool rock chicks in attendance and if it had been about idealistic folk music, which I was listening to in high school instead of heavy mental (that's an old David Johansen line) I probably would have read it before now.
Lonely Planet Boy by Barney Hoskyns is one of my favorites; a novel about a fan who gets what he wants, and pays the price. A character who emerges in better shape is Gary Valentine, a founder of Blondie who wrote some of their early hits. His memoir New York Rocker is a time machine back to the seventies --the good parts, not the disco and bell bottoms bit.
Some of the best books about music are available from the British Amazon. Look for Giles Smith's Lost in Music-- if you're the kind of person who likes to dig through record bins, this book is about your life. The late great John Peel said "Read this book." Also available from amazon.co.uk is Cider with Roadies by former NME writer Stuart Maconie, who discovers the "comically tawdry truth behind the glitter." Yet more sleaze and insight into the music scene can be found in Mick Farren's Give the Anarchist a Cigarette.
You can find great books about music but far more importantly, in my opinion, the Village's best selection of music you'll like at RebelRebel on Bleecker Street. I feel about that place the way Norm and Cliff felt about Cheers. Ask David for a recommendation, spend a lot of money, go away happy. It always works for me.
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