Please Step Back [Paperback]

Ben Greenman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 2009

The rise and fall of a true American icon: A rock star, inspired by genre-busting musicians of the sixties like Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, and Marvin Gaye.

A swirling sixties saga of the rise and fall of a true American icon: A rock star. But not just any rock star: Rock Foxx is an outrageous showman whose unprecedented mixed-race, mixed-gender band made a new kind of socially conscious music that was infectious and tribal and scaled the heights of sixties rock stardom, all the way to Woodstock and beyond. But Foxx seemed to disappear at the height of his fame, his contagious, upbeat music darkening, then ending ubruptly amidst rumors of drugs and violence, as the culture itself exploded into massive riots and assassinations.

In the hands of New Yorker editor Ben Greenman, it's a story that is both highly literary and simply entertaining, a tale about rock and roll and about a complicated but key moment in our history. Exciting, funny, disturbing and uplifting, with some of the most deft and absorbing writing about music ever to appear in American fiction, this pseudo-bio of a fascinating character is an amazing creation in itself, and sure to be one of the most talked-about books of the year.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. New Yorker editor, music critic and novelist Greenman spins a fresh and explosive new novel about a fictionalized rock 'n' soul star who embraced and revolutionized American counterculture. Robert Franklin, aka Rock Foxx, quickly climbs the ladder from first single to first Billboard hit to the rhinestone stardom of a Rolling Stone cover. In the time of the Beatles, the Stones and Bob Dylan, Foxx injects his unique sound with hints of Otis Redding, Ray Charles and Curtis Mayfield. He sings to make an impression, singing about freedom that was constricting and how, even if you had everything, the mind (and the critics) were never satisfied. His fall from grace—and the spotlight—is as much about character as it is about the unrealized hopes and dreams of the turbulent '60s. McSweeney's regular Greenman (A Circle Is a Balloon and Compass Both) takes readers behind the rhythm and into the soul of a musician and the culture that made and destroyed him. It's a haunting vision of a man, the music and a culture, driven by the author's undeniable passion for his subject. (May)
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From The New Yorker

“The Foxxes were a popular Bay Area rock and soul band led by the Rock Foxx (born Robert Franklin). The group made its name in the late sixties with a pair of ebullient anthems, ‘Make It Better’ and ‘We All Need a Place in the Sun.’ ” So reads an encyclopedia of rock and roll owned by Franklin’s estranged wife in this fictional history of the Foxxes’ ascent to psychedelic superstardom. Alternating between her perspectives and Franklin’s, Greenman maintains a playful and elastic style, as if every line had come from a Foxxes song. Pauses are not just pregnant; they are “carrying twins.” As the band becomes embroiled in drug culture and the marriage starts to dissolve, we are reminded that “you can only paint the town red so many times before you begin to bleed.”
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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Melville House (April 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933633700
• ISBN-13: 978-1933633701
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,663,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ben Greenman is an editor at The New Yorker and the author of the underground indie hits Please Step Back, Superbad, and A Circle is a Balloon and Compass Both. His short fiction and music criticism has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Paris Review, and he writes a regular comedy column for McSweeney's. He lives in Brooklyn.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars joint, September 24, 2009

By 

Isaac Gregoire "gleeful consumer" (Seattle,WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Please Step Back (Paperback)

The author is clearly channeling his own invented lead character in his phrasing; Please Step Back is a punchy, sweeping rush through the 60s and 70s, following the cliche-by-now arc of a funkadelic rock star's rise to the top of the charts and world domination.

The story is surprisingly deep and fresh, but misses on one note: the female characters are cliche and uninteresting, assuming mostly passive roles of sex acts or pining inaction. They are groupies or madonnas, sluts or domestic stowaways of affection. Since at least 1/3 of the book follows the emotions of introspective love interest Betty, couldn't she have a presence as strong as Rock Foxx's? Or would that ruin the pacing?

Regardless, these slow stretches end quick, and then the beat resumes.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars did not rock me, December 7, 2009

By 

C. Fischer (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Please Step Back (Paperback)

I bought this book after hearing a plug on NPR. Then I had to plug away to get through it. Personally, I found the prose staccato and superficial, and I was never able to connect with the characters. Hard to think you can go wrong with a book on sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll, but this one has a style not everyone will appreciate.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rising Too Quickly..., May 4, 2009

By 

W. Stewart (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Please Step Back (Paperback)

Ben Greenman's "Please Step Back" takes us through the life of a true funk-rock heavyweight, a Vietnam-era star named Rock Foxx who blends the musical stylings of Miles Davis, Phil Spector, and Sly Stone with the unfettered debauchery of Jimmy Page and Motley Crue. Greenman's encyclopedic knowledge of the music and culture of the sixties and seventies emanates from every pore of "Please Step Back"; his fictional character, Rock Foxx, seems not only plausible but exceedingly real, in no small part because of Greenman's ability to recreate the tumult and passion of the era.

Yet fame is fleeting. Foxx succumbs to the same tragedy that befell so many before him: an inescapable snowball of sex, drugs, and fame. And it continues to today. As of only two years ago, Britney Spears had fizzled, her popularity tapering off dramatically from that of her previous, turn-of-the-century self. Radiohead's 1995 album "The Bends" predicted (albeit incorrectly) that the band would rise too fast to survive, like a surfacing deep-sea diver. And yet, although mega-music stars aren't the most sympathetic characters around, it is hard not to feel some amount of empathy for people that become trapped in a uncontrollable lifestyle and environment. This holds all the more true for Rock Foxx. First you're curious about him, then you cheer him on, then you idolize him, and, finally, you empathize with him. A true rollercoaster journey is lying in the pages of "Please Step Back."