Customer Reviews

Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life: A Book by and for the Fanatics Among Us

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Apparently all my contemporaries are writing right now. I just found out, for example, that Carrie Bradshaw (and, one assumes, Candace Bushnell) is/are just about exactly my age. In her book "The Carrie Diaries," she references Jimmy Carter and the Gremlin.

But Carrie Bradshaw listens to Aztec Two-Step, and right then and there I knew she could never be my friend.

Steve Almond knows what I'm saying here. Steve Almond gave up on a woman after a weekend of bananas sex because she listened to Air Supply - on purpose.

I know that Steve Almond is also just exactly my age, because HE references Aztec Camera, whose song "Oblivious" remains one of the most incandescent pop songs I know. It's got that androgynous 80's croon but on top of friendly, jangly guitars - and then you notice the line, "I see you crying and I want to kill your friends" and you start paying a little more attention.*

And that makes Steve Almond and I the same age because Aztec Camera was not together for terribly long, had one or two little MTV hits, and is one of the VERY few acts of that era who have not regrouped and gone on tour. Presumably, groups like The Jesus and Mary Chain, who were so charming to begin with**, have realized in their maturity that the world NEEDS their music, and they have a DUTY to provide it. One doesn't like to assume that they are back together, rather, because the tattered college students who liked them in 1983 now have the cash to fly to Iceland to see them play.***

Steve Almond's new book, in case you had not intuited this, is footnoted and rambling and studded - no, packed - with pithy little insights, analyses, and summations of bands and artists.

"...let me cite Duke Ellington, who once famously declared that 'there are only two kinds of music: good music and bad music. And by bad music I mean specifically the song "(I Bless the Rains Down In) Africa" by Toto.' Ellington died two years before Toto formed as a band, which speaks to his prescience."

But the book isn't about music. No? Whoops now I've pissed you off. No, ok, it's about music. But it's about how music affects us, and by us I mean the kind of repressed kids who have fallen between the generations - boys who weren't supposed to have emotions until times changed and all of a sudden they were expected to. Or girls who grew up on a feminism that couldn't yet incorporate vulnerability.

Steve doesn't oversimplify people in this way - I did that. Steve takes it from the other angle - he has noticed that the people most fanatical about popular music are the ones who have trouble integrating their emotions into their life. He posits that people who slam on the headphones and squeeze their eyes tight to hear every breath of Carolina Chocolate Drops doing "Hit 'Em Up Style" are looking for an intensity that they wish existed but fear to attempt.

Huh. Sounds pretty accurate, if memory serves. I would suggest to our boy Steve that he have a kid, but he's done that. His daughter was two at the time of publication - unless he's seriously emotionally retarded, I suspect that if he had waited a couple years he would not have been able to write this book except as a nostalgia piece. Kids allow one to access one's emotions with some fair expedience. In fact, it's probably the birth of his daughter that allowed him to express the ways that music has fulfilled his needs all these years.

All right, I think I'm done here. I laughed out loud at this book. There are some crystalline memories, some song references that bring me RIGHT THERE alongside him, some entertaining swearing, and - I hate to admit it because ok, emotion-y things still make me itchy - some insights that beat anything I learned in therapy.

Still not completely sold on Bob Schneider though.****



*Don't believe me about Aztec Camera? [...].

**I "saw" them in Cleveland, behind a veil of chemical smoke so thick that I had to watch the show from a crouch. They played their entire set with their backs to the audience, I guess so that they could see their instruments.

***I don't, but my friend Eric did, to see the Flaming Lips whom yes I realize have been together the whole time but let's face it most people lost track of them between the Vaseline song and "Do You Realize" showing up in a Mitsubishi commercial.

****Steve's massive mancrush, also the mancrush of my friend Leslie Miller, who may actually BE Steve - they like all the same music, and where Steve wrote a book about candy, she wrote one about cake (the delightful dessert, not the unpleasant band). Although Bob Schneider is ALSO exactly my age, and undeniably attractive, so I guess if we need a new Loudon Wainwright III, Bob could be it, because Rufus kind of isn't.

Another fantastic piece of non-fiction from Almond. I am a long-time fan and cannot wait to pass this, along with the soundtrack, to a few close friends. Perfect for fans of Chuck Klosterman, or of Almond's early work. If you don't have a sense of humor, you may wish to pass this one by...

OK, I'll state the obvious and say that ROCK AND ROLL WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE is a must-read for serious music fans (aka Drooling Fanatics) everywhere. With his trademark blend of self-deprecating humor and razor-sharp intelligence, Almond celebrates the famous (Springsteen, The Police), the, um, infamous (Styx), and the criminal-that-they're-not-more-famous (Ike Reilly, Chuck Prophet, Dan Bern, Bruce McCutcheon, Nil Lara, Dayna Kurtz, Bob Schneider, Gil Scott-Heron, etc. etc.).

But just as a good movie is more than its soundtrack, this book is more than the musicians it praises. In the end, Almond's a passionate, honest storyteller who uses music to explore deeper truths about love, family, friendship, loneliness, disappointment, joy, ambition, and human connection. The sections about courting his now-wife Erin, trying in vain to influence his children's musical tastes, and roadtripping with friend The Close are particularly moving. In short, this book is for anyone who turns to the written word to feel more alive.

Some reviewers are calling ROCK AND ROLL WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE a nonfiction version of Nick Hornby's HIGH FIDELITY, and I guess the comparison sort of works on a few surface levels: It's true that HF's fictional Rob and R&RWSYL's nonfictional Steve both have massive music collections. Both Rob & Steve use music to help define pivotal life experiences. And both compulsively compile mix tapes/CDs to express their feelings to and make connections with others. After that, the connection's pretty thin. A more apt comparison is Hornby's lesser-known essay collection SONGBOOK, which explores his obsessions and life experiences more directly than anything else he's published. As a result, it's Hornby's most soulful, personal book.

Likewise, ROCK AND ROLL WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE is as soulful and personal as anything Almond's published before, and that's saying a lot. (For a sampling of Almond's Hey-Soul Classics, check out his tributes to Kurt Vonnegut and Barry Hannah as well as essays on fatherhood in 2007's essay collection (NOT THAT YOU ASKED).)

Almond's biggest complaint about music is "you can't eat it." The same could be said of ROCK AND ROLL WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE. We all find salvation wherever we can. For some it's rock and roll. For others it's great books...like this one. Testify.

Steve Almond's portrayal as a music loving (Drooling) fanatic (who he really is deep down) hidden under the guise of a writer, is well written and funny. A relatable telling for those of us who adore music, who stop when a good song comes on, interrupting conversations so we might hear the words--words that have deep, profound meaning to us. Steve shows the Drooling Fanatic as the insecure, stalker-type geek that resonates with anyone who has waited for hours after a concert just to meet the band at their hotel, or who have made playlists for their friends, family and lovers. The wonderful moments in this book for me are when Steve meets his idols, the stars that he drools for, and what he learns throughout this process with each of them. A great read for anyone who loves music.
And, even though I only knew one artist on the soundtrack - I am now a fan of them all!

I'm 3/4 through the book, and so thoroughly enjoying it. Last night, after reading the Ike Reilly section, I linked to the Bitchin' Soundtrack and played Commie Drives a Nova and practically hurled with joy. All day at work today I was marinating in my DF-ness and couldn't wait to come home to download Salesmen and Racists. I developed a crush on the music and it's all your fault Steve! Drooling shrieks of gratitude!

I'm an older female DF with a 10 year old daughter who's been studying electric guitar for 2 years, as I model true DF behavior. This book was written for all of us non-musician rockers who will likely never outgrow our fanaticism.

I picked up "Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life" after hearing author Steve Almond on some NPR show giving a hilarious interview about the lifespan of, in his words, a rock and rolling "drooling fanatic," and how one becomes one, lives as one, and eventually writes about being one. The salient points of the interview readily established him as a man roughly my age (likely younger) and his on-air self profile rang eerily close to my own musical maniac ism. Indeed, he was a fellow traveller! I had to have this book.

Which makes it hard to recommend it to anyone but a middle aged fellow traveller. On a personal scale, I give it 5 stars, but for those for whom musical hero worship is utterly alien, "Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life" is more a 3 star book, so I rate it 4 to split the difference. Almond's musical journey is intensely personal and oft-times extremely snarky (and even for a lefty like me, the constant Bush-slaps got in the way when they should have been edited away).

His snark occasionally turns back on himself, and that gives the book a few of its best moments. His exegesis on why Toto's "Africa" is genius is a riot, and the secret confession of being a Styx addict and loving "Paradise Theater" in spite of his older brother is almost worth the price of the book. On the other hand, Almond falls into the trap most rock writers fall into, and that is believing your favorite obscurity is Godhead.

In this case, the object of his desires is one Bob Schneider, a Texas singer songwriter. Almond takes this to an extreme, tracking the man down at his home and engaging him in a sadly painful dialogue, revealing another pitfall of artist worship, when your idols break your heart. Sadder still, they break your heart because you've jammed them into a corner that they can never work out of. I actually felt sorry for both Schneider and Almond by the end of the chapter. (And just as geekifically, I promptly went out and bought Schneider's "Lonely Creatures" after. Very Sneaky, Mr Almond.)

Which underlies the attraction and distraction of "Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life." Unless you're the kind of "DF" who would be naturally stoked to find out what Bob Schneider (or Joe Henry, Aimee Mann, Nil Lara and a series of other artists Almond is hot for) does to merit such magnificent praise in this book, you might wonder what the commotion is all about. Not me. Because as Almond himself accurately predicted, as soon as I saw the words "free CD" in the introduction, I put the book down and hit his website as fast as I could. Because I am that kind of person.

I've enjoyed Steve Almond's work before, and was happy to take a spin through this book. But even knowing Almond's brashness, I was still surprised to see him attempt a high-wire act with effusive praise of Styx's PARADISE THEATER.

As someone who (sadly) is familiar with the work in question, I read Almond's PARADISE thesis with interest...and then dismissed it as unconvincing. Either Almond was reveling in Devil's Advocacy, or he is serious: One of Styx's worst album is a cultural milestone. As the latter possibility seems most likely, Almond promptly forfeits his musical credibility before Chapter 2. (Or was it 3?)

And yet I read on! In doing so, I found that this book provided chuckles, yawns, and frowns in roughly equal ratios. I don't want to cherry pick the chuckles, and there's no point mentioning the yawns, which usually stem from the more autobiographical material. But for a few frowns, how about:

--"The central appeal of AMERICAN IDOL (a show I have not actually seen)..."
No, of COURSE you haven't seen it. Neither have I! But that makes name-dropping it a bit problematic, yes?

--"Progressive rock is what happens when pop stars get an [unprintable] for high art."
No, no, no. Progressive rock is what happens when musicians NOT named Dennis DeYoung or Rick Wakeman learn to play their instruments REALLY well.

--The author shares some very non-rock-and-roll circumstances that further hamstring him...for instance, he attended Wesleyan, where he was an R.A. (It seems likely he listened to PARADISE THEATER there, at least upon occasion.)

--Almond describes Aimee Mann'c creative process works this way: By "casting a gimlet eye on the world and offer[ing] her fans an 'Aimee Mann song.'"
That's a bit condescending, guvnor...especially when one notices the very kind blurb from Aimee Mann on the book's cover! (She calls it, "Required reading.") This creates a dynamic wherein Mann is a gracious, large-minded person...while this book's perspective narrows in comparison.

Hmm, this is starting to sound like a negative book review. I don't want that, so let me share two of this book's saving graces:

--Steve Almond was once almost beaten up by Kid Frost.
Yes! As a former Kid Frost fan, I've never known ANYONE else who even knew who he was, much less was nearly assaulted by him.

--As a kid, Almond listened to KFRC for hours, waiting for his favorite song to come on.
Dude, me too!

This was a fun and breezy book for the music geeks among us. Almond refers to himself as a "drooling fanatic" for music and describes his growing up and becoming a music journalist. He writes passionately about the transformative power of music, and the nature of the true music geek to proselytise about his or her discoveries. The book is structured to include lists, notes, and asides, effectively breaking up the narrative with research, interviews, and exposition. As a book, it does not overwhelm the reader, but enlists their help in understanding the way music makes us feel. Almond explores his role in shaping his children through music, their own tastes already developing. Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life offers a reflective look at music, life, and the human condition. I liked this book because Almond's a passionate, honest storyteller who uses music to explore deeper truths about the love, family, friendship, loneliness, disappointment, joy, ambition, and human connection.

Great new book by a terrific writer. As he's done in the past with sex and candy, Almond this time uses Rock and Roll to reveal some universal truths about himself and his readers. While the book is often laugh-out-loud funny, it manages to treat the condition of Drooling Fanaticism in earnest. In the same way that The Things They Carried employed physical objects to get a handle on the Vietnam War, Almond figures out his own life through concerts, songs, and albums. Though these are technically separate essays, they come together into a memoir of fandom greater than the sum of its parts.

This read will literally rock your world. Steve Almond does an incredible job of delving into the life of the everyday rock fan. The further you read the story the more you realize that you just might be a Drooling Fanatic Yourself. Almond did an amazing job of relating his own experiences to those of everyone else both rock fans and not-so-rock fans alike. Overall this is an excellent read.