All You Need is Love: And 99 Other Life Lessons From Classic Rock Songs (Paperback)

~ Pete Fornatale (Author), Bill Ayres (Author) "From the very beginning of his career, Billy Joel was known as the piano man..." (more)
Key Phrases: Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

It's Not Only Rock 'N' Roll! It's Rock Wisdom

It's the insights and messages that come to us from 100 of our favorite rock songs. Love and marriage, family, friendships, self-esteem, spirituality, and community are just some of the themes explored in these healing and uplifting meditations, based on four decades of classic rock by artists like the Beatles, James Taylor, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Carole King, Bruce Springsteen, the Beach Boys, and dozens more. You'll also find background information on the songs and artists, as well as suggestions for applying these nuggets of rock wisdom to your everyday life. All You Need Is Love is a visit to our past and a companion for our present and future.

About the Author

Pete Fornatale, a pioneer in classic rock radio, has hosted shows on WFUV-FM, WNEW-FM, and K-ROCK, all in New York. He is the author of Radio in the Television Age and The Story of Rock and Roll.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Fireside (November 12, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684845296
• ISBN-13: 978-0684845296
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #984,700 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great lyrical analysis, March 29, 2000

By A Customer

This book offers great insight and knowledge into many popular classic rock songs. Many of the life lessons and messages are obvious, such as the Beatles 'All You Need is Love' and Billy Joel's 'Just the Way You Are.' However, there are some songs analyzed by the authors whose meanings are not quite understood by the songs titles' and requires a deeper, more focsued listening. I love how the book makes mention of Bruce Springsteen's 'Badlands' in a positive manner...it truly is a song to get you moving and think positive. If you are a classic rock and roll fan, you will highly enjoy this book and the insight that it reveals about popular songs.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected, June 21, 2000

By A Customer

When I saw the title of this book, I expected a tongue in cheek exposition of classic rock songs and their "meanings". However, rather than being humorous, this book is quite serious. It is sort of like reading a secular version of "Our Daily Bread" or other religious devotional guide. Each entry has a brief but interesting background on the artist and the song (the reason for two stars rather than one), followed by a reflection and some questions or exercises designed to put into practice the lessons taught by the songs. These reflection and question sections are overly serious and didactic, and it is the contrast between the somewhat "cute" concept behind the book, and the "preachy" tone of the meditations that makes it quite unsatisfying.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Dissappointing!, October 20, 2000

By	G. J Wiener (Westchester, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I would have to agree with the anonymous writer from Florida on most accounts. I choose to give this one star instead of two because of the wasted potential this book could have been. Any amateur could have written such a simple summary of the careers of Billy Joel, Simon & Garfunkel, Eric Clapton, etc. Pete Fornatale is giving us nothing new there.

In addition, Fornatale frequently fails to even quotes the lyrics of the songs acurately. His expansion on the song's true meanings are suspect at best. As a disc jockey for many years, he could've provided some interesting insight on what each song-writer was trying to say in his song lyrics. However, Fornatale merely goes off on every possible tangent to illustrate all possible meanings each song could have. This makes the book very painful to read and quite unfocused.

On top of all the incessant ramblings, Fornatale's analysis is very questionable. In his analysis of the Rolling Stones, Time Waits For No One, Fornatale misleads the readers thinking that if you blow an opportunity to succede in life, another one will come along only with different players. Whereas that may indeed in happen in life, the song merely gives the message to make the most of all your opportunties because they don't last for you, me, or anyone. The analysis for Presence of The Lord doesn't hit the point as well. Having read a book analyzing Eric Clapton's songs, the meaning behind Presence Of The Lord is that Eric who never was a religious man just wanted to Thank G-d for the little things in life. Mr. Fornatale's lack of research caused him to miss the mark again.

The premise of this book was to show that Rock N Roll wasn't just about sex, drugs, and rock n roll. Yet, Fornatale includes the Rolling Stones song Satisfaction in this book. This signature Stones song is clearly written from the point of view of someone who is just looking for sex, drugs, and rock n roll. What about the line,"He Can't be a man because he don't smoke the same cigarettes as me". Its obvious what kind of Cigarettes he's referring to. The last verse refers to Mick trying to find some girl to score with. Mr. Fornatele, you should be embarrased to include this song as an uplifting wholesome rock n roll song.

On top of all that, the format for each brief chapter is oh so redundant. Why couldn't our author merely write a simple analysis without categorizing everything? It all sounds the same anyway.

For every good moment in this batch(there are a few most particularly pertaining to Bruce Springsteen) there are about three or four bad moments. Mr. Fornatale, I implore you to research your material before publishing your next book. Glance at this in the book store for a few minutes but don't bring it to the cash register.