Showing posts with label Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life - Steve Almond

So, what have I learned after reading Steve Almond's Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life (AMZ / BN)?

(You might consider these spoilers. If so, read with your eyes shut.)

1) Apparently there was a time when Styx wasn't cool before Kilroy Was Here.

2) Toto's "Africa" may well threaten "We Built This City" as the Worst. Song. Ever.

3) In the 80s, everything came with cocaine, even tote bags.

4) When I, too, contemplate the timeline of modern music technology, I realize I feel old as the author does. One day my daughter is going to find one of the cassettes we have inexplicably hanged onto - though we no longer have anything with which to play it - and ask, "What is this?"

5) I pretty much agree with the author's list of Rock's Biggest A$$holes. Glad to see Rush didn't make the cut, but they didn't have a chance.

6) Weird Al apparently had groupies back in the day.

You do get the flavor of High Fidelity in this book - it reads as part memoir and part music theory, exploring the things people do in the name of rock and roll and how the music affects us and the way we live. Not a bad pick for a music club. I look forward to the discussion.

Rating: B

Kathryn Lively is a mystery author whose titles include Rock Deadly and Pithed: An Andy Farmer Mystery.