Special Guest Booktalk!

[listersgirl]

I am breaking free from the tyranny of the huge list of books I have read recently to bring you this special update.

Chuck Klosterman Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural Nõrth Dakõta

I haven't even finished the book yet, but such is the power of Chuck Klosterman that after reading for half an hour at lunch, I actually went to HMV with the intention of buying GnR Appetite for Destruction. Which didn't happen. But I think you can guess what was the first thing I pulled off the shelf when I got back to work.

And I don't even have the excuse of being taken back to my youth! I listened to Simon and Garfunkel and George Michael in the 80s, despite the fact that I went to a headbanger junior high. My only brushes with metal were:

-I bought Bon Jovi Slippery When Wet in grade 8, when it first came out. I still kind of adore that album.

-Extreme "More Than Words" was my grade 12 grad song, much to my eternal disgust. (Seriously, have you ever actually listened to the lyrics?)

-When I worked at the music store in junior high and high school, we used to amuse ourselves on slow days by going through the folder of guitar/tab single sheets (which at the time were entirely hair bands), and picking our favourite member of each band, based on the awesome photos on the front.

After this, I think I can safely say that with good writing that makes me laugh, I can convinced into appreciating anything, even if it's just for a short while.

Comments

[anglaisepaon.livejournal.com]

That inspired me to go look up the lyrics for "More than Words can Say." Yuck.

[listersgirl]

I used to harass people in the hallways with the express purpose of trying to make them realize what a horrible song it was.

[slicegirl.livejournal.com]

Second Favorite Coworker Ever introduced me to the magic and wonder of Chuck Klosterman. Fargo Rock City is the only one I haven't read (the blurb doesn't seem as interesting to me as the others) but I will get it on your recommendation.

I never understood why people liked "More Than Words," even when it first came out. It is way nonsensical.

[listersgirl]

I understand -- it's the last one of his that I read, because really, the subject didn't seem all that interesting. But read in the context of being a teenager in a tiny rural town, it somehow works.

[auzrais.livejournal.com]

>-Extreme "More Than Words" was my grade 12 grad song, much to my eternal disgust. (Seriously, have you ever actually listened to the lyrics?)<
Heh, yeah. It's a song that pretty much says, "I don't care if you SAY you love me, I want sex... not words."

It's kind of like "Saving All My Love" by Whitney Houston. It's known as a love song... and if you listen to lyrics, Whitney is singing about being the other woman. She's having an affair with a married man who keeps promising to leave his wife for her.

I wonder how many people actually listen to the lyrics of a song these days. :)

[eanja]

I remember buying Appetite for Destruction when it first came out- I think I must have been in 9th grade or so. And I opened it, all excited, and the album sleeve (this was before CDs) was a picture of a girl who'd just been raped by a robot. It put me so off that I was never really able to enjoy the music after that. I'd only heard them on the radio, and no idea that the they rest of their stuff was so mysogynistic. (Yes, I was probably horribly naive for my age.)

I gather that picture was originally on the cover until enough people complained.

[listersgirl]

Whoa. Yeah, that's totally not the cover we have on the copy in the library.