Book Review: I Love Rock N’ Roll (Except When I Hate It)

This book, whose full title is I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll (Except When I Hate It): Extremely Important Stuff About the Songs and Bands You Love, Hate, Love to Hate, and Hate to Love, is a collection of small pieces about music (whose title reminds one of an Fiona Apple album). The ins and outs of the rock world, with all its tendency towards strangeness and wonder, is filtered through writer Brian Boone’s sense of humor and real love of music. The pieces are small, and fun to read, and you can tell that Boone has honed his craft as a writer by working with the Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader series of book.

In this collection, you will learn more than you need to know about:

  • Bands that fell apart due to artistic differences
  • Bands that changed when its leader left
  • How songs were inspired, and how songs fell apart due to inspiration
  • Misjudgements of some bands (DEVO goes Disney?) and missed opportunities of others
  • How to sell out and why that sucks when your favorite band does it
  • The meaning of some songs that may have puzzled you for years (or not)
  • And much more than you really need to know but still do want to know (because that’s how fans like us operate)

I read this book over two months or so, picking it up now and then, and thoroughly enjoying it. Now, I am going to pass it along to someone in my band (Duke Rushmore) because I know they love rock and roll as much as I do (or love to hate it? Hate to love it? ack) and this book hits the heart of anyone who fancies themselves a rocker or a fan.

Peace (in the amplification),
Kevin

 

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