Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life: A Book by and for the Fanatics Among Us
Steve Almond, 2010
Random House
240 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781400066209
Summary
Drooling fanatic, n. 1. One who drools in the presence of beloved rock stars. 2. Any of a genus of rock-and-roll wannabes/geeks who walk around with songs constantly ringing in their ears, own more than 3,000 albums, and fall in love with at least one record per week.
With a life that’s spanned the phonographic era and the digital age, Steve Almond lives to Rawk. Like you, he’s secretly longed to live the life of a rock star, complete with insane talent, famous friends, and hotel rooms to be trashed. Also like you, he’s content (sort of) to live the life of a rabid fan, one who has converted his unrequited desires into a (sort of) noble obsession.
Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life traces Almond’s passion from his earliest (and most wretched) rock criticism to his eventual discovery of a music-crazed soul mate and their subsequent production of two little superfans. Along the way, Almond reflects on the delusional power of songs, the awkward mating habits of drooling fanatics, and why Depression Songs actually make us feel so much better. The book also includes:
- sometimes drunken interviews with America’s finest songwriters
- a recap of the author’s terrifying visit to Graceland while stoned
- a vigorous and credibility-shattering endorsement of Styx’s Paradise Theater
- recommendations you will often choose to ignore
- a reluctant exegesis of the Toto song “Africa”
- obnoxious lists sure to piss off rock critics.
But wait, there’s more. Readers will also be able to listen to a special free mix designed by the author, available online at www.stevenalmond.com, for the express purpose of eliciting your drool. For those about to rock—we salute you! (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—October 27, 1966
• Raised—Palo Alto, California, USA
• Education—B.A., Weslyan University
• Currently—lives in Arlington, Massachusetts
Steve Almond is an American short story writer and essayist. He was raised in Palo Alto, California, graduated from Henry M. Gunn High School, and received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University.
Almond spent seven years as a newspaper reporter, mostly in El Paso and at the Miami New Times. He has been writing fiction for over ten years. His work can be found in a range of literary magazines, and newspapers including the Boston Globe, Playboy Magazine, Nerve, Polite, Lake Effect, 3:AM Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. He also reviews books for the Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times. His work was selected for the Best American Short Stories 2010.
His books include Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America (2004); (Not That You Asked) Rants, Exploits and Obsessions (2007); Letters from People Who Hate Me (2010); Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life (2010).
Almond served as adjunct professor in creative writing at Boston College for five years until publishing an open letter of resignation in the the Boston Globe on May 12, 2006, in which he explained that his resignation was intended to protest the selection of Condoleezza Rice as the college's 2006 commencement guest speaker.
Almond was a contributing writer to Alarm Clock Theatre Company's Elliot Norton Award winning play PS Page Me Later, based on selections from Found Magazine.
He lives in Arlington, Massachusetts. (Adapted from Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
The goofiness and magnetism of rock is celebrated in this exuberant memoir. Rock critic and memoirist Almond (Candyfreak) describes himself as a “drooling fanatic” of rock and roll with a morbid passion for obscure bands, arcane record collections, and proselytizing his musical tastes. This freewheeling mix tape recounts the central role music played in his relationships, sexual encounters, and life transitions, while sprinkling in idiosyncratic lists, from “Rock's Biggest Assholes” to “Silly Names of Rock Star Spawn,” and tragicomic exegeses of songs great and terrible. His rock-critic gig enables his obsessions, giving him cover to profile, hang with, and otherwise stalk rockers while gazing into the bleak underside of their lives, “the desolation in which... art continues to bloom.” Almond deftly straddles the line between intellectual and fan. He's canny about the ways rock stars manipulate their idolators, yet happy to be seduced by them. He veers smoothly between funny, cruel takedowns of rock fatuity while registering its emotional impact (the song “I Bless the Rains Down in Africa” may be “the lovechild of Muzak and imperialism,” but you can't help “sort of digging it”). Almond's snarky, swoony counterpoint makes for a hilarious riff on the power of music.
Publishers Weekly
The result is the nonfiction equivalent of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, a knowing and exhilarating look at how one man dove headfirst into rock music and emerged on the other side intact.
BookPage
(Starred review.) Almond makes clear from the start that he’s no rock star, just a guy who obsesses over music he can’t play.... His hilarious musings seem to contain elements of both Hornby and David Sedaris, but he’s truly a character of his own idiosyncratic making. —June Sawyers
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Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life:
1. What does it mean to be a Drooling Fanatic? Are you one—and proud of it? Or a little embarrassed by your obsession?
2. To what does Almond attribute his passion for R&R? Why is the music so deeply wedged into his soul? And you—why are you hooked...and when did it happen? How much of Almond's story is your own?
3. As a follow-up to Question 2: how can/will rock save your soul? What is its spiritual hook?
4. What was your personal Nil Lara moment for R&R—the moment Almond describes as "the holy shit of all holy shits"?
5. What does Almond see as the difference between great rock artists and their songs...and today's pop artists?
6. Talk about the intersection, as Almond sees it, of the rock culture with the commercial/marketing/corporate culture. So you agree?
7. Which in the book did you enjoy or appreciate most: Almond's stories or his critical appraisals of rock and roll?
8. Talk about Almond's stalking certain rock artists—Reilly, Schneider and Dayna Kurtz—and involving himself in their offstage lives. What does he gain, or learn? Anything? Does he deepen his understanding of their work? Or does his attempts at closeness alter the critical distance he needs to write honestly about the bands' work?
9. How do you react to Almond's list of "Ten Things You Can Say to Piss Off a Music Critic"? Do you agree with some, most, or none of it? What about his other lists...do they add to the book, or are they simply "fillers"?
10. What parts of the book did you find hilarious...or insightful ...or moving...or even cruel?
11. Overall, does this book deliver? Is it funny and informative? Does it cohere and hold your attention? Or do you find it rambling and digressive? Are parts of it awkward or uninteresting, perhaps self-indulgent? What is your assessment?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)