i enjoyed how personal he made it - personal about himself, personal in the way that there were a couple of chapters in which he was talking to members of the tribe directly, personal in the way that he spent a fair amount of time measuring his young self and his fandom against something he really thought was “his” and how the maturity and challenges of a band can mirror that of an individual, if you want to look at it that way.
I just finished Donald Fagen’s memoir/tour rant diary Eminent Hipsters. It is charming, bitter, whiny, wistful… highly recommended. God I love Steely Dan.
i just finished “old records never die”. it was kind of an airport book, if you know what i mean.
it was recommended to me by the same sort of “hey i heard you like records” folks who thought “hey, you’re sort of misanthropic and work in a record store, is your life like ‘hi fidelity’?”. it wasn’t very good. i guess it was fine if you are at all invested in white, middle-aged midlife crisis guys who feel like their broken lives can be fixed if they just recreate an idealized moment from their distant teens.
in a nutshell - it’s the story of a guy who’s working to get the records he loved and sold along life’s journey back into his possession. and not just copies of the records he loved, the ACTUAL records that he once owned. there were parts of it that might elicit a smirk here and there, but even though we’re roughly the same age and have had somewhat similar experiences, i couldn’t get over how misguided this guy was from end to end. and like most dumb white guys going through their shit - dude learned next to nothing. sigh.
so far it’s a lovely celebration of distinct moments of black american performances and while it’s not really any one thing in particular (memoir, cultural study, biography, social criticism, etc.) it’s an engaging wander through a number of different uniquely american touchstones such as soul train, aretha’s funeral, blackface performances… it’s been a joy to read. i need to hurry up and finish this work day so i can finish it.
Trudged to half way and given up… probably the most boring book i’ve attempted to read. The epilogue about modern dance culture is so misinformed it’s agonising. ‘Social media enabled the rave scene to happen’. Christ on a bike.
