'77 was a pretty good yr....

Tony Parsons' STORIES WE COULD TELL (2005) is probly the best rock&roll novel I've read since Lewis Shiner's GLIMPSES.
It's not perfect, there R a few minor things that go wrong w/ it, & it takes awhile 2 get where it's going -- but in its final 50 pgs Parsons pulls-off some moments that R warm & sweet & laff-out-loud funny. It's not a happy Nding 4 every1, & I'm not sure about the last few pgs, but it's definitely worth the trip.
Parsons (along w/ Julie Burchill) was 1 of the "young gunslingers" that England's NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS hired in the mid-'70s 2 try & get a handle on Punk Rock. Parsons has apparently taken some of his Xperiences (or at least the setting & mood of those times) & put them in2 this novel, which takes place on the nite in Aug '77 when Elvis Presley died. (Parsons wrote this book after penning 3 or 4 rather big non-music-related best-sellers in the U.K.)
All the main characters work 4 a British weekly music tabloid called THE PAPER. Terry, a fan of the rising punk bands, Bfriends longtime nearly-has-bn rocker Dag Wood, who's trying 2 make a comeback -- but Dag Btrays him by trying 2 steal Terry's girlfriend Misty, who's a photographer 4 THE PAPER. Boy-Wonder reporter Ray Keeley has fallen on hard times & is threatened by THE PAPER's editor -- if Ray can't get an Xclusive interview w/ John Lennon, Ray's out of a job! Meanwhile, Leon wants 2 get more politics in2 THE PAPER -- he gets bruised during the anti-fascist riot in Lewisham & is stunned that THE PAPER won't cover it: "This is what's really going on!"
The book follows the 3 reporters thru their Xperiences on this 1 nite -- in & out of clubs, thru romance & heartbreak, dealing w/ Family Issues, avoiding warring thug gangs, & much more. Terry checks-out a coupla other girls, but gets his old girlfriend back & Dlivers some classic revenge 2 Dag Wood. + Terry has a big suprise coming. Leon discovers Disco & meets The Girl Of His Dreams. Ray travels all over London seeking Lennon, & finds a new love in the process -- but there'll B no spoilers here: This 1 plot thread is 2 good 2 mess-up.
Tho the book starts promisingly, I think Parsons wanders around a lot in the middle, & tho he pulls it 2gether in the Nd, I think he coulda still used EVEN MORE room 2 draw all the strands of his story back 2gether (the book's less than 300 pgs). Leon's story especially feels unfairly cut short -- he never gets 2 write about what happened at Lewisham 4 THE PAPER, or even about his cosmic disco Xperiences. & the storyline about his Dream Girl is disappointingly tossed away.
But the laffs R pretty great, & there's a lotta really good period Dtail -- Parsons should know, he was there. Tho we never meet NE of them, the Sex Pistols, Clash, Jam, Buzzcocks, Vibrators, Stranglers, New York Dolls, Elvis Costello, Eddie & the Hot Rods, Slaughter & the Dogs, the Tom Robinson Band, David Bowie & Kraftwerk all get name-checks in this book, in addition 2 the Dtailed portraits of fictional per4mers Dag Wood, Billy Blitzen, Grace Fury, Leni and the Riefenstahls, & Brainiac & the Electric Baguette. (We also get a pretty vivid tour of Greater London, w/ all the familiar clubs & landmarks & much more.) But by the Nd of the book, there's a definite feeling that the heyday of Punk Rock has already passed, by the Nd of the Summer of '77. (My original title 4 this post was gonna B "Dglamourizing Punk Rock.")
There R a few factual errors: The Led Zeppelin album cover that's Dscribed near the Nd of the novel is LZ IV, not III as stated in the book -- the Dscription's accurate, but it's the wrong album title. Abba's hit "Dancing Queen" is Dscribed in the text as "new" in Aug '77 -- when it had already hit #1 in America 6 mo's earlier -- mayB America heard it 1st, but I think that's unlikely. & at 1 point Yoko Ono asks who the B-52's R -- 1977 strikes me as a bit early 4 her 2 B asking that question since the B's 1st album wasn't released til 2 yrs later. & Bsides, even if they were around then, since John&Yoko lived in NYC, they'd likely know more about the Athens, Ga.-based B-52's than NE1 in London....
But the mood & atmosphere & the intertwining stories mostly make up 4 all this. There R also some great little touches -- like Terry, Ray & Leon Bing the "young guys" at THE PAPER, looked upon w/ some resentment by the never-named "Old Guys," some of whom must B -- *SHOCK! HORROR!* -- almost 30 years old! Skip Jones, THE PAPER's resident eccentric & every1's choice 4 Greatest Rock Journalist Of All Time, is a perilously old 25. & there's a great bit near the Nd of the book when an even-younger Child Prodigy briefly upstages the young guys ("Who was THAT?!" "He's the New Guy."), but they don't think he's worth taking seriously....
& who woulda Blieved that a then-young-hothead like Tony Parsons was a sucker 4 John Sebastian & the Lovin' Spoonful?! In the book, 1 of Parsons' characters calls Sebastian "better than Dylan! I love this geezer!" & the title of the book comes from a song on Sebastian's long-ago cut-out solo album THE TARZANA KID. An album I'm now probly gonna havta track down....
I'm also gonna havta track-down Parsons' & Burchill's THE BOY LOOKED AT JOHNNY....